[vetsinag] Farm tip Tuesday: Grazing Management

[Robyn Metzger]

The following is an excerpt from an ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture blog post by Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Lee Rinehart, of NCAT's Northeast Regional Office.

Adaptive Grazing – You Can Do It

Back in the late 1990s, I was a new county Extension agent in Texas. I met a Brangus rancher who became a friend and demonstration cooperator, and I pitched him a topic that he became immediately interested in. We laid out 11 paddocks and began grazing 24 heifers in a daily rotational system. The lightbulb went on in my head when I looked about the paddock to assess how much they had grazed, and I noticed that all of the curly dock had been stripped bare. What I had observed was a change in grazing behavior, caused by a controlled grazing system that decreased the heifers’ grazing selectivity.

Fast forward to 2020, and the landscape of managed grazing has changed. We understand that we are dealing with a biological system driven by diversity. The powerful principles we learned from management intensive grazing have been refined into an adaptive system of livestock production that can actually regenerate the soil, the water cycle, and the land.

Adaptive grazing improves forage availability and ecosystem functioning, and strengthens grazing landscapes with diversity and resilience. ATTRA has brought together a suite of resources for farmers and ranchers, of all scales and for all species of grazing animals, who are interested in transitioning to an adaptive grazing system.

Consulting the Expert
Dr. Allen Williams<https://understandingag.com/dr-allen-williams>, a leading expert in regenerative, adaptive grazing, recommends providing extended periods of rest between short, high stock-density grazing periods on diverse pastures.

This allows for optimum recovery of forages and increases overall forage dry matter production. It also contributes significantly to soil health through the addition of organic matter.

Williams (2019) speaks of three principles that characterize this system:

The Principle of Compounding – our actions result in a series of compounding and cascading events that are either positive or negative.
The Principle of Diversity – highly diverse and complex pastures create positive compounding effects.
The Principle of Disruption – planned, purposeful disruptions build resilient systems with more vigor and diversity and create positive compounding effects.

As such, adaptive grazing is goal-oriented, focuses on stock density and not stocking rate, and is necessarily flexible.

Rotations, grazing-residue heights, rest periods, and grazing seasonality are never the same throughout the year. This grazing system uses frequent movement and adequate pasture rest for plant root-system recovery, and is highly reliant on temporary fencing (Williams, 2016).

ATTRA Can Help You With Your Grazing System
ATTRA offers detailed guidance on developing your grazing system through instructional videos, podcasts, and in-depth publications.
For the extensive list of links to ATTRA's grazing system resources, see Lee's complete blog post at https://attra.ncat.org/adaptive-grazing-you-can-do-it/.

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Attendees at NCAT's Armed to Farm trainings get to see adaptive grazing systems first hand, as we visit local farms that raise beef and small ruminants on pasture. We are currently accepting applications for the June 15-19 Armed to Farm in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Military veterans and their spouses or farm partners are eligible to apply (spouses/farm partners must submit a separate application). If you submit an application and we have to postpone due to safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, you will NOT have to reapply.

Visit https://www.ncat.org/armed-to-farm-events/ for more information and the online application. The application deadline is this Friday, May 8.

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Please don't hesitate to contact any of NCAT's sustainable agriculture specialists with your farming/ranching questions. We are here to help! Call 800-346-9140 or email askanag at ncat.org.

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Robyn Metzger

Program Specialist/Armed to Farm Coordinator

National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT)

www.ncat.org/armedtofarm<http://www.ncat.org/armedtofarm>

www.attra.ncat.org<http://www.attra.ncat.org>

479-442-9824

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