Grazing Management to Avoid Soil Compaction

Grazing is a great and economical way to feed your animals. You should strive to maximize your grazing period and avoid feeding hay because one pound of hay dry matter costs about twice as much as grazed dry matter. Nonetheless, grazing when soils are wet can cause severe compaction and can set your pasture back. There are several keys to managing grazing during the Spring season to avoid soil compaction.

1. Build soil health. A healthy soil will have greater resistance to compaction because it has stable soil aggregates that maintain their consistency under hoof impact. Healthy soil will drain better, so the animals can be on it more quickly than on 'unhealthy' soil. Practices that build soil health include using no-till practices for the establishment of perennials and annuals, always having living vegetation and dead surface mulch to cover the soil, growing vigorous root systems, including several plant species in your pastures with different root architectures (tap-rooted and fibrous-rooted), and different root growing periods (spring/summer/fall). These practices will increase organic matter content, stimulate the soil to have a granular surface and blocky subsoil structure instead of platy or massive soil structure, stimulate fungal and bacterial activity, and promote soil animals such as earthworms that create macro-pores in the soil. Healthy soil with high biological activity will also quickly bounce back from any compaction.
2. Monitor soil moisture conditions and graze quick-draining fields first. You can use a 'ball test' to determine if the soil is fit for the animals to be on it by grabbing a handful of surface soil and kneading it in your hand – if it forms a ball, the soil is too wet to be on it. If soil conditions are marginal, you should consider whether there are fields on your farm that drain more quickly than others – you might have sandy or shale soil that drains quickly, which might be ready sooner than limestone soil, or soil with a seasonally high water table. Steeply sloping soils can also be problematic during wet periods. When you notice the animal's hooves start skidding down the slope or create ridges, it is time to move them to more level fields. 
3. Graze pastures with tough root systems when conditions are wet. You will quickly notice the difference between tough-rooted and well established forage species in pasture and annual cover crops or second year perennial plantings, that have a smaller root system. The long-term perennial grass withstands compaction a lot better, while you quickly bring up dirt when grazing the annuals when it is wet.
4. Graze to taller residual. If it is wet, it is important to rotate animals more quickly through the pastures than if the soil is dry. This leaves more armor on the soil, lessening the impact of hoofs, while also maintaining greater vigor in the pasture so the roots never skip a beat. Leave at least 6" residual when it is wet, and never graze your pastures closer than 3" to the ground during any time of year.
5. Give the pastures time to heal. It is unavoidable that you cause some compaction when it rains frequently. However, if you have healthy soil, it will repair itself because it is teeming with living organisms that tunnel and grow through it. One good thing is that grazing animals rarely cause compaction deeper than 4 inches, and compaction alleviation is much faster close to the soil surface due to high biological activity there. Exclude animals from the paddocks after grazing for 20-30 days or more to allow the soil to heal.
6. Pull the animals off if you expect them to cause severe compaction. This is a means of last resort, but it is preferred over muddying up your field. It is beneficial to have an area where livestock can be contained when the weather doesn't allow for grazing.

The mistake often made is to allow livestock to graze pastures too early in the spring before the soil and grasses are ready. Not only does this practice create soil compaction that may negatively impact forage productivity for years to come but the hoof action can create bare spots allowing for the encroachment of weeds. We see that successful grazers take care of their soil first, resulting in vigorous and productive pastures and subsequently healthy, highly productive animals.