[Mark Tupman]

I think cocksfoot and prairie grass would be a good perennial species to try and get going on pastures here.

The tricky thing is establishing them.

The main obstacle, besides our infertile, sandy soils and dry summers :-/ is that common grazing practices have to be changed. Most perennials need a longer period of time for establishment before grazing and cannot be re-grazed as often, especially in the beginning. They need to make a full recovery, that is to the point where the lower leaves are shaded out and start to yellow off, before re-grazing

The other thing is we have to get our mob density high enough to finish an area within three days because if they are left there any longer they will go for the new shoots on the best plants over finishing off the other stuff. Most perennial species don’t last long with this sort of treatment.

Changing our grazing practices is not necessarily a sacrifice, to the contrary, better utilisation and longer recovery time actually make for better production per hectare and do wonders for the soil. This does however involve regular moves!