Let’s talk pastures.
According to Dale Strickler, agronomist at Green Cover Seed, “the standard level of pasture management, I hate to be insulting, but it’s miserable. … We just simply do not manage pastures here.”
Instead, “we use the Columbus grazing method. We turn cattle out in the spring and then go discover ’em five months later.”
Not only that, but Strickler said the most widely planted variety of Kentucky 31 Fescue “actually has toxic properties to animals. It really hurts their health. But it’s still the Number One planted pasture grass because people go with the cheapest option.”
“This part of the country has the potential to grow pasture yields as high as anywhere,” Strickler elaborated. “Our crop yields can’t touch what they do in Iowa or Illinois, but we can easily beat ‘em on pasture,” he said.
So what alternatives for pasture management exist beyond traditional Columbus grazing and planting fescue?
According to Strickler, ranchers should consider both rotational grazing and planting alfalfa (or other companion crops) in addition to grass.
“When you put that level of management into it, the economics of this cattle business just completely changes,” he said.
Think pasture yields between twice to five times higher.
“These aren’t pie-in-the-sky projections, either,” added Strickler. These are actual numbers.”
Let’s tackle rotational grazing first.
“People assume it’s going to take all day long,” Strickler said. “… But it’s really not that time-consuming.”
The secret, he said, is portable fencing. “It’s on a little reel. And you just move a small portion of the fence every day.”
“Basically you divide the pasture into quarters,” Strickler explained. “Then you change the cattles’ daily allocation” by periodically moving the fenceline, and with an eye to keeping more cows in a smaller area.
So what are the benefits?
One side-effect of more tightly managed grazing areas is that it’s possible to convince cows to remove unwanted plants that would otherwise require mowing or spraying with an airplane (potentially incurring costs that can become higher than renting the pasture itself).
According to Strickler, “we think we have to mow or spray to get rid of those plants, but we don’t. We need to manage our grazing. And if we manage our grazing, there’s hardly anything the cows don’t eat.”
Instead of weeks to roam and graze an immense space at leisure, imagine more cattle fenced into a smaller space for only a day or so at a time (followed by 30 days of pasture rest).
“When you crowd ‘em up, they’re not being starved, but it completely changes the cows’ psychology with competition,” said Strickler.
“It creates a mob-mentality where they’ll eat anything.”
Not only can mobile fencing save you money on mowing or spraying, said Strickler, you’ll also see greater pasture yield.
“If you have everything eaten down to nothing, there’s no photosynthesis going on,” said Strickler, which can easily happen when cows remain in the same place for too long.
By contrast, “you want to maintain a 4-to-6 inch stubble on that grass. If they’re gazing below that, you’re hurting your yield,” Strickler explained.
Not only that, “but if you allow cattle to graze willy-nilly, they’ll eat the plants they like and ignore the plants they don’t. So eventually the plants they don’t like take over.”
What about adding alfalfa or other companion crops? How does that help?
According to Strickler, a clipping study showed that “it’s potentially five to six times the productivity, per acre, … putting alfalfa in with your fescue.”
“I think alfalfa is THE most productive plant we can add to these pastures,” he said.
But wait a minute. Can’t alfalfa be fatal to cows?
Indeed, said Strickler, “the problem with alfalfa is that it causes bloat. … [The cattle] can’t belch and get rid of the gas, so they literally inflate and suffocate.”
“Not only does it kill the animals but the animals kill [the plants] … it’s a murder-suicide situation.”
However, “when the alfalfa starts to bloom, though, it becomes much safer.” That’s also how alfalfa works hand-in-hand with rotational grazing, where you only allow cattle to graze plants that have been growing for at least 30 days.
By contrast, “alfalfa won’t even survive under continuous grazing. … You have to give it a rest.” And the same goes for other productive companion crops such as red clover, which “just don’t tolerate continuous grazing.”
Red clover and other covers can also help reduce the risk of bloat.
To summarize, then, Strickler’s contention is that “the power of rotational grazing, and adding additional and more productive species to the pasture, [is that it] allows these pastures to survive and thrive.”
“Through that combination, it reduces your costs since you don’t need to fertilize anymore; legumes, clover, alfalfa, etc., provide the Nitrogen, so we don’t have to buy it anymore; and it eliminates our need for weed and brush control, so we don’t spend money on herbicides.”
“It really completely changes the economics of the situation,” he said.
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