Manage Pastures Using Rotational or Management Intensive Grazing

Management Intensive Grazing (MIG) is a system of grazing where the management is intensive, but the grazing is not. MIG takes into consideration not just the animals, but the whole system: plants, animals, soil, and climate; basically the entire eco-system. Animals are used as tools to influence change or to maintain diversity for the betterment of that ecosystem, and in order to use those animals effectively requires intensive management. That management can only come from us as humans.

If you are wanting to learn more about MIG and wondering how to implement it into your grazing system, then this is one of the best places to learn how to get started.

Steps

Setting Goals and Deciding How to Manage

  1. Create your goals and objectives. In order to start on a path to new beginnings and to change what you're doing now into something better, the time is now to start making goals. Make SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely); ones that are going to make you think about what is logically possible in the near future. Goals encompass lifestyle, finances, resources, and for the livestock operation, production.
    • Goal-setting begins by looking at where you're at now, and where you want to be in the future. They also make you look at what is practical given your situation and resources, and just what you can do to improve on or get what you don't have.
      • It doesn't have to cost you any, or much, money. It will certainly cost you time, and discussions with family and friends, but consider that time well-spent.
    • Think about how goals can elevate you to be somewhere where you always wanted to be, or better. Implementing those goals requires change on your part, and with no change, you become stagnant, and don't get you where you have always wanted to go or be.
      • It's very important to be flexible. Things never go to plan, and things don't always turn out the way you predicted.
    • Strategic goals are the "how" to where you want to be in 5 or 10 years. They are the tactical, step-by-step procedures to take you to your goal. These involve creating partial budgets, business plans, pasture design plans on paper (or graphic arts software program), those sort of things.
  2. Look at all the strengths and weaknesses of both yourself and your operation. Or better yet, perform a SWOT analysis (SWOT = strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). This should be a list compiled of all the things that need improving, are already doing well and don't need improving, where you opportunities lie, and what kind of things may negatively influence change or stagnation you choose to make.
    • Add to the list an aerial map of your farm–Google Earth is an excellent resource to use for this–to locate fence lines and watering points where you are seeing various problems, including crowding, bare-spots, overgrazing, etc.
    • Keep an open mind as you are doing this. There may be some details that you may or may not be comfortable with admitting are in need of improvement. These best come about with having a second opinion from others that work with you and see the operations, or even a pasture management consultant.
      • Use this as an opportunity for them to do a SWOT analysis/list of the operation to see what their opinions are. More than one point of view is often a very good thing to have!
    • When doing a SWOT analysis of yourself, you get to see what your own limitations are. For instance, how much time do you have for moving livestock versus how much time can you make? What's your financial situation? How far or often do you need to travel (to work, between farms or land bases)? Are you personally able to move cattle, check fence, check water, or do you need to hire someone? Those sort of questions, and more, are important to consider.
  3. See what facilities you have now, and how they are laid out. Use Google Earth or, even better, Google Earth Pro, to see where current fences, watering points, buildings, and other things are. These are what you are going to start from, and where you need to start working from. It's impossible to work from a clean slate if you are starting with a current operation that needs improving.
    • It's a different story if you are starting with a land base that is clear of fences and watering facilities. As in the next step, working from a clean slate may require more work, more planning, but on the other hand, much more flexibility.
  4. Understand how much work, time, and money that you may need to put into this. The management end is going to be the hardest part to work at. Planting fence-posts and stringing up wire will be the easy stuff. But, if you're starting over again, by improving a farming operation that largely used no management to graze its livestock, you should consider the option of starting small and slow. Start with the smallest pasture, or a part of a pasture, and work up from there.
    • Please remember that it's not worth starting off big (as in changing everything in a matter of one or two years) if you're financially and temporally tied up. It's a smarter choice to start small, and remind yourself of the phrase, "Rome was not built in a day."
    • Planning is going to probably take a huge chunk of your time. But you can plan and plan and plan until you are blue in the face and never be happy with what you want. There's a point in time where you need to plan first, then act second. So, don't let the planning portion take up too much of your time.
      • A second opinion will certainly help with this decision process.
  5. Begin the planning process. Once you have set your goals and performed your SWOT analyses (and gathered those of others that influence the operation of your farm or ranch), it's time to get out a good pencil and eraser (no pens are allowed), some lined and graphing paper, fire up Google Earth Pro, and start planning.
    • If you think you need to hire a consultant to help you with this planning process, then do so. There are several pasture planning consultants out there for you to contact, so ask a pasture or forage specialist that may know of someone you can contact.
    • The type of vegetation your farm or ranch has will influence the type of grazing system you wish to have. Rotational or intensive grazing may not be the best choice for an arid area with limited moisture, even though it is included in the title of this article. You will need to plan out a type of grazing system that works for you and the vegetation in your area.
      • Management-intensive grazing (MIG) may or may not include rotational grazing. Rotational grazing basically means rotating animals around a pasture from different paddocks, and it also means rotating different species of animals through paddock systems. MIG, though, does take rotational grazing into account making it a part of the MIG-management scheme.

