Why We Move Our Cows Daily: the Benefits of Managed Rotational Grazing

Taking a break today from our food labels series to answer a question that's popped up often for us in the last few weeks: "why do we move our cows (and sheep) so often?"

We get this question a lot more about our cows than we do for our sheep  - simply because up here, not that many people raise sheep, and a lot of people do raise cows…just not the way we do.

It might seem silly to some people that we spend dozens of hours a week moving our animals to new pastures, especially when we're just bumping them over to a paddock a few feet from where they just grazed. 

Why not just dump them out in the field and let them have at it? 

In past posts, we've talked about the benefits of grass-feeding ruminants (sheep, cattle, goats) as far as the health of the animal and the quality of the meat go. 

But grass-feeding does require some logistical acrobatics, and one of those is figuring out how to provide exactly what your animals need from a nutritional standpoint, especially with limited land to work with.

This year, we're grazing our cattle on our own acreage in addition to two rented sites. We hope to expand this in upcoming seasons, but want to talk a little bit more about why this labor of love is (very much) worth the extra work it requires. 

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Improved Land Utilization

First, and perhaps most importantly, intensive grazing allows us to get the most "bang for our buck," so to speak, as it comes to land.

Many people recognize and extol the virtues of grass feeding their livestock, but what they get wrong is in the duration and intensity of grazing, preferring a continuous grazing model over a rotational one.

It's all too common to drive by a massive field and see cows dotting the landscape, spread out, nibbling here and there. It's the classic, Norman Rockwell-esque picture - the idyllic one that looks beautiful, no doubt, but is hiding some big problems behind that beauty.

I'll dive more into those problems below so you can get a better idea of them, but I'll first call out the obvious.

In traditional grazing systems where livestock are allowed to roam freely (continuous grazing), several issues can arise, including overgrazing. This depletes vegetation, leading to soil erosion and degraded land quality. 

Plus, since livestock tend to congregate in certain areas (like around water troughs or in the shade), it leads to uneven manure distribution, causing nutrient overload in some spots while leaving other areas deficient. Soil compaction is another issue.

Intensive rotational grazing addresses these issues by allowing livestock to graze in a limited, selected area (even if there's much more acreage immediately available) and then moving them to another section. This approach ensures we get the most use out of a small allotment of land.

Video of our cattle just after a move (they’re still on pretty scrubby pasture here, but we’re hoping to improve it over the next few months and years):

Increased Soil Fertility and Health

Which leads me to the next point - soil health. A key tenant of regenerative farming is paying closer attention to soil health. It takes 500 to 1000 years to create just an inch of topsoil. Unfortunately, this is being rapidly depleted.

By focusing on soil health, we can take steps to start rebuilding that soil, even though the payout likely won't be immediately evident. By moving animals frequently (in our case, everyday or every other day), we reduce the risk of overgrazing and give the soil a chance to recover and become more fertile.

As mentioned, intensive rotational grazing helps distribute manure more evenly, fertilizing the soil and promoting robust plant growth. One study from the University of Georgia and University of Florida found that pastures, after six years of intensive grazing, retained 95% more nutrients and 34% more water. This is huge.

It also increases microbial activity. We tend to squirm at the thought of microbes, donning our rubber gloves and reaching for the Clorox wipes at the thought of bacteria and other creepy-crawlies, but the reality is that healthy soil (and healthy human gut biomes, for that matter) need microbial activity. 

Regularly inputting organic matter - but not all at once - from manure encourages healthy microbial activity, which decomposes plant residues and recycles nutrients. 

Emerging studies are also showing that rotational grazing can help promote populations of other valuable species, from birds to beetles. Dung beetles, in particular, are attracted to cow manure (hence the name). The more dispersed the manure piles are, the better the dung beetle populations. 

Dung beetles may not seem important, but they help improve nutrient cycling, forage growth, and even soil structure. They also damage the larvae of certain pest species, like horn flies.

Reduced Compaction

When animals graze in one area for too long, their hooves can compact the soil and make it harder for plants to grow. I'll admit it - we have certain areas on our farm that are far more compacted than we'd like to be. 

Typically, these are holding pens and catchment areas - places where we gather the sheep or cattle to be worked (vaccinated, hooves trimmed, loaded into trailers, etc). Often, these aren't very vegetated because the soil is so compacted. 

However, we strive to avoid this in all of our managed pastures where our animals are feeding and spending the bulk of their time. Rotational grazing disperses compaction and maintains soil structure. By moving livestock frequently, the pressure on a given area is reduced, allowing for better air and water penetration. 

Which leads me to the next point: water and erosion.

Healthy soil with good structure retains water more efficiently. This reduces runoff during heavy rains (which we all saw last summer). We were lucky to have minimal flooding on our farm, but not all of this was luck - much of it was due to managed rotational grazing.

Runoff not only carries away nutrients and actual soil particles, but it can cause contamination of nearby bodies of water. If you were frustrated that the beaches were closed so often last summer due to the algal blooms, this was a big reason why - when it rains a lot, runoff increases (not just from farms but from other land areas from stormwater and wastewater) and carries excess nutrients into the lake that result in algae). 

Rotational grazing helps improve the soil structure for the reasons mentioned above. The soil is able to hold water better without becoming waterlogged and without it running right off. 

