# Rotational grazing layout for new 10 acre hobby farm?



## gardenrosie (Nov 10, 2012)

My DH works out of town a lot and I am a stay at home mom to 3 children and we have 2 grandchildren. My DH and I are looking at purchasing 10 acres of flat land here in Northern MI(EUP). There are only a few shrubs/brush that will need to be cleared away and 2 pine trees near where we plan on building a house and garage. I found pictures on google earth that show back to 1998 and since then the property has been unchanged/unused. From the research I have done rotational grazing seems to be the way to go. Since we are starting from scratch we would like to start with the best possible set up. 

We would like to start with chickens, layers and meat birds. then over time add a few dairy goats, a dairy cow, a few beef cows, a couple pigs, and maybe in time horses. I am also open to the possibility of turkeys and ducks. We will also have a large garden for ourselves and to sell at our well established local farmers market. I would like to have our chickens be completely free range.

I am confused about how to layout rotational grazing. From what I've read horses, cows, and goats have different "grazing" habits/needs so they can be rotated through the same pastures at different times. However they also have different shelter needs. Do I need a different shelter in each pasture or can I place aisles leading back to their own shelter? We will not have a large tractor right away so moving the shelters with the animals will not be possible.

I have found lots of info on rotational grazing but nothing ever talks about the shelter needs as they are rotated. Could someone please explain to me how this works?

With the small number of animals that I will have will I even need to have rotational grazing?

Or since they each have different fencing needs would I be better off just giving them their own pasture?

Since I will be milking the goats and cow I plan on having a small milking shed. Where should this be placed among the layout so the dairy animals are in close proximity?


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## Wingdo (Oct 5, 2002)

A simple rotational plan. Were it I, would be to run your perimeter fence and cut it into four relatively equal sections. As for shelter: I make small buildings (5'X7'X7') on skids and move them easily with my riding mower w/chains. You could also build one large building (16'X16'X7') in the center w/ four "stalls" and independent doors as access, which I also do for folks. The important thing with mobile buildings if to have anchors (screw in dog anchors work well) and tie the building down for high wind. If you'd like, I can show you some photos of what I'm talking about... like I said, I build/sell alot of them!


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## CornerstoneAcre (Mar 10, 2011)

Yes, it is definately good to keep in mind is that all those critters can take different types of fencing as well. Electric fencing works well for our horses and our pigs, semi well for our goats, not so well for our LGDs (guardian dogs) and not at all for the chickens. So while we have a few acres for the horses that we rotate, the pigs actually have two small areas of their own. One summer residence and then our garden area which is their fall/winter/spring resisdence. The goats and the guardian dogs all have a solid (cattle panel) fencing along with hot wire (on the outside and top). A great, strong, universal perimeter fencing is key if you have the money(it's not cheap to fence in 10 acres that way). Some of our areas are actually set up so that we have permanent housing and then "airlocks" to the rotational areas. This allows the critters to remain in their same housing all the time (my goats tend to NOT like new housing) while just opening different gates. It may take some time until you figure out your topography, where your living area is going, Electricity and water hook ups, where your orchard, garden, berrypatch, etc is going....but once you know what area you have available it's usually a matter of putting it to paper A LOT and then choosing the best set up for you. (I really like graph paper here LOL). Running horses, cows, chickens and goats on the SAME land is a good idea - different plants eaten, decreases worm loads, less waste of the pasture plants (the goats will eat where the horses poopy, when the horses won't touch it, the horses will eat everywhere BUT where they poop) and when you add the chickens, they break down the manure piles like giant dung beetles (or mini tractors LOL). 

A couple of examples are: All the drylots/housing areas in the center with pens radiating almost pie shaped from them. Or another would be all the pens at one "end" of the property while having pens radiating from there. OR put pens on either end of the property and then the pastures between them (lots more work for you that way, I prefer keeping my housing units/main pens close together for ease of chores and safety of the critters). 
You could also run all the critters together. If my fencing was more universal, I could easily run the horses, cows, goats and pigs together......they do get along when together temporarily and with large enough space they might not ever have a problem. However, due to different supplemental feeding I do and the fact that I breed all but the horses, I prefer to keep the critters seperate when possible. 

Just one more note. We had 17 goats(plus kids), 4 horses, 2 pigs (plus piglets/freezer pigs periodically), rabbits and chickens all on 2 acres until recently and did a pretty good job of rotating and maintain pastures for the pigs, chickens and goats. (chickens share with everybody) We just added 10 acres to our property and are working on getting OUR final rotational pastures in.

