Planned Grazing

[brokenhill]

Just wondering if anyone has experience with high intensity or mob grazing. What benefits or drawbacks you have seen with this planned grazing approach. Based on what one reads there seems to be a huge amount of upside in terms of soil health, animal productivity and the bottom line. Any information would be a great help.
Thanks.

[per]

You must have a local grazing association. There is always someone there who has done it. I fool around with the concepts but don't feel too qualified to answer.

[smcgrath76]

Depending on where you live there are
usually good local mentors that will
gladly tour you for free. As well, many
of the provincial organizations put on
good grazing seminars. Sask forage,
foragebeef.ca and areca are all good
AB/SK resources. Also look at stockman
grassfarmer for good resources.
The biggest thing is to have/use a plan
but remember that nature sometimes has a
different plan, so plan for flexibility.
We have seen nothing but improvements
with MIG grazing on tame pastures. We
use deferred, rest rotation adapted for
our native ranges.
There is no one right simple system for
every ranch or even every grazing cell.

[ivbinconned]

I have been doing it for 12 years with 30 acre paddocks. Best thing I could have done for our sandy soils. Just remember you are a "grass grower" first, not a cattle man! We are converting grass into protein and using the cattle to to do it.
Take care of the grass and it will take care of you.

[brokenhill]

Thanks for the help. I participated in the Grazing Mentorship program administered through SaskForage but found they matched a mentor by location rather than areas of interest. Didn't find it all that helpful. I have taken a couple of classes through Holistic Management International, found these to be very helpful. Contacting a local grazing club is a good idea. I always find bouncing ideas of others is always quite productive.

Thanks again.

[per]

There is a pretty long thread on the 5BarX forum on MIG that might be of interest to you.