Continuous or Rotational Grazing Alfalfa

Warren C. Thompson National Forage Specialist: America’s Alfalfa

When you graze alfalfa as the base legume in your pastures for the first time rather than any other legume, you are going to be surprised and pleased with the results. Beef cattle will gain more and faster and dairy cows will produce milk cheaper and labor costs will drop and your profits are sure to increase.   When alfalfa is used for grazing, will you graze rotationally or will you continuously graze? 

Until the early 1990’s, the only alfalfa varieties that were available for grazing or stored feed were developed for mechanical harvest. When those fields were grazed continuously, stands faded badly, as soon as one or two years. 

It is different now when growing Alfagraze and varieties of our more recently released grazing tolerant lines. Rest periods while helpful, are not quite as imperative as in the past. But don’t let this fool you. Any time you can allow food reserves to build especially late in the season, plant health (even the grazing tolerant lines) is improved. 

Rotational grazing is the best way to get the most feed and profits out of alfalfa. With the development, introduction, and use of easier to install and manipulate fencing and water, accessing small areas is cheaper, simpler to establish, and maintain. From what farmers and forage specialists around the USA tell us, there are many good reasons for choosing intensive (rotational) grazing over continuous grazing: 1) the crop is easier to manage and the farmer is in charge, not the herd, 2) confinement to smaller areas forces the animals to eat more of the vegetation and waste less, 3) profits per acre are increased, 4. Weeds are easier to control, 5) grazing periods at beginning and end of the seasons are extended, 6) surplus grazing can be more easily harvested as hay and silage, 7) manure is more evenly distributed when animals are confined to smaller areas.

Continuous Grazing on the other hand does not require movable fencing. Cattle have free access to larger areas sometimes for the grazing season or as long as the grazing season runs. The end result to continuous grazing is that the livestock (stocking) rates are less and profits are less. Before Alfagraze came along, it was imperative that rest or recuperation periods were necessary to build food reserves in the roots and crowns for regrowth and stand persistence. The only way to achieve persistence when these varieties were pastured was to mimic the usual harvest sequence and rotationally graze. Even though the grazing tolerant alfalfas will tolerate continuous grazing, you can expect more profits with rotational grazing.