Set up Pastures and Paddocks

  1. Begin planning out the layout of your pastures. The first thing to start with is laying out perimeter fencing. This will be influenced by location of roads, farm yard boundaries, and property lines. The goal of perimeter fences is to limit where your livestock should and should not go. These will determine layout of paddocks.
    • It's particularly important to be sure of your property boundaries before beginning to plan out pastures.
  2. Map out the areas on your farm that differ from each other in terms of plant species composition, soil, and terrain. The most significant difference is going to be the variation in vegetation composition. These particular areas need to be separated from each other to create various homogenous areas that can be more easily and separately managed.
    • There's no real need to be too particular about which areas should be separated and which should not. As long as there is a significant and noticeable difference in species composition, then there should be a legitimate reason to separate these areas to enable you to manage them effectively.
      • Try to separate native vegetation from tame forage, and riparian zones or lowland areas from upland or dryland areas. Treed areas must also be separated from grassland areas.
      • Hills must be managed according to slope and south- versus north-facing sides. Depending on the size of the hills, there may be a need to separate hill tops from side hills  from hill-bottoms to reduce erosion. However the size of the hill, though, it's best to avoid creating paddocks that run from the top of a hill down to the bottom.
  3. Plan out your paddocks. It's really important to make them as square as possible. Less fencing material is needed to create paddocks as squares and circles than most any other shape. If you need to use rectangles, the length-to-width ratio should not exceed 3:1. These will make grazing more uniform, and accommodate more fencing, such as if you want to split these paddocks into smaller paddocks for different grazing methods discussed below.
    • You have a choice of making small or large paddocks. Large paddocks enable more flexibility with animal numbers and using different grazing methods that depend on the use of a single-strand of temporary electrified wire. So long as you remember the rules of thumb mentioned in the previous step, using a temporary electric fence to control animal movement within paddocks can ensure better grazing within.
      • Use lanes only when absolutely necessary. Lanes carry heavy hoof-traffic and are more prone to compaction, overgrazing and erosion. They can be difficult to plan out if they run through wet or low-lying areas (which must be avoided), or up and down hills (also a no-no), and large gates will be needed to block access to different areas. Lanes should be big enough to accommodate vehicles (from tractors to large trucks), and be easily-accessible to paddocks.
        • Lanes are only needed if you cannot provide water on pasture due to financial restraints. Otherwise, it's recommended to plan on piping water to paddocks as a better alternative to lanes.
    • Once you have planned out paddocks, you will need to look at where your watering points need to be. This must be done before looking at materials for fencing or even going out to lay out where your paddock fences are to be built. See the next section below for guidelines for setting up pasture watering points.
  4. Assess the materials and equipment needed to make these pastures. A basic rule to understand is that perimeter fencing needs to be stronger than the fencing used to create paddocks. Perimeter fencing should be multi-stranded with either barbed-wire or smooth/hi-tensile or both. In most cases, these fences should not have less than four strands of wire per fence-line.
