Rethinking Pasture Rotation

About five years ago, I subdivided our goat pastures for grazing rotation. If you aren't familiar with the concept, I'm going to direct you to the research series I did at the time. It has lots of pictures and information:

• Developing a Pasture Rotation Plan: Part 1 
• Developing a Pasture Rotation Plan: Part 2 
• Developing a Pasture Management Plan

The gist of it requires subdividing grazing areas into smaller paddocks, typically with electric fence.  Then it's a matter of monitoring how much the animals are allowed to eat, rotating them frequently, and resting the forage until it's regrown adequately.

Up front, I will say that it definitely works! But as with all ideas and methods, the concept is simpler than the reality. The purpose of this post is to record the challenges that our reality presented us, and how their sum total has resulted in taking a step back to regroup. 

Weather

Plants require moisture and warmth to grow. When  the temperatures are mild and we get good rainfall, we get good forage growth in the pasture. When our winters are too cold, or are summers too dry, we get very little growth. If we have an especially hot, droughty summer, much of the good forage dies out, leaving the weedy stuff to take over again.

Goats

Most of the successful systems are rotating meat animals. They are kept outdoors and simply moved from paddock to paddock. With dairy animals, like my goats, I have to be able to get them back to the barn at least twice a day. And when we have coyotes around, I have to be able to secure them in the barn at night. This means I have to add a corridor and gating system to my paddock plan. We were able to do this (photos here), so it's definitely doable. What I'm noting here, is that it adds a layer of complexity to pasture rotation.

Another consideration is that goats are more challenging to contain with electric fencing. While they can definitely be trained to respect it, some of them (bucks mostly) are willing to muster up the courage and run through the fence anyway. Apparently, the annoying zap is worth getting to the choice grazing goodies on the other side. 

The does can learn to do this too, especially if they ever discover that the fence is off. And once they learn this trick, it's difficult to retrain them.

Keeping the fences charged

Electric fence energizers can be powered in three ways: plug into grid electricity (AC), with a 12-volt battery (DC), or with a built-in solar panel and battery. We'd have to run a crazy amount of extension cords to simply plug it in, so we've tried solar charged and 12-volt batteries. Both have their drawbacks.

Solar energizers with the built-in solar panels:

• Both the panel and battery are small, and so slow to recharge.
• They require consistently good sun to be consistently charged. Cloudy days or even a little shade compromises the charge and therefore the jolt that reminds the goats to stay back.
• Have an energizer lifespan of only a couple of years. So they will have to be discarded and replaced. This is not a selling point.

12-volt battery:

• Requires battery monitoring, maintenance, and recharging.
• You need a way to recharge them, plus extra batteries for when the one is recharging. 
• Recharging can either be done with an AC powered or solar charger.
• The batteries are heavy, so either strong muscles or a way to transport the battery is needed.
• An AC-powered charger requires a source of electricity (typically the grid).
• A solar panel and solar charge controller require sun.
• Lifespan is 2 to 5 years

I know the current craze is for everything to be battery powered. But I have to say, that I have become a bit weary of having to feed and tend rechargeable batteries. We aren't off the grid, but we have a lot of stuff powered by rechargeable batteries, from 12-volt lead-acid and sealed batteries, to power tools, to AAs and AAAs for our clocks and flashlights. Besides being a chore to keep them all charged, the battery shelf life stinks. The little AAs and AAAs quickly quit holding a good charge, and the power tools. Sheesh. Forget replacement batteries for tools, because they have been replaced with a different model by the time you need to buy one. Plus, rechargeables aren't cheap. And while I agree with wanting to get away from fossil fuels, batteries require non-renewable resources to make. 

In addition, electric fences should be walked at least daily to remove grasses and branches that touch and short out the wires.

So, those are the challenges, and since we're down to only one 12-volt deep cycle battery for the fences, I want to rethink our options. These include replacing the 12-volt batteries ($$$!) or building more permanent fences (more $$$!). 

This is the stuff that's figured out by personal experience. Concepts, information, and theories are a good introduction to an idea, but as will all things, what works well for one person, may not work at all for another. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. It's a matter of understanding one's personal goals, routine, and regional challenges. It's a matter of deciding what one can live with. There is no perfect answer. Rather, which requirements best suit our personal circumstances? 

As you can see, I have more questions than answers! Well, I do have some answers, but this post is long enough. For the time being, I want to step back and think it through again. When we figure it out, I'll let you know. 

