Why We Delay Spring Grazing on the Farm's Pastures

The grass has been green for a couple weeks now. I have seen many farms where the livestock has been out since the grass turned green. 

We wait a bit and hold the animals on hay. Why the delay? It comes down to making choices that benefit both the health of the pastures and the animals.

The down-and-dirty basics of a plant lifecycle 

When the first spring plants and grasses emerge from the soil, they are actually using energy stored in their roots. This energy was stored in the fall before the plants went dormant.

As the plant grows and starts to add leaves, it gains the ability to start harvesting energy from the sun. At this point, the plant begins to really grow. It starts sending energy and nutrients from the sunshine back down into its roots.

The roots then grow longer in search of water and soil minerals. The plant reaches a phase of intense growth until it produces a seed head or fruit. 

What happens if the plant is bitten off by a grazing animal as soon as it emerges? 

That animal just took the energy the plant needs to live. If the plant is lucky, it still has some energy in storage and will begin to regrow. However, it will regrow more slowly.

If it gets bitten off again, this really sets the plant back. Depleted of its stored energy, the plant will slowly attempt to re-emerge using the little trickle of energy it can collect from the sun with its feeble, bitten-off stump.

If you leave the animal on the spot with no rest all summer, you really run into problems. You develop dead soil, limited plant life and a drought-susceptible farm. 

When we start grazing on spring pastures

We like to wait until the plant has the chance to grow a few leaves and get some height to it. How tall the plant needs to be for this varies by variety and conditions.

Usually when the plant has developed more than just one little leaf sticking from the soil, it has started harvesting energy from the sun. 

This energy is rapidly stored in the roots and used to grow taller above ground and deeper below ground. In this high-growth phase, the pasture grass is no longer using stored energy and is producing all-new energy from the sun. 

What happens when grazing animals are rotated on pastures

When plants have a chance to grow, the animal bites off the top of the plant rather than the whole plant. The plant is left with the momentum of longer roots with excessive stored energy, and a longer leaf to continue harvesting sunlight. 

The grazing animals are then moved before they eat the plant off to the ground, also known as overgrazing. With this rest, the plant rapidly recovers and sometimes actually grows more quickly than before.

Not surprisingly, the high-growth phase is also the stage when the plant has the highest nutrient and energy value to the animal. The plant has sent a high concentration of sugars, minerals, and proteins to the ends of its leaves as it shoots for the sky. 

An animal that keeps taking bites of this nutrient-dense food as it moves across the pasture becomes a healthy animal. And a healthy animal produces nutrient-dense and delicious food for the human steward.