MaiaGrazing Scholars - Grazing Management for Targeted Animal Performance

MaiaGrazing Scholars Webinar Replay

What was covered?

Grazing Management for Targeted Animal Performance

Jim Gerrish - American GrazingLands Services Grazing management to achieve a particular level of animal performance starts with understanding the nutritional needs of different livestock classes and what nutrients can be provided from a particular type of pasture. We will explore the factors controlling voluntary forage intake of grazing animals and the need to balance energy and protein to maintain proper rumen function. Energy, protein and minerals are not distributed uniformly throughout a plant. We will discuss knowing how much of a pasture sward we should ask our stock to harvest. The better you understand what is going on at the grazing interface, the more effectively you can control the outcome.

Targeted Animal Performance with Grazing Management

Bart Davidson - Agronomist & MaiaGrazing Co-founder Bart provided a review of the relationships and results within accrued grazing data to check in on the links between actual grazing patterns and animal performance.

About the Speakers

Jim Gerrish - American Grazing Lands Services

Jim Gerrish is an independent grazing lands educator and consultant providing service to farmers and ranchers on both private and public lands across the US and internationally. He currently lives in the Pahsimeroi Valley in central Idaho and works with numerous ranchers using both irrigated pastures and native rangeland as well as working in high natural rainfall environments. His past experience includes over 22 years of beef-forage systems research and outreach while on the faculty of the University of Missouri. His research encompassed many aspects of plant-soil-animal interactions and provided the foundation for many of the basic principles of Management-intensive Grazing.

He typically speaks at 40 to 50 producer-oriented workshops, seminars, and field days around the US and internationally each year. Jim keeps his day-to-day grazing tools sharp through the management of a ranch unit consisting of 450 center pivot irrigated pastures, 100 acres of flood ground, and several hundred acres of rangeland.

Bart Davidson - Agronomist & MaiaGrazing Co-founder

As a consultant for over 15 years across a diverse range of farming operations, Bart applies a system-based approach, relying on principle, to work with and train land managers in the development of and reporting to farm management plans. Bart’s experience spans throughout the agriculture sector, from low input certified organic systems through to high input, intensive dairy and irrigated cotton and grains.

Bart has presented to 1000’s of ranchers over the past few years at various live events across Australia and the US. He has also been featured on a number of podcasts.