Much has been said of the importance of biodiversity on grazing lands and crop fields. Biodiversity allows for healthy soils and plants. The cycles that drive a healthy ecosystem—such as the nutrient and energy cycle—do not function properly without a diversity of plants and organisms.
Microorganisms are often the focus of the biodiversity discussion and the importance of livestock is often overlooked. However, grazing managers across the country have started to incorporate multispecies grazing in their management plans. This can help improve the ecological sustainability of grazing lands and help increase economic sustainability.
The diet of cattle, sheep and goats vary compared to one another, although there can be some overlap. Cattle consume grasses at a rate of about 70 percent of their diet, followed by forbs (broadleaf weeds) at 20 percent and certain woody plants at about 10 percent.
Sheep consume grasses at about 60 percent of their diet, forbs at 30 percent and woody plants at about 10 percent as well. Goats consume grasses at about 20 percent of their diet, forbs at 20 percent and browse on woody plants make up the remaining 60 percent of their diet. When the stocking rate of all three is set to match the carry capacity of a pasture, they can be grazed together or in sequence following one another, depending on the management goal.
Multispecies grazing can be a more efficient way to utilize all of the production on pastures and keep the densities of different plant types in the proper ratio to match the goals of an operation. This can be especially true when pastures have high densities of brush species that goats will consume along with grasses that cattle prefer over the browse.
Managers with these types of pastures feel they can actually increase the stocking rate in the pasture because the goats are more efficiently using the browse than cattle can alone. Operations have been able to graze anywhere from one to 12 goats per cow without reducing the cattle stocking rate in certain situations. This can only be done when the grazing manager has done a proper job of matching the forage demand of the cattle with the available forage and the browse demand of the goats with the available browse.
Goats have a reputation of being “pasture wreckers” in many areas. This reputation is not totally unfounded, but it is not the fault of the goat. Goats are very opportunistic grazers and will shift from browsing woody plants to grazing grasses if they need to.
Oftentimes, grazing managers use goats and cattle together in situations that will not support both without a reduction in cattle numbers. Goats placed on a pasture with a few forbs and very little brush will begin to graze more grass than what is considered normal and start to compete with the cattle.
Goats have the ability to graze closer to the ground than cattle because of their mouth and lip structure. The goats grazing grasses closer to the ground combined with the grazing pressure from the cattle results in overgrazing that can be more dramatic and impressionable than overgrazing from cattle alone.
Managing with goats
Grazing or browsing each species can be used as a tool to manage an ecological concern if it is implemented in the correct situation. Goats can be used successfully to suppress the densities of several brush species including cedar. This process is not as immediate as using herbicides or mechanical treatments, however. Using goats as a management tool to target brush takes several seasons.
It also is not a one-time application. Once brush suppression has been achieved, continued pressure is needed to keep the plants in check. Keep in mind that a lighter stocking rate of goats will need to be used to avoid competition with cattle.
Remember that when using grazing or browsing animals as a tool to manage specific plants or grazing multiple species of livestock together to improve the harvest efficiency of the plants within pastures, it becomes even more important to match the forage/browse demand that each animal will have with the production in the pasture. Monitoring the use of grasses, forbs, and woody plants is vital to ensure there will be no more competition between livestock species than planned.
Economics
For a management decision to be successful, it must at least maintain the economic sustainability of the operation. Multispecies grazing has the potential to increase the sustainability of many operations in certain situations.
Producing different types of products can aid in risk management because diversification will keep an operation from having all its eggs in one basket. In some cases, grazing managers can increase the amount of meat produced and sold from each acre by more effectively utilizing the different types of plants in their pastures.
Buying young animals, using them as a tool, then selling them after they have reached a certain weight could be the best option financially. This approach would also allow flexibility to ensure a grazing management plan can be properly implemented in less-than-ideal conditions.
An analysis of each enterprise, in addition to a whole operation analysis, would need to be done to make sure that it is implemented in the correct way and to ensure it would at least maintain the economic sustainability of the operation.
Multispecies grazing is not a new idea. In fact, it was once more popular than it is now. Farmsteads relied on using a combination of cattle, sheep, goats, poultry and swine to meet the needs of their family and land. Today, the practice of grazing multiple livestock species is becoming popular in some circles. Many people across the nation have realized the benefits of biodiversity in their plants and soils. Biodiversity in grazing animals can be just as vital. — ROB COOK
