Greg Judy explains a very simple economical grazing rotation anybody can do!
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- čas přidán 10. 10. 2019
- The key to profitable grazing operations is to rotate your animals. Grass plants need recovery periods between grazing periods. This method is as simple as it gets.
Thanks for a great keep it simple video/tutorial! "Start where you are, with what you have, make something of it, and never be satisfied". George Washington Carver.
This is pure gold! Touching story there in the middle. Thanks for cranking out all these treasures.
Justin, thank you for your kind words. Wishing your family the best with your dads health. Treasure your time with him.
That story about Kenneth...I started tearing up! Maybe that's silly, but something inside me gets so excited when someone starts to get it!
Without emotional attachment we're just animals God designed us that way
@@davidhickenbottom6574 when I read comments like this I have renewed hope!
Praise Yahweh !!
Natasha, I almost teared up telling the story. That was many years ago, but I still tear up when I recount talkng about
Kenneths one wire fence!!
Gosh though I can still see that old man's happy face when he grew twice as much grass by simply putting up one wire and rotating them.
Thanks Greg Judy for teaching me more about pasture rotation, it helped me write an essay for my intro to animal science class!!! I got a grade A for it!
Professor Judy in action. I love this. We are doing sheep because Greg suggested it would be better for smaller acreage.
Can you raise other animals like chickens by sharing paddocks in rotation with other animals like ducks and chickens?
Rotate chickens behind the cows/sheep two to three days after. Joel Salatin does this and his chickens love it. The chickens eat the fly larva out of the manure and spread it across the soil to help break them down faster.
I do not know about ducks.
I cannot wait to go to Grazing school next year with my girls and learn from Greg. It is going to be glorious.
@@AndrewGasser Thanks I am studying so I can get my own place. I have learned that growing good soil can increase the protein and fat in your grass by 300%. The other thing is that you can save 25% on feed if you sprout grain for 2 days before feeding your animals. And no longer than 2 days.
@@Horse237 , are you sprouting or fermenting the grain for 2 days? What animals are you doing this for? I have dairy cows, sheep and chickens and I'm very interested in cutting feed costs. Thanks so much for any information.
@@paulormsby316 Try this as an experiment. I have sprouted grains myself. I have also raised them on hospital tray like flats. I am studying because I want to start a market garden with animals rotating through paddocks. I have 3 computer files of notes, some from high priced agriculture consultants. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE NO MOLD. THAT IS TOXIC!! Please see the following reference:
www.attainable-sustainable.net/sprouting-grains-fodder/
Why grow fodder?
One of the best reasons for sprouting grains into fodder is that it helps stretch your animal feed expense. Fifty pounds of whole grain can be transformed into as much as 300 pounds of fodder simply by sprouting it. (How crazy am I for not trying this sooner??)
(This woman has been doing this for 20 years but she puts forth lots of effort. It is worth it with rapidly rising grain prices. My cousin in another state sold two steers and a cow at auction two weeks ago. Prices were low because ranchers were thinning herds due to high grain prices. Beef should sell for more next year. And pig exports to China went up 700% last month.
This is mind blowing, lofe altering, future of humanity changing material. Wow. Im gon a raise a bunch of cows. Moving to Idaho next year and Im gonna do it. Im rotating my 10 ducks now.
lulllllllz at your ducks,. Gotta start somewhere!
Best of duck to you :)
Sebastian, you are on to something!! Rotated grassfed duck is the best meat that you can put in your mouth. You will have chefs beating your door down to buy them from you. Good duck grazing to you!!!!
So if you are rotating 400 cows per hecter, how many ducks per 1/6 acre?
Did you do it?
You doing it bro? ♡
So many opportunity in my area I see it everywhere. I can't believe the grass I've got on my new silvo pasture its tiny but a great testament to you management techniques.
Thank you Mr.Judy , we've read your books and watch your videos , and have been stressed because with our current barbed wire and our reels we haven't been able to make daily moves work yet. ( Hoping maybe if Casey wants to come work here we can do things proper ) . This is really re assuring that if we can rotate the animals once or twice a month into our three pastures , and give them 30-60 days rest , that we can do alright. Trying to do things perfect like you has given us some stress and you just lifted that stress off of us . Thank you . I remember in another video you said " there might be spots over grazed, maybe spots they haven't touched, and there maybe spots that they took the top 1/3, just do your best" and that really helped also.
