Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Why consider a planned grazing system?

((Question to 24hourcampfire: would you like to see a separate ranch/farm forum??))

http://www.ntxe-news.com/artman/publish/article_75550.shtml

Do you like feeding your livestock hay from August to March?

Do you realize you have a choice in this matter? Well, you do.

Here is a step by step process which you can follow that will help you make some good decisions for managing your livestock operation so you don�t have to feed so much hay and grow close to the same amount of beef but with more profit.

Step 1: Inventory your pasture or pastures. Exactly what kind of forages are you growing and how much input (fertilizer, weed control, rotational grazing) are you willing to put into this operation.

Step 2: Determine how many grazeable acres are in each pasture. If you have a 100 acre pasture and 30 are in brush and 10 are in ponds and buildings, you have 60 acres of grazeable acres.

Step 3: Now you are ready to determine your stocking rate. Here are some �rules of thumb� grazing rates for the Fannin County area.

a. High Input Improved Pastures (coastal, B-Dahl Old World Bluestem, etc.) ----3 acres per Animal Unit

b. Low Input managed Improved Pastures ------- 6 acres per Animal Unit

c. High Input Native Pastures (Switchgrass, Indiangrass, E. Gamagrass, Etc.) --- 6 acres per Animal Unit

d. Low Input Native Pastures ----- 10 � 12 acres per Animal Unit

Step 4: Now Calculate your year-long stocking rate by dividing the grazeable acres in each pasture by the appropriate management input above (a,b,c,d). Complete this for all your pastures, add them up and you will have a stocking rate for your ranch.

Step 5: A Grazing Plan is simply a controlled method of harvesting your forages with your livestock. You do this in a similar way as you cut hay. This does several things for your forages like; increased production (up to 30%), improved vigor or growth, reduced weed crop, and carry-over of forages into the dormant grazing period (November � December). A planned grazing system begins with a minimum of 2 pastures but is dramatically improved with at least 4 pastures of close to equal grazeable acres in size. High Intensity Low Frequency (HILF) grazing systems usually start with a minimum of 6 pastures and may have as many as 16.

With a grazing system you are trying to accomplish two things: (1) graze the forage in a high quality condition (every 21 -31 day rotation) (2) balance livestock numbers with the forage that is available.

We know from forage analysis that grasses reach can maintain good crude protein content from the time grazed or hayed for a maximum of 28 � 32 days. Following the 32 day period, crude protein drops dramatically as plant leafiness diminishes and stems increase.

Step 6: A grazing system is best if continued year round but may end at frost. The exception to this is if one of your pastures is cool season forage (wheat, oats, rye, and ryegrass) and then the rotation should continue.

Step 7: The grazing system is best when all cattle are in one herd. This will increase the number of pastures and shorten your pasture grazing days, thus improving your forage quality.

Conclusion: Arriving at the stocking rate is critical and usually cannot be done in one season. You also have to take into account weather conditions. The first day of June should be used to estimate the condition of your forages. You may need to cull cows or add more. Hay should typically never have to be fed until January 1 unless there are heavy ice or snow days. Always consider adding a cool season legume to your forage base. The type of clover will vary based on your soil type. This adds forage in the winter months and nitrogen to your perennial plants.

No.
Schooled on that for near 10 years in college and practiced it for another 30. It would be like going back to work.

There are a wealth of ag sites available for those discussions.

Tractor. Fork. Cowz. Fuel. Snow. Water. Salt. Abuse until browned. Call owner for more bales. End of discussion.

Almost got away with my rotation this year. It was THAT close. Now my work is cut out for the spring. Need some burning.

With 5 years of Obama, I'm not sure there's enough ranchers left to have a good discussion...

I've got grass enough to last the cattle until mid-January, if I could find a way to attach snow shovels to their heads.

We are just now starting to feed the 'main' herd of cows. They've been on grass for about 7 months utilizing a rest rotation grazing system.

Some guys around here try and get away with grazing all Winter but it's generally too cold and snowy for that this far north. I wouldn't want to be one of their cows...


When it's this cold cows need all the calories they can get.

Lick tubs, barley cake and grass/alfalfa hay along with straw. I don't even wanna think about the feed bill!



Rest rotation grazing really does make for great country out in the hills. Incredible holdover grass the last few years.

We have to feed hay from (usually) November until May or (if we're lucky) late April.

