PRESCRIBED GRAZING

The term "Prescribed Grazing" is defined as: the controlled harvest of vegetation with grazing or browsing animals managed with the intent to achieve a planned objective(s). Conceptually, prescribed grazing views the physical acts of grazing and browsing as animal impacts on plants that, although not identical, are similar in their effects to the harvesting or manipulating of vegetation with machinery or fire. As a result, in much the same manner that the planned or prescribed use of machinery or fire can be used to enhance, maintain, or decrease the quantity, quality, and persistence of targeted plants or plant communities, so can grazing and browsing when administered by prescription.

In using the prescribed grazing concept, forage quality, quantity, palatability, and toxicity are considered the primary plant factors that impact animals. However, the influences of these factors on animal health, nutrition, and ultimately average daily gain, milk production per cow, or other measure of production are considered the consequences of grazing management which accrue through the implementation of a grazing prescription.

In order to effectively utilize the prescribed grazing concept, the management objectives for a particular plant, plant community, or animal production enterprise must first be clearly identified. Once this has been done, the frequency, intensity, timing, and duration of grazing events can be prescribed along with the method of stocking, and the kind, number, and class of animals required to meet the stated objective or objectives. When these factors are integrated with other planned forage and livestock management techniques they form a prescribed grazing management plan.

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