Greg, thanks for breaking this down to the simple basics. Now I understand more than ever how to get started on rotational grazing. Thanks for everything you do, Paul from Texas.
Paul E Dulin I have been listening and hearing but not seeing any practical steps that can really get a person to start on this journey. With this advice I can start tomorrow although I have challenges of my battery for electric fence being stolen but I will find a way to start this in June.
Hi
Thank you Greg for all your great videos.
Thanks for sharing Greg. You make it sound so easy.
Greg Judy is a legend.
Thank you Greg Judy. You inspire me. Time to make more paddocks!
The best teacher!!!! Thank you sir,!
Rewatching for a refresher....this is a Classic! Thanks, Greg!!
This is simple but huge advice! Awesome! Thanks
This video gave me exactly the information I was seeking; thank you!!
Fabulous presentation. I learned so much.
I love all your videos Greg
Simplicity is the key to brilliance.
Amazing sound btw!
Brilliant! great teaching tool!
Wow thank you! Very helpful to those of us just trying to get a grasp on this and get a start.
Blessings to your house!!
🙏🙏
Awesome video! So helpful, thank you!
Every farm used to fo this when I was a kid, we called it Cross Fenced, very few cow men around here now
It is more involved than you think!
Superb!
I did much the same in the mid 70's rotating four ewes, their lambs or a borrowed ram around one acre at Mint Cottage, Downe, Kent England with a moveable salt lick. I don't remember my water strategy. Using electric netting fence.
The onky problem was the growth of nettles. Perhaps, as I would have preferred, having a cow and calf might have helped. Mixing and diversity always helps.
As does rest and recovery.
Thank-you, and best! From England.
do sheep not eat nettles? (im not a farmer but i want to be) i currently have one orphan lamb and ive neves seen him touch any of me nettles. his favourite food is my flowers lol
man this makes things so simple! thank you
This is amazing, thanks. I am on a constant learning journey to adapt all these techniques to our arid climate. One thing I have learnt from the books and stuyding animals, is that the water point should _ideally_ be moved around. Animals gravitate, gather, sleep and keep moving to water, and eventually you get paths of compaction and randomness (as the wild animals do) decrease.
I love the stakes and division style here. Thanks Greg!
Thank you for making the starting point way easier in my mind. I would have made it way to complicated in the beginning. Seems less daunting now
Great information, thank you for posting this!
Great video, I cannot wait to use this very system.
Super helpful. I needed to hear this
Thank you Greg for teaching us! Could you make a video of you moving the cattle and rolling out the bales? Maybe even going over the details of the economics per cow? Thanks again from Matt and Isaiah
the water was what always stopped me, Praise God now I know how to do it!!!! thank you so much.
I wish my brother would listen to you. He thinks it can’t be done. And we live in Michigan. I mean for real. You can tell where is old pasture was now that he isn’t using it. Everything else is brown already and that area is still got the greenest grass on the place. Anyway, thank you again for the amazing info.
I like it! glad to see other guys talk using white boards!! not as glamorous as a new combine or tractor on youtube but a lot more educational and helpful to farmers.
Thanks Greg, video I was looking for 👍
Greg, nice video, I can say this works well I’ve been doing it this way for 7 years. Normally working here on 1-2 hd per 5 acres. Reasonable grazing pasture.
But currently overstocked a bit, as prices are down. Coping ok, even through a bad drought this year. This system does work.
Fire*Minx you keep 1-2 cows per 5 acres? How often do you rotate them to new grass?
@@FidelisLawnService Fire*Minx has at best 1/2.5 acres . Where I am at that would be 4-40x the normal stocking rate (1hd/10a to 1hd/100a) without feeding hay and sometimes even with feeding hay. Here running smaller cattle with oustanding pasture and realy good managment and rotation it is roughly 1.5/10 acres in average years with no hay. Where I used to live in a wetter part of the world it was closer to 1/acre for no hay year round with good managment, pasture and rotation. It was a learning curve. Different areas have very different levels that can be maintained even when using Greg's methods which work very well. As Salatin says, adapt to your local enviroment.
