Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
herd,” reduce winter confinement feeding costs, and take vacations when cows
do not need to be milked. Farmers who have switched to intensive grazing man-
agement also report a reduction in labor requirements, improved animal health,
greater per acre productivity, better profitability, and greater satisfaction from
their work.
4
With these kinds of benefits, why wouldn't everyone want to practice
intensive rotational grazing?
In reality, this “new” approach demands new ways of perceiving and
thinking, which require the management of new risks and the develop-
ment of new approaches to farming. Graziers have to develop new skills
of observation, watching the cows and the grass to make sure both
are healthy, and they have to be prepared for seasonal changes specific
to their pastures. Intensive rotational grazing demands flexibility, imagi-
nation, and careful attention to biological details (which practitioners
call “the grass eye”). Graziers must be able to observe and interpret
agroecological indicators of plant-animal interactions in their pastures.
In doing so they are influenced by topography, soils, moisture, and pre-
vious management decisions. In the words of Jim Brown: “You have to
look ahead and determine when to graze and that requires experience
and observation. There aren't any rules or regulations. You gotta look
at the pasture.”
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The spring flush requires special attention. At the begin-
ning of the Wisconsin growing season, the lengthening days and
warming temperatures stimulate the rapid growth of pasture plants,
and the grazing animals have to be rotated through the several pastures
quickly to prevent vegetation from overgrowth and waste. At the end
of the season, in the fall, pasture growth is slow, and the animals have
to be rotated through pastures fairly quickly so as to not damage the
plants.
Intentional rotational grazing requires an agroecological knowledge
system—what Cannell and Brown call a “knowledge base.” Graziers
developed local, participatory sustainable agriculture networks not
because UW did not have the potential to help them, but because it was
not doing so. For four decades, dairy research had investigated how to
optimize the confined feeding system and the monocultures on which it
depended. They had considered researching grazing, but had ruled it out
because it is not as productive per acre, and thus they could not offer gra-
ziers knowledge about this farming system. As one UW dairy researcher
confessed, he had nothing to offer them.
