By MEGGIE. I. FOSTER
Assistant Editor

COLUMBUS, Ind. — With 1,000 acres filled with grazing cattle, pigs, poultry, sheep and much more, the landscape of Joel Salatin’s farm in Swoope, Va. may be unusual, but it’s mostly just profitable.

While profitable for Salatin, it’s quite unconventional for the 300-plus forage aficionados at the Heart of America Grazing Conference in Columbus, Ind. on Jan. 22.

“I don’t have just one single species,” said Salatin. “I’ve got anything from 100- head on a quarter-acre paddock to 500-head on a two-acre paddock. They do pack in there.”

Salatin specializes in ultra-high stock density grazing (UHSDG), also known as mob grazing, where a large number of animals graze in a small paddock within a short period of time, until moving on to the next paddock.

“For instance, I’ve got 30-50 pigs on a quarter acre paddock for 10-15 days at a time,” said Salatin. “Pigs choose their salad bar and when they vacate, they tear it up pretty good. You’d be surprised to see how quickly it grows back though.”

Salatin emphasized “rest” in the success of ultra-high stock density grazing.

“We’re one month on, 11 months off,” he said. “The key to rest in ultra-high stock grazing is to elongate the rest time as much as possible. When they’re done, get ‘em on the road and head ‘em home.”

As for Salatin’s 900 beef cattle grazing in 100-cow herds each on a quarter-acre paddock, he said there is much more than grazing going on.

“What we’re really after is soil building,” he said. “We build soil in two different ways: leaves and prairie grass.”

What we’re doing is using the mob footing action to lignify the grass, in order to restimulate growth. It’s just enough to feed its ability to regrow.”

According to Salatin, the general consensous, is that bovines need more starch than protein in their diet, which he believes is achieved with UHSDG.

“After all, these are walking fermentation vats, and fermentation thrives on sugar. Pigs and chickens require far more protein than bovines and other herbivores,” he said, adding that this is ideally achieved by consuming forages at their energy peak in UHSDG.
Salatin said a small calf requires more protein, while a large calf requires more starch, “so UHSDG follows this pattern if you extend the rest period long enough to allow regrowth.”

In order to reach true success potential in UHSDG, Salatin recommends allowing tall grass growth, to the point where the leaves are green, but the base of the stalk has already completely turned brown. This is recommended because it takes time for grass to move from protein to sugar.

Salatin explained the difficult balancing act of maximizing daily gain and maximizing production per acre.

“It’s a tight rope we run, “ he said. “Most of us try to maximize production per acre, while others want daily gain. When you maximize production per acre, you’ll see reductions in daily gain.”
Although the biggest drawback in UHSDG is the “crudders,” or the ones left behind.

“We have to go through once a month and pick out the 2-3 cows that need a little more attention,” said Salatin. “Most of the time in a month, they’ll recover to catch up to the group.”

The benefits to UHSDG begins with the quality of soil, ease of management, reduced feed and input costs and improved weight gain.

“The animals looks extraordinarily fat on an all-forage diet, they possess a bloom that we were unaccustomed to. We expected them to fall apart and we were concerned about how much of a wreck we could stand as we freshened up to these rank fields,” he added. “What we got was a remarkable performance from the stock and landscape change nothing short of miraculous.”

Salatin said that once his mob grazes through one of his paddocks, the subsequent grass growth that follows is dark green and rich with lignified carbon.

“We had never seen this response after grazing grass at what is considered the appropriate length,” he said. “The taller grass grazing frees me from feeling like I just have to get on that paddock before it gets too mature. Instead I just restrict the mob tighter and tighter and let it do its magic.

In closing, Salatin describes his unique operation and its subsequent success with a few words of advice.

“I am convinced that most controlled grazing, historically, has been touching paddocks too frequently on too short a forage sward. By reducing the grazings and letting the sward accumulate more biomass in a more mature state, all parties at the grazing table win: earthworms, cattle and farmer.”