Over-Grazing
This is not part of Cross Creek Cattle Company, but is an example of an over-grazed pasture. Notice the bare areas and absence of tall grass.
For retirees and young families alike, a common dream seems to be for city-dwellers to move out on acreage in the country. They buy some land, buy some livestock, and enjoy living in the slow-paced rural environment. Since we live relatively close to Houston, we are personally seeing a huge increase of ex-Houstonians move into our county. However, some make a common mistake. They over-graze their pastures.
Over-grazing your pasture is bad for your land and your livestock. Without adequate grass on your soil, erosion can occur very easily with any rainfall. A heavy rain and a subsequent flood can devastate your land. Grass also resists wind erosion, too.
Livestock must have grass to thrive. Without adequate grass, horses can get sand in their gut and make them sick. Cows and other ruminants must have plenty of grass, too. If there is not sufficient grass available, then you must feed hay. The last thing you want to be doing is feeding hay to your cows in the summer. Hay is expensive to buy and/or produce; therefore, you will feel the consequences of over-grazing in your pocketbook.
So how do you prevent over-grazing your pastures? At Cross Creek Cattle Company, we rotate our pastures regularly. We want our cattle to be on fresh, green grass daily. We do not want them to lose their good condition simply because we let them crop the grass too low to the ground.
If the grass is left between 4-8″ long, the plant is able to recover more easily. Under that point, the grass struggles to rebound. Therefore, we allow our cattle to graze while we monitor the condition of the pasture grass. We don’t like the grass getting under 6″.
Over-grazing can also occur if you have too many head on a certain amount of acreage. There is no magic formula for figuring this out as it depends on where you live. For example, a rancher in Southeast Texas can have more cattle on a less acreage than a West Texas rancher. In the more arid areas of Texas a rancher has to have thousands of acres for the same amount of cattle elsewhere.
Let me show you some photographs. These pictures were taken on the same day, September 2, 2010. The photographs below are of the front pasture on Cross Creek Cattle Company. Compare the condition of the pasture and grass to the picture at the top of this article, which is of a place down the road less than a mile away. Therefore, we have received essentially the same amount of rainfall and the same high summer temperatures. The differences lie in pasture rotation and the amount of livestock on the land. We have much more livestock on our land.
In the photographs of Cross Creek Cattle Company, our entire herd of cattle and then our nine horses had been grazing for days. On the other property, a couple of head of cattle and a few horses have been grazing in the same pasture all summer long. You are just going to have to take my word on it.
One view of the front pasture. Beyond the fence and lake is a second pasture. You can see for yourself the length and condition of our grass.
The same pasture under the trees.
Another angle of the same pasture. There are no bare spots even though the grass has been baking in the sun day after day.
If you are new to ranching or have been doing this for generations like us, we all want what is best for our land, our cattle, and ourselves. Monitoring the condition of your pasture is an easy place to start to protect all three. Even with relatively few acres of land, you can implement an effective pasture rotation program.
Tags: Cross Creek Cattle Company, grass fed beef, over-grazing, pasture rotation
September 2nd, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Your pastures look really big, so how do you get the animals to eat everything evenly and not over-graze their favorite area? Do you use small temporary paddocks within each big pasture? That’s what we’re trying to figure out how to do, but we have to solve the shade and water problems.
September 8th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Susan,
I guess big is relative. The three pictures are of the same pasture from several angles, but you can see into the next pasture, especially in the first picture. The barbed wire fence cannot be seen in the photograph.
Our cattle stay together as a herd in the same pasture, but there is enough room in which to spread out. This helps reduce fighting. Have you ever noticed that one cow will spend all day trying to bully the others? It is like she is afraid that she will not get all that she needs. Instead of eating, drinking, and chewing her cud, she spends all her energy trying to control others.
Each of our pastures are different sizes. We divide them based on topography and water supply. We want our ranch to be usable and beautiful, while being used efficiently by our cattle. If they were wearing down one side of the pasture, then we would have a problem; however, we have not experienced this. We do watch the behavior of the cattle and the condition of the grass. It is a balancing act.
You don’t want them in a pasture so long that they grow bored and sit all day under the trees or tearing a section up. But you don’t want to run them through a pasture so fast that they do not properly graze the grass or not help you grind the weeds into the ground with their hooves. The ratio of head of cattle per acreage is also important to consider.
I hope this helps answer your question.
Lara