Dryland Pastures - Summer grazing rotation on dryland lucerne

Derrick Moot talks about direct grazing of lucerne (alfalfa) during the summer period at Lincoln University as drought conditions are developing in this short video.

[@moosa9850]

110 ewes per paddock of 1 hectare per day is that your calculation

[@DrylandPastures]

No - that’s too high unless you are planning on mob stocking to conduct a clean-up graze (usually in winter prior to applying weed control). For this, you’d only want a mob of hungry ewes this large on a paddock for 24-48 hours.
As mentioned in the video, stocking rate alters throughout the year depending on the amount of feed on offer and the stock class being used. Generally, we start grazing in spring with 14 ewes + twin lambs/ha. For system consisting of 6 paddocks that are in total 10 ha size paddocks - this would equate to 140 ewes plus twin lambs/ha in a single mob rotationally grazing the paddocks in sequence. A shift to the new paddock occurring at 3-7 day intervals (moving on when the high quality leaf and soft stem have been ingested). This means that in spring grazing is initiated in the first paddock when it is ~10 cm high. Stock move onto the next paddock in the rotation about 3 days later. (Height in paddocks 2-6 will have increase during this time first rotation). The aim is to be coming back to this first paddock on the second rotation when the herbage is 25-30 cm tall. At times if feed supply is exceeding demand a paddock can be conserved rather than grazed and the mob simply skips that paddock and moves to the next one where the feed quality is higher.
After weaning (late spring) production livestock are finished on lucerne - with a general stocking rate of about 30 weaned lambs/ha grazing each paddock in the rotation for 5-7 days before a shift. Again - to maximise liveweight gain and finish the animals - you don’t want t push them to eat the lower quality stem and they are moved when the soft tem and leaves have been stripped off. Animals are drafted and sent to the works as they reach target weights - meaning stocking rates vary.
In summer/autumn feed on offer may decline when there isn’t enough soil moisture to maintain growth. At these times we move to stocking at 30 hoggets/ha. In late summer we also increase the regrowth duration to allow the lucerne to flower, which allows the root reserves depleted in spring to recharge. Animals may graze for up to 10 days before being shifted to the next paddock depending on the quantity of feed on offer, how hard you want the tougher stem material cleaned up and how much feed there is ahead of the mob in the remaining pastures in the rotation.
More information is available on our website - drylandpastures.com/research-projects/lucerne-research/ and drylandpastures.com/frequently-asked-questions/ would be the best places to start. With details of grazing rotations outlined in Moot et al. 2016 for a dryland system (doi.org/10.33584/jnzg.2016.78.516)

[@moosa9850]

@DrylandPastures Thank you very much for taking the time to write up such a detailed response, may the ALMIGHTY grant you success in this world, guidance, and success in the hereafter. I'm definitely gonna have a look at the information. I apologize for the late response. I got a strike from YT