    • Internal or paddock fences can be set up with one or two strands of hi-tensile wire. In most cases, these can be electrified, but if livestock are already trained to electric fence, then you can get away with not having them electrified.
    • The materials you can get will depend on their availability. But basically, for paddock and pasture fencing, it's recommended to get 4 to 6-inch by 8-ft treated wood posts, plus 18-gauge barbed wire and higher-gauge (around 16-guage) hi-tensile wire.
    • If grazing smaller stock like sheep, goats, and pigs, you may need to consider the option of using paige-wire. It's more expensive than standard barbed or hi-tensile wire, but will ensure these smaller stock a less likely chance of escape.
    • Iron T-posts are also optional for internal paddock fences. They aren't as strong as wood posts for perimeter fences, though they can be used in combination if there is not enough treated posts to use, or the posts are less cheap to purchase than usual for whatever reason.
    • If you run into any other materials for fencing, consider the expense, availability, and practicality of their use. If you can get a lot of them, then more power to you. But if you cannot, the standard materials for pasture fencing should be used instead.
    • The most important equipment needed for fencing is a post-pounder and a come-along for tightening wires.
  5. Budget for costs associated with these materials. A partial budget will give you an idea of how much money needs to be spent to obtain these materials. Cost-comparisons will also allow you to judge whether certain materials are cheaper than others. But beware, the phrase, "you get what you buy;" in other words, if you buy something cheap, chances are it's not the best quality.
  6. Check local laws and regulations that pertain to building fences. You may be in a municipality or county were certain regulations surrounding the structure of fences exist.
  7. Mark out and locate potential hazards, no matter if they are natural or man-made. These include underground utility lines or pipelines, power lines, trees, debris, etc. Phone the local or regional utility line company to mark out these underground lines for you. Clear away any brush and debris that will hinder fence-building.
  8. Mark out the fence-lines on your land. Lathe (or survey stakes) and surveyor tape are recommended, plus a 100-meter (330 feet) measuring tape. The tape will help mark out length and width of paddock fence lines , though the old-fashioned way of "stepping it out" also works sufficiently enough, so long as you know how long of a step you have.
    • If you are setting out square or rectangular pastures or paddocks, you will need to make sure the corners are as much at a 90-degree angle as possible. A prismatic square will help you with this, as well as another helper to mark the point for you without you having to constantly travel back and forth between points.
      • You can also use a compass or a large protractor to help ensure corners are square. Other methods can be read here.
  9. Start building the fences. You have an option of hiring someone to do this for you, so long as you provide the necessary supplies and give them a benchmark of how or what you need to have done. Perimeter fences are standard, but internal paddock fences have more lee-way in how they're built. You certainly may also choose to build these fences yourself, provided that you know what to do to make sure these fences are strong and last a long period of time.
    • Corners are always built first, followed by the posts, then the wires. The exact way to go about this is dependent on your preferences, your farm layout, and supply availability. Check out the links in the Sources and Citations section below for several links that will show how to best build your fences.

