Rotational grazing

"We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect." - Aldo Leopold

Rotational grazing controls the access animals have to a pasture by dividing it into smaller sections.  Limiting the areas animals can access allows pasture plants to regrow.  Rotational grazing requires modern portable fencing, water distribution systems, and informed decision making on the part of the farmer.  Choosing this management style has impacted our farmers' operations in several ways.

Our animals have healthy immune systems because pasture rotations minimize disease.  Intestinal parasites are a fact of life for animals such as cows, sheep, and goats.  But parasites can only reproduce if their eggs have access to new hosts.  We can break the life cycle of parasites and other diseases by resting paddocks for months at a time.

Resting pastures also leads to higher quality forage.  Green grasses contain nutrients taken from the soil by their root systems.  Overgrazing, or allowing animals to eat the same plant time and again, leads to a stunted root system.  Stunted plants focus their energy on rebuilding their roots instead of moving nutrients from their roots to their leaves.  As our pastures rest, more nutrients are transported from the soil to the leaf, available for our animals to consume.

Perhaps the most important ecological benefit of well-managed rotational grazing systems is an improvement in soil quality.  Rotational grazing allows for permanent soil cover with perennial grasses, which prevents the erosion that may occur in some row-cropping systems.  Our animals fertilize our soils with bacteria-rich manures, creating a living soil that works with our pasture plants to access nutrients from the soil.

In short, rotational grazing is an attempt at mimicking the natural prairie ecosystem.  "When the prairies were in their prime, rotational grazing occurred naturally without any help from humans. A herd of bison or elk would graze an area clean and then move on to greener pastures. This continual movement provided native grasslands with fertilizer, a method of seed dispersal and seasonal periods of rest to recover and replenish their food supplies."¹

1.  http://www.manitoba.ca/conservation/wildlife/managing/cwhp_tgp.html