Custom grazing

[IluvABbeef]

Had a speaker come and tell us a bit about her operation with this type of grazing, and thought it was pretty neat.

She custom grazes around 200 steers on 3/4 of a quater section of her land, and has the three pastures divied up to total of 66 pastures. She rotates them every day or every couple days, depending on the growing conditions, to utilize the grass to get the required gain of the steers. She then throws a group of 20 cow-calf pairs (also custom grazers) onthe same pastures a couple days behind to do some clean up, careful not to overgraze.

She told us that most of the work is the planning part of things, deciding when and where to start grazing, and which pastures to move to and when.

She also mentioned that it works well for folks who can't stay on the farm full-time to work, and the only major equipment absolutely necessary to have is a scale. And the biggest investments are for managing and supplying water, and fencing.

I dunno if anyone on here is familiar with this type of grazing operation, but if anyone is, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

 

[auctionboy]

Sounds like the kind of women that tries to pass old ideas of as her own.

 

[dun]

It's just MIG, managment intensive grazing. It certainly isn't anything new or earth shattering. I'ld like to know how she manages to get all of those calves moved from paddock to paddock quickly. Even our cows that are used to being moved will have at least one lunk head that doesn;t seem to get the word and holds up the whole process.

dun

 

[backhoeboogie]

That operation sounds a bit more intense than a typical cattleman/woman would employ.

There is no doubt that roational grazing is the best way to go. Cross fencing and watering at each pasture is indeed a must. But I would hate to have to provide water in that many different pastures. 4 configurations on my own land and 3 on the adjacent leased property are more than what is needed for me now, most of the time.

 

[Limomike]

wow.. 66 pastures? I agree, having that many pastures would create a water problem, I would think. But I do the rotational grazing thing, but not as intense as some. And as dun said, I wouldnt think of moving my herd fast, becuz there is always some stragglers in my bunch.

 

[TREY-L]

I may be reading this wrong, but is she grazing 200 steers + 20 cow/calf pairs on 120 acres? A section = 640 acres, a quarter section is 160 acres, 3/4 of a quarter section = 120 acres. That is indeed INTENSE grazing management. :?:

 

[3MR]

I may be reading this wrong, but is she grazing 200 steers + 20 cow/calf pairs on 120 acres? A section = 640 acres, a quarter section is 160 acres, 3/4 of a quarter section = 120 acres. That is indeed INTENSE grazing management. :?:

Thats exactly what I was thinking, seems like some very intense grazing.

Especially after she divided the 120 acres into 66 pastures, that leaves less than 2 acres per paddock.

Of course, the next thing I did was look to see where the post originated. Canada has a different measurment system than I am familiar with so it might be possible.

 

[IL Rancher]

Depending on set up water could be set up without a huge problem or investment but I would probably do it differen than her but than again, I really don't know how she did it.. I have always liked the idea of custum grazing, you take a lot of the risk out of the proposition when somoene is paying you a set fee for running calves for them and you don't have the capital sunk into the cattle. As long as you can get them set up on an adequate gain it might be something that could work for some people not to mention not holding any cows over the winter would be nice, lol.

 

[IluvABbeef]

She has a neat watering system going. She has about 3 water resiviours(sp?) that are connected to about 4-6 different watering places each, most every one gravity-fed. and of course she mentioned that water management is expensive.

Yes, this is intensive grazing, and no steers are left behind, even though she did mention that there are the occaisonal stupid animals that hold up the process. The steers are quick to learn to know it's time to move to fresh grass when they see someone walking out to them, so that helps. And then there's the concern of moving them fast enough so that the cattle get at the vegetative forage before the grass gets heady, so that's also another concern.

Some (I should say most) of the pastures are 2 acres, but there are also some that are 0.5 acres, some 5.x acres, a few to 7 acres...etc. I'm sure that all this is on 120 acres, b/c that sounds about right....unless she measured in hectares. I have a map of her place she handed out to us when she asked us to do a graze-planning excersize, so I'll have a look into that.

She said that a few years ago she had to send the steers home early because of the drought (i think this was around 2002), and from what she should us they took quite a hit from it, as the forages are still recovering from all that. But because she was careful not to overgraze her pastures, when the rains came in September, the grass shot back up, lush "June grass" for the cattle to graze on till November when they're shipped out.

 

[bigbull338]

around here when you intensive graze,you put 40hd to the ac.an let them stay from 1 to 3 days.depending on how fast they graze it down.an you setup your watering points so 2 pastures can use the same water troughs.or just move water trough from paddock to paddock.an hook it to the risers.but that requires laying alot of waterlines.

 

[IluvABbeef]

Darn it!! Sorry yall, I had the quater section thing wrong. It's THREE quarter sections, not 3/4 of a quater section...

