Hello, I am Jim Elizondo from Real Wealth Ranching. I have been teaching classes for a long time now. They focus on boosting profits while also enhancing your land fertility.
We know that we should not graze young grasses. It would shorten and weaken their roots. That would be overgrazing, and we must minimize it. We want to produce 3-5 times more grass than with continuous or early spring grazing of young grass.
I have been in Vermont and Alberta, Canada this month (September 2024). It is clear that the Total Grazing Program, with its slogan "Fat cows, Fat cows, Fat cows," is the best grazing system.
Why? Because we aim for our livestock's health as our priority. Healthy livestock perform better. Better performance means they will convert each ton of grass into more pounds of sales. We want more production per ton of grass.
But, here it gets interesting. We need to consider our livestock needs. But, we must also consider our grass needs. Our grass will grow soil when pruned at the right time by our livestock.
Our livestock, grasses, and soil microbes are in a symbiosis. It creates fertile soil. That's why I say it. Soil with large amounts of long-lived carbon in it. And long-lived soil organic carbon is our soil's real fertility! No doubt about this :)
Okay, let’s get to the details of a good grazing program. It should mimic nature. It must consider plants' physiology, livestock health, and how to create long-lived soil organic carbon. It must also meet our economic needs, including cash flow and long-term growth.
This may sound complicated, but it is how nature works!
First, we need to start with the end in mind. This means starting with a clear idea of what we want to create or how our future will be.
We can write a simple, efficient goal: maximize profits. Do this while we quickly improve our land and genetics. There it is: simple and effective, a goal that no one will go against! This will help you avoid conflict with family members and decision-makers. :)
I invite you to get the Infrastructure Mastery training package. It has videos, pictures, and narration. It shows how to design and build a minimal, flexible, electric fence. It is a permanent structure. It also details low-stress cattle handling in the field, in the corral, and in the bud box design. It is a low-cost, 2-4 hour course. It's easy and you can review it when implementing.
What would be your first step to start in the right direction? I want you to avoid the usual stop-and-go and start anew. My suggestion is to start with a minimum and flexible electric fence and permanent infrastructure.
Why electric fencing?
Because it costs 13 times less per mile for each year of life than barbed wire fences. I suggest using barbed wire or hog fence for your perimeter. For your interior fencing, use a single-wire electric fence with galvanized wire.
And what should you design first?
The water alley should be in the center of your larger paddocks.
A good water alley will ease your and your livestock's lives. It will let you adjust each paddock's size based on grass growth and herd size. Plus, when you link all your water alleys, it is easy to move your animals. You can graze the best grass paddocks in the green season. You can also stockpile your poorest paddocks for standing hay in winter or the dry season. Without a well-designed water alley, it is next to impossible to do this. And it gets more complicated when the property is large.
Many new students start with many permanent paddocks, yes. But, they lack the water alley, which hurts their chances.
Creating many small, permanent paddocks is costly. It will be hard to manage them when the grass grows at a slow rate, your livestock group changes size, and you decide to stockpile some paddocks as hay while leaving others for grazing during the green season. A checkerboard of green grazing paddocks next to stockpiled ones is best for wildlife. It also reduces fire risk in dry areas.
I have consulted on ranches and farms worldwide. If they do not build their water alley first, they create a problem. I was recently on a large ranch. It was miles from end to end. After checking the paddocks, we needed to graze some of them within a week to prevent a loss of quality. But the herd was miles away and they were grazing paddocks in a sequence: big mistake, grass doesn’t grow in a sequence.
Let me explain; some paddocks will have different species than others. This means that they will mature earlier or later than the others. And what can we do without a water alley to move the large herd around in an easy way? The manager said it would take 6 weeks to reach that far-away paddock. He had no water alleys that were interconnected, so he'd drift the herd slowly through the adjacent paddocks. By then, the paddocks further away would lose their quality.
Without a way to leapfrog paddocks through a water alley, your herd will graze mature grasses most of the year. This takes away your biggest advantage: grazing your grass at its best in the green season.
With a water alley, they could have taken the herd to the best pasture in an hour instead of 6 weeks. It would not have overgrazed their paddocks.
Grazing your grasses when they are too young, like in early spring, will reduce your yearly production per acre. Yes, they may recover later, but they will not produce as if they had not been overgrazed by grazing the grass too young.
Overgrazing is a matter of time. It occurs when we graze grass that has not recovered its energy in the crowns and roots. It is what has created deserts, and it is also what allows weeds and shrubs to take over your pasture.
Conclusions and recap:
I hope you like this. Visit www.rwranching.com/infrastructure for your Infrastructure Mastery training. It has unlimited access.
Thank you for listening, and see you in the Infrastructure Mastery Training!
Until then:)
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