Managing spring grass growth
By
John Grimes-
April has certainly been eventful thus far for the avid sports fan. The college basketball season has wrapped up with Cinderella (Butler) coming up just short. The professional baseball season is under way and I am looking forward to the upcoming NFL draft to see how the Bengals can improve.
Farmers and gardeners alike are getting anxious to get started on a new growing season. Last week saw some wide fluctuations in temperatures and variable rainfall amounts, depending on your location. Hopefully, weather conditions will improve soon to facilitate timely plantings.
Managing spring grass growth
and selective grazing
For most beef cattle farmers who are managing their pastures in a rotational grazing system, two of the biggest challenges are the flush of rapid growth that will occur and selective grazing.
While there are no easy management answers, if we review some basic plant growth biology and grazing principles, they may suggest some management strategies. Warning: This article may disrupt some conventional thinking.
We know that as spring progresses, grass growth will speed up. Our cool season pasture grasses produce about 60% of their total dry matter production by early July. If your farm has a stocking rate that is matched to summer pasture production, there is no way your cattle will be able to consume enough pasture forage to keep up with the flush of grass growth that will occur in late April through May. Coupled with this explosion in grass growth is a physiological response to the shorter nights and longer days that triggers seed head production generally starting at some point in May.
So not only is there more forage than can be consumed, but now the quality is steadily declining as a seed head is produced. It is very hard to fight this biology. Fast grazing rotations where hopefully the cattle just top the grass, combined with clipping the pastures to keep seed heads off are some standard management practices that are tried. In reality, these are not great solutions because cattle are not grazing uniformly and are not just topping the grass. They are grazing some places harder than others and there will be selective grazing resulting in uneven growth. Clipping pastures to keep the seed heads off can be very time consuming, not to mention the fuel and machinery costs that are incurred.
Instead of fighting the biology of spring grass growth, work with it. If your stocking rate is matched for summer production all of the pasture paddocks are not needed during the spring and early summer period. Paddocks must be dropped out of the spring rotation, and doing so will make it easier to manage the spring flush of growth.
Which paddocks should be dropped out? Obviously, any paddocks that had trampling and pugging damage during the winter and early spring are good candidates. This will give them time to recover, and/or for some paddock renovation and reseeding to be done. Next, drop those paddocks where it is easiest to get a tractor over. The goal is really to use the pasture paddocks with the most slope where clipping would be difficult.
The end result might be as much as 50% of your grazing acres dropped out of the spring rotation. The next thing that should be done is to divide those remaining pastures in half if at all possible. This will change stocking density, but not stocking rate. Stocking density is defined as the number of animal units being grazed per unit of land over a short time period. The stocking rate is defined as the number of animal units that are carried on a given unit of land over a long time period, generally a year. So, when paddocks are dropped out of the rotation, there is now the opportunity to graze more animal units, more pounds of animal per acre. This will accomplish a couple of things.
First, with more animal pounds on a smaller paddock acreage, a faster rotation is necessary. This will help keep plants in a vegetative growth stage. There may still be some seedheads, but seeds are not maturing before the plant is grazed again and the grass still has good nutritive value for the cows. Second, when stocking at more pounds per acre, cattle tend to be much less selective. Paddocks are grazed more uniformly, reducing the need to clip. Pasture forage utilization is increased.
Keep practicing good grazing principles, do not graze below a 3 inch height, and do not enter a paddock with less than 8 inches of growth. Remember if you have to err on when to pull cattle out of a paddock, it is better to leave more residual growth as compared to grazing lower. When grass growth begins to slow down and you can no longer pull cattle out of a paddock with 3-4 inches of residual and move to a paddock with 8 inches of growth, it is time to begin adding some of those dropped paddocks back in to the rotation to maintain these grazing principles.
The question will come up about what to do with those paddocks that are dropped out of the spring rotation. Options include taking a hay crop from them, clip them before they are worked back into the rotation, or just let them grow. The advantage of taking a hay crop is that it might be used later as a management tool, and fed in the late summer to protect paddocks from being overgrazed, particularly if a drought situation develops.
Clipping is another expense, but does allow nutrients to be recycled back into the paddock and clipping will maintain the vegetative quality of the paddock. If the paddock is clipped, try to time it so that the regrowth will be at that 8-10 inch stage when the cattle enter to graze.
