At Rock Bottom Ranch, we practice multi-species rotational grazing. In practice, this means our sheep and cattle herds are followed by flocks of laying hens. We move our cattle every few days, depending on paddock size. We want them to evenly graze the paddock, but not graze areas too hard and expose soil.
At Rock Bottom Ranch, we follow these steps to ensure proper tomato pruning:
We graze cattle through a partnership with a family ranch. We typically graze them mid May through mid October. We manage the cattle with a single strand up electric rope and various types of step in stakes.
Cattle have a stronger mental barrier of crossing over a spot that once had an electric line compared to sheep. We typically have some cattle that have grazed our property and know the routine, but it often takes a bit of patience for the new grazers to learn the routine. Once they’ve picked up the routine, they’re easy to move.
Our moves are often to a paddock immediately next to where they’ve been grazing. For these types of moves, all you need is one person. Once the next paddock is set up, we take down a few stakes, roll up the electric rope, and create a 20-40 foot opening for the herd to move through.
Once the cattle know the routine, they’re much faster to move. When doing larger moves, we enlist the help of extra hands and if needed, we add extra stakes and rope to line an alley way for the cattle to move. We care a lot about low stress animal movement, so we aim to remain calm and have patience, even if something goes wrong!
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