ITHACA, N.Y.–In Part
1, I helped you calculate how many paddocks and how much pasture
you need to start rotational grazing. (See "ABCs Of Rotational
Grazing," The New Farm, May/June '91.) I'm sure you've
got other questions on your mind by now. Here are the ones I get
asked most often:
What kind of fencing should I use? It's your choice. But whatever
you use, I suggest building as many permanent paddocks as you
think you'll need, based on the Steps outlined in Part I. I think
permanent fencing actually adds to your flexibility, because then
you can hook up polywire almost anywhere if you need to subdivide
further. The secret is to have enough permanent subdivisions in
the system so that you can't go wrong if your labor resources
get stretched thin.
I'm wary of setting up systems that require you to move temporary
fencing every time you move livestock. Moving wire is very labor-intensive.
Some farmers enjoy it. But for many, the thrill wears off pretty
fast. Some say it only takes them 20 minutes to move fence. It
takes me 10 minutes just to get my boots on and get out the door.
When you're milking by yourself because your spouse is sick, the
kids are getting hungry and there's a cold rain falling, you won't
want to spend even 20 minutes moving fence. That's why I suggest
designing your permanent fencing so all you have to do is open
a gate before you go make supper.
What shape should my paddocks be? For best use of forage, the
closer to square your paddock is, the better. Rectangles are OK
as long as they are no more than four times longer than they are
wide. With bigger rectangular paddocks, livestock will graze the
gate ends more heavily than the far nooks and crannies. If you
must build long paddocks, use polywire or other temporary fencing
to break them up into shorter rectangles or squares.
How should I orient my paddocks on slopes?
Don't run rectangular paddocks up and down slopes with gates and
water at the bottom. Livestock will graze half-way up the slope,
then come back for water and start grazing again at the bottom.
You 're up with overgrazing at the low end, and undergrazing at
the far end. Whenever practical, make your paddocks along the
contour, and run lanes up and down the slope.
Where should I put my gates?
Locate gates in the direction of the natural flow of the herd–usually
at the end of the paddock closest to the barn. If you don't, when
half the herd wakes up and sees the rest of the herd heading down
the lane, they'll head for a gateless corner to catch up. They
may never find their way out.
Where should I locate water?
The more accessible, the better. But you probably don't need waterers
in every paddock. You can make one waterer serve two paddocks
by locating it in the fenceline. Putting the waterer in the lane
to serve several paddocks is OK. But the area is likely to get
muddy, and manure will accumulate where it's not fertilizing your
pastures.
Some farmers who are quite successful with rotational grazing
only have water back at the barn. You run the risk that the livestock
will come back for a drink and won't go back out to graze, and
you're likely to suffer some production loss with high-producing
animals. But if that's your only option, don't let it stop you
from grazing. Compared to confinement feeding, you'll more than
make up for any production losses with the cheap feed, and your
cows will be in great shape.
How tall should the pasture be when I start grazing?
With most improved pastures consisting of grasses like brome,
fescue, orchardgrass and timothy, as well as legumes like red
clover, ladino clover and birdsfoot trefoil, I tell farmers to
start grazing when the plants are about 8 to 10 inches tall. In
early spring, you can start when they're about 4 to 6 inches tall.
That saves you a few extra days of winter feed, plus it helps
stagger pasture regrowth a little bit.
But don't be tempted to start too soon or you'll damage the pasture
and it won't recover. I'd rather have the grass ahead of the cows
than the cows ahead of the grass. Don't start grazing early in
the same paddock every year. Rotate your "sacrifice area."
When should I move the livestock to new grass?
Some people will suggest you graze pastures right down to the
dirt before moving cattle. I don't. With the improved forage species
I mentioned above, leave at least 2 inches of stubble so that
there is enough leaf area to ensure quick regrowth. It's about
2 inches from the tip of my middle finger to my knuckle. I simply
stick my hand down through the grass to the ground to measure
it.
If you don't leave 2 inches, those improved species won't bounce
back quickly. Weeds and other less productive species will move
in and take over. Also if you have livestock on too long, they
have to work too hard to get enough dry matter. With high-producing
animals, like milk cows, production will drop if you don't move
them before the grass gets too short.
There's one exception to the 2-inch rule of thumb. You can't graze
blue-grass/white clover pastures too close to damage them. Grazing
that kind of pasture down to 1 inch helps maintain the white clover
in the stand. Still, you have to move the livestock when those
species get too short for the animals to graze efficiently. You
can also start grazing bluegrass/white clover when it's about
4 to 6 inches tall.
Will I need to clip my pastures?
Clipping pastures can be a real waste of time, money and effort–especially
if done for no better reason than to make the pasture look pretty.
You should clip pastures when you have a problem, but not just
to even up the grass. Harvest as much as you can with your livestock,
first. Then mechanically harvest the surplus to be fed during
the winter. If some of your paddocks still get away from you,
then by all means, clip them. But as you fine-tune your management,
you should find you have to clip less often.
