Three-day grazing tour stopping in Bonaparte

Successful grazing depends on proper land management and having the right tools and knowledge. Pick up the latest information, tips and techniques from NRCS representatives, Practical Farmers of Iowa members and other graziers by touring up to five farms in three days, Tuesday, Wednesday and Aug. 11, during the 2011 Mob Grazing Tour: 5 Farms, Endless Information.

From 1:30-3:30 p.m. Wednesday, day two of the event, the tour will be in Bonaparte, where Dan and Sheila Smith operate an organic dairy at 31462 190th St.

The Smiths? 70 milking cows are moved as many as three times daily with stock densities up to 300,000 pounds per acre.

Speakers will include Dan Smith; Jess Jackson, NRCS grassland specialist; Byron Leu, ISU Extension beef specialist; and Darren Nielsen, Gallagher Fence.

Earlier in the day, from 10 a.m. to noon, the tour will be stopping at Phil Forbes? Moorgate Farms, 1456 Nutmeg Ave., in Kalona.

Forbes runs a mob of St. Croix hair sheep and custom-grazed dairy replacement heifers on a small acreage. Participants will learn aboout Forbes? experiences in using sheep for high-density grazing and how custom grazing affects his operation.

Speakers will include Forbes; Jess Jackson, NRCS grassland specialist; and Dan Morrical, ISU Extension professor of animal science.

The tour actually begins earlier in the week on Tuesday at Kraig Van Hulzen?s Farm at 240th St. in Rose Hill.

From 10 a.m. to noon, Van Hulzen will lead a pasture walk, highlighting how he uses mob grazing to feed weaned cattle that he purchases in the spring until they are sold in the fall for finishing.

Participants will have lunch at noon and then can head to the second stop, Barney Bahrenfuse and Suzanne Castello?s farm in Grinnell, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. 

Their farm is located on East 156th Street. Bahrenfuse and Castello move 75 cow-calf pairs daily in their mob grazing operation and have successfully used the cattle to rejuvenate an area previously dominated by fescue and weeds. With assistance from the NRCS?s EQIP program, they have installed pipelines to distribute water to each paddock.

The tour ends in Princeton at Sawyer Beef, owned by Norm and Neal Sawyer. A pasture walk and discussion will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Aug. 11. Sawyer Beef is at 1103 Lost Grove Road.

The public is invited to attend any or all of the stops on the free tour. For information, call the Practical Farmers of Iowa office at 515-232-5661 or visit www.practicalfarmers.org.

Increasingly cattle farmers are turning to some form of rotational grazing to feed their herd. Increased profit, concern for the environment, a growing demand for grass-fed beef, improving forages and a healthier and more economical way to feed cattle are a few of the reasons that farmers give for turning to rotational grazing. 

Although there are many different types of rotational grazing systems, grazing periods followed by recovery periods are at the heart of them all. Rather than let the animals consume the plant life of the pasture when and wherever they choose, rotational graziers use temporary fencing to create paddocks and employ a system in which cattle are moved from paddock to paddock to provide optimal feeding and weight gain for the animals and recovery time for the plants. 

Mob grazing is a type of rotational grazing that employs high stock densities, 100,000 to 1 million pounds of animal weight per acre, and provides longer periods of rest for pasture to recover, 60 to 90 days or more. This allows plants sufficient time to recover, and for diverse wildlife and plant species to move in.