So how do you start a mob grazing operation from scratch?  Say you've got an old potato field that keeps eroding into the creek every year, and you've decided to turn it into pasture to preserve (and build) topsoil.  How do you make that pasture happen, and what do you want it to look like?

Instead of spreading a lot of grass seed, Greg Judy recommends starting with hay.  If you unroll a lot of hay bales into the proto-pasture in the winter and graze your livestock there (even though there's really nothing to graze on), the hay will naturally seed the pasture, and will also add a bit of starter biomass when livestock trample some into the soil.  You'll need to keep feeding your animals for the first year --- this is worth it because you're building your soil every time the livestock pass through.

In the second year, you can finally plant some clover seeds, focusing on fall planting when the baby clover won't be competing much with weeds.  Unlike Voisin grazing (which believes more clover is always better), Greg Judy recommends aiming for only 30% legumes since too much high nitrogen clover is bad for beef cows.

Meanwhile, start feeding your animals free choice minerals in the summer, with each type of nutrient in its own compartment.  The livestock will only eat what's deficient in the soil, and since about 70% of the minerals will pass right through them, you'll be correcting soil nutrient imbalances at the same time you're making your livestock healthier.  Greg Judy noticed that, after three years of mob grazing, his animals are now eating only a quarter as much mineral as they used to, and they don't touch any of the minerals at all when grazing on his highest quality soil.

As your pasture grows, don't worry if you start to see plants you're not familiar with.  If your recovery period is long enough, warm season perennials like indian grass, big bluestem, and gama grass will spring up --- these are great for summer grazing as long as you make sure to give them a long rest period.  Meanwhile, don't worry about a few "weeds" --- Greg Judy believes that giant ragweed pumps minerals from deep in the soil, which is why his cows love it.  (They like tree leaves for the same reason.)  A well-managed pasture will become more diverse and more like a native prairie every year.

This post is part of our Mob Grazing lunchtime series.  Read all of the entries: Greg Judy on mob grazing Recovery period and trampling define mob grazing Stockpiling winter forage How to stockpile pasture Trampling grass to renovate poor pastures How to start mob grazing Managing animals with mob grazing Starting slowly with pasturing Pasturing with nature Mob grazing vs. Voisin grazing

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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