I just got 3 shetland sheep 💕Going to start rotating them! 👍🏻
Greg thanks for your taking the time to share your knowledge with us! Can you list information on the poly braid and reel? And possibly were we can buy them. Thanks again!
Thanks Greg!
Wow. I can do this on my 1 acre with sheep and my natural spring well. Thank you Greg. You are amazing, way better than Joe S.
Very good video 👍
With the example of four paddocks with the water trough at the side, I'd rather run the fences in a straight line diagonally from the trough, like the front of the letter K. After that it's kind of obvious how to keep splitting paddocks into smaller pieces with just the one water source. Any animals are going to need shelter as well, and a single yard with a shelter shed and water trough could serve quite a large area - in that example I'd build the yard entirely of gates and gateposts, giving a secure anchor for that end of the fence as well as a quick and easy way to shift animals from one sector to the next.
Thank you, Mr. Judy. I think that's the most daunting part, is wondering just where and how to start dividing up the land, how big of paddock will one's stocking numbers need and for how long a time. It's that indecision that makes many hesitate to make a move at all, wondering if it would even make a difference if they cannot rest each one long enough to have it recover in time for a new rotation. You bring it down to a "just do it and see" mode and I love that about your videos. So much common sense abounds and it's uncommon nowadays, as you must know.
I think that if you have a couple of hi-tensile permanent wires running parallel, say 600’ apart, you run the temp poly wires with reels across from side to side. You can infinitely adjust your daily paddock size. You just hang the reel where you want to set the width of that days paddock. Seems like you will intuitively know how big to make it on the next day.
Good and simplified. Ill use this design
Good Morning Greg! Thank you very much for offering your real-world farming wisdom. I'd greatly value getting your answer to a question. Right now I have 40 acres of land that's good enough to grow hay, but I've been pasturing it with cattle for 30 years. Five years ago I began rotational grazing, frost seeding, fertilizing and clipping. I run my pasture as a custom grazing operation which means I'm paid on the gain the cattle make. The 50 to 60 young cattle I have each season (about 500 to 600 lbs when I get them) typically gain about 10,000 to 11,000 lbs over a grazing season and I get paid 50 cents per pound of gain. So my gross annual revenue is $5000 to $5500. So here's my question: Can you suggest any other more profitable grazing-related used for this 40 acres of good pasture, other than the custom cattle grazing? I don't want to keep a breeding herd of any kind right now, so perhaps my current custom grazing approach is close to ideal. I live in Canada and the grazing season runs from mid-May to late October. Thank you very much, Greg!
Pasture raised chickens could be a good endeavor if you can get meat pullets cheap, joel Salatin has good videos
Hey Greg. Not sure where to ask you this, but I have been reading your book no risk ranching. And wanted more info on how to get into the custom stocker/feeder cattle operation. Where would I get more info on that. The ins and outs??? Btw I love your channel and the book as well. Amazing.
thank you for this video! I'll study though it's different language!
So clear!
THANK YOU!
Keep teaching people are listening.... Great explanation
Hey! Has anybody tried Greg’s methods in Colorado?
The landscape from MO to CO is vastly different, but the principles seem like they’d work even in more arid and snowy climates. I’m trying to implement them here in the Rockies. Hope to hear from someone soon!
Another awsome video Greg. So just being up the road an hour from you maybe you will have a easy answer. I am trying to figure out pad sizes for my 38 head of sheep for daily moves. I already know I have about 3 animal units, i just dont know how to figure carrying capacity. How do I figure carrying capacity?
Greg what minerals are you feeding to your pregnant or nursing cows? Also what are you feeding them out of that’s mobile for daily moves? We are just setting up water and power to get daily moves going this week!
Hi Greg
I was wondering how many heifers you would put one achor on a rotation every week?
Yes, but how do you determine how much live stock each paddy can handle and for how long?
Good stuff.
Could you do a video on how the wire would be set up for a mapped out area like this. I am about to start but dont know how to run different configurations with one solar charger. Only doing 5 acres but want to do two strips and then move the middle wires on reels as they go across the rectangle. The electrical set up is not my strong point.
Nice!
So simple but so smart.
