Grass Productivity - An Introduction to Rational Grazing

New Release: Andre Voisin's Grass Productivity

SIMPLE questions often help us to understand problems better; and I think it indispensable, at the beginning of this work, to ask a question which appears simple in the extreme:

“What is grazing?”

The answer is generally as follows:

“Causing grass to be eaten by an animal.”

That is correct! But here is another answer which, to my mind, is more realistic:

“Causing the grass and the animal to meet.”

Since this book is almost exclusively concerned with grazing by cattle, I propose the following definition to the reader, requesting him to allow it to become well impressed upon his mind:

Grazing is the meeting of cow and grass.

It is a meeting of this nature, or at least the first steps towards such an end, that I want to attempt in this book.

We will not study the grass and the cow separately. We will always consider them simultaneously and together, in such a manner as best to satisfy the demands of each.

When we think of the cow, we will not forget the demands of the grass. When we examine the grass, we will always bear in mind the demands of the cow.

It is by satisfying as far as possible the demands of both parties that we will arrive at a rational grazing, which will provide us with maximum productivity on the part of the grass while at the same time allowing the cow to give optimum performance.

[From the Introduction]

This is the original text, which showed how what is known today as "rotational", "management intensive", or"mob grazing" can triple the output of any given pasture - which means more than triple profits for a grass fed beef or dairy farmer. This text has been recovered from the original 1959 edition and republished for your use in a modern format - perfect for a digital reference library or a print-based one (or both!)

502 pages.

eBook now available:

Trade paperback (6"x9", 66 pages) available on Lulu and soon on Amazon and all brick-and-mortar bookstores:

Hardback textbook available:

A Rough Outline of How to Raise Grass Fed Beef

(Our calves on the mineral block.)

Some simple secrets on how we raise our grass fed beef.

Answered another beef farmer's questions recently and thought you'd want to know. He's from Illinois where cheap corn is available, and wants to raise some grass fed beef.

What I cover below is some secrets I've worked out which aren't generally used in the cattle industry:

• The only supplements I use are salt and minerals in blocks. I do also have tubs of loose minerals with a high iodine content - this has eliminated pink-eye problems. Blocks are from Orcheln's Farm and Home, the loose minerals are from MFA, their "Breeders 12".
• My heifers are bred at 15 months so that they'll have their first calf at 24 months. They are only grass fed.
• After weaning, we let the steers back in with their dams. Any steer which go back to nursing puts their dam on the short list for replacement - as these attributes aren't wanted. It doesn't hurt the calf or dam, but may cause problems when the next calf comes along. Hasn't yet, through.
• I pull out the bull and steers in the spring, when the steers are about 24 months old and the spring calves are dropping. This is to keep the bull company and lets me see what weights I have. I sell the steers and then put the heifers with the bull a month before he's turned out with the rest of the herd. We tried August this year, working on pushing our calving back to May, which is when there is plenty of good grass for milk production and none of the calves get frost-bit like they do in Jan/Feb. Also, we don't have scours here, as no calves are born in a feed lot, but on pasture.
• Following advice I've read, I'm working to get the farm so that it provides enough grass to feed the cows all year round. This is by using management-intensive, rotational grazing - a hot polywire moved every day or two, with a following wire to keep them off what they grazed. We buy our hay from others, which tends to be as cheap as making it ourselves, when you account for the time and machinery repairs. Plus, half the cost is accounted for in the minerals you are getting in that hay.
• We place our hay out for winter where the pasture land is poorest, so what the cows "waste" returns to the land as mulch - and the cows spread their own manure nearby. I use the tractor just twice a year for hay - once to put it away for storage in the spring, and once to put it out for feeding in the fall. This has tended to rebuild poor soil within just a few years.

The whole point here is to make the farm self-sustaining. The underlying secret is to let Nature do the heavy lifting. The major time I invest now is in moving temporary fences and keeping perimeter fencing in repair.

