Intensive Grazing

[The Ponderosa]

I'm seriously looking at setting up an intensive grazing program and would like to hear from someone that does it and has had great luck. I have a 250 acre pasture that has rolling hills and would like to set up paddocks to rotate the cows through. How small should my paddocks be? I was thinking like 2 acres or so. I think this first year I want to only do a part of the pasture to see how well it works.

The water will be the biggest deal for me. I have five large ponds, but they are close together. Do you know if there is a way to pump water from them to the paddocks? Also, what do you think the stocking rate will be with doing an intensive grazing program. I can run about one cow per 5 to 6 acres now (free run of the pasture). Do I need to plant clover in the pasture for this to work or can I get by on the warm season grasses I have?

Thanks so much!

 

[dun]

Where are you located? Rather then set up permanent paddocks I'm a huge believer in using temp hotwire so that the sizes can be adjusted based on growth etc.

 

[novatech]

I'm seriously looking at setting up an intensive grazing program and would like to hear from someone that does it and has had great luck. I have a 250 acre pasture that has rolling hills and would like to set up paddocks to rotate the cows through. How small should my paddocks be? I was thinking like 2 acres or so. I think this first year I want to only do a part of the pasture to see how well it works.

The water will be the biggest deal for me. I have five large ponds, but they are close together. Do you know if there is a way to pump water from them to the paddocks? Also, what do you think the stocking rate will be with doing an intensive grazing program. I can run about one cow per 5 to 6 acres now (free run of the pasture). Do I need to plant clover in the pasture for this to work or can I get by on the warm season grasses I have?

Thanks so much!

I have not done any intensive grazing but watching these vidios may help.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WZZOiwj ... re=related
This is the first of 10 on Youtube.
I would think that clover is a must if you don't want to have to fertilize. If you can grow it in your area.

 

[agmantoo]

The Ponderosa

I consider myself experienced in rotational grazing. With the exception of a major drought in 2007 I have run a cow/calf operation for 7 consecutive years for 365 days per year without any supplemental feed. I feed no grain or hay. Prior to the full year round rotational grazing I gradually was working my way into the method. I had no mentor or anyone to draw information from and it was difficult to build up the confidence. Where I live the extension folks say that 1 1/2 acres will feed a cow and her calf during the grazing period with hay to carry the animals through the Winter. I can feed the full year on ~1 1/4 acres per cow/calf. With no irrigation I am dependent on timely rains and often the rains fail but I persevere by always managing what forages that are available. My water system is not to my liking but it is what I have. My grass is fescue with all the associated endophyte issues but again it is what I can grow and somewhat depend upon. Folks around me think that since I am unconventional that I am always about to fail but slowly they are easing over my way and asking questions. I am seeing a slow conversion to rotational grazing. I know that I am profitable and I am so convinced in the method of feeding that I have sold all my hay equipment. I do not recommend fixed size paddocks. Nothing on the farm is consistent! You need to be able to match the forage needs of the cattle to what is available. That is paramount. Therefore I recommend that only two opposing single stand fences be permanently installed. The longer that these fences can be to create rectangles,using the polywire for the narrow ends, the better. I have approximately 150 head of various size animals and I like for the parallel opposing wires to be approximately 300 feet apart. I can put the polywire the 300 ft span both in front and behind the cattle thus creating a paddock. The distance between the polywires can then be adjusted to meet the cattles needs as well as the available forage. At this point I have plenty of forage and the polywires are 120 apart so I am allocating roughly 36000 sq feet of area to be grazed daily. I do not use conventional gates. Instead I use a ~7 ft length of PVC 1 1/2" pipe with a V cut in one end. I lift the permanent single strand of wire from the fiber glass/pvc rod used to hold the wire and I place the PVC pipe over the post then I lift the wire and place it in the V. The herd can now walk under the permanent single strand wire into the lane I have adjacent. Where possible I have lanes parallel to grazing paddocks to permit the cattle to go to water. Unfortunately the cattle go to water as a herd due to the distance. The biggest problem with this arrangement is that the cattle make paths in the lanes. I also grow forage in the lanes and use them as paddocks. I with assist you if you want my help. Feel free to ask any question and I have lots of pics if that is any benefit. Remember this, when you produce cattle rotationally you really become a forage farmer and less of a cattle person. PS...approximately where are you located?

