Strip Grazing Sucklers, Weanlings & Beef

farmers101

Hi all, Was wondering what is the benfit of strip grazing Suckler, Weanlings & beef?
What size paddocks are the best to have fenced? As I have some big fields/ small fields I am hoping to fence up shortly?

Thanks for the advice...

Farmer Pudsey

I do not know if I am a fan of strip grazing, really it is only of benifit when covers get very strong and ground conditions allow cattle to graze down to the butt during the summer. In wet conditions with heavy cattle it can be very severe on ground. You could however split fields in to area's that cattle will graze out in 3-4 days. Idealy they should have access to a ditch or hedge for shelter to prevent them from trampling and moved from tempory paddock to temory paddock to allow regrowth. Allowing cattle to eat regrowth this time of year is a disaster.

I often think that in big fields a concrete water trough or two in the middle of the field and afew strong posts would allow you to split large area's very handy. One trough would allow 4 divisions and two 6-8 divisions fairly easy without any pulling or draging as opposed to a trough at side of field that only allows two divisions and if in a corner fails to allow much dividing.

blue5000

farmers101 wrote: »

Hi all, Was wondering what is the benfit of strip grazing Suckler, Weanlings & beef?
What size paddocks are the best to have fenced? As I have some big fields/ small fields I am hoping to fence up shortly?

Thanks for the advice...

The big benefit is early in the year and late in the year when you can have a small amount of cows out and control them. Size of paddock depends on how many cattle you have in a bunch. You need to have a rotation length of around 21 days, with no more than 3 days in a section.

What size are the fields that you are dividing up and do you want to cut silage off them?