Factors Influencing Use and Frequency of Rotational Grazing for Beef Cattle in Tennessee

Abstract

This study determines which factors are associated with the use of rotational grazing and the frequency with which Tennessee producers rotate cattle during the summer months. Survey data were used to estimate an ordered response model with sample selection. Most respondents used rotational grazing, and the most frequent rotational schedule was rotating cattle one to two times per month. Factors including labor, capital, knowledge, and water availability influenced the use of rotational grazing and the frequency of rotating cattle. The insights from this study can inform the development of incentives to promote more intensive use of rotational grazing.

Grazing Management Plan Adoption and Objective Prioritization in U.S. Cow-Calf and Stocker Operations

“…Several studies have investigated the use of Best Management Practices (BMPs) in the beef cattle industry (Baumgart-Getz, Prokopy, and Floress, 2012;Gillespie et al, 2007;Kim, Gillespie, and Paudel, 2005;Lambert et al, 2020), including rotational grazing (Boyer et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2020). These studies provide valuable insights into the determinants of BMP adoption among cattle producers.…”

Why has the adoption of rotational grazing declined in parts of the United States?

“…Instead, some used survey data collected within a narrow geographic region. These include studies in Tennessee 22-24 ; Connecticut 25 ; Louisiana 19-20 ; Wisconsin 26 ; California and Wyoming 27 ; and North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas. 9,17 This latter issue implies the findings could be attributable to regional-specific attributes (e.g., climate or soil characteristics) that do not occur elsewhere.…”

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“…Another method that can be used is the rotational grazing, which is a grazing method that involves the resting of the forage up to a moment in which pasture is occupied over a period (Boyer et al, 2022). Usually a greater grazing area is divided into small grazing paddocks, where animals graze up to the ideal forage height, and then they are rotated to the following grazing area with more availability of forage mass while the previous grazing paddocks are kept in rest renewing its energy reserves up to the grazing moment (Sevov et al, 2018).…”

“…Other possibility is the adoption of rotational stocking, which is known as the grazing method that has recurring grazing and resting periods between the paddocks in a grazing management unit. This technique allows beef cattle production to be conducted with a higher stocking rate, ensuring ideal nutritional conditions, with more digestible fed available, and regrowth of pasture in resting (Boyer et al, 2022).…”