Management-intensive grazing: the advantages and how to start

Management-intensive grazing involves various rotational grazing practices. The main method used allows animals to graze on a small part of the pasture known as a paddock while other paddocks recover.

The advantages
This approach to grazing has shown clear benefits, including:

• More efficient use of resources
• Better soil health and plant growth because paddocks have time to recover
• Increase in overall pasture yields
• Lower operating costs thanks to a decreased reliance on fertilizer

Nevertheless, many producers are reluctant to adopt management-intensive grazing practices due to a number of limiting factors. These include the up-front cost for cross-fencing, which is required to split a pasture in to multiple paddocks, and the complex management needed to rotate cattle from one paddock to another. However, reaping the benefits of management-intensive grazing doesn’t require a massive investment.

Starting small pays off big
Management-intensive grazing can be implemented gradually and is easy to scale up. Even splitting one field in half is a step in the right direction. From there, adding more paddocks becomes easier as producers get familiar with the way their herd and their fields behave. Incremental, easy-to-manage changes can, over time, result in huge savings.

Sustainable grazing practices are crucial to the future of the agriculture industry. With land becoming more expensive and less available, maximizing the output of every acre while ensuring it remains fertile for years to come is paramount.