How we run our ranch

We have divided our former 80 acre pastures into 40 acres, and some of those we have divided further into 20's. In doing so we have allowed ourselves to do rotational grazing.

We did go to the Rotational Grazing Class held locally but decided to implement the rotational fencing ourselves without going through a cost share program. The reason we personally did not go through a program, is that they wanted us to put in a well ( which is ok) and to run water lines all over our 800+ acre ranch, which would also be ok, except for the fact that we currently have 36 ponds and/or lakes( 2 of which are 5+ acres), and each 80 acre pasture that we had, had atleast 2 ponds in it and placed as they were, each pasture could be divided into 40's WITH OUT adding further water ( atleast at this time). The main point we had was that we felt that the divisional fences were of much greater importance as a first step, than installation of NEW water. So we decided to do it on our own.*

Now that that is explained, I will say that the rotational grazing works very well and has made it VERY easy to catch our cows, as we set up lanes to allow us to move them "past" a pasture , to any other pasture on the ranch, but of course this lane also goes to our corral, now all you have to do is call them and they come. Once in the lane they have no choice but to go to whichever gate is open... works very well! :0)

It has also improved the pastures greatly, there are not as many bare spots as there were 10 years ago when we purchased the main ranch, and the clover flourishes because it has the chance to regrow. Also the cows help to fertilize more evenly and since they are on "good fresh grass" at all times (except during winter) their excretement is much thinner and a rain will disolve it so that it can begin to be absorbed into the soil for use... this also has an added value in that the cows will graze over these spots the next time you turn them in, not like if there are hard "cow pies" that they avoid grazing around for at least a year or more.

We are also using High Tencile Electric fence, with steel pipe corner posts and metal T posts every 50', and pipe in the high and low spots.( This has worked very well in training our young stock to respect fences!) As we run atleast 5 seperate herds we found the electric to have the added advantage of keeping the bulls where they are supposed to be. Of course the lane and an empty pasture is usually kept between the herds, but we have had bulls in with cows in one pasture and on the other side of the fence we had a herd of replacement heifers who were not bred yet, and we had no problems. Even for short distances and times we have had two herds sharing a fence with bulls in each.

While this works for us, it may not work for everyone, there are those bulls who will tear down pipe corral to fight with the guy next door. :0) Luckily our bulls do well with our system, high docility is a key here.

All in all we like the rotaitional grazing very much.

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