Mob grazing

[lazy ace]

TTB was telling me about this and I thought I would put it on here for your thoughts.

http://www.kxnet.com/getArticle.asp?ArticleId=602781


More than 300 cows grazing a THIRD of an acre.

Tonight Ag Reporter Sarah Gustin takes you east of Bismarck to show you how it's done.

675-thousand pounds of beef. All grazing one acre of ground

It's called...mob grazing

(Gabe Brown / Mob Grazing)"Look at how the lands in the great plains evolved over time. They evolved from herds bison, elk deer and not coming back. Leaving it for extended periods of rest and then coming back later to regraze. that is what we are trying to do in holistic management." Gabe and Paul Brown are summering 325 head of cattle on 220 acres of ground

Every morning Brown spends an hour and a half getting ready for the day. (Paul Brown / Mob Grazing) "I have to be here in the mornings. I set up the fences for all day and with the automatic gate openers they just move through. It's enjoyable because I am out walking on the land and I can seee what is happening." The cattle are moved 5 to 6 times a day

Spending about 2 hours on every 1/3 of an acre

(Paul Brown / Mob Grazing) "One of the biggest things I am seeing is improvement in animal behavior. Right away it was a learning curve when we first got them, getting them trained to the electric fence, but now they are moving through nice, they understand what to do and the selection of plants is going down because they are in a tighter group so it doesn't matter what is out there. They know they better eat it, otherwise someone next to them will." (Sarah Gustin / KX News) "Brown says that the point isn't to graze everything. They leave about 1/2 of the litter on the ground which will be beneficial for years to come." (Gabe Brown / Mob Grazing)"As we increase stock density we put more litter on the soil surface and thus we are feeding more of the macro and micro organisms and improving soil health, which in turn equates to improving our bottom line because we are getting more production. We are getting a much healthier system." And those added soil benefits aren't the only payback

(Gabe Brown / Mob Grazing)"I know when we finish this and do the economic analysis at the end of the year he is going to be making a minimum of 50 dollars an hour doing it, minimum." East of Bismarck for KX News I am Sarah Gustin.

Brown says he plans to plant a cash crop without any added commercial fertilizer on the cover crop ground the cattle are mob grazing on right now.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Might as well milk cows. :wink:

 

[lazy ace]

I can't figure out water

Hey big Muddy if it works old mantracker could catch them guys in a split second with all the fences. More time for those bannana creme pies.

have a cold one

lazy ace

 

[Liveoak]

Actually, the idea ("mob grazing/intensive grazing") is not a new one down here. Now, fencing off acreage into 1/3 acre tracts is a bit more intensive than what we do, but it's still pretty much the same idea.The cattle seems to profit a lot more and then so does the seller.

 

[Silver]

Well, I guess I can be counted among the dinosaurs that will become extinct if this is the way of the future. Not my cup of tea.

 

[movin' on]

I have done some mob grazing and have been around some ground that has been mob grazed.

It is labor intensive.

Water can be a problem.

Shade can be a problem.

The results that mob grazing produce is second to nothing that I have ever seen. Phenomenal, incredible, etc., etc. They truly have to be seen to be believed.

To whomever is getting ready to say it.............yes, it will work in your area.

 

[Ben H]

My herd isn't big enough to get the real benefit, but I'm on daily moves and seeing a gbig improvement. I have 1" HDPE pipe along the fence lines of my favorite cell with over 100psi of water pressure in it.
Shade is for the week. I would like to get one of the break away fence gate things from New Zealand.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

I'm not saying it doesn't work or will create amazing results but I think a balance between how much your cows work for you and how much work you do for your cows need to find a balance and I don't think moving them 6 times a day would work for me.

I mob graze my breeding pastures. I put all my cows in one pasture and started leaving them for 60 days until it was chewed right off then they don't go back to it for 3 years. I am growing more grass and now have started leaving them on longer then 60 days as the water and grass allow.

 

[balestabber]

just another form of confinement.now they need to think of some more big words and put a roof over them.

was going down the hi-way and seen a 'mob' of hogs.don't know how they got that many under one roof.

drove a little futher,seen a 'mob' of turkeys.same story

last was a cattle feedlot.in southern iowa.fed cattle are all kept under a dome type shelter.

i miss my livestock,,but like the old school open range,,and they taste better too.

 

[movin' on]

I'm not saying it doesn't work or will create amazing results but I think a balance between how much your cows work for you and how much work you do for your cows need to find a balance and I don't think moving them 6 times a day would work for me.

I mob graze my breeding pastures. I put all my cows in one pasture and started leaving them for 60 days until it was chewed right off then they don't go back to it for 3 years. I am growing more grass and now have started leaving them on longer then 60 days as the water and grass allow.

