Management Intensive Grazing (MIG,) is the practice of using rotational grazing and careful, usually daily, management to get optimal production. The technique is applied with herds of sheep, cattle, and occasionally other ruminants. The term "MIG" or "MiG" was popularized by writers and graziers Jim Gerrish and Allan Nation. Grazing is the regular consumption of part of one organism without killing it by another organism. ... Binomial name Ovis aries Linnaeus, 1758 A sheep is any of several woolly ruminant quadrupeds, but most commonly the Domestic Sheep (Ovis aries), which probably descends from the wild moufflon of south-central and south-west Asia. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Rainbow arching over a paddock of cattle Cattle are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... A ruminant is any hooved animal that digests its food in two steps, first by eating the raw material and regurgitating a semi-digested form known as cud, then eating the cud. ...

One hallmark of MIG systems is rotational grazing, that is, the practice of dividing up available pasture into multiple smaller areas, called paddocks, and then moving the animals from one paddock to the next after a number of days. However, in some instances continuous grazing is an accepted strategy under MIG.

The grazier manages the grazing by determining the number, size, and layout of the paddocks, when to move animals from one paddock to the next, and when to cut hay or provide supplemental feed. Also, the grazier can choose to add or remove animals from the herd to match the herd size to the available pasture. Farmer spreading grasshopper bait in his alfalfa field. ...

The decisions are based on estimates of the amount of forage in each paddock, soil conditions, present and forecast weather conditions, season of the year, and condition of the animals. Some MIG operations make objective measurements of forage condition using devices that measure the height of the sward. Others rely more upon personal observation and assessment.

One of the key concepts in MIG is the grazing wedge, which is the range of sward heights where the forage grows most rapidly.

The monthly magazine The Stockman Grassfarmer is a leading forum of MIG ideas.