ABSTRACT
Pasture is a forage crop capable of intercepting and storing large amounts of solar energy and, consequently, supporting high levels of livestock production at low cost if managed properly. The pasture resource in the United States has been mismanaged, wasted, and ignored—probably because the nation had too much land available, too few animals to graze it well, and no pressing economic need to use the land more efficiently. In the Northeast alone there are 10 million acres of permanent pastureland, which were perceived until recently to be practically worthless. Voisin grazing management in essence gives pasture plants a chance to photosynthesize and replenish food reserves. The Voisin method controls what and when livestock eat, by dividing pastures into small areas and rotating animals through them. “Mob stocking” is similar to Voisin grazing management; large numbers of animals are concentrated in small paddocks for short periods.
