In 2004, Jim and Carol Faulstich’s Daybreak Ranch began its fifth year of employing management-intensive grazing on 21 pastures within a 320 acre system located near Highmore, SD. The ranch, which entered the 2004 grazing season braced for drought, grazed 38 head of Red Angus/South Devon replacement heifers –– less than half the number grazed in 2003.

The heifers entered the grazing rotation system on May 23 with an average weight of 874 pounds. In May, June and July, the ranch received nearly 12 inches of rain. That precipitation was significant when compared to 2003 (7.8 inches) and 2002 (3.93 inches) and helped rejuvenate native plants and grasses within the system, thereby improving plant diversity and the grazing quality of the pasture.

Due to the significant rainfall, Jim Faulstich considered increasing the number of cattle in the system. Ultimately, he decided not to, and instead, allowed several of the pastures to rest for a season, ungrazed. Thus, the original 38 heifers were rotated through multiple paddocks for 127 days, and, on September 27th, were removed from the system with an average weight of 1,204 pounds.