Intensive High Impact Workouts Verses Consistent and Strategic Activity

There are at least two times during the year that most people will think about exercise; around the New Year for making resolutions and in the summer when headed to the lake or beach. Personally, I prefer a comfortably paced walk compared to running a 5K and much prefer being active outside as compared to going to a gym.  A reason people may give up on an exercise programs is the intensity and cost while convenience is really the main objection.  We all can benefit from being in better shape by doing some exercise.  That said; it does not have to involve packing up, driving to the gym, going hard for an hour every day.  Don’t fall into the mindset that “I don’t have the time, energy or money to get in better shape”.

You may be wondering “where is this Block Blog going?”  There are a variety of exercise program, some high intensity, some more focused on specific areas and some that can be extremely time consuming and expensive.  If you think about a grazing program you will see that similar observations can be made.  Don’t fall into the mindset that “I cannot intensively rotational graze, so to heck with managing my pastures.”

Intensive rotational grazing works but to be successful there must be an initial investment in cattle watering capability and a fencing system.   Often the time commitment for moving fence and/or cattle is the biggest deterrent.  Will we be able to move the cattle every day or every third day?  There is a reason it is called Intensive.  A fellow Block Blogger has a saying that we hear on occasion that fits well here. “It is just Time and Money”.  Time is a valuable limited resource.

Your pasture, your cattle and your feed budget will benefit by getting the best utilization of your grass as possible.  Strategic placement of the CRYSTALYX^® self-fed supplements can be an economical means to get better pasture utilization.  Cattle like the product and will seek it out.  Depending on the cattle stocking rate and expected intake, new product will need to be placed in the pasture on a very predictable basis.  Changing the location of the barrels will draw cattle to that particular section of the pasture.  Our research has shown that CRYSTALYX^® will increase the amount of time cattle spend within a certain radius of the supplement.  By changing the location of the barrels in relationship to the water source we can modify the animal behavior.  Graze them up to the barrels and back to water.  Given the specific characteristics and geography of your pasture you can develop “strip grazing patterns” as the cattle move from supplement to the water source.  Even though it is low cost (no added fencing) and low time investment (no physically moving fence/cattle) you will be getting better pasture utilization which sounds like a consistent and strategic grazing program to me. 

Let’s continue the comparison to getting more exercise.  If we increase our activity level we will gain other benefits such as maybe losing some weight and possibly some stress relief.  With a grazing program that utilizing CRYSTALYX^® self-fed supplements we can get more days to graze, provide valuable trace mineral and vitamins to our cattle while improving the forage digestibility as we get later into the grazing season and forage quality declines.  Explore the Crystalyx.com website to learn more about the grazing research.  Under the Proven Results tab you can select Grazing Management and get more detailed information.  Effective grazing management does not have to be high intensity and expensive.  Hey, you may even have time to enjoy some summer activity while CRYSTALYX^® is working for you.