If you find
Animals that stay in the one spot:
- breed parasites
- cause a buildup of weed seeds
- cause a buildup of nutrients in stock camps and generally sour the ground
- cause over-grazing.
Then,
By preventing animals from staying in the one spot you can eliminate many or all of those problems.
Keeping animals on the move — every day or so rather than keeping them moving constantly by droving — is a key part of rangeland and pasture management.
This way they:
- get fresh pasturage
- leave parasites behind
- distribute manure more evenly across the landscape
- do not create weedy spots and
- need not cause overgrazing.
Move them frequently enough and you reduce all these problems and improve your pasture management.
This usually means:
- better pasture composition
- fewer weeds
- better use of existing pasture
- early warning of pasture shortfalls or excess (such as can be cut for hay or silage) and
- earlier/better awareness of problems with animals or pasture.
And because you are out with your animals and on your pasture or rangeland more often, you get the benefits of applying the old saying The best manure is in the footsteps of the farmer.
This will help you to stay in contact with the areas that may need more attention through your Fertile footsteps.
Having Closed gates lets you choose when animals move. If you leave the gates open, the animals choose and they are then in charge of your pasture management and your animal health program.