Blains Farm and Fleet runs a sale every year on those posts. I got a box of 50 for $50 this spring (2019)
I enjoyed the simplified paddock description very much. As I consider the application to some land I have, the thought occurs to me that theft might become an issue. Do you have advice relating to security on a remote location?
dogs would probably help
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on rotational grazing in arid climates. Is there a way to rotate animals AND irrigation effectively and efficiently?
No matter where you live or graze, allowing plant recovery periods after plants have been grazed is a good practice. In arid environments your rest periods will be much longer.
that´s, awesme thank you. would you put together sheep and cows?
Yes the two species complement each other!
I plan on giving this a go. I have a ton of friends with cattle but they are treating them more like pets (ie... money pits). I plan on buying your book "No Risk Ranching: Custom Grazing on Leased Land." QUESTION: in this book, do you cover how you sale the cows you own? Are you selling them to individuals, by the cut, or taking them to the stockyards? Glad I found your channel. Thank you for putting out great content!!
stock yards for quick money, you can sell meat cuts to individuals for more money but more time consuming. Sell breeding stock for more than stock yard prices.
It really depends where you are and what kind of marketing you want to do. Check out grasfed life on CZcams for some more information on marketing and general grasfed meat
Breaking it down to its simplest form is very helpful for those of us trying to get started. We have 80 acres that we have had divided into three pastures for many years. I'd like to try a more intensive system though in our back pasture, which is about 15 acres. My question is how do I figure out how many animals I can have back there? (We'd like to get sheep).
Can you explain how this correlates to feeding them less hay in the winter like you said? Do you bale up the unused sections before snowfall?
If you rotate and rest your pastures between grazings, your pastures will have more grass for winter grazing. Check out the video i posted today. That is certainly proof that it works. Its January and we are still grazing grass that was grown last fall.
In an ideal world you would be able to graze and rest the perfect amount every time but what about if you're in a drought or something? Would it be better to over graze or "under-rest"?
We have a 30 acre pasture if we divide it how many cows can we put on it doing it your way
This technique has been used by new zealand farmers for a long time, also farmers save money on oral drench by back grazing, ie cows in one paddock for a few days then moved on and 2 to 3 days later sheep are put on same paddock, and also viversa. Different bacteria in the soils and on grass Will slow the worms effecting animals. Will not stop completely but in hard times this was common practice,
I would love to know what your views are on drench resistance. And how to over come.
Cheers from NZ!
.
Can you add links to what wire and posts you use?
Hey Greg do you use 6 strand or 9 strand powerflex polybraid?
9 strand polybraid from Powerflex Fence Company. 6 steel and 3 copper strands.
How to you handle shade when rotational grazing if there isn’t any
What part of MO do you farm? My dad was raised on my grandparents small dairy farm near New London and I still have family living on part of the homestead there. I admire your method of farming and I enjoy watching the video. It makes me want to buy the land there and raise some cattle. The pastures have been leased over the years and not taken care of, which makes me sad. Also, you look like my Grandfather! (No offense) Keep up the good work and thank you for encouraging responsible farming.
Central Missouri, north of Columbia
Where do you source your fiberglass posts and your reel?
God willing i will try this in malaysia.
GOAT🔥🔥🔥
Greg, I have 8 grazable acres on my property. Access to water and power.
It’s probably 50 percent or more weeds right now. How many cows can I rotate on that property? I currently have one milk cow and her calf but would like at least one more beef cow calf pair, but what’s doable? I also have two horses... should I keep the horses off of the pastures and only let the cows have it?
@ Liberty & Faith
I'm running 8 on 9 acres I think I need to keep it at 7 head total, working on my cross fencing now to rotate them...
Justin Bennett nice! that’s quite a handful. More than I thought would go on that space. Are you running cow calf pairs? What’s your operation like?
What if you have a center pivot in the middle? Put up small cattle guards on every spot? Kinda tough!
Hello Greg,
I would like to know if that wire is hooked up to electric or is just plain rope or wire.? New to this but I have 4 sheep and 3 acres, and some chickens. I would really like to use the method you are speaking on.
Thank you,
Jay P
It is electric charged
I’m from Arizona where we only get nine to eighteen inches of rain a year, which majority comes from monsoons July through September. Would this strategy still work under these circumstances?
There is an American family in 5ye chihuahua desert in Mexico who rotational graze, the animals are out of each part for an entire year.
