Rotating the Cows

I have been obsessed with rotational grazing and grass-fed beef ever since I saw this TedTalk: How to green the world’s deserts and reverse climate change by Allan Savory. Shortly after that I saw a talk by the Savory Institute at an ancestral health conference and I was determined to become a rotational grazer.

Five years later, I got to actually move cows myself.

For a beginner, like myself, moving the cows is fairly simple. The farmer had already set up the next few days of paddocks so my task was to simply get the cows from their old paddock to their new paddock.

Rotational grazing relies heavily on the natural behaviors of the animals to help manage the animal/pasture system. Each day, the animals are placed in a paddock that is big enough for them to spread out and eat, but small enough that they are pressured to eat everything. At the same time, the paddock is not so small that they eat all the way down to the ground, but leave a few inches on each of the plants. When they’ve eaten everything down, they are right next to fresh pasture and when it’s time to move, they are ready to go. There is no herding or cajoling.* Just open the fence line and let them go through!

The fencing on the farm, for the cows, is all electric. There is permanent fencing that breaks up the pasture into long approximately 10 acre rectangular chunks. Temporary fencing is then strung across to make the daily paddocks. The size of the paddock can easily vary depending on the number of cows, how lush or sparse the paddock is, or even to match the landscape. The cows zigzag back and forth across the pasture and won’t return to previous paddocks for months.

If you want to see more of what I’m talking about – including seeing some before and after video of the pasture – you can check out my highlights on my instagram page. Forewarning: I say pumped about 17 times. I was really excited. I won’t apologize.

*I should say there is very little herding or cajoling…except when you are tasked with setting up a new fence line yourself and make a few missteps. Then you are faced with some skeptical cows who followed you and watched you walk back and forth three too many times. Then when you finally open the fence line, they just stare at you. And so you try to convince them to come on in, but it doesn’t make a difference. Really, you’re just waiting for the one cow hungry enough to trust the new (and clearly inept) human and walk through. Thank goodness they are herd animals and will just follow the leader. But that was a different day…