Set up Watering Facilities and Locations

  1. Plan out watering locations. This should be done once you have planned out where your paddocks are going, but is going to pose the greatest challenge to planning out a more efficient grazing system for your farm or ranch. The basic rule is easy access to clean water in such a way that does not promote excessive trampling, erosion, compaction and overgrazing.
    • Avoid directly-watering stock straight from dugouts, ponds, creeks, rivers, lakes, or any kind of water body. Livestock with access to these watering sources fowl the water and destroy sensitive riparian habitat.
      • This is why these lowland/wetland zones must be fenced off. Water from these sources should be pumped to a tank or trough, providing cleaner water for the animals, and keeping them out of the adjoining water body.
    • Trailing may not be helped if planning grazing in large, expansive areas, like on native grassland or rangeland areas. Cattle trails are going to be formed on these areas regardless out of habitual following each other to and from their best grazing and resting areas.
    • The maximum distance livestock should travel to water is a half-mile (800 feet or ~250 meters). Animals graze most efficiently if they can travel this distance or less to water.
      • Livestock are lazy in that the farther they have to travel to water, the more likely they are going to loiter around. Forage near the water source is likely to be overgrazed, while forage farthest from water is under-grazed. Manure distribution is also uneven, more manure staying closer to the water source and less as animals have to venture further out.
        • Also, if barriers like trees or hills are in the way and prevent visibility of those livestock going for water from those still grazing, livestock are more likely to go for water as a large group rather than by themselves or in small groups. This is true even when the water source is less than a half-mile away. The best way to reduce loitering and encourage smaller groups of stock accessing water is to plan a pipeline system where at least one water source is accessible to livestock on pasture.
  2. Find out more about the various methods to get water to a pasture system, and choose what may be best for you. There are many options to chose from, depending on things like what existing water facilities you have, the type of grazing system you wish to have, the number of animals to water, costs associated with installing and maintaining the system, the topography of your farm, and your personal preferences[1]. Consider pipelines, pumping systems, and types of waterers available for your animals.
    • Pipeline systems should be of serious consideration, as you can run pipelines underground or above-ground, up- or down-hill, from a current well source or a newly dug source, from a spring, artesian well or dugout, or even from a river or creek. Underground pipelines are ideal for winter-grazing systems.
      • PVC piping is less desirable than HDPE pipe. HDPE is more flexible and thicker walls making it more durable and less likely to leak than PVC. Pipes should have around 1.5" inside diameter (probably 2", though that maybe pushing it) for best flow.
      • Smaller piping can also be used, and is much cheaper than the larger piping. Smaller piping (like that of a garden hose, or of similar sized pipe) can be used for watering systems that don't require pumping water, like gravity-fed watering systems, or as a T off of a larger pipe.
    • Pump systems vary from livestock-powered to solar-powered, as well as gas-powered, electrical, hydraulic ram, and sling pumps. Gravity-fed systems are certainly encouraged if your topography allows it.
    • Many do-it-yourself or purchased waterer systems exist for providing water on pasture. Nose-pumps are ideal if watering one or two animals at a time, with limits to 50 animals. Stock tanks are best for watering more than three thirsty animals at a time, and can range from purchased steel tanks from a local farm supply store, to a home-made tank made out of a big old tractor tire, a hay tarp, and a truck-load of gravel. Even granary-bin ring bottoms, sealed up and made extremely water-proof for long term use, are great for watering a large number of animals at one time. All of these can easily be made as automatic watering systems using a float and a sensor that ensures the water level does not exceed the rim.
    • Hauling water to livestock is another option, but the most labour-intensive, time-consuming, and demanding of all the mentioned options. It's best if watering a small number of animals from a large tank, but if you have many animals and even the largest tank isn't big enough, then this is a very poor option of choice. Pipeline and pumping is more practical when you have more animals to water.
    • There are also options with building or purchasing temporary, portable watering systems. A lot of these waterers have a long hose attached to a pump, and the pump sucks water in from a neighbouring water body be it a lake, dugout, or a pound. It's controlled by float and automatically refills itself every time as or after livestock have been drinking.
  3. Mark out the locations of the water source(s), as well as pipelines. Use a different coloured surveyor tape than what you used for marking out fences, if you haven't started (or completed) installing fences yet. The layout of the pipelines won't be like with fences, rather in as directional a means as possible for the lowest cost (and less material) possible.
  4. Find the materials and equipment needed for building and establishing watering facilities. Source your piping materials, the type of waterers to use, as well as pumps that may possibly be needed. You may also need to hire out a back-hoe or trencher so that you can lay down the pipe underground if you choose not to run the pipe above-ground. Running pipe above ground is another option, but must be along the fence-line and not where it's at risk of getting run-over or trampled.
  5. Build and establish the water facilities. If you think you will need to hire some help or someone with more experience to do this, then do so. It may save you in the end.
    • In most cases, the piping has to go in first before the water facilities are installed. This is especially true with underground piping, or even temporary watering facilities.
      • Exceptions are with creating dugouts or ponds.
      • Install a shut-off valve at select points so that you have control over where water is going to be routed to and when water can be pumped to that watering point. Valves are especially needed if you have more than one watering point that the pipeline is going to have water ran to.
      • Check pipes for leaks before filling in the trenches via pressure-testing. Big leaks are easier to detect than small leaks, but it's the small leaks that need to be attended to before they become bigger problems.

