In an effort to practice sustainable farming practices we have embarked on Management-intensive Grazing or MiG for short.  The concept as outlined in Jim Gerrish's book involves moving animals frequently to relatively small, fresh paddocks where they eat most of the grass and then move to a series of new paddocks while the grass gets a rest period to regenerate and grow.  This is obviously more work than the traditioal grazing method of fencing in a large area and letting the animals wander at will and pick and choose what they will and will not eat.  The benefits of MiG are many in that the animals and pasture both benefit enormously from extra efforts involved. 

We would normally begin letting our animals out on the pasture the middle of May when the grass was at least a foot tall.  This year the goats were grazing on the 16th of April in grass that was barely 4 inches tall.  They stayed a day and then moved to a fresh paddock.  The paddock then gets a six week rest before seeing the goats again and with the fertilizer left behind the regrowth is very lush. 

Throughout the summer, the goats looked great, even though they were getting minimal supplemental grain and the kids were not getting any creep feed.  Additionally, with the constant rotation of pastures, the goats had much fewer parasite problems than we'd seen in the past.  We have been able to move primarily to an "as needed" worming regimen, with the goats needing far less frequent worming this year. As we continue to improve our forage, we hope to use this management philosophy to eventually move the entire herd to strictly grass-fed goats.  We feel this is the direction we need to travel in our quest to achieve sustainability for our farm.

Below are a few pictures showing the MiG concept in actual practice.

Goats in fresh paddock.  Note electric fence separating from yesterday's pasture.

A few kids in the lush growth of a new paddock.  

              This is what is left after a day of steady eating.  Mostly stems and lots of fertilizer!  The paddock is now ready for a 6 week rest.