Getting Started Holistic Grazing Planning Course Results
- Apr 28, 2015
- 1 min read
HMI’s Online Learning Series Getting Started Holistic Grazing Planning course began in March 2015 with 27 participants from all around the world. This course focused on the key grazing planning principles and practices. Participants practiced the tools to hone in on such as critical grazing considerations, determining forage inventory, animal needs, and grazing and recovery periods before putting all these calculations into a written grazing plan. Based on the survey responses, here’s the changes that occurred:
I enrolled in the Getting Started Grazing Planning Course because I was having trouble figuring out how many cattle my 20 acres of land would support. In my area of central Texas. Local ranchers use 1 standard animal unit per 25 acres as a rough guide to determine stocking rate. I knew from reading articles and books on rotational grazing from Joel Salatin and Greg Judy that with smart practices in grazing management I could do better. While the readings told me how to set up the infrastructure and manage a grazing operation, what I couldn’t find was how to figure paddock size; stocking, rotation, and recovery rates; and how to beat the inevitable drought periods for the grass I had. This course answered my questions perfectly and I’m confident that I now have the knowledge to start a sustainable cow/calf operation on my small acreage.