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Got to agree with Dun & Agmantoo. The less permanent fence the better. Portable polywire gives you so much flexibility which you will need. Seems permanent paddocks are rarely the correct size, due to variations in season, moisture etc.

Would highly recommend you read "Comeback Farms" by Greg Judy. It details how he does it. Since writing the book he has gone back to watering from ponds using temporary lanes.

Here's a link for the book:

http://www.powerflexfence.com/products- ... greg-judy/

BTW-the other books at this site are also excellent.

 

[bear]

Agmantoo
Do you get much snow and ice during the winters?
Bear

 

[agmantoo]

bear, we get maybe 3 snows per Winter with them remaining as ground cover for a week to 10 days. Usually the snows are under 8 inches deep. We also have ice storms. It is the ice storms that create grazing problems. With the snow the cattle will push the snow aside and eat the stockpiled grass beneath. If the situation is such that the ice possibly will melt within a day or two to where the cattle can get to the grass I do nothing as I keep the herd in good body condition. We rarely get to as low a temperature as 10F. I do keep 50 rolls of hay for extreme emergencies. I could make those last for around 16 days if necessary. This hay is many years old they may not eat it at all. The cattle will not eat hay if there is a chance at all they can get to the stockpiled grass.

 

[Jogeephus]

I heard a lot of people complain about the weaknesses of fescue but I sure wish I could grow it here just for the reasons you state. I have a friend who is doing the same in the piedmont of South Carolina. Last year he had zero inputs since his fertilizer and lime is applied free of charge. He has hay equipment but fed none this year. Ironically, he still complains that there is still not enough money in cattle. :shock: :lol2:

 

[kickinbull]

Agmantoo

I have read your posts with great interest. We decided to try to PVC on the ends instead of gates. It didn't work. Our cows are very lazy. They like to only leave the paddock from the closest distance to the barn or water. They also won't cross under the wire even when it's shut off. They being dairy cows must come to the barn twice daily to milk and they usually make another trip for water at least once. They are spoiled also, and will not graze as close as I would like. they start to bawl and then it shows up in the tank later that day with loss of milk. I am glad it works for you, I thought I would add what me experience has been.

 

[agmantoo]

kickinbull

My mammoth donkey will even come under the pvc. Yes, it took a little coaxing and she doesn't contribute to the income of the farm so I could be patient with her. I would not abandon the rotational grazing due to a small setback. Use the polywire as a crossfence and just take down a corner. let the cows use the gap to get accustomed to moving to the next paddock. It helps if you drum up a little excitement that something worthwhile is happening to get the animals in the moving mode. I have read that it takes 21 days for a bovine to learn or break a habit. Once you get the animals trained to move then reintroduce the PVC pipe to lift the partition wire. Have the wire as high as you can possibly reach. Good luck.

 

[regolith]

The pvc idea is interesting - I know my cows wouldn't come under it, but if they were trained from calves they'd probably be fine.
Some people just push the fence down and expect them to jump over it - which they'll certainly do if they're hungry enough but it's real bad habit because they don't know the difference between jumping a wire sitting on the ground and jumping the one that's supposed to be holding them in (plus it does bad things to their temperament).

I tend to end the poly-fence where I want a gate, and either use a separate piece of poly-tape with a handle on it, or just make a 'dead' wrap round the second last standard so that the end standard or the reel can be opened without the rest of the fence going slack. I also use those 'dead' wraps if I'm making a fence with a corner in it, because it's quite common for the corner standard to get pushed out, and you can stop the fence going slack along the whole length if you do that. Kind of hard to explain - you just pull the wire tight and make like a clove hitch round the pigtail of your corner or end standard, then carry on putting out the reel.

kickinbull: it does take training to make dairy cows graze close enough, and I don't know if it can be done under a high production system. Once they're grazing fairly low (before calving) you can keep them grazing tight, but as soon as you start giving them enough feed to satiate them so that they don't have to graze tight, they get lazy and you're battling two negatives - the habit of grazing tight is broken, and the pasture quality where they last grazed is poorer unless you've mown behind them or put in another class of stock that does graze it back. In that case, they'll reject the dead matter that was ungrazed grass last time, and the cycle continues getting worse.
I know of farmers who seem to be able to juggle both sides of the equation - their cows graze hard year round so they always have good pasture quality, and they also add other feeds and get above average production - but it's quite a skill.