People often say "the grass is always greener in the next paddock" (or something like that) and this is true for grazing animals as well. Intensively managed rotational grazing (IMRG) is an animal management practice in which animals graze a portion of land for a short period of time before they’re moved to a different portion.
Frequently moving livestock helps pasture resilience, parasite load, manure dispersion, and keeps the animals happy. Here at BOTL Farm, this is a huge deal, perhaps even the core principle of our farming philosophy: managing our animals and sizing our herds so that their presence benefits the land, instead of having a deleterious effect on it.
We could write lots and lots of words on this topic, and perhaps in the future we will bore you with that, but for now let's focus on just one aspect of IMRG: manure dispersion, aka poop.
Manure dispersion is a big deal in farming, often blithely called "nutrient management." When animals are kept in confinement on or dirt lots, their manure accumulates to toxic levels. We actually care about the land we farm on and have learned that if we keep animals moving through pastures at the right pace, their manure changes from a toxic buildup to a beneficial fertilizer. Their brief presence enhances the nutrient profile of our soil, instead of being a nuisance "waste" we have to dispose of.
For us, the "intensive" part of IMRG is key, as it means we're considering species, stocking density, temperature, rainfall, pasture height, anticipated pasture growth rate, and a myriad of other factors. We're constantly tailoring our grazing plans (we love plans!) to account for the feedback we're getting by evaluating conditions. This means we're changing our daily grazing to match conditions. We might be in a loop right now, but this is important and most farmers don't do it.
Last note: IMRG is one of many types of grazing practices, including continuous grazing, mob grazing, holistic grazing, and strip grazing. None of these terms have consensus definitions, so ask your farmer what they mean by their chosen term.