Multi-Species Rotational Grazing

Multi-Species Rotational Grazing:

Today I’m going to give you a look at our multi-species rotational grazing system.  We graze sheep, cows, chickens, guinea fowl, and a mini horse all on the same pasture.  On our farm we practice management intensive rotational grazing with all of our animals.  We are practicing multi-species rotational grazing on a small scale.  Each species of animal complements the other on pasture.  Multi-species rotational grazing works with God’s ecological blueprints to stimulate and regenerate the landscape.

All Our Animals Grazing Together:

Multi-species grazing is simply the practice of grazing all different types of animals together on the same piece of land.  We graze sheep, cows, chickens, guinea fowl, and a mini horse, all on the same pasture.  Our animals get along very well together on pasture.  When we initially joined the sheep with the cows, we put them in pastures side by side for a day.  This allowed them to get used to one another before the became pasture-mates.  Our mini horse, Winnie, is the only one that has given us trouble.  Winnie does not like the sheep.  Winnie does, however, like the cows and has adopted them as his grazing buddies! 

Management Intensive Rotational Grazing:

On our farm, we have implemented a management intensive rotational grazing system.  This system employs electric fencing to break up our pastures into small paddocks.  We move our animals to a new paddock every 2-7 days, depending on the season.  Management-intensive rotational grazing is a benefit to our animal’s health because we are constantly moving them to fresh ground.  Management-intensive rotational grazing is beneficial to our land because it allows for even manure distribution and gives our pasture grasses plenty of time to rest between grazing.

Working on a Small Scale:

Our multi-species rotational grazing system is small-scale.  We have 3 cows, 25 sheep, 30 chickens, 5 guinea fowl, and 1 mini horse.   We are grazing these 64 animals on roughly 30 acres.  At this point in time, we have more land than animals.  On top of this, the practice of intensive rotational grazing tremendously increases the carrying capacity of our acreage.  This gives plenty of room to increase the number of animals on farm.  

Grazing 5 Species Together:

Each of the 5 species in our multi-species rotational grazing system complements the other.  The cows cut down on the parasites that give the sheep trouble.  The chickens and guinea fowl scrape apart the manures for better soil absorption.  Last but not least, Winnie, our mini-horse, adds spunk and some defense against predators… but mostly just spunk!  

Honoring God’s Design:

At the end of the day, multi-species rotational grazing really honors the ecology that God designed.  If you consider it, the Lord made a variety of creatures to inhabit the earth.  Each species of animals carries out a specific purpose in nature.   If we were to perpetuate a mono-culture by carrying only one type of animal on pasture, our farms would miss out on so many benefits! 

-the Shepherdess at Harmony Farms

“The earth is the LORD’S and the fulness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein.” Psalm 24:1