Agricultural News
Cell Grazing with Jim Gerrish
Tue, 10 Mar 2015 12:09:49 CDT
Jim Gerrish was a featured speaker at the recent Oklahoma No-Till Conference in Norman. He is a big advocate for cell grazing and the concept of ranching without making hay. Radio Oklahoma Network Farm Director Ron Hays asked Gerrish how he got to a point where didn't need hay, simply standing forage year around.
"It's all about planning, really knowing how many animals you can carry through the winter, how many acres it's going to take," Gerrish said. "We looked at winter as basically being a third of the year, so we knew we would need to stockpile a third of the farm each year to graze through the winter, so that's what we based our cow number on, is how many head can we graze in the winter."
Ron Hays caught up with Gerrish at the No-Till Conference. Click or tap on the LISTENBAR below for today's Beef Buzz feature.
Depending on the weather, Gerrish said the number of cattle their farm can handle changes every year. The overall concept is about forward planning. He calls the whole process management intensive grazing, because it's the management that is being intensified, not the grazing.
The concept of cell grazing, where cattle are rotated in cells daily, came out of necessity. Gerrish said he started cell grazing during the 1988 drought in Missouri. This was a way to stretch the feed supply and it worked so well that they continue to use the concept today.
If producers are considering making the switch to cell grazing, Gerrish recommends they find someone in their local area that has already adopted the practice and work with them. He finds most people that are cell grazing are interested in helping others and sharing their knowledge and past experiences.
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