If you have visited the farm you may have heard us mention Rotational Grazing. Well here is a very simply way of explaining this. You take a pasture and divide it into smaller parts (which we call paddocks). Below is one of our pastures that we rotationally graze.
This is a pasture we call The Upper Devon Pasture. It is around 8-10 acres. Now the red lines on the outer edge are our perimeter fence (this is mostly bared wire with some woven wire and one electrified wire on the inside). The red line in running down the middle is a semi-permanent electrified wire (this is not needed for rotational grazing but makes setting up paddocks easier). Now the black circle in the middle is our livestock water trough, it is from this central point that all the paddocks are made. The white lines represent the borders of each paddock.
So what happens is that when the cows have eaten the grass down to a certain level in a paddock (around 4 inches or so) they are moved to a new paddock and kept off of the paddock they were just on. This gives each paddock a chance to "rest".
Now this explanation leaves out a good deal of details and factors that have to be considered in rotational grazing. So if you plan to rotationally graze you will need to read up...read a lot. A good place to begin is
https://www.stockmangrassfarmer.com/index.php.
In addition
MANAGEMENT INTENSIVE GRAZING - By Jim Gerrish is a good book.
Salad Bar Beef by Joel Salatin is another good book, especially for a beginner.
So what happens is that when the cows have eaten the grass down to a certain level in a paddock (around 4 inches or so) they are moved to a new paddock and kept off of the paddock they were just on. This gives each paddock a chance to "rest".
Now this explanation leaves out a good deal of details and factors that have to be considered in rotational grazing. So if you plan to rotationally graze you will need to read up...read a lot. A good place to begin is
https://www.stockmangrassfarmer.com/index.php.
In addition
MANAGEMENT INTENSIVE GRAZING - By Jim Gerrish is a good book.
Salad Bar Beef by Joel Salatin is another good book, especially for a beginner.