I don't spend a lot of time on the tractor. But I'm starting to invest more time in tree-planting and forest thinning. Several tanks of chain-saw fuel are a lot cheaper than a tank of tractor fuel. Seems trees and grass work together to make the best pasture. The trick is in "hiring" the right kind and enough cattle to help maintain and rebuild the land.

The wealth of the land is in its accessible mineral content. Conventional farming experts have no clue right now on how to rebuild land which their cultivation methods have worn down. Cattle and intensive grazing is the only known method right now.

Green is a lifestyle, not a metropolitan fad.

Good luck with your own efforts down this line.

PS. I'm working to revive some classic books along this line, ones which gave solutions which have mostly been ignored. I'll post them here when I do. (I publish books as an off-farm income source.)

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• The Origins of Corn Fed Beef Started With Leftover Ammunition
• Farm Income Solution - Wholesale Grass Fed Beef Bought Locally
• How to Convert Your Farm to Mob Grazing from Conventional
• 'Mob grazing' helping Iowa cattle producers, pastures
• Making Steak...

Greenhouse Gas Lies Exposed - Facts about Grass Fed Cattle Flatulence...

Grass Fed Cattle are Carbon Negative (and Flavor Positive!)

Found this in a more recent Kit Pharo newsletter:

Taking Out the Carbage –
By Peter Ballerstedt
PeteB@GrassBasedHealth.com
www.grassbasedhealth.blogspot.com

I’m preparing for my participation in the 2012 Ancestral Health Symposium (http://ancestryfoundation.org/).  The symposium will take place at the Harvard Law School August 9th-11th.  Not a bad gig for a forage agronomist!  The title of my presentation is The Reality of Ruminants and Liebeg’s Barrel: Examining the New ‘Conventional Wisdom'.  One of the themes of this year’s symposium is sustainability.  I don’t see that term in the simplistic way many do, in part because I remember being told by leaders of the sustainable agriculture movement that “animals have no place in sustainable ag!”

The truth is that the production of animal products from perennial forages is the sustainable agricultural system.  Many, however, are concerned about the carbon dioxide and methane “emissions” from livestock in general, and cattle in particular.  Some folks don’t seem to understand that a cow grazing grass can only emit carbon that was originally in grass, and that the carbon in grass has to have come from the atmosphere.  So it’s a cycle, not an “enrichment.”  But there’s more to it than that!

Under the following assumptions:

Carbon/Nitrogen ratio = 17 and 3.4% N, giving 57.8 % C
3% of body weight daily dry matter (DM) intake; 1,000 lb cow = 30 lb DM per day
70% utilization - 30 lb DM eaten / 0.70 = 42.8 lb DM offered
Equal above and below ground DM distribution
90% of C consumed is “emitted”

We’d see:
42.8 lb DM above ground, 42.8 lb DM below ground – 85.6 lb DM total
57.8% C in DM – 49.5 lb C total
17.3 lb C consumed
15.6 lb C emitted

For every pound of carbon “emitted” by a cow on grass, 3.2 pounds of carbon are fixed in plant roots, uneaten plant debris, or the cow herself or her calf.  Even if 100% of carbon she ingested is emitted, there’d be 2.9 pounds of carbon fixed for every pound emitted!  Beef cattle are carbon negative!

Related articles

• What's Safe, Healthy, Cheap, Green, and Runs on Grass to Grow Your Meat?
• The Origins of Corn Fed Beef Started With Leftover Ammunition
• How Does Natural Farming Affect You - and Mob Grazing Data Your Should Know
• How to Find Missouri Grass Fed and Pasture Finished Beef
• Why Does Missouri Grass Fed Meat Taste So Surprisingly Better?
• Can Wholesale Meat Prices Afford a Beef Ranch?

Some Online Resources for Intensive Grazing - Links and PDF's

One of the popular pages I've had for years is where to get PDF's about Intensive Grazing.