Yes, I agree. Mob grazing is a job. You do more work than the cows if you are a true mob grazer. It is far less work, I think, than most would believe it is, but it is still a job.

The big push a few years ago was to "chew it off to ground" and then give it a really long rest. Most of the folks I converse with are now seeing some benefit from grouping them a little tighter and trying to get it more trampled than grazed off. The rest period can be shortened up a little bit that way (100 days vs. 150) However, you are getting all the benefits of manure and urine distribution and a very long rest period.

Ben, I don't usually have quite enough animals to truly mob graze, either. The more animals you have, the easier it is to get your stocking density up without having to create such small cells. I think Ian Mitchell-Innes says it takes at least 400 cows or the equivilant to make a true mob. Anything above and beyond that creates exponential benefits.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

I'm not saying it doesn't work or will create amazing results but I think a balance between how much your cows work for you and how much work you do for your cows need to find a balance and I don't think moving them 6 times a day would work for me.

I mob graze my breeding pastures. I put all my cows in one pasture and started leaving them for 60 days until it was chewed right off then they don't go back to it for 3 years. I am growing more grass and now have started leaving them on longer then 60 days as the water and grass allow.

Yes, I agree. Mob grazing is a job. You do more work than the cows if you are a true mob grazer. It is far less work, I think, than most would believe it is, but it is still a job.

The big push a few years ago was to "chew it off to ground" and then give it a really long rest. Most of the folks I converse with are now seeing some benefit from grouping them a little tighter and trying to get it more trampled than grazed off. The rest period can be shortened up a little bit that way (100 days vs. 150) However, you are getting all the benefits of manure and urine distribution and a very long rest period.

Ben, I don't usually have quite enough animals to truly mob graze, either. The more animals you have, the easier it is to get your stocking density up without having to create such small cells. I think Ian Mitchell-Innes says it takes at least 400 cows or the equivilant to make a true mob. Anything above and beyond that creates exponential benefits.

The length of time for rest can vary greatly.depending on plant species and climate. We are generally in a low rain fall area that get growth from the middle of may to the third week of June. It take some time to build up some litter.

 

[leanin' H]

I'll say it..... IT WON"T WORK HERE! When you average less than 13 inches of moisture in a year and it takes hundreds of acres per cow, you'd be destroying the land. Unless they only got ten seconds between moves which is pretty silly. Remember how important climate is for these ideas. While my mind is constantly looking for ways to improve on how my bunch does while converting grass to beef, one must also realize what has worked for previous generations might be pretty close to perfection for the area you dwell. I would like to see it being done successfully and the resulting benefit for the land.

 

[movin' on]

I'll say it..... IT WON"T WORK HERE! When you average less than 13 inches of moisture in a year and it takes hundreds of acres per cow, you'd be destroying the land. Unless they only got ten seconds between moves which is pretty silly. Remember how important climate is for these ideas. While my mind is constantly looking for ways to improve on how my bunch does while converting grass to beef, one must also realize what has worked for previous generations might be pretty close to perfection for the area you dwell. I would like to see it being done successfully and the resulting benefit for the land.

Interestingly enough, there is a man in South Central Montana with the exact same rainfall as you(two dot land and livestock). He has increased his stocking rate by 225% over the past few years simply by increasing his stocking density and moving the herd around. His rainfall is the same as yours and his growing season is probably shorter. I maintain that it would work in your area. Now, your pushing the envelope and someone from a 40" annual rainfall area's pushing the envelope would be vastly different.....but the concept would be the same.

It is not my intention to try and persuade anybody. Some would rather farm, some would rather work with metal, some would rather put up hay and some would rather graze.

The bottom line, the way I see it, is that mob grazing is an amazing tool that can be used, with very little cost, to vastly improve all types of soil, which results in vastly improved grasses.

 

[movin' on]

just another form of confinement.now they need to think of some more big words and put a roof over them.

was going down the hi-way and seen a 'mob' of hogs.don't know how they got that many under one roof.

drove a little futher,seen a 'mob' of turkeys.same story

last was a cattle feedlot.in southern iowa.fed cattle are all kept under a dome type shelter.

i miss my livestock,,but like the old school open range,,and they taste better too.

Wow!? Just when I thought I'd heard it all....... Sorry, balestabber, but that dog won't hunt.

Are you honestly trying to say that a group of cattle that gets moved to fresh, waist high grass every day or so is in some way comparable to confined hog, turkey and cattle operations? Really?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you here, but if I'm not, you're misunderstanding mob grazing in a colossal way.

 

[PureCountry]

I'll say it - it does work here. For several graziers in fact. I've seen people do it moving groups daily, and others moving them weekly or whatever they felt they were comfortable with.

Some form of mob/planned grazing can work anywhere given effort and time. Maybe not quite like Gabe Brown is doing it, but in some form.

