The paper “Optimizing intensive grazing: A comprehensive review of rotational grassland management, innovative grazing strategies, and infrastructural requirements“, published in The Journal of Agricultural Science, has been chosen as the latest Editorial Highlight and is freely available to download for one month.

Grazing pasture provides a highly nutritious, low cost feed and energy supply for ruminant animals, while also converting a human inedible feed source into a human edible feed source in the form of meat and dairy products. However, to efficiently convert the pasture into animal products requires optimal management practices in pasture based production systems. Two of the fundamental requirements for pasture based systems, are rotational grazing and optimal roadway networks for animal movement on the farm.

Rotational grazing systems consist of animals grazing subsections of the grazing platform at one time, before being moved to another section of the farm. This system involves both permanent and temporary fences to create paddocks on the farm, ensuring animals graze specified areas each day. One of the key reasons to invest capital into grazing infrastructure, is the ability to increase the stocking rate on the farm; hence, increase meat or dairy sales from the farm.

One other important point when managing pasture for dairy herds is the frequency of allocation of fresh pasture, while previous research saw limited impact of the allocation frequency on animal performance. There is an negative impact on the performance of first lactation animals within the herd where allocations occurred every 12 hours compared to every 36 hours. Primarily due to increased competition for a feed source in short supply, where larger allocations were given over a longer time period, milk yield of first lactation animals increased.

A key component of intensive grazing systems (particularly dairy systems) is the roadway network. The roadways on the farm connect the grazing paddocks to the milking parlour, with farm layout significantly influencing the walking distance of the dairy herd on farm The impact walking distance has on milk production has also been established, with most studies indicating that the impact on milk production only occurs where walking distances increased over 6.4 km/day. However, one major point raised is the impact inclines have on animal performance, with animals walking on hilly pasture with a vertical distance of 200 meters requiring a 50% increase in maintenance requirements.

Poor quality farm roadways were also associated with lameness on commercial farms, this was primarily due to inadequate roadway surfaces present for animal movement, but also the patience of the herds person moving the animals. Where animals could walk at their own pace, even on poor surfaces, lameness was less likely to occur. Longer walking distances on farm roadways was also associated with increased lameness in some studies. When assessing roadway surfaces, animals preferred to walk on an artificial grass surface as opposed to stone dusted roadways, this choice was particularly prevalent in lame cows.

In conclusion, grazing infrastructure is essential for intensive grazing systems. However, attention to detail is critical in order to efficiently manage these systems in order to both increase output per hectare and ensure optimal animal performance.

The Journal of Agricultural Science Editorial Highlights are selected by the Editor-in-Chief and are freely available for one month. View the recent selections here.