Calculations for Stocking Pastures

  1. Assess the amount of pasture forage you have in your pastures and paddocks. Each may slightly differ in the amount of herbage (or forage yield) in terms of pounds per acre or kilograms per hectare. The most notable differences will be seen on hill tops compared to that in lowlands or low-lying areas.
    • Remember that, despite the greater abundance of forage, these low areas are more prone to be saturated with water or contain water for most of the year, making them quite sensitive to grazing. In normal or wet years, these sensitive wetland or riparian zones should be excluded from grazing. The best time to put livestock in them is in a dry year, or when the soil has dried up significantly enough that pugging will be a minor issue.
      • Pugging is the biggest threat with these areas and can severely degrade or ruin their integrity, resulting in more time needed for their recovery (which, depending on the severity, type of wetland, and soil type, may range from a whole year to at least 5 years). If they are to be grazed, the grazing should be light and only when the area has dried up enough to be able to withstand a moderate to light amount of hoof impact.
    • Assessing forage yield can be done in a few ways, but most popularly they are done by a grazing stick or by clipping. For more information, please see the first step in Calculate Stocking Rates for Your Pastures for detailed and comprehensive instructions on how to calculate forage yield for your pastures.
      • The grazing stick is probably the best method to use for assessing forage quantity when using management-intensive grazing. You can get forage height and the composition quite readily if you have a known plant composition. However, if the composition is more varied or includes other plants that make up quite a bit of the stand, clipping may be needed to be done to establish the amount of forage in pounds per acre for every inch of forage height.
      • Forage yield is determined in a dry-matter basis, not as-fed primarily because forage yield is much more variable if water is included.
    • This step is vital to help you determine the number of animals to stock a pasture, or the amount of land needed for a particular herd or flock. But the rest of the steps are harder to understand without providing an example scenario for you to help you better understand the math.
      • Let's say you've found that you have 2000 lb/acre of forage yield available in your pastures. This after measuring with the grazing stick an average forage height of 10 inches, and a fair-conditioned mixed pasture with 200 pounds per acre-inch (or estimated 200 lb/acre for every inch of forage height).
  2. Determine the utilization rate for the majority of your paddocks. The utilization rate is basically a percentage estimate of how much your animals are expected to remove for consumption versus how much should be left behind. Utilization rates should never be at 100 percent nor should they exceed 75 percent unless under special circumstances.
    • For most rotational grazing schedules, you should aim for a utilization rate between 45 to 60 percent. Daily moves or moves every two or three days allow you to have your animals eat more forage than if you were moving less often. For a continuous grazing system, you should aim to utilize only 30 to 35 percent of forage, but if you're moving your animals twice a day, you can easily have them utilize around 70 percent of the forage.
      • It's best to err on the side of caution because it's very easy to over-estimate how much forage is being consumed. If learning to switch from a continuous grazing system to a rotational-grazing system, it can be difficult to want to leave behind "too much" grass; in most cases, you can never leave behind too much grass. Thus, it's best to be conservative when estimating utilization rates.
    • To continue the example, let's assume you have a utilization rate of 60 percent. This is because of the example in step 6 where you may want to move once every two days.
  3. Calculate the estimated stocking rate for your farm or ranch. Stocking rate is very useful for determining the number of animal units at a set unit of time (days or months) can be stocked per acre on your pastures. It is predetermined by both utilization rate and forage yield, which has been gone over already.
    • One animal unit (AU) is one 1000 lb cow-calf pair that consumes around 25 pounds of dry matter forage per day. Therefore, one animal unit day (AUD) or one cow day is equivalent to that forage consumption.
      • One animal unit month (AUM) is that same animal unit consuming around 800 pounds of dry matter forage per month. Typically one AU will consume between 600 and 900 pounds of dry matter forage per month, but for the sake of simplicity, an AUM = 800 lb DM of forage/month.
        • An AUM with stocking rate is ideal in extensive grazing systems, and may give you an idea of how many AUMs per acre to expect for your farm even if you are rotating animals on a daily basis.
