Forages to graze are getting scarce and cattlemen need a way to make them last. Rotational grazing is one path that can lead to that perfect pasture but there is more to it than just setting up extra fencing and waterers.
A search of the term “rotational grazing” on Google will bring up two prominent selling points of the system: one, rotational grazing increases forage production. The second, according to Doug Spencer, “is it seems like my stocking rate will be increased.”
Spencer, who is a rangeland specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service from Marion, Kansas, wants people to understand what rotational grazing is and how it can be used in an operation. Users often have high expectations that reality may not be able to match. Sometimes, ranchers embrace rotational grazing systems, only to be disappointed. “We don’t want to lead you down a wrong path,” Spencer said.
Spencer has seen people develop a grazing plan then have trouble with the concept because they don’t know there are some baselines that need to be understood.
Different soil types and the nutrient availability in the soil play a big role in how much grass will grow. There’s only going to be a certain amount in the landscape available and a certain amount that can be safely removed to keep the system sustainable.
“With the amount that’s available there’s only so much that the animal can efficiently remove,” he said. “Even our best haying machines and equipment aren’t 100 percent efficient. We even have losses in that certain system.”
Variables to consider
Availability goes hand in hand with stocking rate. Available forage must be balanced with the livestock’s demand for forage, Spencer said. “If that’s out of balance, it doesn’t matter what grazing system you use, you’re going to run into some issues.”
To understand forage growth and what it does to the plant and pasture landscape, one has to be thoughtful. Can forage production be increased by grazing? What’s it going to look like? Spencer warns to question cost when using rotational grazing too.
“Too many times we talk about the next new thing or this and that and we kind of forget about some of the basics,” he said.
Growing plants pull water and nutrients in from their environment to make carbohydrates or more leaves and roots to stay healthy. Producers have control over their stocking rate and need to understand rainfall.
“We’re all pretty optimistic as producers—that next rain, that’ll get us, that’ll solve it,” he said. “If we don’t have it early in the year we already need to make some decisions.”
Spencer cautioned to be aware of the time of year when all the rain shows up and how it relates to grass production. Time grazing appropriately and remove livestock if the grass gets short. Adjust management plans accordingly. Spencer sees cool season grasses in northeast Kansas, where there’s usually a big spike in rainfall during the spring. There needs to be available water for fall growth too.
“How do you manage through that?” he said. “Again, when does it arrive and what plants benefit. You need to understand that’s going to affect forage production and if it doesn’t occur when it needs to is that going to affect my forage production.”
Hold on to the water
Also consider effective moisture. It may rain three inches, but if only a quarter inch of that rainfall gets into the soil, there is a lot less effective moisture. “We could get all the rainfall in the world but if it is not in that soil, roots can’t take that up and utilize it,” he explained
Ground cover helps prevent runoff and producers need to keep that in mind when grazing. Spencer suggests taking half of the forage and leaving half.
“If we take too much, it’s going to affect the whole process and root growth below,” he said. “Try to manage so those plants stay healthy.”
A manager who can improve nutrient placement and cycling in a pasture, will also be able to improve and possibly increase forage production. Therefore, an effective rotational grazing system can increase forage production, Spencer said.
“Your implementation of it sure can,” he said. “Try to think about these things I talked about. What is my management doing within that system?”
Dusty Tacha, NRCS rangeland specialist in South Hutchinson, Kansas, said in a rotational grazing system, effective stocking rate is a vital component of grazing management.
“There’s only so much grown and then there’s animal demand, and if those things are out of balance it won’t matter how many fancy cross fences you string up and how many fancy waterers you put in—its not going to work,” Tacha said.
Not a silver bullet
“I run into folks all the time that their pasture’s kind of in a degraded state and they heard about rotational grazing,” he said. “They’re thinking that they’re going to implement rotational grazing to increase their stocking rate.”
It doesn’t necessarily work that way he said. Rotational grazing can help an overgraze situation by providing rest and improving the plant community—which down the road could improve stocking rate. Stocking rate is basically the carrying capacity or the number of animals utilizing a given piece of land over a specific period.
“More often than not, you hear stocking rate addressed as—somebody will say, I stock at 10 acres,” Tacha said. “We can maybe infer some things about what that means.”
For instance, is the user stocking cow-calf pairs for six months or stocker cattle for eight months? How heavy is the cow? When does she calve? When do we wean?
“All that matters,” Tacha said. “That’s why we say take half, leave half. There’s good science behind that because once you jump over that 50 percent utilization mark then the roots start to take the hit and then you’ll graze yourself into a self-induced drought even if it’s still raining.”
By increasing the stocking density, animals are forced to compete with each other for forage.
“If we shorten up the grazing days then consequently increase the stock density to keep them on the move,” Tacha said. “Your utilization is pretty high and it drops off as we lengthen it out and decrease the stock density.”
As stock density is decreased, competition amongst the animals and overall utilization will decrease because the animals are only picking on the most preferred forage species. If using a rotational system with paddocks, for example, one in the 6 to 8 paddock range of a native grass system, the harvest efficiency will jump.
“We can squeeze a little bit more out of it,” Tacha said. “You shouldn’t just automatically assume the improved efficiency.”
Measure it by setting up monitoring photo points or using a grazing stick.
“See what you’re actually taking versus what’s actually being grown,” he said.
What will the implementation of a rotational grazing system give you? Rest. The system allows for a rest during the grazing season. Rest is big for forages.
“When we first look at a place that’s been hammered for the past two to three generations, we’re trying to get the stocking rate in sync and at the same time implement a system that’s going to give it a little additional boost to get some of the preferred plants back and we do that by getting some growing season rest,” he said.
Once that’s accomplished, harvest efficiency can be increased by increasing the stock density and stocking competition amongst the animals—all that goes back to forage preference.
“You can continuous stock something at a light stocking rate and let the ice cream plants—the most preferred plants—still take it because that’s all they’re going to eat,” he said. “Over time the population of the preferred plants increases. Which will effectively improve your overall forage produced all the time. Hopefully.”
There’s more to it than simply stringing up a cross fence and doing it for two years and believing the problem is fixed.
“That problem didn’t get created over night,” Tacha said. “It allows for regrowth with high nutritional value, so that’s going to be on the performance. We get regrowth if you’re going to cycle through more than once you can take advantage of some of that.”
Spencer said many of the claims about rotational grazing are both true or false.
“They can be very true and they can also be false with bad management,” Spencer said. “Make sure that stocking rate is balanced, understanding the supportive growth and make sure those are implemented correctly in your system.”
Kylene Scott can be reached at 620-227-1804 or [email protected].
