MOB GRAZING pics

[mack]

Mob grazing is an amazing process. Here's the recipie:

1. Add 42 cow/calf pairs to .2 acre (yes, thats two tenths) for 1/2 day

2. move cows and this is what you have. Notice the strips where the turbo wire partitions were.

3. wait 3 weeks and be amazed at the regrowth... naturally fertilized and even just like you clipped it with a bushog with $5 fuel

You received some needed exercise. The cows are happy. Most all of the weeds which are highly nutritious are consumed. Every square foot is fertilized. Regrowth is super high quality. Native seed bank is exposed (usally containing MUCHO clover).
***Warning... this is not the way grandaddy did it.

total time spent each day= 30minutes (15minutes per movement)

Go ahead, tell me how crazy that is.

 

[pdfangus]

Request permission to use your photos and comments.

I will credit them to you. not interested in stealing but in improving pasture managment in my area.

We are planning a mob grazing site demonstration in our area but are in a holding pattern right now awaiting some funding and regulatory hurdles. the site will be on the new state fair site here in Virginia. ( Meadow Farm - the birth place of Secretariat ( triple crown winner))

by the way this is one thread where I could see the photos.

 

[dieselbeef]

grass farmer mag is all over that technique. seems like it would be difficult f or me to do but it looks like it works real well. im guessin it must be pretty thick when ya start. how many paddocks before you return to the first one...30 day rotation takes alotta paddocks

 

[bigbull338]

you can tell that mobb grazing cleaned that field up good.an it sure did grow back nice an thick.you can tell the manure sure greened it up fast.

 

[TexasBred]

Looks like they walked down about as much as they ate. What about the grass coming up with the manure piles? Most cows won't touch it regardless of how lush it is. Did you drag the manure down and scatter it.

 

[MikeC]

you can tell the manure sure greened it up fast.bigbull338
Beefmaster Breeder

You really think the manure greened that grass up in three weeks? :roll:

 

[bigbull338]

no the rain an good growing temps did.but the manure sure didnt hurt it.

 

[BC]

With bermuda grass you need 20 to 24 paddocks. When it is raining and grass is really growing you can come back to a paddock in 16 to 20 days. There will be a couple of paddocks that get away from you and they can be baled. My neighbor does this with his dairy herd. His paddocks are 5 to 8 acres and he puts 125 to 150 Holstein cows per paddock for 1 to 1 1/2 days (depending on the stand)and then moves them. He doesn't graze quite as close as the pictures but fairly close.

Yu can increase lbs of beef per acre but you decrease individual animal performance because you make the animal eat everything instead of selective grazing.

 

[TexasBred]

With bermuda grass you need 20 to 24 paddocks. When it is raining and grass is really growing you can come back to a paddock in 16 to 20 days. There will be a couple of paddocks that get away from you and they can be baled. My neighbor does this with his dairy herd. His paddocks are 5 to 8 acres and he puts 125 to 150 Holstein cows per paddock for 1 to 1 1/2 days (depending on the stand)and then moves them. He doesn't graze quite as close as the pictures but fairly close.

Yu can increase lbs of beef per acre but you decrease individual animal performance because you make the animal eat everything instead of selective grazing.

BC I visited that dairy 7-8 years ago. Can't remember the mans name but at the time he was making the intensive grazing work very well for that herd of dairy cattle. A close friend of his is also doing it over between Corsicana and Athens.

 

[Dave]

I do basically the same thing except I move them once a day so they get a little bigger paddock. It is amazing how much more grass that you end up with. After a while a person gets efficient at moving the fence. It takes me more time to walk out to the field and back than it does to move the fence. One of the biggest benefits is that by moving the cows daily they become accustom to being moved. They are easy to handle and will follow me anywhere.

