The principles of grazing are timing, frequency, and severity. In timing of grazing it is important to avoid repeated grazing during critical stages of plant growth. New growth needs energy from the plant. Plants need ungrazed leaf tissue to harness energy from the sun. The goal of managing grazing frequency is to avoid grazing too often or continuously during the grazing season. If allowed to regrow and replenish energy, a plant can be grazed serveral times during the season. If infrequent grazing occurs it creates increased dead material and restricted plant growth.

By counting the cattle in the picture you can determine the stocking rate for a riparian pasture. This group of cattle would need a pasture of at least three and a half acres. The stocking rate is two cows per acre.The number of cattle is one of the most important decisions with any grazing system. More cattle improves grazing selectivity and improves performace.

The number of pastures will create more flexibility and more opportunity to control timing, frequency, severity, and grazing season. The size of the pastures will effect non-selective grazing. Small pastures grazed for short periods of time with high animal numbers will be more effective then allowing a small amount of animals to stay in pastures for a longer period of time.

All of these principles are being used in the grazing project at the Escuela Ranch. In the photo below you can see the corrals that are used to separate cattle into their proper grazing groups.

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