{"id":28725,"date":"2025-01-15T13:19:56","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T13:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/agriculture\/digging-deeper-into-disruption\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T13:19:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T13:19:56","slug":"digging-deeper-into-disruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=28725","title":{"rendered":"Digging Deeper into Disruption"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Digging Deeper into Disruption<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Kent Solberg, Consultant<\/strong><\/p>\n

Understanding Ag, LLC<\/strong><\/p>\n

Disruption is one of the three Rules of Adaptive Stewardship within the 6-3-4\"\u2122\" as taught through Understanding Ag, LLC, and the Soil Health Academy. Disruption is a normal part of agriculture and natural systems. Grazing is another form of disruption, which can and should be used to promote positive impacts on the soil ecosystem and your bottom line.<\/p>\n

Disruption implementation<\/strong><\/p>\n

How a disruption is implemented is critical to managing and maintaining soil health and the ability of the soil biome to respond to the disruption. Our disruptions must be planned and purposeful, built around an understanding as to how they impact the soil resource and its ability to not only recover but to restore vital ecosystem functions, such as the ability to capture and store water from precipitation and cycle nutrients. As farm and ranch managers, we control the timing, intensity, duration, frequency and pattern of the disruptions. Each of these disruption aspects determine the outcome, or in other words, the compounding and cascading effects to either a set of positive or negative reactions (Rule of Compounding).<\/p>\n

To be effective in building resiliency in our farm and ranch operations, implementing our disruption cannot violate the Six Principles of Soil Health. Let\u2019s take a closer look at each aspect of a grazing disruption.<\/p>\n

Timing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Timing relates to the time of year we implement our disruption (grazing event) on a particular portion of the land we manage. Farmers and ranchers, like most humans, prefer to operate on some form of a schedule. Cows are milked and or fed on a schedule, just as we tend to sleep at night, eat at certain times of the day, schedule activities and events, keep a calendar, etc. We find changes to that schedule, or routine, uncomfortable. However, if we schedule our grazing event on a particular portion of our land at the same time of year each year, it will have a strong influence on the vegetation present on that site.<\/p>\n

This was driven home to me years ago when visiting various grazing operations. One example of note involved a farm that had been \u201crotational grazing\u201d for several years. The pasture was divided with permanent division fences to create multiple paddocks, and across a broad valley on the far hillside, I noted that one of the small permanent paddocks really stood out across the green pasture. It was completely white, as if it had been painted. I asked the farmer what was growing on that site. He said \u201cOh, that\u2019s yarrow, it\u2019s in full bloom and I can\u2019t seem to get rid of it. The cows don\u2019t like it in bloom.\u201d I asked him if he rotated through his paddocks at the same time each year. He said, \u201cYes, I begin here and get to each of them about the same time every year.\u201d Unknowingly, his highly timed grazing schedule was creating the exact disruption that encouraged one specific plant to dominate a particular paddock. Changing the time of year we graze a particular paddock will influence the plant species composition within that paddock. If we are working to advance \u201cDiversity\u201d within the Six Principles of Soil Health, we need to adjust the time of year we implement our grazing disruption.<\/p>\n

Intensity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Intensity includes both stock density (pounds of animal per acre during an individual grazing event) and the degree of forage utilization. If we consistently utilize greater than 70% of the above ground plant biomass because we feel we \u201cneed to so we are not wasting feed,\u201d we will have a negative influence on preferred forage species.<\/p>\n

There may be times we may want to have a high degree of utilization. For example, if we have a warm season native grass component in a paddock that is dominated by cool season tame grasses, we may target that site for a short-term intensive grazing event to suppress one set of plants at a specific time of year to encourage another to build greater plant diversity across our operation. Or we may create an ultra-high stock density event designed to trample a very high percentage of the plant biomass to stimulate a different plant response. However, we would not want to repeat these disruptions in the same manner on the same acres on a regular basis. We want to mix things up. Just as top athletes mix up the intensity of workout events to build strength and endurance, we want to mix up our grazing events to build resiliency in our pasture systems.<\/p>\n

Duration<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duration is the amount of time the disruption will last. A set-stock, season-long continuous grazing program will produce a very different soil, plant and livestock response than short-duration grazing events. Research in Missouri has demonstrated that cattle will have the highest dry matter intake during day one and two on a paddock system where animals are moved every 5-7 days. These animals are not able to intake the minimal amount of dry matter to maintain body condition during the last 3-4 days while on that same paddock. When shifted to a new paddock, the pattern repeats itself. Less preferred forages begin to take over as the preferred forages are repeatedly clipped before having the opportunity to fully recover during the weeklong occupation of these paddocks, reducing overall pasture carrying capacity.<\/p>\n

Daily paddock shifts within these larger paddocks can increase forage production and utilization, while adding additional days of rest and recovery to sites that have been grazed. We have observed 15-20% increases in available forage after only one year of implementing at least once-daily paddock shifts within larger paddocks. This is like adding 15-20% more pasture acreage without buying or renting additional pasture. Imagine what can that do for your bottom line.<\/p>\n

Frequency<\/strong><\/p>\n

Frequency involves how often the disruption event takes place, or in other words, how long of a recovery and rest period there is between grazing events. Farmers in the east and Midwest often talk about how many days it takes to get around to all of their paddocks. Frequent numbers cited are 28-35 before they \u201cneed to\u201d<\/em> start the process again. Across the board, these operations are overstocked \u2013period. Forage plant recovery is based on:<\/p>\n