Day 30: Sustainable Grazing Practices

Dear Student,

Grass is the driving force behind any sustainable livestock farm…

Those fields of green are the solar panels that capture UV rays, turning them into food for the animals you rear and all the other organisms living symbiotically on your farm (without which your farm would have to rely on expensive off-farm feeds, fertilizers, and supplements).

Overgrazing of your pastures results in a vicious cycle of compaction, loss of fertility, weed growth, and eventual destruction of the environment. Once that happens, your fields won’t be able to accommodate livestock… or be put to any other productive use.

A Brief History Of Plains And Grasslands

For millennia before mankind began to domesticate livestock, the Earth’s grasslands were synergistically maintained and perennially improved by the herds of animals that grazed them.

These herds of bison, elk, deer, and others have an instinctual self-preservation technique that has them living as a tightly bunched group—eating, sleeping, mating, and rearing young all packed together—offering essential protection from predators and fire.

These herds were constantly moving to new pasture; they didn’t linger in one spot for more than a day or two. This allowed fresh grazing every day, mitigated the risk of ingesting parasites that others passed in their dung, and allowed the grasses to regrow quickly because they had not been eaten to the ground.

As we domesticated livestock, we changed the manner in which herds lived. We fenced them into large fields and forced them to eat from that field every day, ingesting parasites and compacting the ground with their constant walking.

This in turn forces many modern farmers to buy off-farm feeds because pasture grazing can’t fulfill the needs of the livestock, plus medications to address the parasites.

Mob Grazing

Over the past few decades a technique called mob grazing (also called intensive pasture rotation) has become popular. The strategy is a new take on the natural grazing habits of wild herds—short-duration, high-intensity grazing of many animals on a small area. Ideally, the herd is moved several times a day to new forage; failing that, the herd should be moved at least daily.

Farmer and author Joel Salatin has been a major inspiration for alternative modern farmers, and his research and testing have proven the benefits of mob grazing to large audiences.

Benefits Of Mob Grazing:

• Reduce or completely removes reliance on outside fertilizers
• Removes the need for reseeding or lime application
• Reduces pests and parasites
• Sequesters carbon
• Prevents overgrazing
• Increases biodiversity
• Prevents compaction

The single big downside is the effort it takes on your part.

The First-Bite Rule

For optimum mob grazing, pastures should be stocked so that each blade of grass is only bitten once before the animal moves on.

Cutting any plant causes the tips of the roots to be shed underground in an effort to balance and repair the damage it sustained at the other end. This root shedding is essential to healthy soil management, providing food for the soil’s resident microorganisms who break the cast-offs down into nutrients that the grass above uses to regrow more vigorously.

If too much of the grass is cut (or eaten), then too much root is shed and the grass can’t access the nutrients needed to recover, so the pasture takes much longer to regrow.

Mob grazing also allows for a better distribution of urine and dung, giving all the grass a sprinkle of this wonderful organic fertilizer, and giving the pasture even more nutrients to help it recuperate.

Because the grass is not being overgrazed, the biodiversity of the plants in the pasture will increase, and with it will the nutritional value of the forage.

With mob grazing, the animals are moved to fresh pasture every day or so to ensure that only the succulent tips of the grass (top third) is eaten.

The easiest and most economic way to achieve this is to use moveable electrical fencing and a solar charger to break a large field up into many smaller fields. The fence is easily moved by hand—the lightweight electric fence posts and polywire (plastic twine with strands of metal though it) can be handled by one person alone.

Sizing A Herd To A Pasture

Just about any grass-eating animal can be mob grazed, including cattle, sheep, goats, deer, geese, and rabbits. The number of animals you can fit on an area of land will depend some on the type of livestock you’re farming, and it will take some trial and error to find the optimum ratio of animals to area.

And keep in mind you don’t even need a herd to benefit from this method; your mob could be 100 cattle or just 1 goat tied to a short rope in the middle of your lawn. As long as the animal or animals are confined in a specific area of pasture, the technique works.

Each day the livestock are moved to fresh pasture, and you should monitor how much the animals are eating and the state of the pasture they leave behind.

You’ll need to expand the pasture size if:

• If the pasture looks mowed clean at the end of the day.
• If the animals are stretching their heads under the wire to eat into another pasture, it’s a sign they are too hungry and aren’t getting enough from their own pasture.

You’ll need to reduce the pasture size if:

• If it seems mostly uneaten, you can reduce the pasture size.
• If the animals don’t rush into the new pasture and start eating, they are well fed and you could reduce the pasture size.

When you move your herd in the morning, look for the bulge of their rumen (one of their stomachs) in front of their hip bone. If it’s full, they are well fed; if it’s empty or sagging, they need more pasture.

Rest Periods

There is no set rule about the length of the rest period, it varies depending on the quality of your pasture to begin with, the season, the rainfall, and other growth-affecting factors.

However, there are some rules to follow.

Between each grazing, the grass must be allowed to fully recover before being grazed again. It’s easy to tell: If the grass blades are fully formed or still have signs of their tips missing.

On the other hand, too much time should not be left for the grass to get too long or tough. The fresher the grass the more nutrition in it.

Four days after the livestock have left, poultry can be free-ranged through the area to eat any parasite larvae in the dung left behind.

One thing you are guaranteed is that if carried out correctly, mob grazing will boost your pasture’s health over time, so that the rest periods will get shorter and shorter and the pasture will be able to carry more livestock each year.

The Electric Fence

For electrical fencing, you can choose between a lightweight conductive tape or wire. Wire carries electrical current easier, but tape is more visible. Personally, I prefer the string wire.

Position the fence posts every 75 feet and use your foot to press the spike on the bottom of the post into the soil.

Make sure you invest in a good charger (preferably solar, unless your field is small and close to a power source. Ground it well and get a cheap lightning diverter to protect the unit.

Once in their new paddock, the livestock will explore a bit before getting down to eating.

A Healthier Way To Farm Livestock—For Both The Animals And The Earth

Few people these days deny that climate change is being exacerbated by the pumping of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and much of it comes from the fuels burned to make fertilizers, pesticides, and farm machinery.

Methane from livestock production is another greenhouse gas that affects the atmosphere. Indeed, cattle farming in Concentrated Feeding Operations (CFO) is a large contributor. Corn and soy are the feeds grown for these livestock, and the unnatural effect of the grain and bean mix severely affects the health of the cattle. The chronic indigestion the cattle experience from this diet creates much more methane than their natural diet would. Plus, their excrement isn’t spread on fields to assist the natural growth of grasses.

This polluting farming practice is extremely detrimental to the environment… and mob grazing could be the solution.

Instead of the erosion and soil loss caused by overgrazing, soil is actually created in this natural cycle, as I explained above. Plus, healthy grass-fed cattle release less methane.

Mob grazing ultimately reduces the greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere while creating more productive pastureland.