Rotational grazing

[Collie21]

Sorry I know this has been covered many times but cant seem to find the answer to my question so was wondering if anyone could help
Got about 100 ewes with lambs and about 10 dry heifer that run stock set on roughly 37 acres old permanent pasture. Could easily divide up it to 8 paddocks with electric fence. Will that be enough?
What sort of gap should I leave in between grazing?
Will I be able to run the ewes and heifers together and move in 1 group?
Any help and idea much appreciated thanks

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

What do you want to achieve?

To a degree the more you divide the land the more control it gives you.

If you're looking for greater productivity and more species diversity then you need to be able to keep the exposure of the grass to grazing down to a maximum of 3 days in the fast growing period so 8 paddocks would give you 3x7=21 days recovery.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

It will.be a great start.
Rest between grazings depends greatly on the time of year, we aim for about 22 days right out to 220 days depending on how it's growing, and how it was grazed last time.

The lower you graze, the longer you can afford to give it before you'll have to graze it again; this concept is useful after the pasture has done its dash.
The flipside is, in the spring period, low grazing and longer recovery means a drop in pasture quality which will impact animal performance.. this is why we have a grazing chart to plan what length of recovery each pasture gets, and this dictates how much we take off per grazing pass

It also depends on your own goals to a large extent, here we're mainly grazing to improve the land we farm on and we were just grazing too many times in a year.
.. when I say "animal performance" that encompasses much more than daily weight gains but the whole deal - reducing the need to drench and dose and handle stock, to feed supplement, topping baling and all the rest of the fun jobs.

Overgrazing is very easy when the grass is growing fast, especially with sheep, as the plants begin to regrow in 'hours' they will bite the regrowth off if left there for 'days'

as @holwellcourtfarm alluded to overgrazing doesn't necessarily get noticed or bother many farmers to the extent it bothers us, because they may only want to run more stock per acre or something simple.. we want the whole lot, so have a lot of paddocks.

 

[Collie21]

What do you want to achieve?

To a degree the more you divide the land the more control it gives you.

If you're looking for greater productivity and more species diversity then you need to be able to keep the exposure of the grass to grazing down to a maximum of 3 days in the fast growing period so 8 paddocks would give you 3x7=21 days recovery.

Thanks for the reply. Hoping for better growth rates in the lambs more than anything would 21 days be enough rest time on 3 day moves?

 

[Collie21]

It will.be a great start.
Rest between grazings depends greatly on the time of year, we aim for about 22 days right out to 220 days depending on how it's growing, and how it was grazed last time.

The lower you graze, the longer you can afford to give it before you'll have to graze it again; this concept is useful after the pasture has done its dash.
The flipside is, in the spring period, low grazing and longer recovery means a drop in pasture quality which will impact animal performance.. this is why we have a grazing chart to plan what length of recovery each pasture gets, and this dictates how much we take off per grazing pass

It also depends on your own goals to a large extent, here we're mainly grazing to improve the land we farm on and we were just grazing too many times in a year.
.. when I say "animal performance" that encompasses much more than daily weight gains but the whole deal - reducing the need to drench and dose and handle stock, to feed supplement, topping baling and all the rest of the fun jobs.

Overgrazing is very easy when the grass is growing fast, especially with sheep, as the plants begin to regrow in 'hours' they will bite the regrowth off if left there for 'days'

as @holwellcourtfarm alluded to overgrazing doesn't necessarily get noticed or bother many farmers to the extent it bothers us, because they may only want to run more stock per acre or something simple.. we want the whole lot, so have a lot of paddocks.

Thanks for reply what sort of rest would you like on old permanent pasture they would be on that ground till weaning in late July early august then lambs removed and put on the mowing regrowth and ewes and heifers normally stay on it till tuping late September

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Thanks for reply what sort of rest would you like on old permanent pasture they would be on that ground till weaning in late July early august then lambs removed and put on the mowing regrowth and ewes and heifers normally stay on it till tuping late September

We are all PP or "improved PP" here, it's a swings and roundabouts thing in all honesty. That's probably why people love the predictable nature of just growing one grass and one clover - with PP, your sheep will target one of the 10 grasses and skin out the clover under continuous grazing (as you see) and leave the rest.

For a start, you're going to have to roll with it, because you will end up with pee-poor-performance if you try to "make them eat 90%" of it, so it will be a gradual shift in sward compostion over a few years with compounding gains

We're just in the throes of subdividing into a proper multipaddock system (80 paddocks per group, like a dairy farm would have) and this is based around my experience that our old grass which doesn't get any sugar added, likes about 40 days or so.
And not only that, the "land" as a whole likes about that with sheep and small cattle on it.

With 8 paddocks, that isn't really much of a stretch - you could give them 2-3 days in each ⅛th over the rapid growth period and then slow them down to 3-4, then 4-5 days... and then wean the lambs, and get the ewes to do your landscaping work.

You'd probably want to do a "total grazing" with the ewes before winter which will provide nice clean pasture for the next season, ie take all that you can take without them losing weight or teeth over it - again, this may be a crunch time for your ewes so don't jump them in the deep end

We need to destock late summer to slow the grazing down enough, so the autumn rains grow us as much grass as possible for winter grazing purposes, hence we're only allocating about .5% of our area per day at the moment, a maintenance diet while the weather is good - then we can build a big reserve of feed and speed them up, get more stock on for winter as this equals income for us

Your situation is quite different to this, your stocking rates are nice and conservative and so you probably won't need to focus on "more grass" but "better grasses getting grazed", shorter recovery will help with that in the short term.

