Now that the weather is warming up, it’s time to get ready to implement the 2025 grazing plan.
I keep notes in a Google doc and refer back to them often. I’m not comfortable with sharing all of them, but I will share the highlights.
Goals
Why am I doing rotation grazing? To develop soil health; to grow lots and lots of grass, and to make big, fat happy animals that don’t need medicine, supplements, or feed. One day, I want to get to the point where I don’t even need hay.
Climate
The area of NE Texas where I am at is very mild compared to the surrounding areas. It only drops below freezing a few nights in the year, typically in January and February (though December and March is not unheard of). The summers are warm, but rarely does it get much warmer than 95 F and the humidity is perfect for agriculture (in other words, it’s hot and humid.)
Spring starts in early March, but the grass does not start really growing until April. By mid April, the grass should be several feet tall. Spring ends in late May, early June as the weather starts to consistently stay above 85 F.
Summer lasts from June to October. The latter half of summer, July and August, tend to be drier than the rest of the year, but temperatures are pretty consistent throughout summer.
Autumn starts in October, with temperatures falling below 80 F consistently. Around mid December, we see the temperatures drop consistently below 50 F, signaling the start of winter. Autumn growth is never great.
Winter lasts from mid December to early March. The grass barely grows, if at all. If there is any leftover forage, it has barely any nutrients in it.
Because of our location on the globe, the daylight hours don’t vary by much between summer and winter. We get 14 hours in the middle of June and 10 hours in the middle of December.
Rainfall is important to grazing. We get, on average, something like 36″ of rain. This is about all that the grass can handle. Most of the rain comes in winter and spring, but we still get significant amounts in summer and autumn. Along with the rain comes storms and high winds, and even the occasional tornado.
Rules
For a variety of reasons, these are the rules I try not to violate while grazing.
- Do not leave the animals in one spot for more than 3 days. This is both for parasite control and the health of the grass and soil.
- Do not return to a piece of ground for at least 30 days. This is for parasite control.
- Do not return to a piece of ground until the grass has recovered.
- Do not take more than 1/3 of the grass in a grazing. Do not take a second bite.
- Keep the animals within 800′ of water. Cattle will drink less when the water source is farther away.
Herds
I will separate the animals into 4 herds:
- Cows
- Bulls
- Ewes
- Rams
The bulls and rams are obviously much smaller herds, and won’t be moved as often.
The steer will tag along with the bulls in 2025. In the future, about half of my cattle AUs will be invested in steer, but they can either stay with the cows or with the bulls.
Movement
During Spring, I will try to move the main herds 4x daily. This means a move every 3 hours or so, assuming around 12 hours of daylight.
During the summer months, I will likely do 2x daily moves, 6 hours of sunlight per move. This is to avoid working in the heat. I will move the cows at sunrise (6:30 am) which is the coolest part of the day. I will then move them around noon, which is typically cooler than the afternoon, plus hats provide better protection from the heat when the sun is directly overhead.
I will be keeping the cows and the ewes close together in a leader-follower system. Most of the time, the ewes will lead, but if I feel like the cows can use additional nutrients during calving and nursing, I may switch that about. By “leader-follower”, I mean that the ewes will enter a piece of ground, nibble on some forage, and then be moved off when the cows come behind. The rule that we don’t take 2 bites or more than 1/3 of the grass will not be violated. Meaning, the cows won’t eat grass that the sheep have already eaten, as there will be plenty of untouched grass.
The size of the paddocks will depend on how much forage there is. When the followers leave the paddock, I want 80%-90% of the grass eaten or trampled. I will adjust paddock sizes accordingly.
The paddocks will be formed by making 50′ or 100′ rows E-W across the field. Since the field is rectangular and 1000′ wide in the E-W direction, the rows will be 1000′ long and 50′ or 100′ wide. On the north half of the field, near the water hookup, I will move the water with the animals, but in the southern half, where the water pressure is significantly lower, I will have to keep the water source near the western fence, building lanes to get water.
The rows will be divided into paddocks with crosswires. Moving the animals will be a simple matter of: (1) laying out a new crosswire, (2) moving the sheep into the new paddock, (3) moving the cattle into the paddock where the sheep were, and (4) removing the unused crosswire behind the cattle. (The bulls and rams will be given the entire row and moved every 3 days or so.)
Spring Rotations
Starting around April 15th and up to May 31st, about 7 weeks, I will start rotating 4x daily with the cattle and the sheep, probably from the northernmost row. The goal is to move quickly, eat the grass, and trample the rest. I anticipate that we will cover about15 acres.
Summer Rotations
From June 1st to September 30th, about 18 weeks, I will start rotating 2x daily. Because summer forage is not as abundant as the spring forage, we will likely cover more ground in the same amount of time. I will probably cover about 80 acres (covering some ground twice, of course.)
If we have drought, or if the forage runs short, I will roll out hay to supplement the forage, probably in July or August.
Autumn & Winter Rotation
Autumn and winter will be at the same pace as summer rotation, supplementing hay as needed. It will last from October 1st to April 15th, 2026, 28 weeks. We will go over 130 acres in this time, obviously covering some ground twice or three times.
Stockpiling
My neighbor’s back 20 will be the stockpile. I will only graze on it if absolutely necessary.