When it comes to grazing cattle, one size does not fit all operations, but experts agree having a plan is better than not.
“One reason for having a grazing management plan is to take care of the vegetation and allow it to recover appropriately,” says Jim Sprinkle, a University of Idaho beef Extension specialist. “It’ll stay healthy, and we’ll have those desired plant species we want to have. If a piece of ground consistently gets overused for a period of years, then those less desirable plants come into the plant community.”
Sprinkle says overuse over time might cost producers cool or warm season grasses, and animal performance can start to decline. He says to think of grass as a resource.
“I like to think of grass like a bank,” he says. “For instance, you’ve got a certain amount of money in the bank, and you’ve got a certain amount of pastures in your bank of available foraging. If you use proper rotation, proper timing and the right amount of cows, then you’re able to maximize the profit of that piece of ground.”
Undergrazing becomes a concern as much as overgrazing.
“If you have too few of animals, then the a pasture will go to seed quicker, and get wolfy, as they say,” Sprinkle explains. “As a result, you can have less digestibility and less average daily gain from that pasture.”
How To Start
Having goals helps ranchers get started, whether that’s increasing average daily animal gain, improving forage availability or maintaining the ecological health of the pasture, Sprinkle says.
“Taking forage inventory is the first step to creating a grazing plan,” he says.
If it’s a new piece of property, the previous owners might have records, or producers can begin by stocking and monitoring that forage, he adds.
“Maintaining accurate records and inventorying resources on the landscape are vital to a cow-calf operator,” he says. “Inventorying pastures allows ranchers to identify those areas in the pasture animals use as well as the levels of use. An inventory provides additional information such as areas with sensitive wildlife habitat and invasive weed hot spots. Recognizing the variation that exists among and within rangeland pastures, utilization maps can be created and combined with forage production estimates. Although imperfect, these estimates of forage production and utilization often provide guidance in grazing decisions.”
Observe and Plan
Ranchers should become familiar with the pastures they’re grazing, and in which areas the cattle like to congregate, which are usually close to water and flatter ground, Sprinkle says.
“Producers can then make decisions about how to mitigate some overuse in one part of the pasture versus other parts of the pastures that don’t get used as much as they’d like,” he says.
Moving water sources, strategic placement of salt and mineral, and virtual or temporary electric fence are also options for controlling the grazing movement of the cattle through a pasture.
Sprinkle also encourages ranchers to understand how different types of cattle graze.
“Yearlings tend to distribute a little more over the pasture,” he says. “A cow, when she’s got a calf on her, will be confined somewhat by the calf, so she won’t use as large of an area until the calf is weaned. After the calf is weaned, usually those cows will get up and climb a little more.”
Sprinkle says while producers may think they don’t have time to create a grazing plan, it can a helpful challenge to sit down and make that plan. Producers can start with some basic questions.
- Is my current grazing plan or lack of meeting my expectations?
- Is there something I can do to improve it?
- What do we think these animals are going to do?
- How long do we think we can leave them there?
- How much do we think they will gain?
- What’s the Animal Unit per day?
“For example, if we have a 1,300-lb. cow with a calf on her, we take 26 lbs. per day, and multiply that times 1.3 and we’ll get how many pounds of forage she’s going to eat on an average over the year,” Sprinkle says. “Now when she’s two months into lactation, she’s probably going to eat closer to 3% of body weight instead of 2.6%, but it’s just averaged over here. So from that, you can get an idea of how many animals can be put out there.”
Sprinkle says starting to create a grazing plan at any point is better than not planning at all. In the fall and winter, producers have had the current year of grazing to evaluate.
“You’ve had the current year of grazing, and it’s going to change, you know, depending on the precipitation the next year,” he says. “I think if you have a idea of what a particular pasture will carry and and how many days you can be in that pasture, then you develop a plan for the following year.”
He also recommends planning for an average, better than average and less than average years.
“For example in a drought, you’re going to have to change things a lot and be moving through pastures faster,” Sprinkle says.
User-Friendly Tools
Soil productivity estimation tools are available on the web. One such tool is the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Web Soil Survey. Users can zoom to a location of interest and generate estimates for soil productivity in that area. The soil productivity of most private lands can be accessed with this resource.
Another resource that can be personalized for your ranch is Google Earth Pro, a free, user-friendly platform that allows landowners to inventory and record resources on their property to implement a strategy to maintain or improve rangeland health. The data can be used to create a virtual map of the property. For example, cow-calf operators can map individual pastures and then designate utilization zones relative to an established water source.
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