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Resting pasture

Knowing when to rest pasture is one of the main skills you have as a grass farmer. It plays an important role in managing growth and meeting your animals’ needs. 
 
Resting is a tactical means of providing advantage to a particular plant; for example, you might rest your pasture to enable clover seed set, or to increase the amount of coxfoot in the paddock, or to prepare for lambing. Rest benefits certain species at particular times and is a useful tool in your pasture management arsenal. 
 
Knowing when to rest, how, and for how long is the key to improving pasture condition. Will you fence off a paddock? Provide supplementary feed to reduce grazing pressure through winter? Temporarily drop the stocking rate?