In years past agricultural producers had only current market prices and the elements to contend with when making decisions on managing pastures and application of herbicides to control invading weeds. However a savvier public and ever increasing regulation plus costs of herbicides are making producers rethink their practices. Factoring in smaller ruminants like sheep and/or goats with your operations may be a non-invasive, organic solution.
There is no magic formula or one-size fits all solution that covers every possible pasture condition and weed infestation problem; however by weighing pasture issues and factoring the feeding habits of sheep and goats a solution can present itself.
Sheep prefer forbs, which includes many of the weeds producers are battling, over grasses that cattle enjoy. Goats on the other hand are live bushwhackers as they not only ingest weeds, but include browse such as brush and pest trees in their idea of a good meal. Both of these small ruminants will feed on plants such as leafy spurge that are toxic to cattle, but good forage for sheep and goats.
Implementing either sheep or goats or both can be done via comingling them with cattle. When using rotational grazing as a tool for pasture management, the smaller ruminants can be brought into a paddock after cattle have been rotated out to clean up the pasture.
These smaller animals may also be put to pasture in places that are either difficult for cattle to graze or too difficult to apply herbicides. This includes riparian areas using carefully controlled grazing by sheep and goats to knock down potential weed sources and maintain a healthy level of vegetation growth.
Environmentally speaking, the use of mixed species grazing in combination with rotational grazing there is the platform of better vegetation management leading to less erosion and the pasture land possess an improved water infiltration property. A lessened dependence on herbicide application means less worries of the possible contamination of ground water and run-off into waterways.
Livestock benefit from having forage that is higher quality and better utilization of the range of forage available which equates to dollars saved in purchasing feeds and dollars gained in better gains in beef and dairy production. A producer who has smaller ruminants intermixed has another viable liquid asset. Shorter birth to market times of sheep and goats is can help bridge the income gap that can come from cattle.
Keeping sheep and goats in the pasture may require additional or upgraded fencing.
Sheep and goats are susceptible to types of parasites from grazing that cattle are not. One way to overcome this is selecting breeds that have proven themselves more resilient to this problem such as using Katahdin sheep which have a very great resistance to parasites. The parasite problem also diminishes over time as the pastures are maintained with smaller ruminants with a little patience and prevention medicine.
Looking at the big picture and down the road both economically and environmentally a properly managed grazing program with mixed species can benefit the producer in the long run.
