Are you tired of hanging around the house this winter? Are you dreaming of spring and the new grazing season? In that case, you’ll enjoy this 9 minute video visit to Richard Smith’s place to see mob grazing set up for his cattle.
Richard is a rancher in Hayti, South Dakota. He mob grazes his cows and bulls during breeding season starting the end of July through the first week of September to give his cows the best nutrition he can. He likes this system because it calms the cattle down and helps him make the best use of the feed possible. They graze the best, top-third first, and then the middle third and then he moves them, leaving some trampled forage behind. He started out moving once a day in the mornings. He found that they were very aggressive about moving into the new pasture in the morning. Now with twice a day moves they walk calmly into the new pastures, though they do race to find the best treats, like clover and alfalfa, first.
Richard takes you on a pasture walk through his mob grazing system and shares what he’s learned, what he sees his cattle doing in pasture, what he’s seen in terms of soil protection, how his pastures respond to drought, and how you can start mob grazing on a small scale to see how it might work for you.
Enjoy this visit to summer and imagine how this might work for you on your place!
Good video. I wonder how many bulls he uses for his 80 cows. One, two? Did conception rates go up when he went to mob grazing during breeding season? The bull(s) certainly didn’t have to travel very far to do their business!
I enjoyed the video. Job well done Richard! Thank you and keep up the good work.
Well explained video.
Off subject. Hayti is a town in my book “The Improbably Small County Seat Towns of the West.”
I’m not telling how the town got this name!