Rotation grazing always means more and better grass, no matter the rainfall it location. It's the grass you are protecting.
We have horses, goats, pigs, and chickens so in what order should we rotate them and how big should each pen be?
How long should all animals be off the first pen they started on ?
If your example was 40 acres. How many cows and what part of the US? Thanks!
21 paddocks
How small might the paddocks be for 5 working around on 20 acres, roughly? Our rainfall is similar but we don't get quite as cold.
Minimum of 7 paddocks 0er group.
Look at how much they will eat in 3 days. Divide accordingly.
If you are short of growth. Only enough for a day, you'll really notice the increase.l in grass and it's quality.
@@Irishtradchannel Thanks for the reply. I'm actually fencing the perimeter the 6.5 acres around my home. Just a few minutes ago I was looking at my grass tips (after bushhogging some days back) and declared "This is ready to regraze!" But I have no grazers yet.
I'm no longer looking for hard numbers. I can start small here around the house and get my flock and dogs started once I've done the perimeter and have accumulated the wire and sticks to make two paddocks.
I've got a mix of mowed-only for 20 years pasture and some swampy uplands of mostly oaks and briars (trust that sheep or goats will control those briars). Hope to mix it up with other stock as I scale up. Multi-species grazing appears to be the best management of the land and it follows that the animals benefit as well.
Greg, what do you do about shelter for your animals in each paddock? I run hair sheep and I’m trying to implement this system on a leased farm they’re on but my available shelter is a limiting factor I feel like. Maybe it’s not as big of a deal as I think it is?
How many head per Acer
We have goats that would not stay with the one wire. What would you suggest to be able to make this type of rotation possible?
Goats are tougher to hold than sheep. Netting will hold them. But it is expensive and labor intensive to put up.
Greg Judy Regenerative Rancher I used to have goats. Now I have Dexter cows. A goat's favourite hobby is going out for a walk. A cow's favourite hobby is eating. I like cows.
Not a big investment is it? To just give it a go like your friend did and reap the rewards. I don't understand why EVERYONE isn't giving it a go
How large would the paddock need to be to only move the cow twice per year? I am researching before getting a cow/calf pair and was thinking of having four paddocks, maybe 3-5 acres each. Two for growing hay for storage each year (long winters), one for grazing, and one resting. Then rotating those each year so the grazed area would rest for 6 months, then be used for hay for a year before grazing again. Do you think this is reasonable? Or is it better to move them more often?
Your land and Livestock will do much better being moved more regularly. Start with once a week and work down to once a day. Your livestock and land will love you for it!!!!
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Thank you for responding! I appreciate your insight. 💜
Start grazing at the water and then strip graze away from it with no back fence. Thats the easiest solution to dealing with fixed water points.
Gear rotation to grass growth. Start grazing when the paddock grass is a foot tall; move cows to the next paddock after the livestock have eaten 6". Establish 4 paddocks.
4 paddocks is not enough for prolonged droughts. You will run out of grass.
Would something like this work for 1 cow on 1 acre?
How many days the cows in every area?
Greg Judy mentioned on a video in the past six months they were moving the cattle twice a day. Behind them, every two days they give the flock the four paddock sections previously grazed by the herd.
Probably a dumb comment.. but let me see if I have this right. You do the high density rotational grazing, the cows eat down the grass, then you let it rest and the cows eating it down stimulates further growth, then you let it stay there and through the winter move them back to those areas and let them eat that? Won’t it die during the winter? Or you take that grass that grows back and store it as hay?
will this work on bison?
Just curious if you have ever thought about raising bison.
No I have not considered it. They do look kind of tough and I believe they are pretty hardy, especially in the winter period.
How do you know what animals are to follow other animals?
We have goats, horses, kune kune pigs, rabbits, chickens,
How big should each pen be and move them ?
Would this be worth doing for 2 horses and one acre?
Yes
What do you use the Herd seeder for?
We use it to put down grass seed on our new ponds that we build. Many years ago, I used it every winter to frost seed red clover onto our pastures in late winter. Because of our improved grazing practices, we have not broadcasted clover for 13 years.
OK. Thanks, I knew that you didn't advocate having to seed pastures. Enjoy your videos, thanks Greg.
Why is polybraid better than poly wire?