Good luck and have fun in your new endeavors


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## gardenrosie (Nov 10, 2012)

This is the planed layout for our new property. Anyone have any suggestions for a layout for the rotational grazing and where to place the shelters? I just can't see it in my mind how to lay it all out to rotate goats, cows, horses and maybe the meat chickens with having their own shelters. The meat chickens will probably run all over but maybe they will stay contained within the perimeter fence. Where do I put the shelters, how many pastures do I divide into and where to put the gates? I need good descriptions of how big and where.

This is totally flat land except for a small rut here and there. The road is on the west side. The property to the south has a young pine forest. The property to the north and south are dotted with a few trees but for the most part they are bare.

Thanks 
Rosie


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## haley1 (Aug 15, 2012)

Hey that's the exact same width /length of my property but L'm about 200 miles south of you


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Run a lane down the middle and section off the sides
Barns and water could be at one end

You need enough sections to give each one 4-5 weeks of rest in between grazings


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## orionrising (Nov 18, 2012)

Cows will rotational graze well. Horses are horrible at it and horrible for pastures. Its all in how they bite. Cows bite off a couple inches at a time, then move for the next bite. Horses tend to clip right to the ground. Talk to the local NRCS office for reccomendations.

In my area ( may be different for you) they recomend growing to 8 inch grass height, then grazing down to about 4 inches. 10 acres (probably really 8 once you take out laneways structure gardens etc will support in my area (you may be different) 4 animal units, or 4,000 lbs of animil, IE 4 market weigh beef would be pushing it.

Now this is just for summer grazing as well, you will need off farm hay for winter.


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## Whisperwindkat (May 28, 2009)

I don't like working myself to death moving animals all day long so here is what I would do. A lane that runs along the north side perimeter fence. All pastures on the south side with gate that open into that lane. I would have a gate that would open wide enough to block the lane. Then I would fence directly to the barn and a doorway. That way when you are done feeding/milking etc. You can open the door from the barn to the lane and let out the animals then move them to the appropriate pasture. Several animals can be moved at once in this manner. When they go in the open gate to the appropriate pasture, close the gate and open the other one for the other set of animals. I would house all animals in the barn if possible except beef cows and the only shelter I would build in the fields would be a simple run in just so animals can get out of the rain and cold if you aren't home. It will make your life simpler if you aren't having to walk hither thither and yon twice a day in all kinds of weather to care for critters and move them.


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## lakeportfarms (Apr 23, 2009)

10 acres in the Eastern UP won't give you a lot of room for many critters with such a short growing season. If you're going to have a horse, don't even think about putting it in the pasture, it's a dry lot with hay for them. Probably the same for the pigs, don't figure on rotating them.

Rather than both a dairy and several beef cows, you may want to consider a dual purpose such as Dexters. You can milk any breed cow, and the advantage of having a small dual purpose like the Dexter is staggering the dry off period so you'll always be in milk and having the ability for good beef and less damage to the pastures as a larger beef or dairy breed.

If you limit yourself to rotating pasture for the cows, you can run polywire and temporary step ins, moving them daily, and moving the back line every couple of days. Use a garden type cart with water and mineral, that you can easily move (with lots of hose). With this setup, I'd run one permanent fence (field fence with hot wire) down the middle of the 330' width and then the temporary polywire would run across the 165' section, moving them around like a track. Use gates at the end of each 1/2 section of pasture to completely close it off when they're out of it.

The chickens would follow the cows, scratch the manure and disperse it.
The goats are going to ignore any hot fence, especially temporary ones, so they're just going to run around half of the pasture at a time since you've closed off the other half with the gates.


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## lakeportfarms (Apr 23, 2009)

Also figure on using your garden area during the winter months for the cows and goats, so you should have a goat proof fence around the perimeter of that, along with lean to shed along the driveway opening to the garden, with a frost free hydrant and preferably a nice Behlen AHW60 auto waterer that only uses a 100 or so watt heater, rather than a stock tank with a 1500 watt budget buster. If you want, you could open a gate back to the pasture when the ground is frozen and there is snow on the ground, but you want to limit the grazing after September so they don't take the grass down too short until it comes back in late May.


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## plarkinjr (Oct 24, 2012)

Comeback Farms 
and also poke around for lots of articles elsewhere on the website


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