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Rotational Grazing.  A simplified explanation.  By Clifton

7/3/2012

3 Comments

 
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.
Picture
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.  


3 Comments

    FARM QUESTIONS BY CLIFTON

    Here in Farm Questions I will answer any questions you may have about farming to the best of my abilities.  Also, I will post more detailed explanations of things we do on the farm and give advice if I can. Remember: advice is free, but good advice will cost you. Just kidding.  (no I’m not).  So help me make this an interesting part of our web site and ask any question you want.  I promise not to make fun of you.

    So go ahead and ask, be sure to put "farm question" in the subject line.

    *Inquires about animal or product sales or the Market should be sent to walkercenturyfarms@yahoo.com *


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  • Home
  • About
    • Our Story
    • Red Devon Cattle
    • Meet the Farmers
    • Our Book
    • Farm Questions
  • The Market
  • The Pavilion
  • Breeding Programs
  • Restorative Ag
  • Contact
    • Directions
  • Blog