This bounced twice while graze-l was down so hope it gets through this
time.
Congratulations Steve on useful information.
On 2/9/06 3:06 AM, "Steve Lucas" <cowboypo8@louisa.net> wrote:
> The Failures of the Four Paddock Grazing System
I�m astounded that graziers in North America could still believe that a four
paddock system of grazing could be recommended, BUT the American Farm Bureau
you quoted and many ranchers are involved with vast areas of low-rainfall
extensive grazing operations in hills and brush. For them a four paddock
system is better than nothing and water access can be a limiting factor when
there is no power to pump it, and there are vast areas to fence.
However, their recommendations should have qualified, and I agree that
many areas where intensive controlled grazing should be operated, is not.
When improvements take so long to be accepted I console myself with the fact
that it took the British health department and royal navy 50 years to accept
and use, what Captain Cook (1780 odd) discovered to prevent scurvy killing
many of his crew on every trip, i.e., that vitamin C if citrus prevented it.
He and others later took limes with them, hence the nick-name of people from
the UK, �Limy�.
The same is still happening today with selenium.
In 1957 it was discovered in both New Zealand and the Pacific North West USA
to be an essential element for animal health and that it could eliminate
white muscle disease in lambs also known as muscular dystrophy, that was
common in much of New Zealand and high rainfall areas of Australia, USA and
other countries.
In New Zealand since 1982 it has been legal to correct low Se levels in
soils by fertilising with Se. Growth rates of animals on deficient pasture
improved dramatically following the use of Se as a fertiliser at 1 kg/ha (1
lb/a) of Selcote-Ultra that contains 10% slow-release Se.
Finland which has similar low levels to New Zealand, legislated in 1984 that
Se must be added to ALL fertilisers so humans also benefit from it in
vegetables and grain as well as in meat from pasture fed animals. New
Zealand should do the same.
Also in Finland their Government issued a statement in 1982 requiring
farmers to use their animals to harvest more of the pasture when possible,
rather than do it mechanically.
Se deficiency is still (2006) a major cause of animal and human ill-health
in many countries. I�ve seen cows suffering severely from low levels (arched
backs and zigzag scouring) in USA and Switzerland, but not in New Zealand
since Se was added to fertilisers for animals.
Selenium strengthens muscles that hold the bones together. Without it
osteoporosis fractures are more likely because the muscles are weaker.
Sports injuries are higher in New Zealand teams, I believe partly because of
low Se and also low Mg that is lacking in New Zealand.
It is now known that Se helps many enzymes and some heart conditions, but
despite all these discoveries, and thousands of hours on research, hundreds
of papers and several books on Se world-wide, since the 1960s, ignorance is
still (2006) common in New Zealand regarding human health and more so in
other countries regarding human and animal health. There are many people who
should know better, but do nothing about it - almost as if Se use was being
blocked by some keen to treat symptoms rather than prevent them.
Then there is the zinc story.
In New Zealand it took our department of agriculture seven years to accept
what many farmers knew and used, i.e., that zinc prevented facial eczema.
Farmer Gladys Reid who discovered this died last month.
> Voisin determined that the optimum rest period between grazings is thirty
> days.
In his day soil fertility would have been lower and pasture growth slower
than prime New Zealand and others� pastures now, but for rangeland this
figure could be ideal.
In New Zealand after more than a hundred years of intensive controlled
grazing, topsoils continue to get deeper, pastures more productive and
grazing rotations shorter. Some pastures on the many steep hills in NZ are a
hundred years old, but producing very well and under 100% grazing
(harvesting is impossible on the steep hills) continue to improve.
Steve, you are right. The 30 day recommendation continues today from some
�pure� pasture scientists (who don�t involve the animal) so find under
mowing that 30 days gives the highest DM yield, but we know, not the highest
animal production/ha over time because animals don�t like long grass and
graze the paddock selectively which in time can eliminate the most palatable
species and cause pastures to get untidy and worse, not better.
Voisin is often quoted in North America (unheard of in New Zealand).
