Fencing and water setup for mob grazing a pivot
The cattle waiting to be moved to fresh grass.
This is the fencing setup we use to mob/strip graze our pivot in the fall after the grass has gone dormant for the season.
There is a single wire permanent fence halfway between the outer fence and the pivot point. That way we only have to make a 200 yard long temporary fence rather than 400. Might as well make this as easy as possible right? :)
We start at one of the water tanks and work our way around the outside of the pivot giving them enough feed for one day and letting them walk back to the nearest watering point. On an average year the pivot will feed 300 cows for around 75 days. From start to finish it only takes between 20 and 30 minutes to move the portable electric fence to feed the cows for a day. During the same time of year our neighbors are starting their tractors and burning expensive diesel fuel to feed their cows, which would take about two hours for 300 cows. We do have to feed hay once in a while when we get a heavy snow, but the cattle will graze through quite a bit of snow as long as it isn't too crusted on top. They will graze through a lot more snow with a high stock density than they will when they're all spread out. Here in western Nebraska we only have to feed them hay for a handful of days during the winter. Moving fence sure beats feeding hay everyday! :)
- The gray lines indicate permanent electric fences.
- The blue dots indicate the locations of water tanks.
There is a single wire permanent fence halfway between the outer fence and the pivot point. That way we only have to make a 200 yard long temporary fence rather than 400. Might as well make this as easy as possible right? :)
We start at one of the water tanks and work our way around the outside of the pivot giving them enough feed for one day and letting them walk back to the nearest watering point. On an average year the pivot will feed 300 cows for around 75 days. From start to finish it only takes between 20 and 30 minutes to move the portable electric fence to feed the cows for a day. During the same time of year our neighbors are starting their tractors and burning expensive diesel fuel to feed their cows, which would take about two hours for 300 cows. We do have to feed hay once in a while when we get a heavy snow, but the cattle will graze through quite a bit of snow as long as it isn't too crusted on top. They will graze through a lot more snow with a high stock density than they will when they're all spread out. Here in western Nebraska we only have to feed them hay for a handful of days during the winter. Moving fence sure beats feeding hay everyday! :)