Guess I didn't listen very well or look at the map of her place careful enough...sorry.

 

[Sir Loin]

that leaves less than 2 acres per paddock.

You are exactly correct. And there is 43,560 SF in an acre. You do the math while I tell you this.
It’s impossible. Their feet will destroy most of the grass before they can even get to eat it. And in rainy weather she better feed them.
Now how many SF per animal did you get?

200 steers on 3/4 of a quarter section

That’s ridicules. The stress factor alone will kill them if they don’t starve to death.

I suggest you tell this lady she needs to take her medication or get off the crack!
SL

PS Hope you didn’t pay to hear this bullsh--!

 

[Sir Loin]

Look, here is the rule of thumb for grazing cattle.
You need at least 1 acre per animal complete with water, a salt lick and mineral feeder and in the winter and during drought, you will still have to feed them. (hay and grain)
Anything less then that and you are running a feedlot so you better be feeding them.
Now does the math show 1 are or more, or not?

 

[IluvABbeef]

that leaves less than 2 acres per paddock.

You are exactly correct. And there is 43,560 SF in an acre. You do the math while I tell you this.
It’s impossible. Their feet will destroy most of the grass before they can even get to eat it. And in rainy weather she better feed them.
Now how many SF per animal did you get?

200 steers on 3/4 of a quarter section

That’s ridicules. The stress factor alone will kill them if they don’t starve to death.

I suggest you tell this lady she needs to take her medication or get off the crack!
SL

PS Hope you didn’t pay to hear this bullsh--!

Look, here is the rule of thumb for grazing cattle.
You need at least 1 acre per animal complete with water, a salt lick and mineral feeder and in the winter and during drought, you will still have to feed them. (hay and grain)
Anything less then that and you are running a feedlot so you better be feeding them.
Now does the math show 1 are or more, or not?

Sir Loin....instead of chewing me out and spitting me on the floor, why don't you do the honour of reading my post before I posted this one? Might clear things up a bit, and might prevent me from being mean an' nasty right back at you (I can do that, y'know).

 

[auctionboy]

Look, here is the rule of thumb for grazing cattle.
You need at least 1 acre per animal complete with water, a salt lick and mineral feeder and in the winter and during drought, you will still have to feed them. (hay and grain)
Anything less then that and you are running a feedlot so you better be feeding them.
Now does the math show 1 are or more, or not?

Your over simplification helps no one!

 

[Sir Loin]

FYI: As for the personal attacks, I’m a big boy so I simply ignore them. So if you can’t take the heat, stay out of my kitchen!

What is “custom grazes”? Been in the business for many years and never heard of this one.
I’ve heard of “custom” farming, but never “custom grazes”?
This must be something new. Gee let me read this.

OH, it’s cross fencing. Why that’s not new, that’s older then my grandfather.
Why didn’t she just call it what it is, cross fencing.
Right here I smell a wood puzzy in the woodpile or a used car salesman I’m not sure which.

I wonder if she is taking into account that cattle also need shade.

 

[Sir Loin]

Your over simplification helps no one!

OK, let me expound on that.

Before you can figure out how much pasture space in needed per cow, you must first have a place to start from.
And the rule of thumb for the place to start is 1 acre under ideal conditions
. From there you add and subtract acreage depending on many factors.
Now would you like me to list all of the factors that will cause the acreage to go up or down?

 

[IL Rancher]

Custum grazing is not cross fencing. It is folks paying you to graze animals for them. Sometimes it is done on a daily rate, other times it is done on a certain amount of money per pound gained during the time. Would depend on the contract.. Mainly it would be done with stockers.

 

[IluvABbeef]

Thank YOU, IL rancher. Custom grazing is NOT cross fencing, though she uses some cross fencing, as well as permenant fencing, for fencing her contractor's stockers.

So, let me clear up the land thing here. INSTEAD of having 200 head on 120 acres (and I realize that I screwed that up, thanks to those who KINDLY pointed it out to me), she rotates 200 head on 480 acres. And that's my final answer.

As for the personal attacks thing...glad your such a big boy an' can look after yourself, but treating folks like they're dumba$$es an' making them feel like crap, even if you didn't intend on doing so, ain't gonna get you nowhere. BTW, I didn't really appretiate that at all, reason why I replied to you, sirloin, the way I did.

 

[Wewild]

As for the personal attacks thing...glad your such a big boy an' can look after yourself, but treating folks like they're dumba$$es an' making them feel like crap, even if you didn't intend on doing so, ain't gonna get you nowhere. BTW, I didn't really appretiate that at all, reason why I replied to you, sirloin, the way I did.

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