Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The visual difference between mob grazing and rotational grazing




Compare these three pictures. You might recognize the one picture from a few years ago when we mob grazed the stockers. They ate every leaf on every tree sprout, most of the brush, musk thistle, and other forbs. The other two pictures show the effects of rotational grazing...not a single leaf has been touched. The stockers selectively graze and the trees are left untouched. We are purposely not mob grazing the stockers this year as we attempt to get maximum gains on our home raised stockers before going back to mob grazing late this year/early next on purchased stockers. It drives me crazy to see this selective grazing: First, we are getting NOTHING out of the incredible amount of forage that is left untouched and Second, we are getting zero brush/tree/weed control thru defoliation.

It's pretty obvious to me that the best way to utilize the forage on this particular ranch is thru mob grazing. There have certainly been set backs, but all in all, mob grazing has shown positive results.

1 comment:

  1. Hello - I'm interested in your feedback around Mob Grazing in 2012 particularly with the drought. I am in Iola and studying the benefits (not far from you).

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