    • Calculate stocking rate by using the formula Stocking Rate = (Forage production (lb/acre) x [Utilization rate (%)/100]) ÷ (800 lb/month). From the examples created above, stocking rate for your pastures may be calculated as follows: Stocking rate = (2000 lb/acre x 0.6)/800 AU lb/month = 1.5 AUM/acre.
    • To calculate AUD/acre (or animal [cow] days per acre), use the same formula as above, except the formula is going to be more like: Cow days per acre = (Forage production (lb/acre) x Utilization rate (%)/100) ÷ (animal unit daily intake). Using the examples created above, the number of cow days per acre = (2000 lb/acre x 0.6)/25 AU lb/day = 48 AUD/acre.
  4. Determine how much land you have available. This can be in acres or hectares. The amount of land you have available is in total acreage overall, and the area of each paddock. Preferably it's best to know total amount of land you own that is available for grazing in order to determine how many grazing animals to stock on that land at a particular time.
    • This particular step actually can be ignored if you already know how many animals you want to have, but need to know how much land you need to have in order to keep those animals well-fed for the grazing season, or year after year.
      • Ideally and preferably, you should first know the amount of land available for grazing before determining the number of livestock animals to graze.
    • Knowing the amount of area you have in each paddock is ideal if the paddocks you built are permanent, or not easily changed at any time in the grazing season. While area differences for each paddock are not going to influence the number of animals that you can put in there, the differences are going to influence the amount of time they are going to be in there, particularly according to the current forage yield.
    • Continuing the example laid out for this section, let's say you have a quarter section (160 acres) to graze.
  5. Judge the cumulative amount of time you want to be grazing your animals for. This may be optional, depending on how you have your pastures split up or if you are grazing on native range in an extensive manner.
    • The amount of time that you may want to graze may end up being more or less than you think. But typically, with rotational grazing systems, splitting up a big pasture into many small paddocks is going to grant you more time to graze than letting the cows out to the entire pasture. It makes for better utilization of forage that is growing there, and gives more areas of the pasture the amount of rest it deserves.
    • The length of time to graze really depends on your location. Certain areas that are close to large seas or oceans or lakes may see a longer growing season than more land-locked locations. And, the closer you are to the Equator or the closer you are to the tropics, the longer the growing season is going to be.
      • This means that in some areas, may be able to graze year-round, but others may only be able to graze for 4 to 8 months out of the year.
      • This step may be less important for a rotational-grazing schematic than rotational-continuous or continuous grazing systems. In some instances, it actually may be a good thing if you can stretch your "typical" grazing season for longer than you had thought initially or planned for.
  6. Determine the amount of time to keep your animals in each paddock. This will be up to you and your personal preferences. How often you are able to be available to move your animals based on outside influences and priorities like your off-farm job, family, and other duties will determine how often you want to move your cattle.
    • The longest time you probably want them to spend in a paddock is a week; the optimum move times is once every 1 to 3 days. Daily moves (or sooner) are the most ideal so that your animals have less opportunity to go back and take that second bite from those particular plants that they found favourable.
      • An example for this section is moving every 2 days.
  7. Estimate the rest period for each paddock after grazing. Rest period is the amount of time that plants need to recover from grazing, and "normally" is 30 days in ideal growing conditions, however may range from 40 to 365 days.
    • Basically, the less time livestock are on a paddock the less time that paddock needs to recover from grazing. Also, the less number of animals (and the lighter their weight) are grazing a paddock, the less time that paddock needs to recover or rest from grazing before being grazed again.
      • Remember to target the optimum recovery period with the number of animals you have or need to graze your pastures. If you have too few animals, you may run the risk of under-grazing a lot of your pastures. You can easily tell if you are under-grazing your pastures by how quickly your grasses reach maturity before you get your animals there. In other words, if your grasses are pushing up seed-heads and reaching maturity before you can get your animals there to graze those grasses, then you are under-utilizing your pastures, have too few animals, or are just not moving your animals fast enough.
