Organization of grazing for cattle herds
Dear farmers, pastures are the main food of ruminants, since they provide the amount of fiber and protein they need for their maintenance and production, these species are the most economical food that can be supplied to such animals, but they must be managed properly to obtain optimal yields. Within the management there are agronomic (fertilization, pest control, weed control among others) and zootechnical that refer to the way in which the animals are managed inside the paddock, technically known as grazing systems or methods
Image 1. Design made in CorelDRAW by @amestyj and @pinedaocl with image captured by colleague Rafael Cortez
As for the grazing systems or methods, some will be mentioned, placing as an example some livestock production areas:
Continuous Grazing: generally, this grazing system can be achieved in the Venezuelan plains where there are large tracts of cultivated land with natural or native grassland species of low yield, therefore, producers manage animals extensively without divisions pastures, where animals consume the pastures at free will without any control, there is a low animal load on these areas due to the fact that the land extensions are very large compared to the quantities of animals that are managed on them.
Systematic rotational grazing: this type of management has begun to be used in some production units in the Southern Area of Lake Maracaibo and consists of dividing the paddocks into equal areas, making intensive use of the pasture by controlling the periods of occupation and rest of the pasture in each pasture, synchronously moving the animals from one pasture to another until they return to the same pasture after the pasture is recover satisfactorily.
Image 2. Design made in CorelDRAW by @amestyj and @pinedaocl with own Image
To establish the grazing systems, the grazing must be organized, for this purpose calculations are made based on the supply of dry matter and the redeeming of the pasture, with which we can determine the supply of dry matter per animal unit per year (MS/U.A YEAR), yield of dry matter of the pasture per hectare per year (MS/ha year), Animal load (U.A/ha), Bearing capacity (U.A/ha total), Organization of the herd (Age group), division and grazing area (Number and size of paddocks).
In this chapter, basic aspects were addressed that will allow the understanding of certain terms used, such as ANIMAL UNIT (U.A), when we talk about animal unit we refer to an animal of 400 or 450 kilograms which is the average weight of a cow, but it is known that there is an age group that is discriminated as follows:
*Cows between 400 to 450 Kg approximately
*Calf between 100 to 150 Kg approximately
*Mautes and Mautes between 235 or 250 kilograms approximately
*Steers and Heifers between 335 or 350 approximately
*Bulls of about 600 kilos
The age group tells us that there are animals with different weights and that they consume different amounts of fodder, that is why the animal unit is used as a conversion factor to balance the number of animals on the forage surfaces according to the age group that belongs, this information can be found in more detail and in a practical way in the audiovisual material that we will share with you below.
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Recommended bibliography
González, B. (n.d.). The shepherding, organization and implementation. Faculty of Agronomy, Maracaibo Venezuela.
