← Forage and pasture H15-06 · Module 6 of 7 · Pages: 19 · Worksheets: 7

Rotational grazing and electric fencing

How to divide pasture into paddocks, work out their size per animal, run the rotation with electric fencing, cut down worms and clear out poisonous plants

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Rotational grazing and electric fencing

In short

  • Go in at 15–20 cm, come out at 8–10 cm (6–8 in in, 3–4 in out). Worm larvae live mostly in the bottom 5 cm of the sward.
  • 1–7 days on a paddock, then rest 21–30 days in May and June, 35–60 in summer and autumn.
  • Number of paddocks = rest days ÷ days grazed + 1.
  • A goat or sheep grazes roughly 15–25 m² a day, a cow 120–180 m².
  • Electric netting is never left switched off: goats, kids and lambs get tangled and choke.
  • Walk each new paddock before turning stock in: yew, autumn crocus, hemlock water-dropwort, ragwort and hemlock kill.

What's inside

Chapters

  1. How grass grows
  2. How many paddocks and how big
  3. Electric fencing for rotation
  4. Water, shade and gateways
  5. Rotation and worms
  6. Order of grazing and mixed grazing
  7. Poisonous plants on pasture
  8. Drought and the sacrifice paddock
  9. Common mistakes
  10. Printable checklist

Worksheets

  • Grazing calculator per animal
  • Rotation plan
  • Grazing log
  • Pasture inspection
  • Fence and worm log
  • Fencing and rotation cost sheet
  • Grazing calendar

Fields and checkboxes can be filled in with Adobe Acrobat Reader (desktop and mobile), and the calculator adds up by itself. Filling in may not work in some browsers. A print version comes with the screen PDF.

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