      • Thus, an example rest period could be around 60 days.
  8. Determine the number of paddocks you wish to have for your grazing program. The basic formula for determining the number of paddocks needed is:
    • Number of Paddocks = (Rest Period + Number of Days on Paddock) ÷ Number of Days on Paddock
      • The longer the rest period and the less days on paddock, the more paddocks you're going to need.
        • Thus, carrying the example grazing calculations forward, with two days of grazing and 60 days rest, the number of paddocks you may need is: Number of paddocks = (60 + 2) / 2 = 31 paddocks.
  9. Determine the size of your paddocks. Using the values and formulas from the steps above, the size of your paddocks is determined by the formula Acres per Paddock = Pasture size (step 4) ÷ Number of Paddocks (previous step).
    • You may be able to see that the rest period and number of days on paddock are going to influence how big your paddocks are going to be. The less time animals are on pasture, the smaller the paddocks need to be. The shorter the rest period, the larger the paddocks are going to be. Also, the larger the entire pasture size, the larger the paddocks are going to be.
    • From the example values obtained from previous steps, the size of each paddock on 160 acres, with each paddock getting 60 days of rest and 2 days of grazing, is: Acres per Paddock = 160 acres / 31 paddocks = 5.2 acres per paddock.
  10. Determine the number of acres available per day. This will help you determine how much herbage is going to be available per day, per the next step. To calculate number of acres available a day, use this formula: Acres per Day = Acres per Paddock ÷ Number of Paddocks.
    • The example from previous steps shows this: Acres per Day = 5.2 acres / 31 paddocks = 2.6 acres per day.
      • As above, the greater the size of the paddocks, the more acres are going to be available per day.
  11. Calculate the amount of forage that is available and consumed per day. This is different from the actual forage yield that you had to do in the first step above. Instead, you will need to calculate the amount of forage that is available per day in order to find out the amount of forage that is consumable or utilized per day based on the utilization rate that you had already decided on.
    • All of the values calculated for this step are on a dry-matter basis, as they have been with calculating forage yield in step 1.
    • The formula for Forage available per day (DM) is Forage yield (lb/acre) x Acres per Day
      • Per the example: Forage Available per Day (DM) = 2,000 lb/acre x 2.6 acres/day = 5,161.3 lb/day of forage.
    • Forage consumable per day (DM) formula is Forage Available per Day (lb/day) x (Utilization rate (%) / 100)
      • Per the example: Forage Consumable per Day (DM) = 5,161.3 lb/day x (60 / 100) = 3,096.8 lb/day consumable.
  12. Determine and calculate how many animal units you can have for your land on a daily basis. As mentioned with the step on stocking rates, one Animal Unit (AU) is equal to one 1000 lb cow-calf pair (or single cow) that consumes 25 pounds of forage per day; This equals to one AUD (animal unit day). Thus, using the values from previous steps, the calculations are as follows:
    • Animal Units per Day = Forage Consumable per Day (DM) (lb/day) ÷ AU consumption (lb/day/AU)
      • Per the example: AUD = 3,096.8 lb/day ÷ 25 lb/day/AU = 123.9 AUDs for the previously calculated 2.6 acres needed per day for your herd.
  13. Adjust for the type and weights of animals you wish to graze. As already mentioned, this article is for any type of grazing animal of your choice, be they goats, sheep, cattle, horses, bison, llamas, whatever. Thus, to help you figure out the method to adjust for actual weight and type of animals you wish to graze apart from the standard animal unit, the easiest formula to use is this:
    • Animal Unit Equivalents = Average Actual Animal Weight (lb) ÷ Animal Unit Weight (lb)
    • For example, you want to graze a bunch of young stocker cattle (post-weaning cattle to be raised for beef) that weigh around 800 pounds as an average weight. Thus, the adjusted animal units would be: Animal Unit Equivalents = 800 lb / 1000 lb = 0.8 AUE
      • Therefore, to determine the number of these animals you want to graze, use the formula Number of Animals to Graze = Total AUDs ÷ AUE. Per the example, the number of stocker cattle you should graze is: 123.9 AUD / 0.8 AUE = 154.9 or 155 stocker cattle per day for 2.6 acres per day.
    • Use the same formula if you want to graze sheep. Minus the calculations, for 200 pound ewes (which are 0.2 AUEs), you should expect to graze 620 of these ewes on 2.6 acres per day.

