Making Best Management Practices (BMPs) Work for Your Farm!
We look at farm goals and conditions on the ground to determine what combination of BMPs will provide the greatest overall benefit to the property.
Flexibility and Options!
Over 30 Best Management Practices (BMPs) for Livestock and Grazing Systems to meet the needs of individual properties.
Request a Site Visit!
Please complete this Pre-Site Visit Questionnaire to tell us about your farm.
Email this form to agriculture@tjswcd.org, and a member of our Ag Team will reach out to you to schedule a site visit.
Common Livestock and Grazing System Practices
Stream Exclusion Fencing with Alternative Water System
Stream exclusion fencing helps improve grazing management and herd health while reducing foot injuries, and eliminating calving risk areas. Excluding cattle from streams also improves stream health and water quality.
Rotational Grazing Systems
Rotational grazing helps improve pasture quality and productivity by installing infrastructure that creates multiple grazing paddocks for the livestock. The ability to rest fields and rotate animals greatly improves grass productivity and animal control while reducing pasture weeds and hay feeding.
Winter Feeding and Manure Management
We offer a variety of practices that help reduce impacts on pasture associated with winter feeding, and storing and spreading waste.
Erosion Control and Water Management
We aim to improve water quality by reducing the movement of sediment and materials from ag land to receiving streams through practices such as critical area stabilization, diversions, terracing, erosion control structures.
Before and After Photos of Best Management Practices
Interested in learning more about forage and grazing practices? Check out these Youtube Channels below!
TJSWCD Staff Favorite Resource Articles for Livestock and Grazing.
Planned Grazing – Hereford World
This article explains how to plan a grazing system. It talks about considerations for feed usage, the benefits of rotational grazing for livestock and the land, reseeding pastures, and briefly explains grazing terminology.
Managing Grasslands for Profit – NRCS
This document produced by USDA NRCS provides a step-by-step process for rotational grazing management. The document explains the pros and cons of different grazing systems, and goes into detail on choosing and managing forages, water availability, fence plans, soil fertility, and weed and brush control.
What to Expect When Stockpiling and Strip-grazing Tall Fescue – VCE, USDA, & CBF
This document discusses five different livestock farmers and their experience with stockpiling and strip grazing for the first time. It tells how the farmers stockpiled and strip-grazed (including area used, nitrogen applied, and movement of temporary fence), the results of the practices, and farmer tips for stockpiling and strip-grazing.