Grazing organization for cattle herds / Supply and Performance of the pasture

Dear farmers, in the previous installment concerning the organization of grazing, basic aspects were addressed that should be known before undertaking some useful calculations for the efficient management of the cattle herd in the forage areas, it was made clear why the unit of measurement U.A (animal unit) is used and not animals, in addition it was socialized what kind of information should be collected when visiting the production units that require organizing their grazing systems.

In this publication two important variables are socialized to perform the calculation of the animal load, which are, dry matter supply and dry matter yield of the pasture, to understand a little more about these these variables we will share the corresponding definitions below.

* Dry matter supply: is the amount of dry matter available per animal unit. To equalize the weight difference by age group, grazing pressure is taken into account.

* Grazing pressure: is the number of animals per unit of forage available and is expressed in kilograms of dry matter per hundred kilos of live weight of the animal (Kg MS/100 Kg PV).

* Pasture yield: can be defined as the maximum productive capacity of pasture species, this capacity is conditioned by management and climatic conditions in a given ecosystem.

Taking into account the aforementioned definitions, it is necessary to refine some details so that there is a good understanding, let's start with the forage supply, generally in the Southern area of Lake Maracaibo a range between 4 to 7 kg MS/100 Kg PV is handled, this range is taken into account to be able to balance the number of animal units (U.A) per hectare, since, if less than 4 kg is supplied that is an indicator that we can include more animal units to the paddock because the amount of fodder per animal is low and therefore we run the risk that there is an overgrazing and if on the contrary the supply exceeds 7 kg when performing the calculations fewer animal units would enter the paddock because the amount of fodder per animal is higher and we run the risk that there is an undergrazing.

Overgrazing: is the effect that occurs in a paddock when the animal load is very high, since they consume more forage than is available on the forage surface and this can affect the yield and the quality of the grass, because the animals can get to consume the new regrowth.

Sub-grazing: is when the pasture is not used efficiently, because the animal loads can be very low compared to the amount of pasture available in the paddock, if a management is not done after the departure of the animals some spaces with very lignified mature grasses can be observed, which translates into low quality.

If we carry out periodic pasture sampling and determine the quality of the ducks, we can observe the dynamics of the pasture as it begins its recovery after grazing, which will allow us to determine the rest days of the pasture that correlates with the optimal time when the pasture can be grazed.

From agrotecnia we reiterate our gratitude to our followers and all the communities that value our agricultural content, this commits us to continue sharing quality information.

González, B. (n.d.). The shepherding, organization and implementation. Faculty of Agronomy, Maracaibo Venezuela.

Luisoni, L. (2010). Animal load adjustment, theoretical aspects and practical recommendations. National Institute of Agricultural Technology, Santa FE Argentina.