Grazing Myths that Impact Profitability-Greg Halich

This presentation was given at the 2023 Kentucky Begining Grazing School held on September 27 and 28 in Versailles, KY.

[@bradharris2503]

I graze down to 4 inches or so each pass. Mostly twice a day moves. I achieve rests of 50 to 80 days depending on time of year. I do a modified strip grazing. I create a new section every 3 to 4 days. I strip graze each section moving fence deeper every 12 hours. By the time forages are starting to regrow, I've moved off and onto a new section. Takes me 20 minutes twice a day. 45 minutes to an hour every 3rd or 4th day getting a new section fenced off.

[@nielscorfield4163]

There's good data on-farm that I'm aware of showing significant increases in production from 2-3 to daily moves. We also have to factor-in the decline in rumen performance as the batch function is impaired through constant cycles of forage quality.

[@georgeheller2281]

You are not telling the whole story about the moving. You will never get the animal performance of daily moves, and your pastures will suffer from the extended stay. If I moved twice a week all summer I would have been out of grass in July. We have been in d3 or d4 drought the last three years. Daily moves, and tip grazing got us through the season. Forage availability, and quality goes down with less frequent moves. We are running 50 ewes, and 22 head of cattle on 100 acres.