Article Summary: Rotational grazing in ryegrass pastures boosts productivity by matching grazing timing to plant growth. By managing paddock rotations, grazing heights, and rest periods, farmers can maintain high-quality feed, improve pasture health, and support long-term sustainability.
Rotational grazing is one of the most effective ways to get the best from your ryegrass pastures while maintaining long-term productivity. At its heart, it’s about dividing pasture into smaller paddocks and moving livestock regularly, allowing grazed areas time to rest and regrow. When managed well, rotational grazing improves pasture utilisation, ensures high-quality feed, and supports healthy, productive livestock.
This approach can also reduce feed costs. Research shows that well-managed rotational grazing programmes can save dairy farmers between $0.50 and $1.00 per cow per day during the grazing season. However, these benefits depend on careful management – understanding your animals’ needs, ryegrass growth patterns, and soil conditions. Poorly managed systems can quickly lead to overgrazed patches, wasted feed, and tired pastures.
Why Rotational Grazing Works Better Than Set-Stocking
Continuous grazing, also known as set-stocking, allows animals to roam the same paddock for extended periods. While it may seem simple, it often results in uneven pasture use. Some areas get grazed down too hard while others are left to grow rank and lose quality. Over time, this leads to weaker plants, bare patches, and more weeds.
By contrast, rotational grazing keeps animals in one paddock for a short time before moving them to fresh grass. The grazed paddock then has a rest period to recover before being grazed again. This rest is crucial – it allows the ryegrass to regrow leaves, rebuild root reserves, and maintain nutritional quality. As a result, you get a consistent supply of palatable, energy-rich feed while keeping pastures healthier for longer.
Understanding Ryegrass Growth and the Leaf Stage
Ryegrass is a cool-season grass with a predictable regrowth pattern. After grazing, each ryegrass tiller (shoot) produces new leaves. The “leaf stage” is a practical way to decide when a paddock is ready to graze again.
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Ideal timing: Wait until each tiller has produced two to three new leaves. At this point, the plant has replenished its energy reserves, and the feed value is high.
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Too soon: Grazing at just one new leaf weakens the plant and slows regrowth.
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Too late: Waiting until four or more leaves risks leaf decay and loss of quality, as the plant starts diverting energy to older leaves and seed production.
Farmers should also avoid letting the sward reach canopy closure – when the pasture is so dense that sunlight cannot reach the lower leaves. In this condition, shaded leaves die off, reducing quality and increasing waste.
Optimal Grazing Heights and Residuals
A simple height guide helps keep ryegrass in peak condition:
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Graze when the pasture reaches 15–25 cm (6–10 inches).
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Remove livestock when the pasture is grazed down to around 4–6 cm, which is about 1,500 kg of dry matter per hectare.
Leaving this “residual” is vital. Cutting too close to the ground slows recovery, damages roots, and weakens the plant. After grazing, paddocks should still look green with short grass clumps – not bare or scalped. This leftover leaf area allows the plant to photosynthesise quickly and bounce back faster.
Planning Your Rotation
The length of time livestock spend in each paddock – and the length of rest between grazings – depends on ryegrass growth rates, which change through the year.
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Spring: Ryegrass grows rapidly. Shorter grazing periods and quicker rotations are needed to prevent the grass from becoming too mature.
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Summer and Winter: Growth slows in hot or cold conditions. Longer rest periods between grazings are essential to maintain plant health.
A good rule is to adjust your rotation speed based on pasture observation rather than sticking rigidly to a calendar. The aim is to match grazing with the plant’s readiness, not the date.
Practical Tips for Managing Ryegrass Rotations
Successful rotational grazing is a combination of planning and flexibility. Here are a few practical points:
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Back-fencing: Use temporary fencing to block livestock from grazing areas that are starting to regrow. This protects tender shoots and speeds recovery.
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Animal condition: Move livestock before they become overly hungry, which can lead to overgrazing. Ideally, they should enter a new paddock keen but not desperate, and leave full and settled.
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Infrastructure: Portable electric fencing, water points in each paddock, and farm laneways make moving stock easier and quicker.
Monitoring is key. Walk the paddocks regularly, checking pasture height, animal grazing behaviour, and regrowth progress.
Long-Term Benefits for Pasture and Livestock
When ryegrass pastures are grazed and rested properly, they develop denser swards through increased tillering. This leads to better ground cover, improved soil health, and reduced erosion.
Rotational grazing also spreads manure more evenly, improving soil fertility and reducing nutrient loss from high-traffic areas. Livestock benefit too – consistently high-quality feed supports better milk production, weight gain, and overall health.
Getting Started
If rotational grazing is new to you, start small. Split one large paddock into a few smaller ones and trial the system. Observe how the grass responds and how the animals perform. From there, you can refine your rotation lengths, infrastructure, and grazing heights.
Over time, managing ryegrass pastures in a rotational system becomes second nature. With a watchful eye and a willingness to adjust, farmers can sustain high productivity while protecting the health of their land for the long term.
Until we meet again, Happy Grazing!
- The Dedicated Team of Pasture.io, 2025-07-03