Rethinking Pasture Rotation © May 2023

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Pasture Soil Building Update

I've been going through my photo files for pictures for 5 Acres & A Dream The Sequel. I found these and had to stop and be amazed. They were taken in February and March of 2015 and 2016, before we started on our pasture soil improvement strategy in 2018. I know that soil building takes years, so the then-and-now photos I'm about to show you are extremely heartening to me.

February 2016

March 2020

March 2016

March 2020

March 2016

March 2020

March 2015

March 2020

I didn't even remember that they once looked like that in winter. Is anyone else as amazed as I am?

The straw at in the bottom of the last photo is one of the methods I've been using for building soil in the pasture. I toss a diverse forage seed mixture down on the bare spots and cover with dirty barn bedding. The other method has been to subdivide the pastures and rotate where the goats graze. The rotations have been sporadic, especially in winter when forage growth is slow, but we've still been sticking with it and doing it the best we can.

It's not as lush as I'd like it, but considering the time of year I can't complain. On the plus side is that  we've had a relatively mild winter, which means more growth because fewer species will go dormant. Even so, because of the temperatures, regrowth is slow. But something is there! And it looks so much greener than anything we've ever seen on our property this time of year. I am exceedingly thankful.

Pasture Soil Building Update © March 2020

by Leigh Tate at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Developing a Pasture Management Plan

This is the last part of my blog series on sustainable pastures. 

Pasture improvement was one of our 2018 homestead goals because good forage is one of the most important elements in my goats' diet. Good forage consists of grasses, legumes, and forbs or edible weeds. Forbs are herbs or other broadleaf flowering plants that add variety and nutrition to the livestock diet, as well as plant diversity to the pasture. True weeds are what I call anything that the goats won't eat! Here are some examples of true weeds I have problems with.

I don't know what this is but the goats don't eat it and it shades out the good stuff.

Grasses and clovers are shaded out beneath weeds like these and struggle to grow. Because the goats don't eat them, they tend to dominate.

Another serious problem is ground ivy.

Ground ivy is a real problem in one of the girls' areas.

The goats don't eat it either. It spreads vigorously and chokes out everything we want to grow. We have one paddock that we now estimate to be about 70 to 75% ground ivy. That same pasture once grew clover and orchard grass!

Another discouraging weed is horse nettle.

Horse nettle flowers

Horse nettle berries.

It's a nightshade, so it's toxic, and it has nasty little thorns that can pierce even garden gloves. The tips of the thorns break off in your skin and fester. It always leaves some root in the ground when pulled, so it's impossible to eliminate.

Weed problems like these point to several causes. One is mineral deficiencies or imbalances in the soil, the other is improper management. Grazing animals will eat what they like first to the point of killing it. That leaves the stuff they won't eat to take over.

So what's the answer? According to Joel Salatin in Salad Bar Beef the first step toward weed control is to start rotational grazing. By not letting stock eat the good stuff down to oblivion and giving it time to recover, he says the forage in a pasture will not only recover but can be completely changed. Other graziers confirm that, even though it seems incredulous to me.

So we've made a start. To plant, I undersowed the existing forage with as diverse a seed mix as I can, both perennials and annuals: wheat, oats, winter peas, perennial rye, hairy vetch, chicory, radish (both garden and Daikon), oregano, lespedeza, turnip, timothy, orchardgrass, non-endophyte fescue, alfalfa, birdsfoot trefoil, rape, small burnet, sanfoin, kale, buckwheat, phacelia, sudex, and a variety of clovers (red, crimson, sweet, and several kinds of white). Next Dan mowed the standing growth to mulch the seeds. Then, I started stringing electric fence.

So far I have one pasture seeded and subdivided into three paddocks.

The corral gate controls whether they can enter paddock #3,

or have to go down the corridor.

Corridor

An experimental gate controls whether they can enter paddock #1 or #2.

The wire runs through a makeshift pex pipe arch.
The baby gate directs which side they can enter.

After it runs through the pipe an alligator
clip fastens it to the wire on the other side.

So far the girls have been cooperating. They've all had their noses zapped so there's no trying to break through to somewhere else. Amazingly, no one has tried to break through or jump the baby gate. They love the fresh forage and know that's where I'll lead them, so they follow willingly.

Ready!

Something I didn't understand at first is mob grazing. Joel talks about it in his book, but I had trouble grasping the concept. Now that we've started this rotation plan, however, I'm seeing the mobbing effect in action. Because the goats are in a relatively small area, they are competing for the best bites and aren't so choosy. Initially, they spread out.