How about shade?
Many dairy farmers are so concerned about shade that they refuse
to put cows on pasture without it. The truth is, in the Northeast
there are but a handful of days in a normal summer when lack of
shade should be a concern. When heat is a problem, dairy cows
can be turned out early in the morning or late in the evening
to avoid heat. Shade isn't a necessity–good management is.
What about dragging?
With continuous grazing, dragging is almost a necessity. But once
you get a good rotational system down, you probably won't need
to drag very much. Like clipping, you may even be able to eliminate
it completely. You'll find that the livestock will distribute
manure more evenly, and that the manure will break up and disappear
faster. You may still need to drag near waterers and loafing areas.
How do I balance rations when my animals are grazing?
That's a good question. But even if you don't balance your milk
cow's ration exactly right, you're still going to end up making
cheaper milk.
Ed Rayburn, grasslands specialist at Seneca Trails RC&D in
Franklinville, N.Y., is developing a computer program to answer
that tough question. It's part of a three-year project funded
by the federal LISA research program, and should be released in
late '91 or early '92. (Look. for a review in an upcoming issue
of The New Farm.)
Ration balancing is important, says Rayburn, because you can loose
a pound of milk for every pound of grain you don't feed that your
milk cows need. But he's encouraged, because the principles of
ration balancing on pasture are the same as barn feeding. He offers
the following guidelines:
I've done everything
you suggested, and I'm still not getting the production you promised.
What should I do?
First, you can live with pastures that aren't very productive
even under intensive management by either cutting down the number
of animals you're grazing or by increasing your pasture acreage.
Chances are good those pastures are still more profitable than
raising corn silage.
The next troubleshooting step is to take a good, hard look at
your soil test. Ideally, you should test your soil before you
set up your pasture system. But with the low priority most pastures
have gotten in the past, soil testing usually comes as an afterthought.
Even if you do test your
soil first, don't run out and order enough fertilizer and lime
to grow 10-ton alfalfa. Most intensive grazing systems do just
fine at moderate pH and fertility levels. If your soil is very
acidic, lime to bring the pH up to about 6.0. Bring P and K levels
up to the medium to high range suggested by your land grant university
for grass/legume hay at yield goals appropriate for your fields.
Should I reseed my pasture?
If production is still less than you want after correcting any
fertility problems, consider changing your pasture species. From
my experience, this should be a last resort. But for years, it's
been the first solution people think of. The typical scenario
is this: Your pasture wears out. So you seed in some legumes or
grasses, and maybe put on some fertilizer. Then you go on grazing
it continuously and the new species disappear again.
You've got to change your management first. When mismanaged, grazing
animals are nothing more than destructive pasture predators that
can eat themselves out of house and home. Until you control your
animals, reseeding is a waste of time and money. Only after you
have established the grazing system, soil tested and fertilized
should you even think about reseeding a pasture.
Chances are good that well-adapted forage species are right there
waiting for you. At the Cornell Hillside Pasture Research Project,
we cleared brush from an abandoned pasture one spring, and grazed
it hard all summer. There was some pretty good orchardgrass coming
in all by itself. But we no-till seeded the pasture with brome
and birdsfoot trefoil in August. It took really well. After a
couple of years, however, the brome and trefoil were gone, and–you
guessed it –we had a great stand of orchardgrass. Live and
learn.
If you do reseed, don't plow up your pasture. Frost-seed or drill
new species into the existing sod. If you really did pick species
that are better for your soils and management than the ones that
are already there, the new ones will take over.
If you're really determined to do some seeding, don't look at
your pastures. Look at some of your worn-out alfalfa fields. With
a little fencing and seed, you could probably turn them into great
pastures.
Or better yet, look at that corn field next to the barn, it's
probably got great fertility from all the manure that's been spread
there. Seed it down. Without corn, you won't have to spray so
close to the house anymore. And the cows will be grazing right
there where you can keep an eye on them.
"But Darrell, that's corn ground," you say. Sure. When
that corn is 7 feet tall, it looks like a lot of feed. But it's
in rows 3 feet apart and only grows a short time during the year.
Pasture covers every inch of that soil and is green and growing
eight months out of 12.
Unless you're getting 16
tons of silage off that field, you're losing money. In my mind,
that's not corn ground. That's pasture ground. Plant it to pasture
and develop a good grazing system and you'll get 5 tons of the
cheapest high-quality feed you've ever raised, instead of losing
money. Break out of that corn mindset. It may be the best move
you ever made.
Editor's Note: Darrell L. Emmick is state grasslands specialist
for the Soil Conservation Service in New York. Part I of this
feature appeared in the May/ June '91 issue of The New Farm.
Reproduced with permission of the publisher. The New Farm, July/August 1991, p. 26-28.