Grazing Speed

There seems to be a question about how fast cattle should be rotated between pastures. There is no simple answer. Cattle eat at their own pace and pasture sizes are not all equal. The amount of available feed and plant species in each pasture varies almost daily. Pasture nutrient content can vary from hour to hour depending on weather. So many factors, no easy answer.

Then there’s the obvious concern: when can the rancher physically move the cattle. A weekend rancher can only move cattle on a Friday night, Saturday or Sunday depending on his/her schedule. A full-time rancher who lives on the property may be able to move cattle every hour of the day. But during the day, cattle stop grazing and take time to digest their food, so hourly moves are neither necessary, nor feasible.

Each rancher’s individual goals also come into play. Is the goal to fatten steers for grass finished beef or to raise a cow-calf herd? Different goals will require different approaches. Fattening cattle may require three moves, or no move at all depending on the time of year and pasture quality. Don’t forget it is possible to graze 65 head for 180 days on one acre and still fatten cattle.

Continuous grazing is a major concern when adjusting cattle rotation. Jim Gerrish the author of “Management Intensive Grazing” defines continuous stocking as, “Allowing the animals access to an entire pasture for a long period without pasture rotation.” Continuous grazing is sometimes referred to as overgrazing. I see the two differently. For me, continuous grazing may not result in environmental damage but may lead to overgrazing, and overgrazing does damage the environment.

Overgrazing always leads to environmental damage. Overgrazing poorly effects every plant and the soil environment. A highly desirable plant that is overgrazed may die, while in the same pasture a less desirable plant may still be heavily grazed but will survive and regrow. The environment will always suffer from overgrazing as the soil is now exposed to wind, rain and sunlight.

Continuous grazing and overgrazing can lead to larger problems. This is why it is important to rotate cattle faster and not slower. It has been said that one cow on ten acres for one year will kill 1,000 plants, but 1,000 cows on ten acres for one day kills no plants. This is basically true. While 1,000 cows will stomp and eat the best plants first, it is unlikely that they will eat enough of one plant to kill it if that plant is given a sufficient recovery period.

Continuous grazing is frequently used because the rancher lacks water sources for additional pastures. Weekend ranchers cannot always depend on self-filling water troughs or neighbors to make daily checks. But sometimes it only takes a little imagination to create more water stations for cattle. And more water stations create more pastures and more rotation opportunities.

Now unless you live on the land or close by, moving several hundred head of cattle daily may be prohibitive. To leave 100 head in a pasture for a week may be more reasonable, but that means the pasture and ponds better be large enough that you can miss a week and there won’t be dead cattle on the return visit. It is rare that a rancher would do this. But I have seen ranchers allow cattle to graze a pasture until the cattle have trouble finding a bite of grass. The ground is bare and not a weed is standing as the cattle ate them to survive.

When grass is growing fast, it is advised to rotate the cattle faster. This keeps the grass from maturing and still allows enough time for grass regeneration before the herd returns. When grass growth slows (provided enough grass has been stockpiled), it is possible to keep the animals in the same pasture longer.

Ranchers often worry about the grass going to seed. The cattle don’t like it as much and seed production slows growth and regrowth. But it’s still better to allow some grass to mature than to overgraze an area to keep the grass from maturing. This is where it sometime pays to have multiple grass species in a pasture. One species may be eaten while the other goes to seed, but on the return rotation, the seeded grass may have grazable foliage while the other grass is still recovering. This is why I like mixed bahia grass and bermudagrass pastures.

Anytime a grazier can make more than one pasture rotation per week he or she will grow more grass and have more in reserve than ranchers that only move cattle once a week. And ranchers that must move cattle only once a week will need to have more pastures than need when grass is growing quickly. This is why I recommend 14 or more pastures for a ranch.

David E. Will is a local rancher in Fayette County. He can be reached at (830) 629-9876 or by email at dwill207@satx.rr.com.