Single species grazing ultimately has a negative impact on the plant composition of grazing land. For instance, after numerous years of cattle-only grazing, the preferred grass species decline and the less preferred grasses, forbs and browse increase. By contrast, using multiple species of livestock helps spread grazing pressures across a wider variety of plants, reducing the chance for certain plants to develop a competitive edge over others.

Some range managers feel that the increasing problem of invasive weeds on public lands is a direct result of declining sheep numbers during the past several decades. Some of the worst weeds today on cattle ranges (spotted knapweed, leafy spurge, yellow star thistle, etc.) are readily eaten by sheep and goats.

Adding another species of livestock to a cattle operation can have some definite benefits. Whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages may depend upon your own situation and purposes, climate and forage growth, etc. Some of the advantages include more efficient use of pasture plants and more weed control (since different species of livestock prefer different plants), control of brush when browsers are included in the species mix, more parasite control (since most species of internal parasite are host specific and cannot complete their life cycle in the wrong animal), and more income per acre if you can accommodate more animals on your pastures. Some of the disadvantages include possibilities of disease transmission from one species to another under certain conditions, and the need for more facilities, labor and management in some situations.

Some people who raise horses have discovered the advantages of using cattle rotationally with their horses. With horses alone, even in a good rotational pasture management system, you end up with tall patches of grass that are never grazed. The horses keep returning to their favorite grasses and overgraze them, leaving other plants untouched. Ungrazed weeds go to seed and spread over more of the pasture unless you mow those areas or graze them with other livestock, to make sure weeds or thistle patches don’t take over the field.

Sheep or goats do a better job of utilizing some “weeds” than cattle can. “If you use multi-species grazing, there will be some animals—whether cattle, sheep or goats, that would eat those plants,” says Dr. Burt Staniar, Pennsylvania State University. Then they won’t go to seed and may eventually die out because most of them are annuals or biennials. This type of weed control is more effective, efficient and environmentally-friendly than use of herbicides.

Parasites
The same is true for parasite control. “Generally you have different parasites in different species. They can’t mature in the wrong host. You can break the life cycle of most parasites by using multi-species grazing,” says Staniar. This works best if you use different species rotationally and separately. When cattle worm eggs hatch, for instance, and the larvae move onto grass plants to be eaten, if eaten by a sheep those larvae won’t survive to mature and lay more eggs. And when the plant regrows after being eaten by one species, the parasites are no longer on that plant and it is safer for the other species to eat.

Cattle can act as “vacuum cleaners” to ingest sheep worm larva, and vice versa, when these species follow each other in a grazing rotation system. This can be a good companion strategy to deworming, since many common parasites are becoming resistant to drugs. Goats and sheep share some parasites, however, and grazing them together does not improve parasite control. Yet goats will stay relatively free of internal parasites, if given adequate room with enough browsing. Worm eggs pass through the animal in manure, and hatching larvae only travel a short distance up the blades of grass. Goats will only become heavily infected with parasites if forced to graze at ground level.

Cattle, sheep and horses prefer not to eat the plants next to their own manure (and perhaps this is nature’s way to try to minimize parasite load) and always leave some forage ungrazed unless they are short on food. They will, however, eat near other species’ manure. Thus multi-species grazing results in more uniform use of forage—increasing total pasture productivity and carrying capacity.

Different Grazing Habits
- Cattle and sheep have traditionally been used together and more completely utilize a pasture than either species alone, since cattle tend to prefer grass and some legumes while sheep prefer legumes--then forbs and grass. Sheep will eat some weeds that cattle won’t. Cattle eat some of the taller, more mature plants that sheep don’t like. Due to different preferences they make better use of the entire pasture.

When goats are added to the mix, or used with cattle, there is more diverse use of plants since goats prefer forbs and brush, then grass, before they’ll touch legumes. They prefer browsing to grazing. Goats will eat brush as high as they can reach, standing on their hind legs to trim back willows and other woody invaders of pastureland. Goats are typically top-down grazers; they eat the high brush before grazing down to soil level, and will also graze along fencelines before grazing the center of a pasture. They never overuse the grass plants. As a rule of thumb, goats eat highest, cattle eat at intermediate level, sheep graze closer (having smaller mouths), and horses can nip plants right down to the ground—having the advantage of top and bottom incisors.