 

[dieselbeef]

yeah...what about the pop problem..draggin it between rotation. im kinda doin this monthly with 11 beef. 5 acres per paddock. bu by summers end theyre bare cuz the growing season cant keep up. ive only got 3 paddocks for now...but recently aquired another 25 acres

 

[pdfangus]

yeah...what about the pop problem..draggin it between rotation. im kinda doin this monthly with 11 beef. 5 acres per paddock. bu by summers end theyre bare cuz the growing season cant keep up. ive only got 3 paddocks for now...but recently aquired another 25 acres

I don't know a thing about florida but here in virginia 11 animal units (Animal Unit is 1000 lbs equivalents) on fifteen acres is stocking too heavy to keep grass on it. University recommends at least two acres per animal unit and I tell folks that three is better especially in eastern va sandy soils.

 

[dieselbeef]

yeah they tell me that at the tax office too but wont greenbelt me...with hay and pellets they do okay...grass is decent til winter

 

[EAT BEEF]

I find this mob grazing very interesting,it looks like you have a stocking density of about 294,000 lbs per acre if cows weigh 1200 and calves at 200.I've read some people have gone up to 550,000 or so lbs per acre.Anyone know of anybody practicing this in south central oklahoma?

 

[pdfangus]

Well in addition to the stocking rate is the frequency of the moves.
for this stuff to really work they need to be moved daily or under intensive, twice daily.

moving them is not near as difficult as figuring out the layout in the first place. Like someone said once they learn that you will move em to new grass they will follow you everytime they see you.

 

[BC]

Well in addition to the stocking rate is the frequency of the moves.
for this stuff to really work they need to be moved daily or under intensive, twice daily.

moving them is not near as difficult as figuring out the layout in the first place. Like someone said once they learn that you will move em to new grass they will follow you everytime they see you.

Manure distribution is not a problem when you stock heavily enough and rotate quickly enough. Bermuda that is young, tender and vegetative will be high enough inprotein that the manure will splatter.

I have seen the benefit of this system on a dairy in Edom, TX. It was white sand 12 years ago. Now there is a dark, rich layer 2 to 3 inches thick right at the soil line when looking at a profile. One thing to remember - on these dairies it is not uncommon to see the fertilizer trucks putting out 40 to 50 lbs of N every 30 - 35 days during the summer.

 

[TexasBred]

BC....that's exactly what goes on at the intensive grazing dairy I mentioned. All they do is rotate cow, fertilize and irrigate. The do use much larger pastures (15-20 acres each) but it's laid out like a wagonwheel and cows are moved every day. Don't know how profitable that is now with the cost of fertilizer like it is so they're probably feeding a lot more grain as well.

 

[cross_7]

i have been thinking of doing the same thing and now after seeing the pictures i'm going to give it a try.
Mack
how much do you think you have increased your carrying capacity ?

 

[mack]

Request permission to use your photos and comments.

I will credit them to you. not interested in stealing but in improving pasture managment in my area.

We are planning a mob grazing site demonstration in our area but are in a holding pattern right now awaiting some funding and regulatory hurdles. the site will be on the new state fair site here in Virginia. ( Meadow Farm - the birth place of Secretariat ( triple crown winner))

by the way this is one thread where I could see the photos.

You may indeed use my photos. Let me clarify first however - these pictures are not the ones from my farm. This is a project that I have co-sponsored and worked jointly with at my old alma mater of Murray State University. My mob grazing started out great at home, but my free farm labor (aka sister) said she didnt have time to move cows when I was on overnight trips for work... so I am back on a "light mob" 3 day rotation schedule. I will try to post some pics from my regrowth at home. We are still learning. There are still a lot of long term unanswered questions about the process, however I have yet to see anything negative about it yet. The University is looking at this just like I did from an economics/land steward standpoint. They have to make the beef operation profitable to keep it going with budget cuts - so unlike most universities, they are in farmer survival mode. Greg Judy (has articles in Stockman Grass Farmer)has had a lot of practical experience with this as well. He is know as one of the gurus of mob grazing.

pdfangus I will send you a pm with some helpful info about your project.

 

[PJungnitsch]

Wonder how much N the cows are putting out in the urine per acre. That's just like fertilizing with the store-bought stuff.

Do you know what the yield of grass would be, and the % protein?