Sir Bruce Levy who wrote Grasslands of New Zealand in 1951 is seldom quoted
outside of New Zealand. It is out of print, however, is sometimes found in
used book shops for a few dollars. It is an excellent book even today. He
recommended and had a photograph of "Deferred grazing" in about 1948. This
was promoted in NZ in about 1998 as if original.
> This development, along with the publication of
> periodicals including "The Stockman Grass Farmer," and the importation of
> grazing information and techniques from New Zealand where these grazing
> techniques had already been adopted began the managed grazing movement in the
> United States.
I can claim to pioneer the movement to controlled grazing in North America
starting in 1980 when I ran grazing seminars across North America and gave
slide shows on grazing that made the audiences gasp and invite me to their
farms which I did until 1995 when I was 65 so handed over the business to
Doug Gunnink and helped him find an accurate laboratory in US by comparing
his pasture samples with results from here of half the sample. See his
advert in August Stockman Grass Farmer.
I did many controlled grazing presentations for Gallagher and the Stockman
Grass Farmer, starting in 1980 when it was called the Stockman - I suggested
he change to calling it the Pasture Farmer.
The following in 1885 is from W.D. Hoard, Founder of Hoard's Dairyman, and
still needs repeating today.
�A man must constantly agitate the mind and thought. The weakest man in the
world is the man who has hard hands and a soft head; that is the truth; and
the difficulty with our farmer friends everywhere is that they suppose that
their salvation on the farm is to be wrought out with the hand and not
wrought out first by the thought.�
In the 1980s in England it was was mostly poor, but in Scotland I saw better
controlled grazing.
Some might think that controlled grazing is new. The following written by
John Anderson of Scotland shows it is not.
Definition of Controlled Grazing written in 1777.
�To obtain a constant supply of fresh grass, let us suppose that a farmer
who has any extent of pasture ground, should have it divided into 15 or 20
divisions, nearly of equal value: and that, instead of allowing his beasts
to roam indiscriminately through the whole at once, he collects the whole
number of beasts that he intends to feed into one flock, and turns them all
at once into one of these divisions; which, being quite fresh, and of
sufficient length of bite, would please their palate so much as to induce
them to eat of it greedily, and fill their bellies before they thought of
roaming about, and thus destroying it with their feet. If the number of
beasts were so great as to consume the best part of the grass of one of
these inclosures in one day, they might be allowed to remain there no
longer; giving them a fresh park every morning, so as that same delicious
repast might be again repeated. If there were just so many parks as there
required days to make the grass of these fields advance to a proper length
after being eat bare down, the first field would be ready to receive them by
the time they had gone over all the others; so that they might be thus
carried round in a constant rotation.�
Nothing more need be said, except that pastures which are well grazed do
look like a park and that humans learn slowly.
"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I
go into the other room and read a book."
Groucho Marx.
So read more.
The Omnivore�s Dilemma, Michael Pollan. 2006. ISBN 0747586756. An
outstanding 400 page book on USA beef industry with information on Joel
Salatin�s natural farming practises.
More Food From Soil Science (The natural chemistry of lime in agriculture)
by VA Tiedjens. 1965. Growers Chemical Corp, Milan, Ohio, 44846, USA. Phone
(419) 499-2508. ISBN 0-682-43057-9. It is about the importance of applying
lime first, before applications of other elements. The book is not just
chemical theory. It gives hundreds of success examples. It is brilliant. A
very kind follower of mine, Ken Scharabok, of Waverley, Tennessee, gave it
to me after my Stockman Grass Farmer presentation at Jackson, MS in 1992 and
asked if I had read it because I had recommended the same things. I didn't
even know it existed. Thanks Ken.
Biology of Trace Elements by Karl H. Schutte.
>Successful grazing management is an art and a
> science. It requires time, it requires effort and it requires management.
> Empty claims to the contrary does a disservice to the animals, the forages,
> and the land manager.
Right Steve, and I could add that animals usually learn more quickly than
the beginner grazier.
Regarding grazing and feeding systems -
I would feed bought feed when the cost is low and the milk or meat payout
high as in almost all countries other than New Zealand, but even here, some
waste products are worth buying and feeding.
Best wishes,
Vaughan Jones
Hamilton
Waikato
New Zealand