Monitor Forage/Pasture Productivity

  1. Move your animals as regularly as you have already chosen. Where to move them (or which paddock) is entirely up to you, and the forage in your pastures.
    • Different paddocks will have forage plants coming at different stages. Targeting pastures or paddocks where grasses haven't quite headed out but are past the 3- or 4-leaf stage is ideal.
    • Each year you begin grazing it's best to start in a different pasture or paddock than the year before, and graze different paddocks from the year before, never keeping to the same schedule as last year's grazing season. This is so that you allow different pastures opportunity to get ahead or reach a different physiological state than they would if they were grazed at the same time year after year.
    • It's perfectly fine to allow some paddocks to get ahead and reach flowering and/or seed set before either grazing, or mowing. Some of your pastures may have a variety of legumes that need to be allowed to set seed before next grazing, all to maintain a healthy stand. These range from clovers, sainfoin and cicer milkvetch to alfalfa, lespedeza and birds-foot trefoil.
  2. Make observations of the plants left behind after every move. Depending on the grazing intensity and targeted utilization rate, you should look for things like how much is forage is left behind (basically height-wise, as well as leaf area) from what was there just before the animals were turned in, and ask yourself if you grazed too heavy or possibly too light.
    • One important thing to remember is that it's very easy to allow animals to consume too much grass and not leave enough grass behind. So if you think you may have grazed too light, check plant height before and after to be sure with your grazing or yard stick.
      • Basically, determining how much to leave behind is an art that requires a lot of observation, trial and error, and practice. There is no perfect one-size-fits-all way to judge how much to take versus how much to leave behind.
  3. Check the grazed pastures or paddocks once every few days to a week or so to note how plants are coming back. This will help you determine how long your rest period may need to be. Your initial estimated rest period may be too short, or too long; it all depends on how slowly or quickly the plants recover from grazing.

Make Necessary Changes

  1. Use observation to be the key to see what changes may need to be made. When you start a grazing operation, you're going to be tweaking things every year to make them that much better for you. This is why observation of everything in the entire grazing operation, from water facilities to the animals you are using, is very important.
    • Every year is different and will pose different challenges.
  2. Watch your animals and your plants. The easiest animals to teach grazing are the matriarchs of the herd that stay on the farm year after year. But possibly the hardest ones to graze are those young weaned animals that require some time to get accustomed to being moved regularly, and to respect the electric fence. Your plants will also show how well you are doing, by a decrease or increase in diversity, forage yield, and recovery time.
    • For the first while you may need to keep your grazing stick handy for every time you're moving the herd.
  3. Observe how fences are holding up, as well as the watering systems. Differences in weather patterns and climate in your area will test the strength and durability of these systems, and this will be shown through your stock. Little things like needing an extra fence post here and there, putting in an extra grounding rod, or a fixing a hole in a water trough or even one of the man-made ponds or dugouts not having enough water than normal can be the kind of changes that may improve or challenge your system.

Tips

  • Use your grass and your animals as indicators when it's time to switch pastures. Time is a useful tool, but only so useful. Your animals are the best gauge to go by to determine if it's time to switch now or not. If your animals are up at the fence and making noise at you (mooing, bleating, whinnying, etc) that means they're hungry and it's time to switch. If they're not paying much attention to you, then it's not time to switch yet.
  • Not all areas in the world are ideal for rotational grazing. For instance, most of Northern California doesn't receive enough rainfall for managed intensive grazing to be useful in comparison to that of North Carolina.
  • Your animals should always have access to a mineral tub or block; best is a trace-mineral one or a mineral feeder with loose mineral in it. The biggest concerns arise when they may need to be supplemented with protein or a phosphorus-to-calcium ratio type of supplement. Get into the habit of moving the mineral block at the same time you move the cattle, or have a suitable plan in place for allowing access to it regularly.
  • Soil testing is a must-have to test the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus , calcium, and organic matter in your soil. Know what levels of nutrients are considered optimal for your area, and use that soil test to decide whether fertilizing and/or supplementation is necessary for your animals.
  • Each livestock species grazes differently. For instance, horses and sheep tend to graze closer to the ground than cattle do, and will go back to their favorite spots more often.
  • Know the grasses that grow in your pastures. This way you can better manage when it's optimal to begin grazing and end grazing.
  • Livestock unfamiliar to rotational grazing will need to be first trained to the hot-wire and become familiar with you; they can't be ones to run away as soon as you get within sight, smell or hearing range of them. This is a concern for horses and cattle. Cattle which display this type of behavior should not be used in such grazing systems; only calm, docile cattle are best for these systems. Same thing goes with horses, sheep, and goats.

Warnings

  • Never use just any cattle for these systems. Calm, docile cattle are best because they are easy to handle and are less likely to injure themselves or you when being moved to fresh grazing grounds.
  • Hot-wire fences are just that: hot! Be careful when moving or repairing such fences; they can give a sharp zap if you are not careful.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex11857

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