Thoughts on how to rotation graze new pasture

[Deleted]

 Ok we are ready to set up our pasture area and would like input.
3 1/2 acres basically square. Thought three 1 acre areas, 1/4 acre
permanent for buck goat. To help visulize I am trying to use Acme
plainmeter but not having any luck. Have studied Joe Stolen but
get  confussed. I think 1 acre per Dexter about right. Have very
good soil. In digging water lines did not hit clay until 5' down
it was all what we call black top soil. This 4 1/2 acres has only been
used for home and animals since 1902 when home and barn
were built.

[Deleted]

I would start with the sacrifice area. A small area where they will be in the winter months or any time the grass is not good enough to be grazed like drought. I would use poly line to rotate them and not set up other permit fences except for perimeter and sacrifice area.
when you say one per acre are you talking about total stocking rate?

[Deleted]

Will have a 21' x 120' sacrifice area on one side and one
end of barn. We were thinking of three 1 acre areas of of
the sacrifice area fenced the hay area and water area will
be central to all three in sacrifice area and gates to padocks
will be on a 45 angle to each and thought we would use poly
tape from gate in a arch across padocks to rootate.
Understand I dont know much about what I am trying to do
put up about 3/4 of acre with temperary fence so they would
not be confined and 10' tall lasted about 1 1/2 week. I
will be so glad to butcher the two jurseys one this fall
yet and one next spring. They are HOGS when it comes to
eating. If anyone ever had a Dexter next to a full size breed
you can not belive the differance in feed conversion.

[genebo]

Last spring I went on a pasture walk through a farm with a layout almost like yours. He had a waterer 1/2 way down one side and he ran temporary fencing from the waterer to a point partway up the left side. When he moved, he ran a new temporary fence, dropped the old fence long enough for the cattle to cross into the new grazing area, then raised the first fence. The moves he made were fairly small and his cattle were always slightly crowded.

His cattle always had access to the same waterer. They were crowded enough that they were forced to eat everything in their section of pasture, not just the grasses they liked best.

The cattle were off of that pasture during our pasture walk, but it was obvious which part they had just grazed. The grass recovered quickly behind their grazing area.

He moved his cattle as soon as the grass height got down to 4-6". Sometimes that was daily, sometimes it was longer.

He said that an added benefit of his crowding for rotation was that it spread the manure a lot more evenly than free grazing.

His pastures loooked really good, and I would have followed his example if I hadn't been so lazy.

[Deleted]

We were thinking 1 acre per adult Dexter. Please
explain way this would be considered crowding or is
it due to wiring of part of one acre into smaller
areas. Is there a way to put a drawing on here?

[lakeportfarms]

Take your square area and put your small area for the goat at one of the corners nearest your water source. Then run a permanent fence down the center of the square to divide it into two rectangles (minus the goat area on one side). Leave a twelve foot opening at each end of the middle fence, so your cows can have a racetrack type of rotation. In the summer months I'd run a hose down the middle of this, with short sections and Y's with shutoffs at each section. This allows one hose to feed both sides of a movable waterer. Now all you have to do is set up temporary lines with step ins to contain them in the areas that you want to graze, and move them around in a circle, a few feet at a time every day with a back line set up to prevent them from re-grazing the areas that gets moved up behind them every three days or so.

I'd set up your goat area with a auto waterer with two openings, on the fence line to the main pasture  with one side to the goats, one side to the main pasture. If you don't want to mix the goats and cattle during the sacrifice areas in spring and maybe fall, you may need to set up an additional fence in your pasture to contain the cows so they don't go and muck up the whole thing during those times. You could use hi-tensile wire and take it down when you start grazing.  In the winter months, you can let them in the entire area, and feed them throughout as long as the ground is frozen. Move your hay feeding areas around so they'll spread their manure and waste hay over the entire pasture area, which will really improve the soil fertility.

[lakeportfarms]

Gene is correct..."crowd" your Dexters during the grazing season but move them frequently. If you allow them access to larger areas they wander around, trample mature grass that is perfectly good food, and constantly stepping on and breaking tender grass that is trying to recover after being grazed. Overgrazing is not a real accurate description...only 1/2 or less from being eaten down close, the other half is just from the foot traffic on the grass which causes it to break and have to start growing all over again. Having grass recovering and long also preserves the moisture in the soil, as it acts as a moisture canopy.

This was a great grazing year, but we were able to run 1 Dexter on less than 1/2 acre of pasture this past summer. On our second and third rotations through the pasture in late July and early September, Sheril and I were tripping and slogging our way through the grass and clover as we set the temporary lines it was so lush and thick.