To develop the farm to take advantage of the principles of plant growth, animal behavior and all of the interactions that influence daily animal performance and acre production?

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Pasture Design goals

• To develop the farm to take advantage of the
  principles of plant growth, animal behavior and
  all of the interactions that influence daily
  animal performance and acre production?

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Pasture Design.Why is it Beneficial to divide a
farm

• Improved utilization of forage that varies over
  the farm because of
• soils and landscape
• stock camps, excreta distribution
• shade distribution
• drinking water locations

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Pasture DesigncontWhy is it Beneficial to
divide a farm

• Reduced labor needed to manage animals
• health checks
• movements
• to match feed supply with requirements

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Controlling animal density and length of graze
period controls uniformity of forage use, level
of use, quality of intake, traffic patterns and
excreta distribution
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Having farm subdivided allows manager to better
see how much growth is taking place in each
pasture and which should be grazed next.
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Pad grazed yesterday to desired height
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Subdivision for control of feed use and manure
distribution
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Subdivision to precisely control the intake of
forage.
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Subdivision to ration daily needs.
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Subdivision to partition the feed supply and
quality for specific needs.
Possible Response to Creep Grazing 1. Supply
is limited 2. Quality is low 3. Species differ
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Information needed to design farm layout for
grazing.

• Farm maps (aerial, soils, topo)
• Plant species and the location
• Animal type, production cycles and seasonal feed
  requirements (groups)
• Drinking water source/locations
• Labor/equipment available

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Design Considerations

• Animal behavior
• preferences for species/landscapes
• lounging habits
• grazing patterns

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Design Considerations

• Plant growth responses (all paddocks should
  provide similar number of days grazing for
  specific herd)
• slope, soil type
• aspect or exposure
• tolerance to trampling/close graze

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Design Considerations

• Drinking water
• Central locationin each pad
• gravity vs pressure systems
• delivery rate tank size
• herd vs individual use of tanks is strongly
  related to travel distance to water?

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Design Considerations

• Stream protection
• limiting lounging time
• limited access to stream
• limited stream area
• firm footing
• vegetation management
• endophyte effects

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Design Considerations

• Paddock Arrangement
• convenience for equipment/crop rotations
• potential for further subdivision
• Paddock Shape
• square .less critical for short graze periods
• 41 ratio
• contour/landscape

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Shape of Paddocks.. 10 acres of different shape
660 x 660 2640
330 x 1320 3300
220 x 1980 4400
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Design ConsiderationsBlock vs Pie shape
3126 fence
Barn
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Design ConsiderationsBlock vs Pie shape
Secondary method of division.. 3266 of fence
Barn
Trailing, lounging, grazing patterns
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Block vs Pie Shape Design100 acres (8300
perimeter)Interior fence needed
12500
8300
4200
Cross fence needed
19300
5900
10000
1043
1475
1160
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Design Considerations

• Paddock size
• depends on length of graze period, animal numbers
  and forage available in pad
• size not as important as productive capacity
  within and among paddocks
• Number of paddocks
• based on landscape/specie distribution
• subsequently based on use/quality/waste and
  manure distribution
• 6-9 minimum but more gives most control

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Six permanent pads can be temporarily
subdivided into 36 (or more) divisions.
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Design Considerations

• Lanes
• stability
• width
• Gates
• corners toward working pens, water
• Shade
• heat stress 85 F
• night- day pads
• consistencynone or all pads

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Firm base, usually large gravel
Geotextile cloth
Building Good Lanes 1...necessary on dairy 2..
Not so important on meat animal farms
Firm and smooth surface
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Two days after rain, when cattle had to go to
centralized water tank.
Topography/soil type influences the need
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Position gates so the natural flow of animals
move toward pens/barn or water source
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Using Farm Maps, color code

• Map1 -- Soil types
• Map 2 -- Land suitability classes
• Map 3 -- Fences

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Using Farm Maps

• Map 4 -- Water lines.
• Map 5 -- Soil Sampling for testing. Map 6 -- Use
  this map to indicate the yield potential for each
  field.

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No subdivisions Any Size Farm
Layout to use feed, redistribute nutrients,
minimize animal stress.
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Priority Subdivision
Based on landscape (slope aspect)
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Further Subdivision 7 pastures
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12 pastures
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16 pastures
Water tanks
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The following maps illustrate how a farm might
be subdivided based primarily on landscape
position. Note how water/drainage-ways
determine the first division. Note how slopes
are divided horizontally.
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First___ Second___ Third___
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First___ Second____ Third____
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First____ Second___
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First____ Second____ Third____
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Major decisions..drinking locations ditch
crossings