Goats are now used in many geographic regions for brush and weed control. They can be very beneficial in helping reclaim pastureland that has gone to brush and/or weeds. In some instances ranchers fence them onto areas of pasture that need brush/weed reduction. On range allotments, herds of goats are sometimes kept on specific areas by herders.

As stated by Kevin Sedivec, North Dakota State University Rangeland Management Specialist, cattle eat mostly grass while sheep and goats eat weeds and forbs. Cattle diets are typically 70 percent grass. Goat diets are usually about 60 percent browse (bushes and trees). Sheep diets average about 50 percent grass, 30 percent forbs and 20 percent browse.

Goats eat high off the ground, while sheep and cattle eat low. Goats and sheep do well on plants that cattle won’t touch, turning “waste” plants into meat and milk. In Sedivec’s area of North Dakota, ranchers can add one sheep or 1.5 goats to most pastures without adjusting cattle numbers. If undesirable plants like leafy spurge make up more than 40 percent of a pasture, he says you can add 2 sheep per cow or 2 to 2.5 goats per cow.

The biggest advantage of multi-species grazing is in large unimproved pastures like rangeland, rather than in a lush improved, cultivated pasture planted to tame grasses. The stocking rates of any species in a multi-species mix will depend on the pasture or rangeland having a variety of plants—grass, forbs, brush. If pastures are a monoculture of tame grass plants, the animals would all be competing for the same forage.

In rough country, sheep and goats can be compatible with cattle to provide greater utilization of forage. Sheep and goats tend to use steeper, rockier land where cattle generally prefer not to go. Multi-species grazing on certain pastures can increase livestock production by 25 percent, on average, as shown in numerous trials. Compared with cattle-only grazing, sheep and cattle together have been shown to increase production per unit area by 10 to 53 percent, depending on the situation.

Competition for forage is always greater for animals of the same species, as opposed to animals of different species. Grazing pressure is therefore lower, and individual animal performance higher, at the same stocking rates under multi-species grazing management than single-species grazing. Studies have shown that sheep grazed in combination with cattle gained 12 to 126 percent more (an average of 30 percent more, across the board) than sheep grazed alone. Cattle grazed with sheep had gains of up to 21 percent above cattle-only grazing.

The key to success, however, is to make sure total stocking rate does not exceed carrying capacity of the pastureland. A general rule of thumb is that on moderately stocked pastures, one ewe can be added for each cow without adversely affecting cattle performance or pasture health/condition. In pastures with large amounts of brush or weeds that goats will eat, the number of goats that can be added to a cattle pasture may be much higher.

Some ranchers who utilize Angora goats on rangeland produce extra income with meat and mohair from the goats. In some geographic regions goat meat can be very profitable in a niche market, to sell to the ethnic trade during times of year that correspond with the holidays of different cultures. There are a number of cultures that traditionally eat sheep and/or goats rather than beef.

Management Concerns
Adding another species or two in a cattle operation requires some extra labor and expense, such as more secure fencing to contain sheep or goats. In many instances you can simply add an electric wire. Barbed-wire fences can be augmented by adding offset electric wire or a few extra strands of barbed-wire. You also need to make sure water troughs are low enough for sheep to drink, or add some stepping blocks around the troughs so the animals can climb up higher.

In large pastures or rangeland, problems of species interaction or bullying (cattle not letting the sheep or goats drink at a trough, or a ram chasing cows away) are minimized. In smaller pastures this can be a problem. These challenges can be overcome by rotating one species through a pasture system ahead of the other (keeping the animals separate) or putting creep fencing or gates around part of the watering area to allow the smaller animals to enter.
If you don’t want to own the sheep or goats, or don’t want the labor involved in lambing or kidding, another option is to lease pasture to someone who has sheep or goats—they come in graze, then take the animals home again.

One caution: if sheep are grazing with cattle, be careful to not use a mineral mix that contains copper. Levels of copper found in commercial mineral mixes for cattle are too high for sheep and can be toxic. If you plan to add another species to your cattle operation, do your homework. It also pays to start small and learn from experience as you go. It takes more management, but can be a great benefit to your land and pastures in the long run, and may add to your income if you do it right.

