Grazing 101 Grazing 101 1 Brought to you by: Check out our free online courses too. They include Grazing 101, Record Keeping, and a 30-Day Challenge to cover the basics quickly. The National Grazing Lands Coalition provides science-based technical assistance, research and education for ecologically and economically sound grazing management on private and public lands. Find us on Facebook and on Instagram. OnPasture.com Translating research and experience into practices graziers can use NOW! Follow us on Facebook. Partially funded by a USDA-NRCS agreement. © On Pasture 2021 Grazing 101 2 Table of Contents Click on any page number to start reading Getting started Fencing Welcome 6 Principles 51 An 80-something grazier’s tips for success 7 Some electric fence basics to get started 52 Video Transcript 8 Video Transcript 57 Training animals to electric fence 60 Soil Health Successful solar electric fence 62 Principles 12 Video Transcript 65 A note from Don 13 Fencing experiment has expected outcome 66 A Closer Look at Soil Health Principles Nature and Properties of Soil 14 Water Video Transcript 15 Principles 68 The Five Principles 17 How much water do livestock need Take the Drudgery Out of Soil Testing 20 and how big should the tank be?? 69 Resources Greg Judy’s Fail-Proof Temporary Waterer 71 Use the NRCS Web Soil Survey to Video transcript 72 learn about your soils 22 I couldn’t see the forest..or the water for the trees - an example of thinking through Pastures problems 75 Principles 26 Resources - More stock watering ideas 79 A note from Don 27 When your plants talk, listen! 28 Dollars & Cents Leave More Leaves to Grow More Grass 32 Principles 81 Rest is NOT a Four-letter word 34 A note from Don 82 Video Transcript 37 Reducing inputs and the Graziers Vow 83 How long is a pasture recovery period? 39 Are you running a marginal business? 86 Video Transcript 42 Labor A mix of cool season and warm season Principles 92 grasses makes resilient pastures 44 Resources A note from Don 93 Downloadable Grass ID Guides 47 Ranching like a 12-year-old 94 Table of Contents Click on any page number to start reading Handling Facilities Resources Principles 97 On Pasture Forage/Stockpile/Animal Portable panels 98 Feed Calculator 144 Build a Bud Box for easier handling 102 Video Transcript 106 Closing Thoughts Livestock A note from Don 149 Principles 109 A note from Don 110 More Tools for Your Toolbox What livestock should you choose? 111 Find a mentor, On Pasture discount coupon The terrible breech 114 Additional reading 152 Resources How much food does your animal eat? 117 How do you know if your animal is sick? 119 Contributors Video Transcript 121 Authors and ebook supporters with links to more of their articles, websites and Management & Planning videos. This is a great place to find Principles 126 more resources 154 A note from Don 127 How much forage do I have? 128 Video Transcript 131 Video Transcript 132 Math and the art of grazing - figuring your stocking rate 133 Figuring Pasture size 138 Video Transcript 139 What does light moderate and heavy grazing look like? 140 Video Transcript 142 Getting Started Grazing 101 Return to Table of Contents 5 Kathy Voth and hear from throughout this ebook, is the mentor I Welcome! would have asked for help. This is a 101 course - perfect to get you started with a I’m Kathy Voth, the publisher focus on principles you can use as a foundation to your and editor of OnPasture.com grazing practice. I’ve also provided links to helpful and the editor of Grazing 101. resources and to grazing mentoring organizations. Then For the past two decades I’ve stay tuned, because Grazing Planning 101 is coming soon. been working with livestock Add your name to our email list to be notified when it’s and graziers to create more available. sustainable landscapes and healthy, economically stable I’m really excited you’re here. I wish you great success! communities. My life as a grazier began with the purchase of 1 goat, then another, then 11 more, plus 35 does and a buck and their kids, and from there, things began to expand rapidly! My knowledge as a grazier grew the same way. In many cases I didn’t even know the questions to ask, and when I P.S. Here’s Your Coupon! did, I rarely had a mentor to turn to for answers. I made plenty of mistakes, and, though sometimes painful, they This ebook includes links to supplemental information from were all great learning opportunities. On Pasture. You can subscribe here and use coupon code GRAZING101 to get 25% off an annual subscription. If I’d known then, what I know now, this is the ebook I would have wanted to read. And Don Ashford, my adopted Louisiana Dad, who you’ll meet in the first video Grazing 101 Return to Table of Contents 6 Don Ashford be understood by others we put together a pasture-walk An 80-something group to introduce it to our friends and neighbors. We belong to more farm groups then we probably should but grazier’s tips for we get great joy working with other people. starting off on the What makes us most proud are our son and daughter, our 5 grandkids and our 7 great-grand kids. It has been a right foot. hell of a trip so far, but we are not done yet. My name is Don Ashford and my wife is Betty and we live in Ethel, LA. It would be impossible for me to write a bio about myself without including Betty in it. We have been together since high school. I was in the senior class of 1955 and she was in the class of 1957. Do the math. We have raised cattle since 1959 except for a little time that I spent with Uncle Sam. We have grazed stockers, owned several cow- calf herds and custom grazed cattle for other folks. I worked as a pipefitter for more than 25 years. Until we went into the dairy business in 1977 we were as most people down here part-timers or week-end Click to start the video. ranchers. Later after we had learned enough about Management- intensive Grazing (MiG) to talk about it so that it would Grazing 101 Return to Table of Contents 7 Video Transcript - So you want to be a grazier! Hi! My name is Donald Ashford. least important, but we think you need to check before you really commit to this. I live up here at Ethel and we’re in the cow business up here. We been in this business since 1956 one way or the Soil is the first thing on this list of this inventory of other. And I say one way or the other because in that time resources. You need to know about your soil. The first we’ve been in the momma cow business, stocker business, thing you need to do really probably is to take a soil test. we raised roping calves for awhile, we milked cows for 12 Remember this. The foundation that you build on is the years. We feel like that gives us a little bit of experience, soil. So if your soil is lacking, nothing else is going to be like that we know a little bit about what we are doing, and we it should be. want to take this opportunity to share some of our thoughts and ideas with you. The second thing on our list on this inventory of resources is your pasture. Look at your pasture. See what your One thing all fo us in agriculture have in common whether pasture is today. Not what it will be tomorrow or what it we be full-timers, part-timers or weekend farmers, is we will be six weeks from now - what do you have to work with want to be successful. The dream comes before the plan, today? And this is one of the places you want to be honest but to make that dream reality we have to have a plan. And with yourself. You’re not going to cheat anybody but one of the things we think you need to start with is an yourself. inventory of resources. Let’s talk about the water. That’s the next thing. The An inventory of resources is no more than going over your water supply is critical and all your pasture management place and looking to see what you have to work with now. schemes the availability of water is very very critical. You That’s what we want to do now. want a water supply that is clean, plentiful and dependable. And one of the things that is kind of hard for some people We going to start with what we feel like is the most to understand is you don’t want your cattle to drink water important, talk about 8 items down to not necessarily the that you wouldn’t drink. Grazing 101 Return to Table of Contents 8 Fencing is very important. Check your fences. You don’t So plan your operation from the start to where you’ll be want to put cattle on a place that you’re going to have to able to operate it efficiently 25 -30 years down the road. be looking for tomorrow. Fencing makes good neighbors. You don’t want to fall out with your folks next door The next thing on this list is handling facilities - catch because your cattle are getting across the fence.