After I my post on Ultra High Density Grazing a couple weeks ago I noticed by way of e-mails and such that quite a few people were stumbling on to this blog while searching for information about the topic. This may be the “next big thing” in grazing … or maybe it is the “big thing” right now. I am not an insider in the grazing circles yet so I don’t know where it stands as far as wide spread acceptance. But, I do know there are quite a few people out there looking for information and I know that I have had a tough time find a lot of information about it. So, I though I would blog again about Ultra High Density Grazing and see if the community of people that read or stumble onto this blog could give some more insight into the subject.
Krystle commented on my first post and mentioned that Greg Judy (author of “No Risk Ranching”) is switching to Ultra High Density from Management Intensive Grazing and because of that switch the are becoming more profitable. Also, someone else commented or e-mailed clarifying my understanding of the subject. It is interaction like this that makes learning about grazing so much easier!
Basically, if I understand correctly, Ultra High Density Grazing is placing a high number of cattle on a small space so that they eat down the grass fairly quickly (maybe leaving around 30% forage?) then moving them to the next paddock. I believe we are talking about two or three paddock moves a day because of the high stocking density. Sometimes is this also called “mob grazing”. It seems like the basis for this practice comes from imitating the large herds of American Bison on the plains of the Midwest and West. Those large herds would move through an area eat it down quickly and then just keep moving. If only paddock switches were that easy!
I think it is a very interesting idea. Those that are doing it are falling in love with it, from what I understand, and they are really increasing the carrying capacity of their land. After reading a little about Ultra High Density Grazing a few thoughts and questions do pop into my mind. First of all, I think if you are really going to take advantage of this method you will need to have a good source to sell your beef to. If you are selling directly to the consumer I could see easily over producing for your market and then having to dump some animals (unless maybe you are doing something along the stocker lines?). Also, I think I would have to experience and learn from doing MiG grazing before I tackled something like this. Another question that pops into my mind is what about dry seasons. If you have a much higher amount of cattle than your normal MiG or continuous grazing stocking numbers what happens when you have a dry summer? Do you have to dump cattle, should you be irrigating anyways, are you going to have to feed stored forage? That also brings up another question … what about winter? Is this a better system for stocker cattle on large ranches or can it work on smallish farms also?
Ultra High Stock Density Grazing is a very interesting topic and I would look forward to learning more about it. If you have anything to add, correct, or discuss please make sure you leave a comment … also, if you have some good links or books make sure you let everyone know about those!
We do managed intensive grazing. You can deal with some of the issues like dry times by moving the animals more quickly. Don’t use a calendar – instead move the animals to the next paddock based on how much they’ve eaten out of the paddock they are in. The goal is to not return to the same paddock for at least 22 days and preferably 30 days – that helps with parasite control in addition to avoiding soil compaction and letting the forage regrow. This works very well for us with pigs, sheep and chickens. I especially like the multi-species grazing as they do a better job than having just one.
UHDG SHOULD TAKE INTO ACCOUNT PLANNING A DROUGHT RESERVE WELL INTO THE NEXT GROWING SEASON. DEPENDING ON YOUR ENVIRONMENT YOU CAN DEFER HALF OR ONE THIRD OF YOUR PASTURE FOR NEXT YEARS DRY SEASON. AT THE END OF THE GROWING SEASON YOU HAVE TO ESTIMATE YOUR AVAILABLE COW/DAYS UNTIL THE NEXT GROWING SEASON. THEN YOU START UHDG IN UP TO 8 MOVES A DAY TO INCREASE UTILIZACION OF THAT PASTURE. NEXT SEASON YOU CHANGE YOUR DEFERED PADDOCKS SO YOU CAN INCREASE THE VIGOUR OF THE GRASS IN ALL YOUR FARM.
Hi,
My family and I transitioned from MiG to UHDG in 2009. We’ve been tremendously pleased with the results so far. One concept that took us a while to grasp (but the importance of which cannot be stressed enough) was the difference between “stocking density” and “stocking rate.” Simply put, stocking density is pounds of liveweight per acre, whereas stocking rate is number of animal units per acre. While these concepts seem like the two different ways of saying the same thing, they really aren’t. You can change stocking density without changing stocking rate by shrinking paddock size. UHDG can increase your stocking rate (numbers of animals on your farm) but it will likely take several years to do so. You reach the goal of increased stocking rate by first increasing your stocking density. Greg and Ian insisted that we realize that the “ultra high density” part of ultra high density grazing refers to stocking density, NOT stocking rate. The reasoning is that every farm has an upper limit on stocking rate at a given time (for instance, our farm currently supports 20 mama cows, 15 mama goats, and 6 mama sheep). If you set your stocking rate above that upper limit (if we decided to take on an extra 15 cows right now) your land simply can’t produce enough forage to match the demand.
Best wishes to everyone in their grazing endeavors,
Will Bowling, Old Homeplace Farm
http://www.OldHomeplaceFarm.com