We go through plenty of this.

I'm sure that system will work great if you could make it rain 3 inches every month.Untill they figure that out graze what you got then feed hay and syrup till you can start grazing again.

Grazing can be very productive but there is definitely a learning curve and it takes time to sort out what works best on your place and get the proper infrastructure. Plus local conditions vary so much that you really need good local input. For example, here in Pa. we can run 1 cow on 1 acre if things are done right and the weather cooperates. Not like the acreages listed in the article.

Cooperative Extension and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are excellent sources for local grazing info.

I don't think there is enough traffic for a separate farm forum. But I'd look at/participate if there was.

Dale

Dale, I also don't think there would be enough farmers/ranchers here for an active forum.


Slightly off topic but do any of you guys use a bale processor?


We are thinking about getting one of these to spread straw this Winter. Never used one though.


http://www.tractorhouse.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=7972139

Sam,
Those Haybusters look like something for lot operations where you have high numbers of animals that will suck the stuff up almost faster than you can roll it out.
How much nutrient is there in straw? I set out bales last winter for the rodeo gals to wallow in, on a 2 hay to 1 straw ratio, but was really unhappy with the mess left in the spring, I couldn't get it smeared around enough to burn it off -- damp spring didn't help.
This year, the hay is going in rings, darn it, and I don't care if they stick each other. SO much wasted feed.
But I still need to get rid of some straw. I'm wondering if I can ring a bale of straw and if they eat it, when it gets below knee high, move the ring. Otherwise, I'm just going to build a mound of straw over time and then try to torch it when the wind is right and I can get a machine with a brush rake in that field.

Sam, This is what you need...going on Big Iron http://www.bigiron.com/cgi-bin/mnlist.cgi?bigiron5/category/TUB-GRINDERS-BALE-PROCESSORS
We have a Vermeer that we use everyday for bedding steers in a feedlot setting, I am looking for another and found that one, that would fit your needs much better than mine b/c of the grain tank already fitted to it. Finders fee is negotiable..fine firearms, glass, or a beer if I ever make it up in your neck of the woods Shoot me a pm or call me if you've got any questions.

Dave, not much TDN(nutrient) in the straw. We use it for bedding in our little feedlot when it gets cold and for bedding and 'feed' for the cows. You know it's cold when they clean up a few straw bales overnight.

You do have to adjust how many you roll out depending on how much they are leaving. Spread the bales around different spots so you don't end up with a layer(mess).


I highly doubt they will clean out a straw bale left in a feeder. Unless they are really hungry.





Cowman, that one looks like a deal so far on the auction!

Our local dealer sells both Haybuster and Vermeer.

I think they're both about the same price.

Is one better than the other?




We're just gonna use it shoot straw out for bedding, maybe chop up the odd bale for feed. Have a bunch of 2 year old straw bales that are about impossible to get the twine off by hand. Iced on the outside of the bale, figured the processor would chop 'em up and spread 'em out better than unrolling with the bale bed.

We use the bale buster to feed wintering calves and first calf heifers when they are calving. I think it'd work great for straw for bedding, if you can justify getting one.

The cow herd on the ranch I live on winter's out on a combination of hay ground/native range and lick tubs

We don't have one, but there's a few dairies in the area that do. Anyway, I know they use a lot of horsepower to chew up a bale, which means a high fuel bill. The other thing I heard is older outside bales, don't process as nice. If you use poly twine to make sure you remove all the twine or it gets tangled in the machine pretty good.

But I'm sure it beats unrolling a chit load of bales when the weathers rough.

Who ever wrote that's never had to contend with Midwest/mountain plains winters, or inconsistent rain falls. Besides how do you leave 3 cuttings worth of alfalfa on the stalk in your winter range to be grazed??

Tough to graze anything past Dec 1 here, until May 1 in reality. Even if the grass is "stored" in the field, the cows won't go out and get it in the cold/snow. Makes for horrible underweight calves with sickness in the spring.

Sam, Both brands are good, you may want one with a chain conveyer like the link I posted. That will work better with older bales especially with frozen chunks. The earlier models only came with rollers spun by orbital motors that would roll the bale. Frozen bales and bales made by stalk choppers could cause issues with the earlier models eg Vermeer 7000...twine gets wrapped around the rollers and can be cut or burned off in your shop. Newer models have better systems to remove twine.