Ben at Grazing365 has been doing this longer than me and recommends tight spacing with aggressive grazing.
He has done more research than me and has more experience, so I am considering his advice carefully. His distinction is “selective” vs. “non-selective” grazing. Selective Grazing is when you allow the cows to pick and choose, and leave the rest alone. In other words, you are not forcing the cows to eat everything. Non-Selective Grazing is obviously the other end, forcing the cows to eat the grass, often letting them eat the grass down beyond one bite.
Greg Judy seems to be on the lighter end of the Non-Selective Grazing idea, and is probably on the heavier end of the Selective Grazing.
My idea, the thing that I am doing right now, is I’m trying to get the cows to eat 80% of the grass 1/3 of the way down. I want to leave as much roots in the soil and I want to have the grass recover quickly. I do not want to damage the grass.
I believe that the grass will get stronger and overpower the weeds, even if the cows leave the weeds alone. Besides, I plan on running sheep after the cows to clean up the weeds that the cows miss. But I believe that the focus should be to get good, strong grass with deep roots, and let the weeds do whatever they want. Eventually the grass will crowd out the weeds.
I’ll try to carefully document what I do and what effects it has.
I don’t know who is right, or what is best for my soil at this time. Ben may be doing what is best for his climate and grasses, and Greg doing the same for his, in which case, it’s a pointless disagreement. And ultimately, I’ll have to figure out what works best for me right now.