When combined with the uniform manure cover that accompanies a heavy stocking density, this results in a mulch layer over the soil that conserves soil moisture, provides a favorable environment for nutrient recycling, and allows good regrowth potential. If the stocking density is heavy enough, there would not be any need to clip the paddock after the grazing pass. If the stocking density is light enough to allow selective grazing, then it may be necessary to clip the paddock after this grazing pass. The stocking density that would allow this system to work is probably in excess of 200,000 lbs/acre. Think 50 1,200- lbs cows in a one-quarter acre paddock and you get the idea.
Most cattle graziers struggle with the spring flush of growth, seedhead development, rapidly maturing grass and uneven, selective grazing. Expecting different results this year without a management change is wishful thinking.
Source: Rory Lewandowski, Extension educator, Athens County, Buckeye Hills EERA
Farmers plan
record soybean acres
U.S. farmers plan to plant a record-high 78.1 million acres to soybeans in 2010, according to the Prospective Plantings report released recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
NASS expects that total area planted to principal crops nationwide will hold steady at 319.5 million acres, after declining 5.7 percent in 2009. Intended soybean acres are expected to increase 1 percent from last year’s previous record, while corn planted area is expected to increase 3 percent, to 88.8 million acres. If realized, this would be the second-largest area planted to corn since 1947, behind 2007.
The largest soybean acreage increases are expected in Kansas, up 400,000 acres, and Iowa, up 300,000. Increases of 100,000 or more acres are also expected in Illinois, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Expected corn acreage is up in many states due to reduced winter wheat acreage and growers‚ expectations of improved net returns. Increases of 300,000 or more corn acres are expected in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Ohio. Iowa continues to lead the nation with 13.5 million corn acres, despite an expected drop of 200,000 acres from 2009.
Catalogs available for
Ohio Cattlemen's seedstock
improvement bull sales
The Ohio Cattlemen's Association is hosting a seedstock improvement bull sales Saturday, April 17 at Union Stock Yards Company in Hillsboro. This offers an affordable way to buy bulls from multiple breeds in one location and on one day. Buyers have the assurance of buying bulls with known genetics, a completed vaccination regiment and a breeding soundness exam. This year there are 33 bulls consigned to the sale at Union Stock Yards.
John Grimes is the Ohio State University Extension Educator for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Highland County.[[In-content Ad]]
Farmers and gardeners alike are getting anxious to get started on a new growing season. Last week saw some wide fluctuations in temperatures and variable rainfall amounts, depending on your location. Hopefully, weather conditions will improve soon to facilitate timely plantings.
Managing spring grass growth
and selective grazing
For most beef cattle farmers who are managing their pastures in a rotational grazing system, two of the biggest challenges are the flush of rapid growth that will occur and selective grazing.
While there are no easy management answers, if we review some basic plant growth biology and grazing principles, they may suggest some management strategies. Warning: This article may disrupt some conventional thinking.
We know that as spring progresses, grass growth will speed up. Our cool season pasture grasses produce about 60% of their total dry matter production by early July. If your farm has a stocking rate that is matched to summer pasture production, there is no way your cattle will be able to consume enough pasture forage to keep up with the flush of grass growth that will occur in late April through May. Coupled with this explosion in grass growth is a physiological response to the shorter nights and longer days that triggers seed head production generally starting at some point in May.
So not only is there more forage than can be consumed, but now the quality is steadily declining as a seed head is produced. It is very hard to fight this biology. Fast grazing rotations where hopefully the cattle just top the grass, combined with clipping the pastures to keep seed heads off are some standard management practices that are tried. In reality, these are not great solutions because cattle are not grazing uniformly and are not just topping the grass. They are grazing some places harder than others and there will be selective grazing resulting in uneven growth. Clipping pastures to keep the seed heads off can be very time consuming, not to mention the fuel and machinery costs that are incurred.
Instead of fighting the biology of spring grass growth, work with it. If your stocking rate is matched for summer production all of the pasture paddocks are not needed during the spring and early summer period. Paddocks must be dropped out of the spring rotation, and doing so will make it easier to manage the spring flush of growth.
Which paddocks should be dropped out? Obviously, any paddocks that had trampling and pugging damage during the winter and early spring are good candidates. This will give them time to recover, and/or for some paddock renovation and reseeding to be done. Next, drop those paddocks where it is easiest to get a tractor over. The goal is really to use the pasture paddocks with the most slope where clipping would be difficult.
