Rotational grazing involves subdividing pastures into paddocks and rotating livestock between them to allow forage recovery. Animals graze one paddock for a period then move to the next in a set sequence. Zero grazing keeps animals indoors and brings cut forage to them, requiring manual or mechanical harvesting. Continuous grazing allows animals to freely graze a single pasture for long periods, such as a whole year.

1. Types of grazing systems
Grazing animals (such as cattle, sheep and goats) feed on the leaves and shoots of
grass and other shortplants (forage). A grazing systemis the pattern in which a
farmer allows livestock to grazea pasture. The grazing system used depends on
the type of animals, available space and the amount of animals being reared.
The major systems of grazing are:
.rotational
. zero
.continuous
Rotational grazing
In rotational grazing, the pastures aresub-divided into paddock. The animals are
then moved fromone paddock to another in a certain sequence. The animals are
allowed to graze in one paddock for a period of time and they are then moved
another paddock. When the animals have grazed in the final paddock, they begin
the wholerotation from the firstpaddock again. This systemgives the pasture in
each paddock enough time to recover before the animals return.
A rotational grazing system(pastureis allotted into different paddocks (1, 2,3,4)
animals will move fromone paddock to the next starting at paddock 1).
Rational grazing system

2. Zerograzing
In this type of grazing system, the animals are not allowed to go out into the
pastureto graze. Instead, forageis cut and brought to the animals in their .The
foragecan be harvested manually or mechanically. In the Caribbean they are
mostly harvested manually with a cutlass, knifeor a scythe. Itis essential that
farmers know the correcttime to harvestgrass. If forageis harvested when it is
too young it can causediarrhoea in animals and it can also cause the plants to die
or stunttheir growth. If forageis harvested when it is too old, it will become too
woody and loose its palatability.
Zero grazing system
Continuous grazing
In a continuous grazing system, thereis a single pastureand the animals are
allowed to graze in it for a long period of time such as for a whole year
.Continuous grazing is a simple systemto implement and usually practiced where
there is no fencing.

3. Continuousgrazingsystem
Grazing system Advantages Disadvantages
Rotational grazing reduces weed growth
reduces soil erosion
limits the compaction
of soil
helps to maintain
healthy forageand
grass
animal wastes add
nutrients to the soil
prevents over grazing
forageand grass are
consumed more
efficiently
requires additional
labour
starting costs can be
very high (these
include materials and
labour needed to
constructfences)
fence requires proper
maintenance
Zerograzing reduces praedial
larceny
allows monitoring and
control diseases
time consuming as it
requires a lot of time
to harvestgrass or

4. reduces missing
animals
no fencing and water
supplies required
requires less space
highly productive
forageand transportit
to animals
increased production
costs as people have
to employed to cut
and transportgrass or
forage
requires proper
managing of forage
and grass and
knowledgeof the most
suitable time of for
harvesting
Continuous grazing low start-up costs
most cost-effective
method of grazing
abundanceof forage
and grass in the rainy
season
requires less
management and
resources
causes overgrazing
encourages straying of
animals
encourages the build-
up of internal and
external parasites