Forage is pretty spotty right not, so it doesn't take them long to eat it down.

But soon there's competition. In trying to eat everything so no other goat can get it they create a "mob."

The result is something like this...

Before

After

The tops of all plants are eaten and the rest is trampled down. The eating stimulates plant growth and the trampled leaves and manure break down to feed the soil microorganisms. Folks who practice this say the land responds in a positive way and begins to produce more good livestock forage and fewer weeds. The other plus is that this management method sequesters large, measurable amounts of carbon in the soil.

The last step is to rest the paddock until the plants have had a chance to recover and new growth is shooting up. Then the girls can go in again. We started this in autumn, however, which means plant growth is slower. There are a number of days when they have to go down into my "sacrifice" area, i.e. the woods. But it's acorn season now, so they don't mind.

Browsing in the woods.

I plan to do a similar setup for the bucks.

If you've hung in there with me to the end of this post, then it's probably because you are interested in sustainable pasture too. Here are links to my other blog posts in this series.

• Carbon - What I Didn't Know
• Carbon and Soil Building: Designing a Plan
• Soil Building Experiment #2: Pastures
• Developing a Pasture Rotation Plan: Part 1 
• Developing a Pasture Rotation Plan: Part 2

Developing a Pasture Management Plan © Dec 2018 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Developing a Pasture Rotation Plan: Part 2

In "Developing a Pasture Rotation Plan: Part 1," I shared what I've learned about pasture rotation. Each method has a different focus--forage health, animal health, or soil health--but similar strategies. All limit grazing time according to the condition of the forage and allow for a period of rest. The challenge is trying to figure out how to adapt the particulars to our property.

The simplest rotation strategy is to leave stock out in the field and just move them (and their water) to the adjacent paddock. That's how it's done with beef cattle, but dairy animals must be brought back to the barn for milking. For that, the best plan would be a centrally located barn with grazing paddocks extending from it like spokes on a wheel. The other option is to use lanes or corridors.

We've just begun a specific plan to improve the soil in our pastures and the forage along with it. As that improves, we should be able to have a number of smaller paddocks, all with good grazing. Since we aren't there yet, larger but simple seemed like the best way to start.

First step toward better grazing rotation.

We subdivided our pastures with electric fencing.

Three strands, the top exactly nose height for adult Kinder goats.

Some people say goats can't be contained with electric fence, and I'm sure for some goats that's true. Especially those inclined to jump. They do have to be trained to it, and we had a couple of break-throughs initially. After a zap or two on the nose they steer clear of those wires.

As forage improves we plan to break it down to smaller paddocks. My goal is to give them about four days in each. That would allow for a minimum three-week rest for the forage, more if possible.

Proposed, but subject to change.

This plan uses corridors for the doe rotations (in blue in the diagram above). That will require gates that can be hot wired to maintain a complete electrical circuit from a centrally located solar charger. For the bucks (red lines), it made more sense to relocate their shelter to a more central position. That's another building project, but makes for a less complicated set-up for the fences. Plus, having them closer to the house also makes it easier to bring them water, feed, and hay.

None of this is written in stone, but with a plan we have something to take steps toward. If we run into obstacles or it doesn't work out as we hoped, we re-evaluate and adjust. 

Developing a Pasture Rotation Plan: Part 2 © Oct 2018 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Developing a Pasture Rotation Plan: Part 1

In my "Soil Building Experiment #2: Pastures" blog post I mentioned our five subgoals for pasture improvement. Subdividing them for a better grazing rotation is one of those goals.

Until now, our pasture rotation system has been a simple one; two paddocks each for the does and the bucks, so sometimes I put then in one, sometimes in the other. The problem with this system is that it hasn't helped the condition of our pastures. That needs to change.

I learned a lot about pasture rotation while I was researching for Prepper's Livestock Handbook. Over this past summer I've been working on how to apply what I learned to our own homestead. I started by analyzing the goals and methods of the books and articles I read. It seems to me that the rationale for rotating grazing can be divided into one of three focuses.

1. Health of the forage
2. Health of the animals
3. Health of the soil

Health of the forage

One of our big mistakes when we first moved to our homestead was treating our pastures like lawn. We mowed them like they were lawn and Dan was concerned about things like de-thatching. What we didn't understand, is that different kinds of grasses have been developed for different applications. Lawn and turf grasses were developed to grow thick and short, which means they require certain management techniques. Pasture and hay grasses grow tall, and require different management techniques. Unfortunately, scalping them like lawn is not one of them.

