rotational grazing and stocking rates

[AngusCowBoy]

Hey guys, right now on 1160 acres of pasture were running around 8 acres per a pair from may 1st to november 1st, and it is split up into 3 320 acres and 1 200 acre pasture, was wondering if a guy broke them down to 80 to 100 acre pastures and rotated them once a week, if he could get a higher stocking rate and cut it down to 6 acres per pair.

 

[rem_243]

I don't think you could count on it right away. I believe you may see improvement of your pastures while maintaining your current stocking rate. In time you may be able to increase your stocking rate. If you do start a rotation like this make sure you rotate when the resource says you should and not when the calendar says. Poly wire is pretty easy to work with without investing a ton of money and the cows figure it out pretty quick.

 

[RSL]

May 1 to Nov 1 is 184 days. If one pair takes 8 acres and a cow weighed 1000 pounds (unlikely) you are pulling around 23 AUGDA (Animal unit grazing days per acre). If they are 1500 you are closer to 34.5.
Not sure of your climate, but it is not too far different from a lot of folks around here.
If you are subdividing to paddocks so you are moving around once per week, you would average around 100 days of rest between grazing events, and you would likely get more uniform grazing.
With our rotation here moving from 2 to 5 days depending we are pulling around 75 AUGDA year in and year out without much trouble, but it has taken a bit of time to get there.
A single hot wire works great and costs almost nothing to work with. It is also easy to change if you get your paddock placement wrong. I would say go for it, and do as rem_243 says. Let the grass dictate the movements.

 

[LazyWP]

Around here, water will be your limiter. The "pinwheel" type paddocks don't work so well, where you have the cattle coming into 1 single place to water. Now if you move your water around too, I think you are on to something.

 

[BRG]

On old boy told me it works like this.

You mow your lawn once a week and cut off about 2 inches or so a week, all spring and summer. If their are 22 weeks from Mid April to Oct. 1 then you cut off about 44 inches of grass. But if you let that lawn grass grow and not mow it, it might get 2.5 feet or so tall. Granted, this all take rain. If the moisture is there, then I would say it would work.

But the last thing you want to do, at least in our environment is overuse your grass, as it will show up next year if it is.

 

[RSL]

On old boy told me it works like this.

You mow your lawn once a week and cut off about 2 inches or so a week, all spring and summer. If their are 22 weeks from Mid April to Oct. 1 then you cut off about 44 inches of grass. But if you let that lawn grass grow and not mow it, it might get 2.5 feet or so tall. Granted, this all take rain. If the moisture is there, then I would say it would work.

But the last thing you want to do, at least in our environment is overuse your grass, as it will show up next year if it is.

The nice thing (that is also counter-intuitive) is that in a drought you can slow up the rotation a bit (the grass isn't growing as fast) and add a few days onto the recovery time. For us, a really wet year is a lot of extra moves as the grass is growing so fast.

 

[andybob]

High density grazing as demonstrated on this link, it works well and is inexpensive using only polywire, I believe Johann Zietsman is due to tour in the USA this year lecturing on HD grazing and grass developed genetics, a demonstration of this grazing system was part of a recent grazing course in Florida demonstrated by Jaime Elizondo Braun along with his grass developed herd; http://sangacattle.webs.com/apps/videos/videos/show/17200340-veldmaster-cattle-in-high-density-grazing-system

 

[C Thompson]

Hey Andybob, Thanks for the link. Didn't get much from the guy rolling up the poly-wire behind the cattle on the first clip but right after it there was an hour long Greg Judy presentation that was fantastic.

 

[andybob]

The mob grazing system probably needs to be seen to get the full effect, the cattle are moved four time a day behind the poly wire, the system was developed by Johann Zietsman when he was stiil working with Alan Savory developing the Holistic management system. Jaime Elizondo Braun in Florida demonstrated the system in a recent grazing course, he has been practcing the system successfully for several years.
The greg Judy Holistic presentation is also well worth studying.