This comparison was taken from the University of Idaho’s publication Targeted Grazing.
The major challenges to multi-species grazing for producers currently grazing only cattle are:
- Increased fencing requirements
- Lack of knowledge of small-ruminant husbandry
- Increased complexity because of enterprise diversity
Advantages of multi-species livestock grazing over single-species grazing include:
- Increased carry capacity
- Improved botanical composition of pastures and suppression of undesirable species
- Increased individual animal performance of one or more species in the mix
- Reduced predation of sheep or goats grazing among or bonded to cattle
- Improved animal health because parasite problems are often reduced
- Greater net return for the ranching enterprise
- Improved cash flow from marketing different products at different times of the year
- Reduced financial risk because of increased enterprise diversity
- Influence on which plants dominate grazing lands
This article originally appeared in print with "Is multi-species grazing a solution to sustainability?"
