Grazing Management Basics

ABC's and 123's of grazing management. Simple guidelines to help you manage your pastures to increase productivity and land health.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• grazing management
• extension
• wyoming
• horses
• grass

[nesbitt65]

Great video Dallas. Just wondering what you think of high density grazing. I have trouble getting even grazing. The less desirable plants don't get touched but the more palitable get eaten down more. I like the idea of leaving 50 percent but it's hard to achieve in an even way. BTW, I ranch in southwestern Manitoba.

[BandBWY]

@nesbitt65 Hi good question. I like what i've seen of high density grazing in certain places. Works great for irrigated pasture or uplands in more productive regions then Wyoming. If your re-grazing individual plants and not grazing others then you have a grazing distribution problem and likely smaller pastures are needed. Of course there are economic thresholds that need to be considered.

[BarrelsPolesandJack]

@Jefferdaughter Right now, I can't do anything because I just can't afford it. This spring, there was LOTS of grass and they were nice and fat off it. There's still some grass out there, but right now, rotational grazing is not an option because I can't afford enclosures, and there's no electricity out there.

[Jefferdaughter]

@BarrelsPolesandJack - set stocking (letting animals have access to the entire pasture area) typically ruins pastures. Healty plants depend on healthy LIVING soils. Try this: AVOID all chemicals, including chemical fertilizers. Devide pasture into small areas (about what they will eat in 1-3 days) and MOVE them every 1-3 days. Temp electric rope works great. Let them trample/ drop manure on what they can't/won't eat. If no edible plants are left, feed hay in the pasture.

[BarrelsPolesandJack]

@TWMFARMS I live in NE Texas. Right now, we're just going to leave it alone because that's all we can afford. We know some people who can keep it shredded down for us/keep the weeds down, so it should be under control now.

[TWMFARMS]

@BarrelsPolesandJack Many times it'll come back if it hasn't totally killed the plants. I dont know where you're located but, Dow makes a product called Crossbow and it is VERY GOOD to clean up pastures with, fairly safe with animals. It's a spray. I've used it a whole lot to spot spray. It wil kill legumes (Alfalfa, clovers, etc.) but, you'll have to decide if you have enough of that to worry about.

[BarrelsPolesandJack]

@TWMFARMS Actually, it's doing fine now. It's coming back. There's LOTS of grass now. It looks great! You can't even tell that it looked like a weed pasture. I'll have to post some pics of it.

[TWMFARMS]

@BarrelsPolesandJack You are probably going to have to work it up and start completely over. More than likely what has happened is that the horses have eaten their favorite plants to death, literally and left the others to grow and thus you have weedy pastures

[BarrelsPolesandJack]

Okay, I've got a good question for you. I've got 5 horses no 47 acres that has turned into a weed pasture. There is hardly no grass at all now. However, we shredded it in January, and we're scheduled to put some weed killer on it. This land used to be some of the best hay around, and when we first got it, it looked really good and was FULL of grass. My question is what do I do next after shredding it, and what tools do I need to restore it to the way it was?