Use stocking density, timing to achieve perfect graze

DUNDEE, Ill. — Cattlemen are in control to obtain a perfect graze of pastures by their animals through stocking density and timing.

“You can adjust those two things to end up with a perfect graze, which is totally in your control and not that hard to do,” said Trevor Toland during a presentation at the Regenerative Grazing School hosted by the Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition.

“Stocking density is the pounds of livestock on an acre,” said Toland, vice president of ILGLC and owner of River Oak Ranch near Macomb.

“My rule is we will not allow any group of cattle to stay in a paddock more than five days because they’ll be after the regrowth,” he said. “To make shorter intervals of grazing, you can use temporary fencing to cut down the grazing to two or three days.”

Stocking rate is the number of animals on the entire operation.

“Most of us won’t be able to change the stocking rate to change the stocking density and time intervals,” Toland said.

“We have to manage our animals to get through the entire grazing season and at our farm we want to graze from mid-April to mid-February or more,” he said. “We need to be able to take animals through the slump time of July and August.”

Toland has 265 acres of pasture on his 400-acre farm. There are 49 permanent pastures ranging in size from one to 20 acres.

Those paddocks are divided based on several reasons, including separating two different species of forages.

“We’ve got paddocks divided because the reed canary grass only grows in the floodplain and cattle are not very fond of this grass, so we make the line of the paddock at that point where the floodplain ends,” the cattleman said. “If we don’t, the cattle will go to the preferred grass and graze it hard.”

Right now, Toland is coming to a time where he might not have grass for the 150 cows currently grazing at the ranch.

“We don’t have any corn residue to graze, so we’ve got to get from the end of the grass to the stockpiled fescue that will be grazed in mid-November,” he said.

This may require feeding the cattle hay in a sacrifice pasture.

“Sacrifice pastures are necessary in most operations,” the cattleman said. “We have trouble with flooding, so when it floods, the cattle go to the sacrifice pasture.”

When the sacrifice pasture is not needed for a while, Toland will seed an annual to improve the sword.

“We never make hay because it’s far cheaper to buy hay,” he said.

Toland has nine ponds on his pasture and several serve more than one paddock and one pond serves five paddocks.

“A river goes through the center of our property, so we have ponds because some of the pastures are far away from electricity,” he said. “We’ve never had a problem with water affecting the health of our animals.”

The ponds have ramps or the water is moved with gravity flow systems.

“The idea of the ramp is for the cattle to go in, get a drink and go out,” Toland said. “Cattle will destroy a pond in no time of it’s not fenced.”

Since cattle are creatures of habit, they will create cattle trails if they are allowed to be in a place over periods of time.

“Paddocks have to be designed to fit you and your environment that will make it the easiest to fence,” the cattleman said. “The beauty of temporary fencing is you can control the grazing and fit it into the period of time you want — one, two or five days.”

Toland highlighted several benefits of regenerative grazing, including increased forage quality and quantity, better plant vigor and improved soil health.

“You can increase the stocking rate because there is more forage,” the cattleman said.

“There is also enhanced animal performance and happier animals,” he said. “Our goal is to have the best meal available every day of the grazing season.”

Toland trains cattle to respect the electric fence that separates the paddocks.

“There is no fence pressure because cattle don’t even look at the fencing if you’re using proper rotation,” he said.

Improved animal behavior is another benefit of regenerative grazing and Toland never drives cattle.

“I’ve taken cattle from the furthest paddock from the house, across the bridge and up to the pasture close to the house,” he said. “It’s about a half-hour journey with just me in front of them.”

Along with elimination of invasive weeds, regenerative grazing also results in lower soil temperatures.

“On a 90-degree day, I measured the soil temperature in a good forage area and a bare soil area and there was a 20-degree difference,” Toland said.

The pillars of sustainability are caring for the environment, socially acceptable practices and economically viable.

“We entertain visitors any day of the week,” the cattleman said.

Toland encourages graziers to show the value of their operations on a per-acre basis.

“For years in the beef business, we’ve concentrated on per animal and brag about things like weaning weights, but we never speak in terms of per acre,” he said. “We should focus on per acre because that’s the reason we have land.”

Grazing records are vital to determine if the operation is making money.

“Records are important because we may have to go to a lender or some day we may have a chance to sell carbon credits,” the cattleman said.

At the ranch, Toland has a calendar on the wall that lists every paddock move that is made by the cattle and how many cows are in the group.

“Record this every day and include if it is a cow unit or cow/calf unit with estimated weights,” he said.

Toland also has a last-grazed sheet for recording the date for the last day a paddock was grazed.

“We can look at that sheet and see how many days of rest it has had so we don’t compromise the days of rest,” he said.

At the end of the season, Toland evaluates each paddock so it is important to be accurate about the acres in every paddock.

“Paddocks vary a lot, so we want to know our good and poor paddocks to figure out why,” he said. “We want to be alert for changes and for things we ought to be doing different.”

Records are important, Toland stressed, to make progress.

“You’ve got to have records year after year so they are believable,” he said. “One set of records is not much good; you need consecutive years to show it is sustainable.”

By evaluating a grazing enterprise per acre, Toland said, it is possible to make a lot of progress.

“It’s fun and the animals really like it, too,” he said.