Mob grazing: moving animals and assessing forage
Moving animals and assessing forage
Farmers in our mob grazing group - Charley and Andrea Walker of Barnside Farm in the Borders, Nikki and James Yoxall of Grampian Graziers, Aberdeenshire, and Doug Christie of Durie Farms in Fife shared short daily videos on Twitter and in our Mob Grazing Scotland Facebook group showing:
- Cattle moves
- How much grass livestock are going into
- Decision making around paddock size
- Rest periods
- Forage quality
The month finished with an online Q&A (recording below) with the mob grazers on 'Moving animals and assessing forage'.
Watch the videos
To follow what's happening, we'd recommend you join the Mob Grazing Scotland Facebook group, follow us on Twitter, or follow the farmers on Twitter to speak to them directly:
You can also follow the #PasturePower hashtag to see all of the October videos on the topic of moving animals and assessing grass, or the #MobGrazingScot hashtag to see all of the content shared by our mob grazing group.
Watch a playlist of all the mob grazing videos on moving animals and assessing forage here:
Online Q&A (Nov 2, with the PFLA): Moving animals and assessing forage
Includes:
- Introduction from Clem Sandison, facilitator of the Mob Grazing group since 2018: overview of Soil Association Scotland’s farming work and the history and goals of the mob grazing group
- Group member and director for the Pasture for Life Association (PFLA) Johnnie Balfour: what is the PFLA?
- Q&A with Charlie and Andrea Walker, Doug Christie, and Nikki and James Yoxall , facilitated by Emily Grant:
- Farm descriptions: location, animals, particular characteristics of their grazing systems
- Why they adopted mob grazing
- Grass measuring strategies, residual grass and resting periods decisions
- Mob grazing in wet conditions
- Paddock size, shift schedule and restrictions to mob size
- Animal health and behaviour: benefits of mob grazing
- Sheep and mob grazing
- Arable farming and mob grazing
- Top tips from Charlie & Andrea, Nikki & James and Doug