Sidebar

WEEDS CAN BE WELL UTILIZED BY GOATS AND SHEEP
By definition, a weed is a plant growing in a setting in which it is considered undesirable. For pasture purposes, there are many plants that are undesirable because they are not well utilized by cattle. This is where goats can be the heroes—converting weeds/invasive brush into meat and milk. They readily eat (and thrive on) pigweed, ragweed, poison ivy, dock, sedge, black locust, autumn olive, mulberry, wild roses (briars), blackberry brambles, honeysuckle and many other “undesirable” plants. Some of these plants contain good nutrient/protein levels and have greater nutrient values than the pasture grasses. Some plants that are toxic to other animals can be safely eaten by goats, including hemlock, poison oak, yellow star thistle and several species of mustard. Some of the plants that are toxic to cattle that won’t harm sheep include leafy spurge, tall larkspur, tansy ragwort and pine needles.

Leafy spurge is becoming a huge problem in some western regions because cattle won’t eat it and it keeps spreading—reducing availability of desirable forage plants and ultimately limiting the number of cattle the pasture will support. Sheep and goats will readily eat leafy spurge, once acclimated to it (it may take a year to overcome initial aversion to it), and show good weight gains after they begin consuming larger amounts. This weed has a high crude protein level. Sheep and goats can thus convert a noxious weed into economic gain.
Over time, keeping these plants grazed will stress and weaken them, reducing seed production—reducing the density of infestations to more tolerable levels. Studies have shown that multi-species grazing can reduce leafy spurge densities by 80 to 90 percent after 3 to 5 years of grazing. Sheep and goats can maintain control of this plant in inaccessible or environmentally sensitive areas where herbicides can’t be used.

Using goats instead of herbicides to reduce unwanted forbs and brush is more economical than using herbicides, more environmentally-safe, and at the same time can produce an extra crop from the land. They can also reduce fire danger by eating back the brush or stripping the leaves before they dry and produce a fire hazard. Goats can eat about 25 percent of their body weight each day in plant matter, so this equates to a lot of weed and brush control. They’ll clean up briars and brambles and some of the problem weeds like musk thistles that tend to take over more area. Standing on their hind legs, they can graze brush up to 6 feet high, opening up some of the under-story to let sunlight through so more grass can grow. Goats are an inexpensive (or even profitable!) way to renovate a pasture and improve its carrying capacity.

Sidebar

AN EXAMPLE OF DIFFERENT GRAZING BEHAVIOR AND FEED UTILIZATION – CATTLE AND HORSES GRAZE DIFFERENTLY
Horses and ruminants are very different in the way their GI tracts function, and selection of plants. “Horses can do better than cattle on a high fiber, low quality forage,” says Burt Staniar, Assistant Professor of Equine Nutrition, Pennsylvania State University.
“This is mainly true when animals have unlimited areas to graze. An example often given is comparing zebra and wildebeests in Africa. The equine has a more rapid rate of food passage through the tract; he doesn’t need to lie around and chew the cud to reprocess feed like a ruminant does. The horse is generally less efficient than the ruminant in extracting nutrients and energy from feed, but makes up for this with greater intake; he is able to eat more or less continually,” says Staniar.

Since the equine digestive tract does not get every last bit of good out of the food eaten, horses eat more to make up for this inefficiency. Thus they can get by on low quality forage because of the rapid rate of passage through the gut, allowing them to eat a lot of it, eating all day long.

By contrast, the cow can load up on feed in a shorter time and then spends time processing it. She can’t eat as much total feed in 24-hour period. If you put a cow and a horse in a situation where they have only low quality forage available, the cow will not do as well because she can only take in so much—the amount that fills the rumen—and can’t consume any more. This is especially true when forage quality is low (short on protein) because a certain level of protein is needed for rumen microbes to function properly for fermentation and fiber breakdown. Without enough protein to “feed” the gut bugs, rumen digestion slows and food passage is delayed—and the cow can’t eat enough to maintain her nutrient requirements.