Think of pouring water onto a sponge instead of your kitchen counter. The sponge is going to hold the water a lot better and it's not going to pool. It's just going to be absorbed and stay moist for a long period of time, whereas the water you pour on your counter will either spill off onto the floor or just sit on the top of the counter, ruining what's underneath, until you clean it up.

Healthy soil also grows healthier, more diverse plant species. They develop root systems that anchor the soil, again helping to prevent erosion and reduce run-off. 

Finally, well-managed pastures can act as buffer zones, with the plants actually filtering out pollutants before they reach larger bodies of water. All of this is incredibly important when it comes to keeping our water supply healthy for animals, plants, and people alike. 

Increased Forage Production & Reduced Forage Waste

The biggest benefit from a cost analysis perspective is that rotational grazing encourages a more efficient use of forage. 

Here's the thing: if you were to go to an all-you-can-eat buffet, and you could choose from any kind of food you wanted, regardless of the cost (or the impact on your waistline!), what would you eat more of: the savory meats and delicious sweets? The prime rib and the decadent cheesecake? Or would you nibble on the salad bar?

While I love a good salad and eat it just about every day, if I'm treating myself, I'm going to go for the tasty stuff. 

Cows and sheep are no different. If they have a choice, they're going to go for the yummiest, most tender forage possible, and ignore the tough, weedy stuff like burdocks, thistle, and nettles (to be fair, some of these do still get picked around, even in the best case scenario of rotational grazing). If they have more room to graze, they also probably won't trample those species down, so they'll thrive and quickly overtake the pasture. 

With time, that pasture will become overgrown with those weed species and offer less nutrition for your animals, making them less productive. It will take more space to feed the same number of animals.

If, however, you concentrate your animals in a smaller strip of land for a limited period of time (24 hours or so tends to be the sweet spot), they'll eat everything and trample the rest down. However, the key here is timing - keep the animals in one spot for too long, and they'll become malnourished and overgraze, leading to all the issues described above. 

The other element here is a rest cycle. By leaving paddocks alone after they've been grazed and not coming back to them for a good, long while (typically at least 30 days), it gives them a chance to recover and come back healthier than ever.

Frequently moving your livestock prevents overgrazing and promotes the health of the plants. Nutrients are cycled more efficiently and pastures not only become more productive, but more resilient. This means they can respond better to environmental stressors like droughts and pests.

Extended Grazing Season

By carefully managing our pastures and grazing patterns, we're also able to extend the grazing season and reduce the need for supplemental feeding. 

Here in New York, we'll likely never be able to completely eliminate the need for hay over the winter months - but the longer we can stretch grazing into the fall and winter, the better, both for the health of our land and animals as well as for our wallets.

Greater Livestock Health 

To that end, another obvious benefit of rotational grazing is the health of our animals. We aren't certified organic and likely never will be - it's not a priority of ours to complete that paperwork, at least not now. We do, however, believe in the virtues of zero- or limited- insecticide use. 

When animals are moved daily, it prevents the spread of parasites and diseases. Ever heard the saying, "don't s*** where do you eat?" Rotational grazing is likely the inspiration for that eloquent bit of wisdom.

When your animals aren't grazing near their own poop, they're much healthier. Diseases and parasites don't spread as quickly, if at all, and we don't have to use costly medications. Through our commitment to rotational grazing (and the use of fly predators - a topic for another post) alone, we're close to eliminating our fly problem.

Improved Response to the Effects of Climate Change

All of these factors together mean that rotational grazing is not only the most cost-effective and productive system for us to manage, but by all odds, also the most resilient. 

Climate change is going to present significant challenges in terms of increased livestock heat stress and soil erosion. We're already seeing these issues in many parts of the country. But healthy soils, created through all the measures described above, can better retain moisture and maintain diverse plant life so they can withstand those conditions a bit better. 

Healthier soils also sequester more carbon - at a rate of up to 1.5 tons per acre each year. Add to that the fact that reduced (or eliminated, in our case) reliance on synthetic fertilizers and other inputs means your overall greenhouse gas emissions are significantly lowered. 

The Takeaway

A few months ago, I was fortunate to interview Will Harris of the famed White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia for my book on solar grazing. We talked at length about his career as a regenerative farmer - it was a wonderful conversation.

The reason I bring Will up is that a few years ago, his farm was involved in a Life Cycle Assessment study that demonstrated that his farm, which is rotationally grazed, stores more carbon in its soil than his cows emit in their lifetime. As a whole, the farm offsets at least 100% of its grass fed beef carbon emissions and as much as 85% of its total carbon emissions.

We often read newspaper headlines about how agriculture is the leading culprit behind climate change - and by all data points, that very well could be the case. But it doesn't have to continue to be the case. 

As we look for new ways to feed the planet amidst increasing climate, population, and economic pressures, well-managed rotational grazing could be the solution we need. 

Is it scalable? That remains to be seen, and it's an argument a lot of voices continue to have. 

But the most important thing is that it's accessible - any farmer can do it. It just takes a lot of time (if you see Josh moving cattle at 9 o'clock at night with his headlamp, well…that's why). 

Yet it's worth it. At the end of the day, soil is our most valuable resource, and we need to protect it to keep feeding ourselves. As Wendell Berry once said, "The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all."