By Damon Pollard
Livestock producers, be it cattle, horses, sheep, or goats, should think of themselves as forage producers as well. Increasing forage in the diet reduces feed costs and increases potential yield per animal. And in reality, it is an input that the producer can manage himself to minimize concentrate purchases. By maximizing forage utilization, producers are increasing organic matter and can improve nitrogen levels found in the soil. In turn, this sustainable practice reduces surface water runoff and slows or prevents the leaching of nutrients and forage-covered fields need less fertilizer and they protect soil year-round.
Spring allows producers a good opportunity to assess fields and create a working plan that is economical and increases or protects the fertility of the land. Sound pasture management enables livestock to graze on pasture for more days of the year, reducing supplemental feed costs. The first step toward increasing days on pasture should be to implement a rotational grazing system, which will allow pastures time to recover. With two (or more) pastures, producers are then able to rotate animals back and forth, which ultimately increase the fertility of the soil by allowing the empty pasture to replenish itself. In recent years, producers have been grazing livestock on alternative pasture such as wooded areas, swampy spaces, and even weedy overgrown thickets with mobile flocks of sheep or goats using portable electric fencing.