Grazing Intensity and Timing
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Intensity, Frequency, and Severity
Grazing rangeland in a sustainable manner is an art. One doesn’t become an “expert” overnight. Many of the so-called “experts” will share a long list of things failures before they mention their successes. Grass is meant to be grazed. Since the ice age, this area has been burned under all kinds of conditions and life goes on. It’s how we, as managers, go about managing our grazing resource. The difference between helping grasslands thrive and overgrazing is only timing. Obviously great grasslands have traditionally been swarmed with enormous numbers of grazing animals and thrived.
Stock a little differently
Look at the county road ditch, it is traditionally mowed once in the spring/summer and once more before winter. Have you noticed how much growth happens after the grass is mowed? Think of the mowing as a “highly severe grazing.” When allowed time to rest, even in drought, the regrowth can be tremendous! What if our grazing plan looked similar to this?
The grazing plan should be a simple one: graze it, get off of it, let it rest, and allow recovery time before re-grazing it. Grazing plans help deal with forage supply and demand. Remember, true recovery won’t happen unless sufficient precipitation and time occurs between grazing events. This time is not necessarily “banker time.”
Be the odd duck
Chances are “if everyone is doing it,” it may not be the best practice. This holds true when stocking rangeland. Instead of a stocking rate based on the traditional acres per pair, think about moving towards cow days. Stocking by cow days will save many headaches by knowing how to deal with forage availability. This gives us better estimate throughout the grazing season. If you know the weight of your cows, you can figure daily consumption—about 3% of their bodyweight. By knowing consumption and forage available we now can have a handle on how much forage we can remove while maintaining a healthy range.
Timing and severity of grazing are the two most important tools to manage rangeland plants. Cow days and stock density are much more important than stocking rate. Don’t set stock. Managed grazing is the best. Rest is the KEY to health and productivity of rangeland. This can be done with small paddocks or big pasture moves. Combing cows all into one group decreases labor and increases the rest time of the grass.
Run More Cows
Most rangeland is overgrazed and understocked, simply because of management. The traditional “put them out there until they run out of something to eat” decreases productivity of rangeland over time. We are witnessing the deterioration of rangelands at an unsustainable rate.
Be different, don’t just turn cows out on the pasture all year. Manage where and how they graze. There should be more in a pasture than just buffalo or blue gramma grass.
Grazing is an art, or an ongoing, real life canvas. I’m hoping to increase the production and health of my rangeland through management.
Droughts happen, it’s a fact of life. Remember, droughts don’t destroy rangeland, management does. Know how much forage your land is capable of producing. Stocking rangeland shouldn’t be done on paper alone by acres.
Get out in the pasture and look at what plants you have! Take pictures EVERY year on the day you turn out and the day you gather to come off. A grazing/pasture stick in the photos with landmarks would save a lot of hard feelings with landlords. Being able to document how much forage we took off during the grazing season would also show us if we are following our grazing plans!
One of my favorite quotes, from a longtime Comanche County Cowboy, “I don’t know anybody who went broke running too few cows but I know a lot of guys that did it running too many.”
Remember, grass has a short term and long term memory.
Dare to be different—“Things won’t change until we do.”
*Partially funded by USDA-NRCS agreement with National Grazing Lands Coalition https://www.grazinglands.org/.