What is rotation grazing?
Marriam-Webster Dictionary defines rotation grazing as:
the shifting of livestock to different units of a pasture or range in regular sequence to permit the recovery and growth of the pasture plants after grazing
But why would this be a beneficial operation practice when it comes to livestock? The essential reason for rotation grazing, is to allow the initial grassland, pasture, or paddock to grow back and become plentiful again. Just as animals in the wild migrate to areas where their food is in high supply, ranchers help to move cattle through pasture rotations in order to keep livestock food supply growing. Paddock rotation is designed to re-create a wild herd migration.
Continuous Grazing
When continuous grazing is the practice on a pasture, it causes the livestock to eat the re-growth of the plant before the plant has the opportunity to grow it's root base larger. The roots of the plant are the source of the nutrients for the animal. Not only does it affect the nutrients of the plant, but it also slows down the re-growth time, essentially costing out of pocket expenses for feed to compensate. The picture below, notice the root system on the far right is what a continuous grazing practice causes the pastures grass to become. Growth rates are almost stagnate due to the grass having no resting time to re-cooperate the nutrients lost from grazing. The picture below is examples of stages of grass growth provided by google.
Pasture Efficiency Changes
Growing seasons also tend to be much shorter with continuous grazing. With continuous grazing, most ranchers see only 30-40% efficiency when it comes to gain on the cattle. This means out of 100 pounds of forage, only about 30 pounds is actually putting gain on your livestock. The picture above, the grouping of grass on the far left side is growing within the optimum growth rate stage. The root system is deep and the top grass still has plenty of nutrients for the livestock. The middle grass group is still within the optimum growth rate and providing nutrients.
Stages of Forage Production
There are three stages of grass growth; early vegetative phase (slow growth rate), rapid vegetative phase (optimum growth rate), and a mature stage (growth ceases). The goal of pasture rotation is to maintain the forage growth phase in the most efficient stage of growth, rapid vegetative phase.
Production of feed through correct pasture management with the help of paddock rotation, or rotation grazing, allows cattlemen to drastically reduce their expenses on feed. It also produces a high-quality forage for your livestock so that you may achieve the highest weight gain leading you to higher yields and profits. Pasture management allows a higher number of cattle per acre which can also produce a higher profit margin. Here is an example of a pasture rotation ranch:
Implementing Rotational Grazing
If you have decided to implement pasture rotation into your operations, there are a couple steps that we would suggest. If your facility is not set up for such a program, take it step by step. You can add gates in-between pastures as you are needing to rotate the herd. Bradshaw Cattle Co., has a set of fields that we rotate cattle through, after which we process our cattle so they remain on a current vaccination program as well as high weight gain from pasture management. Alleys are another effective way to implement pasture management.
The best time sequence or frequency of your pasture rotations should be based on your forage production and not a set time schedule. Be flexible with your pasture rotation schedule to avoid over-grazing your paddocks. Remember over-grazing can lead to slower growing rates and fewer nutrients in the grass that does re-grow.
Additional beneficial actions that can maintain pasture health are manure distribution, hoof action, raking pastures, chemical spray, and having water on each field can help redistribute nutrients back into the field.
