Farmer Focus: Rotational grazing – go on, you might enjoy it

The cattle were turned out on 24 April and, hopefully, they will stay out for longer than they have been in. Weanlings are grazing where cattle have not grazed for years.

Electric fence reels, a solar energiser, 300m of alkathene pipe, joints and fittings and a drag trough were all that was required to set up a new grazing area.

See also: How farm-designed solar energiser powers fencing year-round

About the author

Edward Evans

Edward Evans farms a 178ha upland farm in Powys in partnership with his wife, Sue. They run a flock of 800 Tregaron-type Welsh and Aberfield ewes, wintering 180 ewe-lamb replacements and rearing 80 Wagyu weanlings up to 18-20 months on a rotational grazing system.

Read more articles by Edward Evans

This all came about after a grassland society meeting about rotational grazing and how much more grass can be grown. This was about five years ago.

At the beginning, I simply closed gates and used old electric fence reels I already had.

I began to enjoy it, especially when I started to see that it was making a difference in grass growth.

At any opportunity I would visit other farms to learn more and benefited greatly from Farming Connect (Welsh government programme).

By now, we no longer kept suckler cows and had switched to rearing weanlings. This was more suited to a rotational grazing system where we could achieve grazing pressure.

We had also installed a borehole. Water is pumped to a storage tank 600m away and then runs by gravity to the grazing areas.

This was the game changer: using drag troughs, water could now follow the cattle or sheep wherever the grazing area was set up.

We also have two permanent electric fences. More are being added to divide fields, which are then subdivided using the reels. In addition, we are measuring grass.

I find it interesting travelling locally and seeing fields shut off for silage, fertilised and growing nicely. But it’s only in the last week of May that cattle are being turned out.

Surely that’s a mindset that’s got to change.

My advice is to buy a set of electric fence reels and a solar energiser, and start to experiment.

For cattle, it is so simple because all you need is a single wire. You may find that you will actually get to enjoy it when results begin to show. Do something, but don’t do nothing.