I've spoken with Gabe over the phone after reading an article on him in the Holistic Management Newsletter "In Practice". Pretty interesting guy. I'm not surprised to read this story now, he seems to be one that applies alot of thought and planning into anything before he does it, then does it very, very well.

IMO, the key to planned grazing is that it's a tool. Use it to achieve the goals you set for your land. If you want to build organic matter quickly and have healthier soil - not sure why you wouldn't want that - then using a system like the Browns use would be a quick way to do it. By having lots of critters on a small area, they trample lots of forage, which decomposes and becomes topsoil. It's amazing how much grass you can grow when there's healthy soil. We've seen areas go from 6" at best on average to good rainfall, and after having a lot of litter trampled on it with a mob, letting it rest for the rest of the year, to 12" of forage the following year that increased from 7% protein to 12.5%. In the 2nd year there was more growth, and the forage held it's 12.5% protein well into December.

If you don't want to trample all that litter and want/need the cattle to eat more of it, you simply plan your rotations accordingly. Remember, it's a tool that you control. You do it as intensive as you want.

 

[Denny]

Well I don't see me doing it. As it is I only check cows every 10 days or so. There's not enough profit in it for me to be driveing around watching the calves grow.
I rotate pastures but it's more a 10 day deal.

 

[balestabber]

i might be misunderstanding the concept of mob grazing.
but i still think 300 cows on a THIRD of an acre is stretching a rope.

and 300 cows on a third of an acre might be a FORM or considered a form of confinement.

if there is that much profit in mob grazing,i have 1000 acres in southern iowa
for rent with anyone who has 300,000 head and some hot-wire.

most of it tillable and grass waist high.
imo,i would rather drive across across the ranch and see 300 pairs grazing than drive by one acre with 300 cows.

 

[bverellen]

but i still think 300 cows on a THIRD of an acre is stretching a rope.

Ropes weren't made for pushin', but you sure can stretch a rope :wink:


Greg Judy is just to the south of you and doing the MOB grazing in a pretty big way. Now some folks may not like Greg, Kit or even Bud, but one can't argue with results, and he's getting results.

Here are some other folks checking out the benifits of MOB grazing:



Green Pastures Farm In Ohio for an Amish meeting where there are to be 5000 Amish folks. They had a work shop today to learn how to graze in the mob. They thought that they were grazing tall but have more to do. But they want to do better. Wish that there were more folks like this


http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rucker-MO/Green-Pastures-Farm/174993388708



bart.

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[andybob]

I'll say it..... IT WON"T WORK HERE! When you average less than 13 inches of moisture in a year and it takes hundreds of acres per cow, you'd be destroying the land. Unless they only got ten seconds between moves which is pretty silly. Remember how important climate is for these ideas. While my mind is constantly looking for ways to improve on how my bunch does while converting grass to beef, one must also realize what has worked for previous generations might be pretty close to perfection for the area you dwell. I would like to see it being done successfully and the resulting benefit for the land.

Alan Savory's work in developing the grazing systems and later the Holistic management system was in conditions similar to yours in Rhodesia and later South Africa, I was still using the short duration grazing system he developed when my neighbour started grazing his herd behind an electic fence moved 6 times per day, with surprising results over my rotaional system. My in laws used mob grazing on their Namibian ranch, in very brittle environment!

 

[movin' on]

i might be misunderstanding the concept of mob grazing.
but i still think 300 cows on a THIRD of an acre is stretching a rope.

and 300 cows on a third of an acre might be a FORM or considered a form of confinement.

if there is that much profit in mob grazing,i have 1000 acres in southern iowa
for rent with anyone who has 300,000 head and some hot-wire.

most of it tillable and grass waist high.
imo,i would rather drive across across the ranch and see 300 pairs grazing than drive by one acre with 300 cows.

Yessir, there is a colossal misunderstanding going on here. 1000 acres would absolutely not hold 300,000 head. Where would those cattle be moved to next? The third of an acre thing only lasts for a few hours. That third of an acre will then be rested for anywhere for a few months up to a year.

You don't even increase your stocking rate to begin with....just your stocking density.

As I mentioned earlier, I couldn't care less if other people mob graze or not. I have, however, personally witnessed the results of mob grazing, and I truly believe that there is nothing else like it. I also mentioned earlier that most people would rather do something else than be graziers. Denny, it seems like you would rather farm and weld than mess with electric fence. That suits me to a T. I just have never been able to understand why so many are so quick to discredit any idea that they very little knowledge of.

One more little thing, and Denny, this is not meant as a dig at you, but if increasing your stocking rate by 200% (getting another ranch for free) isn't profitable enough to make you take notice......................I guess we see things differently.

Ok, I'll be quiet now and go back to my grazing!