Mechanical harvest - I realize that for many in the dairy industry, one of the reasons that rapid rotational grazing is done is to reduce the amount of time riding a tractor to harvest and supply feed for the drylotted herd. I also realize that feeding of stored forage is necessary in winter and that there are not enough livestock mouths within a herd or flock in the spring to keep pace with the fast forage growth. The objectives of making a stored feed are to have it of high quality and to use the mower-conditioner as a tool to stagger maturity of the forage crops among paddocks. Use of rapid rotational grazing requires a manager that can make changes on a daily basis. For example, a two-inch rainfall tonight will change decisions made prior to the rain about how many paddocks can be harvested as a stored feed this week.
Flexibility is essential so a uniform quality forage is available for the grazing animal's use.
First grazers followed by last grazers - Even in a rapid rotational grazing system, the livestock will graze the highest quality forage first, leaving the poorer quality forage for last. Rather than graze the less nutritious part of the crop with the livestock class requiring the highest quality forage, graze the less nutritious forage remaining with a livestock class that has less stringent nutritional needs. Changes within the ration will be further reduced if two classes of stock independently graze the paddocks. Clipping ungrazed forage - If there is ungrazed forage remaining after grazing a paddock, use of a mower to clip grass seed heads or mature legume plants would be advised. Clipping will encourage more uniform re-growth of high quality forage.