MOB GRAZING pics

[mack]

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

Grass Farmer is my favorite magazine hands down!!!
Grass doesnt have to be thick when you start, you just adjust paddock size accordingly to get them off when you have about 4in of stubble, there is one method called scorched earth where you leave nothing, but this is a little extreme for us to try just yet. As the grass matures and thickens it may be a little harder at first to guess what size paddock to make (paddocks sizes may need to be ajusted every day). The main object is to get them on, let them eat and naturally recycle the nutrients evenly, then get them off the area for about 60 days. However, 60 days may be a little long the way it looks now. I took these pics WED/THURS and am still amazed at the ryegrass regrowth that quick. That is something that does not normally happen in KY in JUNE... even with management intensive grazing on a 4 or 5 day rotation schedule. To answer your other question, you will proabably have created about 110-130 paddocks/moved cows this many times by the end of the rotation. It is not as hard as it sounds. I just takes a few days of practice for the cows and your eye to judge how much to move the fence.

*** in an ideal situation, I will have killed all of my KY31 DIRTY IFECTED FESCUE (not native to WKY) and opened up the natural seed bank of native grasses that was here when the bison mob grazed this land a couple hundred years ago. KY31 is a wonderful thing for winter stockpiling, but whether we admit it or not... is pitiful in the summer and costs our industry and farmers like us BILLIONS of dollars per year in wt gains and conception rates. But that is a different subject.

 

[mack]

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.

All of the grass comes up in a manure or urine pile. Manure was not drug down in these pics. At one of my farms, I drug some and just figured I was wasting fuel since the cows had evenly spread it anyway... and it splattered flat. In 60 days cows wont have a problem with it... they wont have a choice.

 

[Texas PaPaw]

FYI
For more info do a google search for "ultra high stock density grazing" and "mob grazing"

Here are some good links I have found.
http://5barx.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2130
http://www.notill.org/LE_Articles/V5N3A4_Judy.pdf
http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprint ... alatin.pdf
http://www.beefnews.com/displayarticle/?sel_record=2817

I have been experimenting with mob grazing for about 3 weeks. The first paddocks mob grazed have nice regrowth even with high temps and little rain. Looks promising.

 

[mack]

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:

It didnt green up because anymore commercial fertilize was added. Cow recycles 80% of the nutrients she eats. Mob grazing forces those 80% to be evenly distributed back to the soil in the form of manure which is highly available. As bigbull said, the rain didnt hurt either. But there is no doubt in my mind that the mob grazing was the reason it is that even across the board.

 

[mack]

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?

Its hard to say right now what the yield would be. Samples on the regrowth have not been pulled yet either. The protein would be a hard guess for me... it will depend on how long it takes to get back around *** and dont forget about the weeds that the cows are eating which may easily be higher in quality than most alfalfa. One thing we noticed in some of the regrowth is A LOT of clover which has not been planted on either farm in many years.

I would have to do some studying to figure out the urea content in the urine, however, the P and K should be close to 80-90% of what was in the plant to begin with.

 

[BIGC]

what did you do for water?

 

[SRBeef]

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.

Do you have some lanes to water? How do you give them water access or do you give then water access?

As far as layout, if I understand your pictures correctly, you have two parallel fencelines then move a cross fence to expose your 1/2 acre or so...do you have a back fence?

Thanks for the photos. A very interesting topic since many of us are acreage-limited.

 

[mack]

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.

Do you have some lanes to water? How do you give them water access or do you give then water access?

As far as layout, if I understand your pictures correctly, you have two parallel fencelines then move a cross fence to expose your 1/2 acre or so...do you have a back fence?

Thanks for the photos. A very interesting topic since many of us are acreage-limited.

Water was provided using portable water tanks that operate off of PLASSON popup valves that are strategically located throughout. Tanks were not moved everytime however. At times lane system is being used and the greatest distance so far has been about 500' (still well withing the 800' golden rule). occaisionally, 4-5 cells can be grazed just by angling the "gate" end of the turbo wire to go on one side of the trough or the other. KY GRAZIERS SUPPLY in Paris, KY imports the water system components.

http://www.kygraziers.com/

Back fence is super important. This is another reason (besides manure distribution) why the grass grows back so evenly. Once the cows leave an area they are not permitted to go back with exception to a small lane which is made of Turbo Wire and can be moved as well. If they were not back fenced (and allowed 3-5days), then a cow may decide she likes a particular plant and will go back and nip it off as soon as any new growth begins... which will leave this good tasting/preferred plant at a disadvantage to the one next to it that may be of a different species or even what we call a weed.

Two parallel fences is correct. it takes a minimum of three reels of turbo wire to do this - two reels to make the original cell -one reel to create the forward fence of the next cell. There is no cookie cutter approach that I have seen yet. This is definitely management intensive grazing to the max. If someone is still hung up on the three unnecessary evils= BARBED WIRE, GRAIN AND HAY... then dont even waste time. Biological harvesting looks even better with $138.00 / bbl oil!

 

[SRBeef]

[...If someone is still hung up on the three unnecessary evils= BARBED WIRE, GRAIN AND HAY... then dont even waste time.

I was thinking this was interesting until I got to your last sentence.

I may be new to cattle however I have learned very quickly that, at least in my situation, there is no substitute for having good solid, permanent, non electric (although they can and do have an electric inside wire) perimeter fence. Barb or High Tensile or other style permanent non-electric fence is a must if you don't want cows on the road at some time or other.

I would also like to see you get through a Wisconsin winter without hay or some stored feed. Stockpiled forages may sound good except its hard to get a Hereford to use a snow shovel.

Be careful on making blanket statements and your good points will go further. jmho.

