Some considerations on rotational grazing.

Dear readers, in livestock production systems the feeding of animals is essential to maintain in balance the levels of meat or milk production as the case may be, to achieve that it is necessary to establish an efficient management of crops (pastures) established in the livestock ecosystem, to achieve the highest yield of green matter from these plants requires a management where agronomic practices are combined with the zootechnical management of animals, by this we mean the days that the animals will consume the pastures and the days that the plants will have rest to recover.

In that sense, to achieve the aforementioned in some livestock production units, a strategy known as rotational grazing is implemented whose objective is to achieve rational grazing, managing the animals in areas that are divided into several spaces where they will stay for a period of no more than 3 days, to avoid that there is a degradation of the pastures due to excessive consumption by the animals, that is, what we talked about in the previous article an "overgrazing”, in addition to this rotation, it is also important to implement the necessary agronomic practices, such as fertilization, which contributes to increasing the yield of the pasture and maintaining good coverage within the paddock.

In this same order of ideas, some recommendations for establishing an adequate rotational grazing system are shared below.

It is necessary to take into account when this type of management is going to be established, that the production of pastures will depend on the animal load that is handled on the surface, the occupation time that each paddock has, the rest days that are granted to the pasture, and the fertility of the soil, which can be improved a little with fertilization.
To determine the size and number of paddocks, it is necessary to know the number of animal units that will be managed per hectare, the days of rest and occupation, after knowing the number and size of paddocks, we proceed to delimit the area, either with barbed wire or electric fences, currently some producers prefer the electric fence because fewer ponds are used and they are easier to clean.
The species of grass must be taken into account and determine the recovery period they have in the rainy and dry seasons, in the dry season they need more rest days because there is little availability of water for their recovery and logically in the rainy season rest days are shortened, it is necessary to carry out sampling and determine the yield of the grass and nutritional quality during those periods so that rest days can be established accurately. This may vary according to the geographical area where you are located.
The fertilization of pastures should be considered without exceeding the nutrient contribution, one of the most applied elements in livestock ecosystems is nitrogen, specifically urea, although liquid organic fertilizers based on bovine manure can also be used, these fertilizers can be applied once the animals leave the paddock to avoid some type of poisoning, when the animals complete the cycle and return to the same paddock there should be no residues of the substances used to fertilize.
Last but not least, it is important that the species used are adapted to the climatic conditions to obtain their maximum potential and establish frequent diagnostics with the intention of verifying if there is any insect pest that affects their production or arvense plant that is on the surface occupying the space required for crops with forage potential.

Dear readers, rotational grazing is an alternative for the management of cattle and can contribute to reducing overgrazing and using pastures rationally, in this way we will have better pastures that can be used sustainably for long periods.

Bibliographic references

Faria, J. (2006). Pasture and forage management in dual-purpose livestock farming. Memory of the X Seminar on Pastures and Forages. Maracaibo: Universidad del Zulia - FCV.
Machado, D.; Silva, B. y Espinoza, A.(2012).Rotary grazing, alternative for livestock management in the Venezuelan paramo. Andean paramo project.

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Some considerations on rotational grazing. | Ecency