Today I Want To Tell You About Our Method Of Grazing And Why We Raise Goats With Our Cattle
We use a grazing method called “multi-species grazing”. This is simply the combination of two different species of livestock grazing the same area. Usually this is cattle combined with sheep or cattle combined with goats. We use goats, and the story of why we have goats can be found at this link.
Frequently farmers will have the cattle graze an area first, and then they will follow with sheep or goats at the next grazing. Our operation is not large enough for us to do this. So we control where the cattle graze but allow the goats to graze openly, in any area of the pastures that they would like.
There are many benefits to this. The ones that I believe you will be the most interested in are the elimination or reduction in need for herbicides for weeds and the elimination or reduction in the need for medicine to control internal parasites (worms) in the cattle.
Let’s Start With The Weeds
Of course a weed is in the eye of the beholder. What is a weed to us, may not be a weed to a cow. And what is a weed to a cow may not be a weed to a goat. It is precisely this difference in preference of foods that makes multi-species grazing so powerful.
Cattle will eat mainly grasses, but they will also consume legumes and some broadleaf plants as well. However, when it comes to certain woody shrubs or forbs they will pass them over because they are not palatable (they do not taste good) to the cattle.
If only cattle are grazing a pasture this can have the opposite effect of what you are looking for. If cattle only eat what tastes good to them and leave the rest of the plants untouched, those plants will thrive and out compete the grasses and other plants desired by the cattle. Soon, you have a pasture dominated by plants that the cattle do not want to eat.
The mitigation for this problem, without a multi-species grazing plan, is the use of herbicides to eliminate these other plants. This is a valid strategy under certain circumstances. However, in some cases it is not a good strategy because herbicides designed to not harm grasses frequently kill all the broadleaf plants. So, you might be eliminating the good with the bad.
I also subscribe to a “why spray chemicals” if you don’t have to philosophy. I do not ban the use of chemicals on our farm, but I do prefer other methods if they are available and if they work.
So, when we add goats to the pasture with cattle, they will eat almost everything that is passed over by the cattle. This is great because the desirable grasses, legumes and broadleaves can continue to compete with the less desirable plants and have an even chance. Or, they can gain the advantage under these circumstances.
Goats are also very amazing in the way that they eat. Cattle take large bites by wrapping their tongue around a large swath of grass and pulling it into their mouth. Goats can feel and taste with the tip of their lips. This allows them to consume the leaves off of a plant like a rose bush without biting into the thorns that would injure them. Therefore, plants like wild rosebushes have no chance in our pastures because before they even get a start the goats will find them and strip off all of the leaves effectively killing the plant.
This leaves just two plants in our pasture that occasionally have to be sprayed: thistle and mallow. This really cuts down on the use of herbicide on our farm, which is preferable by everyone.
What About Worms
Internal parasites like worms in cattle are a real problem. They impact the rate at which cattle gain weight, and that hurts the bottom line for the farmer. However, they also can impact the cow or calf’s immune system, leaving it susceptible to other diseases. And, they can harm the overall health of the animal by changing the ph of the ruminant digestive system. They are bad in large quantities with an argument to be made for a small benefit in smaller quantities.
Worms go through a distinct life cycle that allows them to get into the digestive system of cattle. They are initially laid as eggs in the cattle’s digestive system and passed out of the cow in the manure. They later go onto nearby blades of grass as larvae. It is during this stage that cattle can consume the grass and thus the larvae where they enter the digestive system, attach and began to live off of their host the cow. This completes the cycle.
When you use multi-species grazing, and if you control where your cattle graze you can significantly impact this cycle. Internal parasites that impact cattle will not survive in the digestive system of goats, and vice versa. So, if you graze cattle in an area for a limited time and then move them to another paddock they will have deposited worm eggs in the previous paddock.
By allowing the goats to roam wherever they want, they will consume the cattle parasites in the larvae stage off of the new blades of grass in the paddock the cattle have just left. It may take a couple of weeks for this cycle to take place in which the goats can consume those larvae and thus kill them. However, if you are rotating pasture and grazing goats with cattle the way that we do, you can interrupt this parasite life cycle.
The other methods for reducing internal parasites is by worming the cattle. This can be done through the feed, through an injection or a pour on dewormer (which is the most common method). I again subscribe to the theory of why do it if you do not have to when it comes to non-natural methods. I certainly will use these methods if necessary for the health of the livestock, but if I can avoid it with a non-chemical method, I will.