It's not just a mower that can scalp pastures, so can livestock if left in an area for too long. This is why a rotation plan is important to keep forage healthy.

The focus with this goal is the height of the forage. There are charts that list the different pasture grasses and the heights to begin grazing and when to quit. I suppose one can be scrupulously technical about this, but a generalized summary for this method is:

• Don't graze forage down below four inches
• Allow 20 to 30 day for forage recovery
• Allow grazing again when forage is 8 to 10 inches tall

For more details, On Pasture Magazine has a good introductory article on the subject, "Grazing Height Determines the Health of Your Forages."

Health of the animals

The particular concern here is internal parasites, especially worms. Pasture rotation is part of "integrated parasite management" (IPM). IPM includes use of wormers based on test results (fecal or FAMACHA i.e. level of anemia) rather than a schedule, developing the animals' immune system through culling and breeding for resistance, good sanitation practices, forage that promotes parasite resistance, and pasture rotation. Sounds complicated, doesn't it? It has become complicated because livestock parasites develop resistance to chemical wormers. Some wormers no longer work in some parts of the country.

For this blog post, I'm just going to focus on the IPM guidelines for pasture rotation. Recommendations seem to vary depending on the source, but here's what I've pulled together:

• Don't graze forage below a couple of inches
• Multispecies graze to "vacuum" the fields (because cattle aren't susceptible to the same parasites goats and sheep are)
• Don't graze any paddock more than three to five days
• Don't graze when forage is wet (parasite larvae need moisture to climb plants so they can be ingested)
• Don't overstock paddocks
• Allow pasture to rest. Recommendations vary between 21 to 65 days, depending on the particular parasite problem.
• Some sources are now recommending mowing down to about an inch or two in height to allow sun and air circulation to dry the soil and kill larvae. (Personally, I think this is a very bad idea, but it's out there.)

You can learn more about IPM at

• the ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture website. 

And you can find some encouraging personal testimonies on the effectiveness of pasture rotation in controlling internal parasites at the following:

• "The Silver Bullet of Parasite Control in Small Ruminants," On Pasture (links to an interesting PDF)
• "Skylines Internal Parasite Control Program," Skylines Farm

Health of the soil

This one is used for soil building, and ties in with everything I've been learning about soil and carbon. The technique here might be called intensive rotational grazing, although it has other names. It was pioneered by Allan Savory in Zimbabwe and popularized by Joel Salatin as "mob grazing." Here's a summary:

• high stock density (250 - 500 cows per acre)
• rotate stock once or more per day (rule of thumb - graze 50%, leave 50%)
• long forage rest (5 to 6 months)

Some people have trouble with this one, because the high stocking density pretty much goes against everything we've been taught about livestock and grazing. But when managed properly, the results are phenomenal, as reported by everyone who practices it. Allan Savory, for example, is using this method to turn desert back into grassland. Missouri cattle rancher Greg Judy has been able to stop buying pasture seed, fertilizer, and hay, eliminate the use of machinery, yet has doubled beef production and increased forage quality and diversity.

Why does it work? Because when livestock are concentrated in small areas, they will either eat it or trample it. However, they are moved before they overgraze (graze 50%, leave 50%). The trampled forage begins to decay which in turn feeds soil organisms, helps retain soil moisture, sequesters carbon, and builds the soil. The long rest period allows forage to recover fully before being grazed again.

• The key is monitoring forage and knowing when to move them. 
• The challenge is that rotation and rest cycles are highly variable, depending on the season, weather, and condition of the forage.

For further reading I highly recommend:

• Allan Savory's Holistic Management: A Commonsense Revolution to Restore Our Environment
• or at least Allan's TED talk, "How to fight desertification and reverse climate change"
• Joel Salatin's Salad Bar Beef
• "Mob Grazing 101" by Kindra Gordan for Hereford World
• "Mob Grazing" by Boyd Kidwell for Angus Beef Bulletin
  

If you're like me, I'm sure you see the similarities amongst these three management methods. So I see no reason why I can't accomplish all three goals. That's what I'm working on now, so stay tuned for "Developing a Pasture Rotation Plan: Part 2."

