One thing that was similar in the farms I visited when I was back in the states was the usage of Management Intensive Rotational Grazing (MIRG). Basically what this is is the usage of multiple small paddocks to feed your livestock rather then one large field. Using MIRG you will basically put your livestock in the small paddocks until they eat about 1/2 of the forage in that small paddock and then you move them to the next one leaving the one just left untouched for about 30 days, long enough to let it fully recover before you put the cattle back on to that one.
There are multiple benefits to this plan.
1. Cattle are mostly only eating the top portion of the plant that is growing in the stage where the nutrients are higher
2. Less chance the animals will over graze one area leaving it barren and susceptible to weed growth and longer recover times..
3. Increases the carrying capacity of a set acreage
4. Breaks the parasite cycle reducing the chances or animals developing parasites and reducing medical costs.
5. Because the land can recover and you do not have buildup of waste in one area, it smells better, even when raising pigs.
6. By not letting the animals graze all the way done it keeps constant cover reducing erosion.
7. As it is more efficient there is more land available to hay before winter for winter feeding.
There are also a couple of detriments to this plan
1. The MI in MIRG stands for Management Intensive, means a lot more time is spend tending and moving the cattle as well as inspecting the paddocks(Pastures)
2. The cost is higher then traditional grazing due to the need to provide water to each paddock as well and cross fending to divide the grazing areas.
3. In my case it will not be as efficient because of my lack of experience in determining the proper times to move the cattle will probably result in too many or not enough moves!
MIRG is considered a conservation practice by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and is therefore eligible for cost sharing for the initial cost involved by the USDA under the farm act. That will help greatly offset a good portion of my fencing costs as well as costs involved for running water from the pond via a pump to the various pastures. The perimeter fencing and pump and some piping would have been required even without the MIRG so at the end of the day I should end up with a similar start up cost with the MIRG as compared to traditional grazing.
As far as the specific implementation of the program both farms I visited had vastly different ways to implement the programs. The Synergistic Farms would set up roughly 1/2 acre pens with temporary fencing all the way around and shift it and their 11 or so cattle on a daily basis. They had very limited Perm. fencing and moved the cattle every day and the pigs about every 2-3 weeks. Prairie Root Galloways however had about 9-10 3-4 acre paddocks set up with normal electric fencing. They would further break up the paddocks with one line of polyline (electric) they would use to further separate the paddock. They also had their herd broken up into smaller groups. They would only move them maybe once a week to 10 days depending on ground conditions, the size of that animal group and grass conditions.
As for my plan if you look at the picture below the area in red is the land we will be using. The bottom section is supposed to be divided into 8 roughly 3 acre sections (yes it is not drawn to proper scale.) The four sections on the bottom left will be used for crops, three of which will be rotational crops while the fourth will be in a rest cycle and available for MIRG. That will actually give me 5 3 acre sections for grazing, four full time and one rotating, Of course I will also have crop residue available for grazing. During the first year we will have a Maximus of 3 Cow calf pairs so the usage should be pretty light so the plan will be to sub-divide each pasture into 1.5 acre sections leaving the cattle in each section for 7-10 days before rotating them. We will immediately follow the cattle with chickens and after the chickens the land will be allowed to rest for at least 30 days. I think for the first couple years will be probably be pretty healthy and I do not think we will have to really need to be careful until we get to 10-12 full grown animals. As to the goats and pigs we will plan to run them through the top pastures since we have some pretty heavy brush there. We will exclude the area with the pond as I do not want to see it fouled. For the pigs and the goats we will also have pretty low numbers the first year. probably 3-4 animals each and we will move them every 2 weeks giving the land about 6 weeks recovery time. We want to give that area much more recovery tie as it will also be our primary wintering area during the coldest months.
Let me know what you think!!
There are multiple benefits to this plan.
1. Cattle are mostly only eating the top portion of the plant that is growing in the stage where the nutrients are higher
2. Less chance the animals will over graze one area leaving it barren and susceptible to weed growth and longer recover times..
3. Increases the carrying capacity of a set acreage
4. Breaks the parasite cycle reducing the chances or animals developing parasites and reducing medical costs.
5. Because the land can recover and you do not have buildup of waste in one area, it smells better, even when raising pigs.
6. By not letting the animals graze all the way done it keeps constant cover reducing erosion.
7. As it is more efficient there is more land available to hay before winter for winter feeding.
There are also a couple of detriments to this plan
1. The MI in MIRG stands for Management Intensive, means a lot more time is spend tending and moving the cattle as well as inspecting the paddocks(Pastures)
2. The cost is higher then traditional grazing due to the need to provide water to each paddock as well and cross fending to divide the grazing areas.
3. In my case it will not be as efficient because of my lack of experience in determining the proper times to move the cattle will probably result in too many or not enough moves!
MIRG is considered a conservation practice by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and is therefore eligible for cost sharing for the initial cost involved by the USDA under the farm act. That will help greatly offset a good portion of my fencing costs as well as costs involved for running water from the pond via a pump to the various pastures. The perimeter fencing and pump and some piping would have been required even without the MIRG so at the end of the day I should end up with a similar start up cost with the MIRG as compared to traditional grazing.
As far as the specific implementation of the program both farms I visited had vastly different ways to implement the programs. The Synergistic Farms would set up roughly 1/2 acre pens with temporary fencing all the way around and shift it and their 11 or so cattle on a daily basis. They had very limited Perm. fencing and moved the cattle every day and the pigs about every 2-3 weeks. Prairie Root Galloways however had about 9-10 3-4 acre paddocks set up with normal electric fencing. They would further break up the paddocks with one line of polyline (electric) they would use to further separate the paddock. They also had their herd broken up into smaller groups. They would only move them maybe once a week to 10 days depending on ground conditions, the size of that animal group and grass conditions.
As for my plan if you look at the picture below the area in red is the land we will be using. The bottom section is supposed to be divided into 8 roughly 3 acre sections (yes it is not drawn to proper scale.) The four sections on the bottom left will be used for crops, three of which will be rotational crops while the fourth will be in a rest cycle and available for MIRG. That will actually give me 5 3 acre sections for grazing, four full time and one rotating, Of course I will also have crop residue available for grazing. During the first year we will have a Maximus of 3 Cow calf pairs so the usage should be pretty light so the plan will be to sub-divide each pasture into 1.5 acre sections leaving the cattle in each section for 7-10 days before rotating them. We will immediately follow the cattle with chickens and after the chickens the land will be allowed to rest for at least 30 days. I think for the first couple years will be probably be pretty healthy and I do not think we will have to really need to be careful until we get to 10-12 full grown animals. As to the goats and pigs we will plan to run them through the top pastures since we have some pretty heavy brush there. We will exclude the area with the pond as I do not want to see it fouled. For the pigs and the goats we will also have pretty low numbers the first year. probably 3-4 animals each and we will move them every 2 weeks giving the land about 6 weeks recovery time. We want to give that area much more recovery tie as it will also be our primary wintering area during the coldest months.
Let me know what you think!!
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