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Title: Comparison of management intensive grazing and continuous grazing in beef cattle pasture

Author
item HENSLER, A - OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
item BARKER, D - OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
item SULC, R - OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
item LOERCH, S - OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
item Owens, Lloyd

Submitted to: American Forage and Grassland Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/1/2007
Publication Date: 6/24/2007
Citation: Hensler, A.L., Barker, D.J., Sulc, R.M., Loerch, S.C., Owens, L.B. 2007. Comparison of management intensive grazing and continuous grazing in beef cattle pasture. In: Proceedings of American Forage and Grassland Conference, June 24-26,2007, State College, Pennsylvania. 16:48-51.

Interpretive Summary: A common grazing practice in Appalachian Ohio and the eastern U.S. is to allow cattle to continuously graze (CG) the forage and have minimal management or fertility improvement. In a system called Management Intensive Grazing (MIG), there may be a higher fertility level and the field is divided into small sections or paddocks. The cattle are moved from one paddock to another on a daily basis allowing the cattle to graze the small area intensively while the forage in the other paddocks grows without grazing until its time in the grazing schedule. These two grazing systems were compared at the North Appalachian Experimental Watershed (NAEW) near Coshocton, OH using similar fertility levels. In the MIG system, a cow-calf beef herd was moved 5-6 times a week. Cattle weights were recorded every 4 weeks. The amount of forage was measured weekly in each paddock. Both cows and calves had greater weight gain in the MIG system than the CG system. The cattle in the MIG system were able to graze 17 days longer than the cattle in the CG system plus some hay was harvested in the spring from the MIG system. It was concluded that the MIG system is a viable grazing option for livestock production in Appalachian Ohio.

Technical Abstract: Management intensive grazing (MIG) offers the potential to increase the financial profitability and productivity of grazing beef and dairy farms in Appalachian Ohio, with minimum environmental impacts. The objective of the project was to compare MIG with conventional continuous grazing (CG) and relate seasonal forage growth in these systems to livestock production. The project was conducted on four replicated pastures totaling 42.5 ac and with 35 cow-calf pairs at the North Appalachian Experimental Watershed (NAEW) located in Coshocton, OH in 2006. Cattle in the MIG system were moved 3-5 times per week. Forage biomass was measured using a calibrated rising plate meter (RPM) weekly in 15 paddocks per pasture from June 21-Oct. 26,2006. Cattle weight and body condition score were recorded every 4 weeks. The calibrations slopes for each week of measurements ranged from 137-247 lb DM/ac per RPM-unit. Cows on the CG pasture had an average weight gain of 112.9 lb/cow while cows on the MIG gained an average of 136.2 lb/cow. The calves on the MIG pasture also gained more (484.8 lb/calf) than the calves on the continuous pasture (472.9 lb/calf). The cattle on the MIG system were able to graze 17 d longer than those on the CG system. An additional 19,140 lb of hay was harvested from each MIG pasture (averaging 1.645 lb/ac). It was concluded that MIG is a viable grazing option for livestock production in Appalachian Ohio.