Practical Guide to Mob Grazing in English

Climate change, more frequent droughts and declining soil fertility are becoming a problem for agriculture in Central Europe. In suckler cow husbandry, overgrazing and lack of feed from own land are increasingly becoming a challenge. Mob Grazing can offer an alternative to conventional grazing systems for pasture management, especially in drought-prone regions. Characteristic features include very long resting periods of the plant stand, a high growth rate during grazing, a high stocking density, a short grazing duration of less than one day and a large grazing residue of more than half of the plants. The trampled plant residues are intended to form a protective mulch layer that has a positive effect on soil moisture.

But under which climatic and site conditions does Mob Grazing offer advantages over conventional grazing methods? And how can it be implemented in practice? Answers to these questions are provided by the new practical guide, which was developed as part of the EIP-project „Mob Grazing in Arable Forage Production – Economic and Ecological Evaluation of a New Grazing Method“. This guide provides a detailed decision-making aid and practical tips on how mob grazing can be successfully integrated into farm operations.

The guide can be read online and downloaded here.

In the Practical Guide, we have bundled the experience and well-founded findings of our research project. It is a valuable tool for farms that want to make their grazing management future-proof. The authors are Nils Holger Zahn, Sassa Franke, Josefin Röwekamp, Antonia Beck, Ruven Hener and Inga Schleip, who have contributed their extensive practical experience and scientific expertise to this project.