25-35 days at a guess? Some go as short as 17 days but I honestly couldn't sleep unless there was rain on the roof!
We need a recovery period that can bridge our expected dry spells where we farm, the main idea we want to graze feed that "has recovered" as opposed to "is recovering"

 

[sheepdogtrail]

Do you know what types of plants are growing in the old pp? 37 acres may not be enough for what you want to accomplish. Just because it is green grass, it does not mean it is good for performance. What is the target weight for the lambs to hit in that period? In general, high density grazing does not work for ewes with lambs at foot. A dense set is much better for lamb performance than a high density set. Lambs need space to play. If they are packed too tight, they will not grow very fast.

Dry Matter demands will be dynamic. That is as the lambs grow, they need more space. In general, aim for 4 meters squared for each ewe and her lambs per day.

Have the heifers follow. I would put in a 4 meter buffer. Are the heifers trained to single strand of cross fence?

Water. They will need water and it should be moved when the stock go forward.

KiwiPete has some good recommendations above.

You will know if it is working when the ewes come off in September in the same shape they where pre lambing. If ewes are dropping 10 - 15 lbs over the grazing period, it is not working.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

@Collie21 Where are you farming? Local weather will play a big part.

 

[Collie21]

@Collie21 Where are you farming? Local weather will play a big part.

Farming in Leicestershire

 

[Collie21]

Do you know what types of plants are growing in the old pp? 37 acres may not be enough for what you want to accomplish. Just because it is green grass, it does not mean it is good for performance. What is the target weight for the lambs to hit in that period? In general, high density grazing does not work for ewes with lambs at foot. A dense set is much better for lamb performance than a high density set. Lambs need space to play. If they are packed too tight, they will not grow very fast.

Dry Matter demands will be dynamic. That is as the lambs grow, they need more space. In general, aim for 4 meters squared for each ewe and her lambs per day.

Have the heifers follow. I would put in a 4 meter buffer. Are the heifers trained to single strand of cross fence?

Water. They will need water and it should be moved when the stock go forward.

KiwiPete has some good recommendations above.

You will know if it is working when the ewes come off in September in the same shape they where pre lambing. If ewes are dropping 10 - 15 lbs over the grazing period, it is not working.

The 37 acre is run in 3 blocks at the minute all with water and mains electric running in them so water is no problem. Sorry wouldn't really know what sort of grass there are. But its lacking any amount of clover was thinking of putting some clover seed on top of the heifers mineral bucket and let them do the work. Would 8 paddock roughly of 4.5/ 5 acres not be big enough for 100 ewes and lambs. Thank for your reply

 

[Global ovine]

The 37 acre is run in 3 blocks at the minute all with water and mains electric running in them so water is no problem. Sorry wouldn't really know what sort of grass there are. But its lacking any amount of clover was thinking of putting some clover seed on top of the heifers mineral bucket and let them do the work. Would 8 paddock roughly of 4.5/ 5 acres not be big enough for 100 ewes and lambs. Thank for your reply

Rotational grazing is a system, not a prescription, as the actual day to day details depends on many factors (much of these discussed above), therefore just do it and feel your way as you go.
If your pastures are dominated by poorer species you will end up going around at a different speed than if it is recently sown with modern cultivars bred for rotational grazing (short grazing and long spelling). Likewise soil type and fertility influence the rotation.
Try to keep grazing times to no longer than 4 days during the growing seasons. Alter stock numbers (grazing power) or grazing alter areas (cells or breaks) so about a minimum of 7cms of residual pasture remains. But during winter, if soil conditions permit, clean it out. However the state of your current pasture will dictate much of what you do in the initial stage. Don't be afraid to use a topper, or close some up to conserve for silage etc. if the entry heights and leaf age gets passed the good digestibility stage (over 15cms and/or over 25 days of age in mid spring and onwards).

Always keep in mind that you are rotating to keep control of the system for best animal performance and setting up the next season into an ideal place for desired animal performance.

 

[Global ovine]

@Collie21
Suggest you run your cattle and ewes together over the main pasture growing season. Therefore you can be a little more relaxed on entry heights and take them to 15cms as the cattle will sort it.
In the autumn you may wish to separate the lambs, as they will do best on pasture regrowth between a maximum entry of 10cms grazed down to 7cms. But the more you split mobs and species the more complicated grazing management becomes. There are many farmers very successfully grazing mixed animal species achieving both more pasture production and animal performance by keeping it simple. Breaking up mono-culture does wonders for animal health and pasture composition.

 

[Guiggs]

The 37 acre is run in 3 blocks at the minute all with water and mains electric running in them so water is no problem. Sorry wouldn't really know what sort of grass there are. But its lacking any amount of clover was thinking of putting some clover seed on top of the heifers mineral bucket and let them do the work. Would 8 paddock roughly of 4.5/ 5 acres not be big enough for 100 ewes and lambs. Thank for your reply

Have you had your soil pH tested/ limed any time in the recent past?
I had my old pp done 3 or 4 years ago and was a amazed at how much clover "appeared "