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Grazing Management Opportunities for Animal Health John Duynisveld AAFC Nappan/Kentville
Grazing Management
Opportunities for Animal Health
John Duynisveld
AAFC Nappan/Kentville
My Grazing Background
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The value of grazing management
• Lengthens grazing season
• Increase efficiency of grass use
• Increase soil organic matter?
• Manage forage quality
• Increase animal growth rate?
• More dollars in pocket??
– Need healthy animals
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How can grazing management help us with
animal health???
• Practical considerations
• Managing rumen health
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Common health concerns related to pasture
management
• Gastro-intestinal parasites
• Pink eye
• Foot rot
• Shipping related sickness
• Routine vaccinations
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Practical benefits of grazing management
• When we design our pasture system, we can choose to
make it easy to move animals to a handling facility for
any health treatments
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Holdanca Farms
Wallace, NS
500 acres – half pasture, half woodland
Practical benefits of grazing management
• Food is a great motivator
• Animals moved regularly to fresh grass become very
eager to move, more calm, and the sick ones generally
are the last ones through the gate
• It only takes 3 or 4 moves for most animals to learn how
to move, regardless of species
• Some animal welfare programs suggest all animals
must be seen every X number of days - solved
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Practical benefits of grazing management
• Manage pastures so that animals have optimal body
condition going into winter
• During inclement weather we can choose to graze in
places that provide shelter required for out particular
class of animal
– Brush or trees for cattle in winter
– Portable windbreaks
– Spring lambing/calving in sheltered, south facing slopes
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January 2013, AAFC Nappan
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January 2013, AAFC Nappan
Note hair coat, body condition
Managing the RUMEN
• Optimal ruminant health and production is only
achieved with a healthy rumen
• Although rumen ecosystem is remarkably resilient, it
works best with a relatively stable feed supply
– Especially important for high production animals like dairy,
finishing beef/sheep
• Can we affect this on pasture, for good or bad???
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DM consumption [kg DM cow-d-1] and Nutritive value [g kg-1
DM] over 4 days of swath grazing (Baron et al. 2016)
CP TDN
DM
consumption
● Triticale ● Corn
0
5
10
15
20
Corn Triticale
a
b
c bc c
c c
d
b
a
a b ab a b a b c
a ab bc
c c
a a ab
bc
c
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Frequency of movement
Mid density Ultra-high density
Mid density
rotational
Number of Cattle Grazing by Time of Day
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0
20
40
60
80
100
6:30
7:00
7:30
8:00
8:30
9:00
9:30
10:0
0
10:3
0
11:0
0
11:3
0
12:0
0
12:3
0
13:0
0
13:3
0
14:0
0
14:3
0
15:0
0
15:3
0
16:0
0
16:3
0
17:0
0
17:3
0
18:0
0
18:3
0
19:0
0
19:3
0
20:0
0
20:3
0
21:0
0
21:3
0
Nu
mb
er o
f C
attl
e G
razi
ng
Time of Day (hours)
Mid density
Number of Cattle Grazing by Time of Day
19
0
20
40
60
80
100
6:30
7:00
7:30
8:00
8:30
9:00
9:30
10:0
0
10:3
0
11:0
0
11:3
0
12:0
0
12:3
0
13:0
0
13:3
0
14:0
0
14:3
0
15:0
0
15:3
0
16:0
0
16:3
0
17:0
0
17:3
0
18:0
0
18:3
0
19:0
0
19:3
0
20:0
0
20:3
0
21:0
0
21:3
0
Nu
mb
er o
f C
attl
e G
razi
ng
Time of Day (hours)
High density
20
0
20
40
60
80
100
6:30
7:00
7:30
8:00
8:30
9:00
9:30
10:0
0
10:3
0
11:0
0
11:3
0
12:0
0
12:3
0
13:0
0
13:3
0
14:0
0
14:3
0
15:0
0
15:3
0
16:0
0
16:3
0
17:0
0
17:3
0
18:0
0
18:3
0
19:0
0
19:3
0
20:0
0
20:3
0
21:0
0
21:3
0
Nu
mb
er o
f C
attl
e G
razi
ng
Time of Day (hours)
Mid density High density
- High density animals consumed similar proportion of
grass, legume, and stems as mid density
- High density animals showed significantly greater dry
matter disappearance in sward
Grazing high legume pastures
• Research clearly shows increased animal production
with pasture containing legumes over grass alone
• If given a choice animals will select 70 to 80% legume
• Sometimes our legume levels exceed expectations
– Dry weather, grass not growing, etc.
• We worry about bloat!!
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Managing bloat risk on pasture
• Introduce high legume pastures to animals that have a
full rumen
• Avoid grazing practices that allow rumen to empty too
much
• Avoid grazing in a way that encourages eating leaves
first, then stems for an extended time
• Avoid moving in early morning after frost
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-red clover with tall fescue, seeding year was dry (photo)
-finishing beef at AAFC Nappan, 65 % red clover
-growing lambs AAFC Nappan, 80% red clover
-annual ryegrass with red clover, dry year, 80% red clover
PEI Sheep farmer:
-ewe lambs at 320 grams per day, native grass
-ram lambs at 480 grams per day, red clover pasture
-ewes outside year round, pasture until snow too deep
30 Second Summary
• Practical health benefits to grazing management
– Animals moved regularly are more calm, sick ones stand out
– Design fence and lane systems to make handling animals
easy: treat sick, deworm, vaccinate, etc.
– Plan grazing so animals protected from inclement weather
• Managing the rumen for optimal health and
performance
– Frequent moves to high quality forage keeps rumen working
at peak, minimize change in quality
– Allows use of high legume/high quality pasture
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