Here's a recent round up from ATTRA - great downloads.

ATTRAnews August 2013 - Newsletter of the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service

Intensive Grazing Resources

American Forage and Grassland CouncilP.O. Box 94, Georgetown, TX 78627 800-944-2342 www.afgc.org American Grassfed Association P.O. Box 400, Kiowa, CO 80117 877-774-7277www.americangrassfed.org California Grazing AcademyContact: Roger Ingram University of California Co-op Extension Livestock and Natural Resources Farm Advisor rsingram@ucdavis.edu 530-889-7385 Eat Wild website lists farmers and ranchers who raise livestock on pasture and sell directly to consumers.www.eatwild.com Extending Grazing and Reducing Stored Feed Needs by Don Ball et al. Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative Publication. 2008.www.agry.purdue.edu/Ext/forages/pdf/ExtendingGrazing-Auburn.pdf Graze magazine P.O. Box 48Belleville, WI 53508 608-455-3311 www.grazeonline.com

Grazing Systems Planning Guide by Kevin Blanchet et al. University of Minnesota Extension Servicewww.extension.umn.edu/distribution/livestocksystems/DI7606.html Holistic Management International5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 505-842-5252 www.holisticmanagement.org NRCS Grazing Lands Technical Publications www.glti.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/landuse/rangepasture Natural Resources Conservation Service has grazing specialists in every state. Contact your county office.www.nrcs.gov Pastures for Profit: A Guide to Rotational Grazingby Dan Undersander et al. Cooperative Extension Publishing, University of Wisconsin-Extension. 2002. http://learningstore.uwex.edu/pdf/A3529.pdf Quivira Coalition 1413 2nd Street, Ste. 1 Santa Fe, NM 87505 505-820-2544 www.quiviracoalition.org Stockman Grass Farmer magazine P.O. Box 2300, Ridgeland, MS 39158 800-748-9808 www.stockmangrassfarmer.com

ATTRAnews August 2013 - Newsletter of the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service

ATTRA Resources for Intensive Grazing The following ATTRA publications and resources include useful information related to intensive grazing management. These resources and many more can be found in the Livestock and Pasture section of ATTRA's website, www.attra.ncat.org. Call 800-346-9140 for a printed copy. Prices vary. Many resources are free. SP* titles are also available in Spanish. A Brief Overview of Nutrient Cycling in Pastures IP221 Assessing the Pasture Soil Resource IP128 Converting Cropland to Perennial Grassland IP244 Dung Beetle Benefits in the Pasture Ecosystem CT155 Grazing Contracts for Livestock IP247 Grazing Networks for Livestock Producers CT166 Managed Grazing in Riparian Areas IP223 Multispecies Grazing CT147 Nutrient Cycling in Pastures IP136 Paddock Design, Fencing, and Water Systems for Controlled Grazing IP152 Pasture, Rangeland, and Grazing Management IP306 Pastures: Going Organic IP297 Pressure-Treated Wood: Organic and Natural Alternatives IP362 Rotational Grazing IP086 Ruminant Nutrition for Graziers IP318 SP* Tools for Managing Internal Parasites in Small Ruminants: Animal Selection IP400 Tools for Managing Internal Parasites in Small Ruminants: Pasture Management IP401 Pastures: Sustainable Management IP284 Protecting Riparian Areas: Farmland Management Strategies IP186

 

ATTRA's New Publications about Intensive Grazing Management

• Grazing Calculator: Extended Cow-Calf Pair IP458 (Download only)
  
  This calculator provides a simple and quick way to analyze your grazing program as you work your way through the grazing season. It will make management decisions much easier and give you confidence that you're on track with your grazing plan.
• Irrigated Pastures: Setting Up an Intensive Grazing System that Works IP456
• Why Intensive Grazing on Irrigated Pastures? IP457
• Updated —
  
  Pastures: Sustainable Management IP284

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• Think Twice About Where Your Xmas Ham Comes From