Rotaional Grazing

[Jeferin]

I live in west central Wisconsin.

Could any one tell me how large I should make my paddocks for 10-12 cow/ calf pairs?

 

[CPL]

It depends on how big or how small you want it to be. Do you want to move them everyday? Once a week? Twice a month?

 

[Jeferin]

whatever would be most efficient for the pasture growth. I was thinking every 3-5 days.

Would that be about 1 acre?

The rest I would leave in hay fields and pasture later in the summer.

 

[Dusty]

whatever would be most efficient for the pasture growth. I was thinking every 3-5 days.

Would that be about 1 acre?

The rest I would leave in hay fields and pasture later in the summer.

1 acre would be good, but you must have a passion for fence building then..

 

[Maines in PA]

Polywire is the only way to fly for building those small paddocks. Mine are 1 -1.5 acres and handle about 10-12 pairs plus a couple heifers on a 3-day rotation as long as soil fertility is good, there's a decent stand of grass, and it rains enough.  This time of year you can rotate through in 15-20 days, but in the heat of the summer you need at least 30 days of rest (40 days is better). Call NRCS and ask if they have a grazing specialist in your area. Those folks are trained to help set up and size systems.

My .02.

Bob

 

[common sense]

I have no idea what the grass is like and the typical summer weather in Wisconsin but here are some things to maybe keep in mind.  You can rotate more often durig the spring and rainy season than later in the summer.  There are some GREAT electric fence "things" out there that will be an upfront investment but you will use for years.  I have a spool of electrified "rope" with a gate handle that I can easily roll up or string out.  It holds about 100 feet of the stuff.  You can use it to quickly and easily to divide paddocks.  It's wonderful. The spool mechanism hooks on the fence so you have instant power; you don't have to tie anything off. Also, you might want to have a bad weather paddock.  That way when it is raining heavily the cows won't tear up the good paddocks so much.  Keep your water source and gate holes in mind when you are building.  It is much easier to move the cows through the gates if it is close to the water source.  Rotational grazing takes some management but it will really pay off over time.  We actually split up our larger grazing pasture which is only about 80 acres.  We divided it into three pastures and rotated based on the grass length.  When one paddock started getting short we moved to the next.  The cows were in each one at least two weeks on the average which gave each paddock about a month's rest. The two biggest benefits were easier weed control and we could run a lot more cows without putting so much pressure on the pasture.  I think this is a great way to manage your grass and cows.  You do have to be careful so that if it starts to dry up and the grass quits growing that you don't allow them to overgraze. You can ruin everything you accomplished pretty fast!  Google rotational grazing and see if you can find more information.

 

[Jeferin]

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions.

I am going with 8 - 1.5 acre paddocks 7 cow/ calf pairs and 2 heifers. I hope to get 5 days out of each, meaning I would be on 35 day rotation.
I do have a couple of extra paddocks I will have in case of the overly wet or dry seasons (no grass growth).

Typical Wisconsin summer is 80-90s maybe a couple of days of 100.
Decent rainfall (not sure on inches) 3-4 crops of hay with the first taken end of May and 150 - 200 bu corn if that helps.
We are very dry so far this year.

OVERGRAZING: Yes probally the biggest mistake of rotational grazing. I have done it in the past. NOT GOOD!

 

[Meadow Creek Farm]

We are located in Clark Co. WI, and rotate 5 cow calf pairs over (8) 1.5 to 2 acre pastures. We generally graze 5 -7 days per pen and have a wet weather drylot  that we put them on to save the good grass. the pastures are orchard grass, bluegrass, timothy, and a little red clover. We keep our heifers in a separate 2 acre pen and supplement with hay when the grass gets short. Small acreage requires intensive management( fertilizer and weather management) but it can be done. All our cattle are "show cattle" so moving them is not a problem. Almost all are handled daily. Plan your gates and water with a lot of forethought like was mentioned before.