The end result might be as much as 50% of your grazing acres dropped out of the spring rotation. The next thing that should be done is to divide those remaining pastures in half if at all possible. This will change stocking density, but not stocking rate. Stocking density is defined as the number of animal units being grazed per unit of land over a short time period. The stocking rate is defined as the number of animal units that are carried on a given unit of land over a long time period, generally a year. So, when paddocks are dropped out of the rotation, there is now the opportunity to graze more animal units, more pounds of animal per acre. This will accomplish a couple of things.
First, with more animal pounds on a smaller paddock acreage, a faster rotation is necessary. This will help keep plants in a vegetative growth stage. There may still be some seedheads, but seeds are not maturing before the plant is grazed again and the grass still has good nutritive value for the cows. Second, when stocking at more pounds per acre, cattle tend to be much less selective. Paddocks are grazed more uniformly, reducing the need to clip. Pasture forage utilization is increased.
Keep practicing good grazing principles, do not graze below a 3 inch height, and do not enter a paddock with less than 8 inches of growth. Remember if you have to err on when to pull cattle out of a paddock, it is better to leave more residual growth as compared to grazing lower. When grass growth begins to slow down and you can no longer pull cattle out of a paddock with 3-4 inches of residual and move to a paddock with 8 inches of growth, it is time to begin adding some of those dropped paddocks back in to the rotation to maintain these grazing principles.
The question will come up about what to do with those paddocks that are dropped out of the spring rotation. Options include taking a hay crop from them, clip them before they are worked back into the rotation, or just let them grow. The advantage of taking a hay crop is that it might be used later as a management tool, and fed in the late summer to protect paddocks from being overgrazed, particularly if a drought situation develops.
Clipping is another expense, but does allow nutrients to be recycled back into the paddock and clipping will maintain the vegetative quality of the paddock. If the paddock is clipped, try to time it so that the regrowth will be at that 8-10 inch stage when the cattle enter to graze.
When combined with the uniform manure cover that accompanies a heavy stocking density, this results in a mulch layer over the soil that conserves soil moisture, provides a favorable environment for nutrient recycling, and allows good regrowth potential. If the stocking density is heavy enough, there would not be any need to clip the paddock after the grazing pass. If the stocking density is light enough to allow selective grazing, then it may be necessary to clip the paddock after this grazing pass. The stocking density that would allow this system to work is probably in excess of 200,000 lbs/acre. Think 50 1,200- lbs cows in a one-quarter acre paddock and you get the idea.
Most cattle graziers struggle with the spring flush of growth, seedhead development, rapidly maturing grass and uneven, selective grazing. Expecting different results this year without a management change is wishful thinking.
Source: Rory Lewandowski, Extension educator, Athens County, Buckeye Hills EERA
Farmers plan
record soybean acres
U.S. farmers plan to plant a record-high 78.1 million acres to soybeans in 2010, according to the Prospective Plantings report released recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
NASS expects that total area planted to principal crops nationwide will hold steady at 319.5 million acres, after declining 5.7 percent in 2009. Intended soybean acres are expected to increase 1 percent from last year’s previous record, while corn planted area is expected to increase 3 percent, to 88.8 million acres. If realized, this would be the second-largest area planted to corn since 1947, behind 2007.
The largest soybean acreage increases are expected in Kansas, up 400,000 acres, and Iowa, up 300,000. Increases of 100,000 or more acres are also expected in Illinois, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Expected corn acreage is up in many states due to reduced winter wheat acreage and growers‚ expectations of improved net returns. Increases of 300,000 or more corn acres are expected in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Ohio. Iowa continues to lead the nation with 13.5 million corn acres, despite an expected drop of 200,000 acres from 2009.
Catalogs available for
Ohio Cattlemen's seedstock
improvement bull sales
The Ohio Cattlemen's Association is hosting a seedstock improvement bull sales Saturday, April 17 at Union Stock Yards Company in Hillsboro. This offers an affordable way to buy bulls from multiple breeds in one location and on one day. Buyers have the assurance of buying bulls with known genetics, a completed vaccination regiment and a breeding soundness exam. This year there are 33 bulls consigned to the sale at Union Stock Yards.
John Grimes is the Ohio State University Extension Educator for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Highland County.[[In-content Ad]]