3 Reasons to Rotationally Graze Your Sheep

Before we dive into three benefits of rotational grazing sheep, let's briefly cover what "rotational grazing" actually is.

The foundational pattern of rotational grazing is: graze, then rest. Unlike continuous grazing scenarios, where animals are left in areas for long periods of time, rotationally grazing means letting your animals graze for a short period of time, and then moving them off to allow the grass to rest, recover, and regrow.

For some producers, this means moving their animals to fresh pasture every day, or even multiple times a day. Other producers take more of a middle ground and move their animals once a week. There are many different ways to rotationally graze, but the basic principle is to keep your animals moving and allow the grass to rest after being grazed.

3 Reasons Rotationally Grazing will Help You, Your Sheep, and Your Grass:

There are a host of reasons for rotational grazing, but these are three that I have found to be particularly significant:

Stay Connected to Your Flock

Depending on the season, we move our sheep every 1-2 days. That means every 1-2 days I'm seeing all my sheep pass by me at the gate as they enter their new paddock. I can easily spot if anyone is lagging behind or seeming "off." When I'm shifting buckets and mineral feeders to the new paddock, I'm walking through the previous grazing area and taking note of how the manure looks. The pattern of rotational grazing keeps me closely connected to my sheep, because I'm out there every day moving and observing them.

Support the Health of Your Sheep

One of the greatest reasons to rotationally graze your sheep is to support their health and protect them from parasites. Most parasites live on the bottom 4 inches of a blade of grass. So if you're moving sheep off a paddock before they graze below that point, you are drastically reducing the number of parasites that your sheep are picking up from the pasture.

Parasites also have a 21 day life-cycle and generally hatch on the 3rd or 4th day. So if you practice rotational grazing and move them off paddocks before the 3rd day (and don’t return for at least 21 days), you’re, again, significantly reducing the number of parasites that your flock is picking up while grazing.

Improve the Health of Your Pasture

Equally as significant, rotational grazing will improve the health of your pasture (not by a little bit...by A LOT). Continuously grazed pastures share a common look: grass eaten down to the ground and an increasing number of weeds that your sheep aren't interested in eating. In these scenarios, sheep gravitate toward the most palatable species and nip the tasty new growth off the top day after day. This never allows the grass to recover and will eventually stunt it, allowing the less palatable species (usually weeds) get the upper hand and choke out your grass.

Conversely, when you practice rotational grazing, you are giving your grass ample time to rest and recover after being grazed. Grass is most productive when kept in its mid-maturity state, and this pruning/recovery cycle will actually encourage faster growth and build the health of your soil (a topic for another post). Ultimately, you will produce a higher volume of forage, and the quality of your pasture will improve over time.

Rotationally grazing is more labor intensive, but I believe the rewards far exceed the necessary extra effort. It's incredible how quickly pastures can be improved with rotational grazing; we've seen worn-out pastures overgrown with unpalatable species transform after only one season of intense grazing and long rest periods. And it's foundational if you want to naturally support the health of your flock.

Jen ~ Filska Shetlands