 

[mack]

[...If someone is still hung up on the three unnecessary evils= BARBED WIRE, GRAIN AND HAY... then dont even waste time.

I was thinking this was interesting until I got to your last sentence.

I may be new to cattle however I have learned very quickly that, at least in my situation, there is no substitute for having good solid, permanent, non electric (although they can and do have an electric inside wire) perimeter fence. Barb or High Tensile or other style permanent non-electric fence is a must if you don't want cows on the road at some time or other.

I would also like to see you get through a Wisconsin winter without hay or some stored feed. Stockpiled forages may sound good except its hard to get a Hereford to use a snow shovel.

Be careful on making blanket statements and your good points will go further. jmho.

I had a feeling after I hit the "submit" button that someone would have a come-apart about the hay statement. No need to take offense. We could all feed less hay with better grazing management no doubt. I've never heard of anyone North of Indianapolis that has been thru a winter yet w/o hay (believe it or not Southerners... this happens and hopefully someday I will be in the club). Although, I did see ranchers in Oregon blade off 3' of snow to strip graze triticale. Would you agree with me however that the serious graziers among us should all be working towards eliminating hay and grain? Even if it is not 100% possible, one step closer is progress.

The barbed wire thing is a touchy subject I know. But I will stick to my guns on this. It would not be fun to mob graze if you refused to use anything but barbed wire on your farm(I know people like this who dont uderstand electric fence)

My view was not in any way intended to be a "blanket statement", but one that pertains solely to my perception of mob grazing.
Maybe I should have said if you're not willing to think outside of the box. Whenever you support anything that is resistant to the status quo... there will always be someone who says you are crazy.:mrgreen:

Sorry if anyone takes offense.

 

[cross_7]

mack
from what i have read you can increase your carrying capacity from 100-200%
from your experience do you think those numbers are in line ?

 

[mack]

Personally, I would be scared to do that just yet. A lot would depend on the type of forage you have available and how much is cool season vs. warm season. There is no doubt that it has worked for some folks. I would lean towards using stockers to harvest the excess forage... easy in - easy out (sort of). I am still in the learning stage. I have been intensive grazing and forage consulting for a while, but mob grazing is the wildest thing that I have ever seen. I am very interested in what will show up out of the native seed bank.

 

[novatech]

As larger ranchers are being cut up combined with fuel, fert, and equipment prices escalating we may find more of this more economical use of land going on. This type of pasture management combined with more efficient cattle may indeed be the future of the cattleman. To me there is no doubt that to stay in business we will have to learn to manage better in all phases of ranching.
Thanks for the post.

 

[ROB]

i'd like to see a picture of one of those paddocks stocked with that many cattle after about a half-inch rain. what do you do when your area is hit with an extended wet season? do you have a larger grazing area set-aside nearby to move cattle to temporarily during those times?

ROB

 

[TexasBred]

i'd like to see a picture of one of those paddocks stocked with that many cattle after about a half-inch rain. what do you do when your area is hit with an extended wet season? do you have a larger grazing area set-aside nearby to move cattle to temporarily during those times?

ROB

As well as 30-45 days with no rain and 90+ temps. You may have mentioned it and I overlooked it but what about the water source for the cattle? What are you using ?

 

[mack]

i'd like to see a picture of one of those paddocks stocked with that many cattle after about a half-inch rain. what do you do when your area is hit with an extended wet season? do you have a larger grazing area set-aside nearby to move cattle to temporarily during those times?

ROB

In the second pic, the second cell from the left was after/during 1". I dont have a close up but they probabably were not moved fast enough. They tracked it up pretty bad, but it will have a 60day minimum rest period(it can be skipped if more time is needed). The native seed bank will have a chance to restore by then. If a lot of weeds do show up, they will be the high fertility species because of the manure/urine... so they will be super high quality and will be mob grazed again. Keep in mind that cell size will need to be adjusted daily (2X). If it is a dry spell, give them more forage. This is still a learning process.

A native of MO, GREG JUDY is the GURU of mob grazing and has basically perfected it. It works for him with up to 1/2 million pounds of beef per acre. Yes, he grazes 500,000 pounds per acre.

 

[cross_7]

A native of MO, GREG JUDY is the GURU of mob grazing and has basically perfected it. It works for him with up to 1/2 million pounds of beef per acre. Yes, he grazes 500,000 pounds per acre.

500,000 pounds per acre for 1 day ?
every 60 days ?
total of 6 days a year ?
right ?

 

[dieselbeef]

be nice to rely on rain..never get enuff here for that to werk i dont think

 

[pdfangus]

be nice to rely on rain..never get enuff here for that to werk i dont think

Dieselbeef.

If livestock can be grazed on the land then the concept will work. It is the local managment and knowledge of the area that is needed to make the intensive grazing work.

your daily grazing paddock may initally be a quarter section rather than a half acre, but if you make the regular managed moves the system will improve the grazing conditions if there is enough moisture for plants to grow. Your stocking rate will be different than one in PA or Oregon but with this system you can increase stocking rate.

it is not a cookie cutter type deal. It takes someone who knows the area and the conditions to layout and manage intensive grazing.

 

[dieselbeef]

im with ya...hope ya didnt take offense. ive been lookin into it myself on the grass farmer mag i get. they really get into it. i guess its hard here cuz rain is in such short supply. havin a small herd that comes to a feed bucket does make movin em easier but i have to figure out how long the rcovery size is versus the amt of paddock size and stocking rate to those paddocks.
the problem ends up bein here is that they will graze it down and then without moisture the recovery time is so long that i run out of grass and hafta open it back up for em to go back to '''scavenging'''i guess...maybe browsing is better...but ya know what i mean...


we all rely on the rain..that wasnt meant derogatory by any means