NRCS promotes prescribed grazing and improved forage management by providing technical assistance to private landowners.
As a landowner or farm operator, you face many decisions when managing the natural resources on your land. When it comes to improving your pastureland, good management and the right conservation practices makes it possible to have lush, green pastures, clean water, and healthy animals.
Pasture management is managing the forages used by livestock by maintaining cover, providing adequate rest after grazing and using stop-grazing heights to maintain live green leaves during the growing season. Good management also includes following the recommended stock density rate and rotating based on forage availability and livestock nutrition needs.
Following a grazing management plan based on stop-grazing heights can improve soil health such as increasing organic matter, reducing compaction and improving nutrient cycling, which can make your pastures more resilient. Other benefits often include a longer grazing season, greater forage production, less reliance on hay, and a more nutritious food source that improves animal health.
Well-managed pastures not only provide food for your animals, they absorb rainfall, filter runoff and reduce erosion.
Common Indiana Pastureland Practices
Prescribed Grazing
Benefits include:
- Improves or maintains species composition and vigor of plant communities.
- Increases quantity and quality of forage for animal health and productivity.
- Improves infiltration and surface water quality.
Access Control
Benefits include:
- Contains and controls livestock movement.
- Protects sensitive areas from grazing livestock,
and eliminates access to unsafe or unstable
areas. - Protects, maintains, and/or improves the quantity and quality of natural resources in an area.
- Protects and maintains vegetation that is often essential to conserving other natural resources.
Forage Planting
Benefits include:
- Improves forage quality and diversity.
- Reduces soil erosion while improving soil health and water quality.
- Improves infiltration and organic matter in the soil as plants recycle.
Heavy Use Area Protection
Benefits include:
- Provides a stable, non-eroding surface for areas frequently used by animals, people or vehicles.
- Protects or improves water quality when properly located.
Water Facilities and Pipeline
Benefits include:
- Supplies daily water requirements.
- Improves animal distribution and reduces walking distance.
- Provides an alternative water source to protect a sensitive resource, such as stream or pond.
Water Sources
Benefits include:
- A clean source of water.
- A source of water for more than one area.
- Good water distribution that improves grazing and animal health.
Stream Crossings
Benefits include:
- Provides access to another land unit.
- Improves water quality by reducing sediment and nutrient loading of the stream.
- Reduces streambank and streambed erosion.
Fence
Benefits include:
- To control movement of animals and people, including vehicles
- Reduce erosion
- Confine compaction
- Improve water quality
- Improve vegetation
- Improve livestock distribution
