Pros and cons of three different grazing systems
/by Amy Higgins
Pasture season is finally upon us! This is the time when your ruminants finally get to have a taste of that lush and plentiful grass that you’ve worked hard to maintain … and will proceed to find whatever weak spot there may be in your fence.
There are a few different grazier management styles: continuous, rotational, and high intensity. Each has its pros and cons.
It all starts with soil. Without this base foundation, it doesn’t matter what you do in terms of seeding and fertilizing. Graziers need to know how to manage the soil in order to manage the forage that grows on it in order to manage the ruminants grazing the forage. It’s much more efficient to build up with that plan in mind. Oftentimes, we work backwards from the bovine.
CONTINUOUS GRAZING
Continuous grazing involves a large area that the animals graze on for a long period of time. Advantages to continuous grazing include very little time and infrastructure invested. Kick the cattle out on grass and maybe check on them every so often.
There are more cons to continuous grazing. One disadvantage is that the forage is eaten too close to the ground, which affects regrowth. Also, the soil tends to compact in some areas and manure and urine is not deposited evenly, meaning some areas are over-fertilized and some areas are under-fertilized. And cows tend to select around certain weeds, which will lead to a weed problem as those weeds go to seed and the desirable grasses and legumes don’t get a chance to reseed.
ROTATIONAL GRAZING
Rotational grazing involves rotating the animals from paddock to paddock and introducing a new swath of grass on a defined schedule.
There are loads of different ways that one can plan a rotational grazing system. Some key pieces that need to be considered are water access and managing the grass in such a way that it has a chance to regrow and won’t get nipped again within that critical first 21 days of regrowth. Rotational grazing needn’t involve daily moves. You could move your animals on a weekly basis as long as you give your forage a chance to regrow before the animals hit it again.
Pros to rotational grazing are the forage has a chance to regrow without pressure (sending roots down deeper, which helps protect against future drought situations), the fertility is spread out more evenly, and there tends to be less soil compaction because the animals are moving.
Cons are that this system takes a bit of infrastructure in terms of fencing off paddocks and water access, as well as the time required to move the cattle.
HIGH-INTENSITY GRAZING
High-intensity grazing is a version of rotational grazing. It consists of a fairly high stocking rate per paddock, but the number of paddocks and the frequency of moves gets turned way up (daily, twice a day, or even more frequently).
As with traditional rotational grazing, each paddock gets a chance to regrow before the animals hit it again.
Pros to high-intensity grazing are the same as the pros to traditional rotational grazing with the added benefit of pesky weeds being eaten or trampled down. The short-term trampling helps soil structure and prevents compaction. Also, fertility is distributed rather evenly in a high-intensity system, making it ideal for soil health. And because the animals always get a “desirable” bite of grass, they tend to perform better.
There are many different options to consider in rotational grazing and cell/paddock design. However, whatever the design, research has shown time and time again that incorporating some rotation will help increase gains and allow you to have more cattle on the same acreage.
The tricky part is that each rotation that gets added involves more labour and possibly more fencing and water infrastructure. However, many people don’t factor the long-term benefit to soil health that comes with managing their grass in a better way.
(Amy Higgins is the Maritime Beef Council’s industry coordinator. She raises purebred Angus cattle on the family farm in Quispamsis, N.B., and also operates a veggie box program. She’s president of both the New Brunswick and Maritime Angus associations.)