Developing a Pasture Rotation Plan: Part 1 © Oct 2018 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Soil Building Experiment #2: Pastures

Pasture improvement is one of our homestead goals for 2018. Actually, sustainable pasture has always been a goal, but there's been a huge learning curve to go along with that goal, and so far I haven't seen the results I hoped for. In fact, I admit that this year I was discouraged because of our lack of progress in growing good forage. We seem to grow more weeds! Finally, my recent research into carbon and soil building has given me information, answers, and the motivation I needed to tackle this year's goal with new hope. 

We have five subgoals for pasture improvement:

1. Build the soil.
2. Establish a polyculture of predominantly perennial forage.
3. Subdivide large paddocks for better grazing rotation.
4. Trim low tree branches shading our pastures. (I've observed that our forage does best with filtered sunlight from a high canopy.)
5. Develop a management plan to keep it in the best condition.

The first two are interdependent and since September is the month we designated for fall planting, that's what this blog post is about. I'll share more about subdividing, rotation, and our idea for a management plan in upcoming posts.

It's going to take a several weeks to get it all planted, but I thought I'd make a blog record of the first two we did, outlined in red below.

This first photo is of the "buck pasture."

 
It's been tilled twice in the nine years we've lived here. The first time was to remineralize and plant corn the other time to plant pasture. I've used my modified Fukuoka spot seeding method here for several years, so it has some nice grasses, herbs, and clovers growing. But they are scanty, which points to problems I'm trying to correct.

The first isn't so much a problem as part of my learning curve. When I first started working on pasture improvement, the only seed available was tall fescue for winter and Bermuda for summer. Both are popular, because they tend to dominate an area to make a good monoculture pasture. But tall fescue has problems with endophytes, and Bermuda is too invasive (AKA "wiregrass!"). So I did my first pasture planting with deer forage mixes, which are annuals.

Theoretically seasonal annuals should work if one can coordinate planting with their life cycles and so have continual forage. But somehow it never worked out that way, and every year we had long stretches with little for the goats to eat. 

The other problem is weeds which tend to grow fast, shade out forage, and completely overtake grazing areas. Hopefully we can choke some of them out, but the weeds are one of the reasons I need a management plan implemented. More on that in an upcoming post.

This second photo is labeled "Front pasture" on my little map.

It's called "front" pasture because it's closest to the house.

It's never been tilled, nor had organic minerals applied. Yet it grows more forage and has less weeds than any other place the goats graze. Like the other paddocks, I've spot seeded with manure and mulch from time to time, but it lacks forage diversity, so that's a goal here. 

As with Soil Building Experiment #1, we started with soil samples.

Buck pasture soil sample

This one is very similar to the samples we took near the fruit trees, isn't it? On the surface it's a little darker, but otherwise there is no organic matter and it's pretty lifeless looking. However, it contains roots! You can see them peeking out at the bottom of the sample. Roots are important for soil building, because (1) soil microorganisms need roots to live, and (2) as plants die their roots leave organic matter in the soil.

Here's the "front pasture" for comparison.

Soil sample from front pasture.

It is darker in the top couple of inches which indicates more organic matter, but other than that, the sample doesn't look much different from the other samples we've dug. I had hoped it would look better because it's never been tilled. What that tells me, is that the soil biology on our property is severely lacking.

How do we fix that? By adding carbon. Remember my soil biology summary from Soil Building Experiment #1?

• Soil bacteria break down compost and mulch into organic matter
• Soil fungi build organic matter into new soil
• Both feed on carbon provided by
• the plants
• the mulch
• Conclusion: Feeding soil microorganisms = building the soil

To facilitate that, our experimental pasture planting method is no soil preparation, just broadcast the seed, then mow. The clippings mulch the seed, providing protection and carbon.

My seed mix has been the most diverse I could manage, a combination of both perennials and annuals: wheat, oats, winter peas, perennial rye, hairy vetch, chicory, radish (both garden and Daikon), turnip, timothy, orchardgrass, non-endophyte fescue, alfalfa, birdsfoot trefoil, rape, small burnet, sanfoin, kale, buckwheat, phacelia, sorghum-sudangrass, and a variety of clovers (red, crimson, sweet, and several kinds of white). In all of that, growing conditions should be right for at least some of it to grow!

So that's the plan. We'll plant the other pastures the same way. We've had nice rainfall so these first two are just starting to show new growth. Hopefully I'll have nice forage photos to show you soon.

Next - Developing a Pasture Rotation Plan, Part 1

Soil Building Experiment #2: Pastures © Sept 2018 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/