Grazing Bites

September 2009

Victor Shelton, NRCS Grazing Specialist

At least for many parts of state, this summer will not be forgotten for a while.  Many parts have barely dried out all summer and kept the grass growing and growing and growing while some other spots would have gladly taken anything they could get.  Here in the foothills of southern Indiana I had plenty and like I said before had to really work to find very many days in a row without rain.  My wife kept the lawn mower filled with gas ready for the next window of opportunity repeating itself almost every four days for a long time.  The growth in just four days many times would be almost too much to mow – what production!  The same thing was going on in the pastures and unless you were really overstocked, there was no way you were going to run out of forage.

Most of the state is still under ideal conditions for doing any permanent pasture seeding which probably, ideally, should be done by the middle of the month to allow enough time for those seedlings to temper themselves in and get enough root and top growth to survive this coming winter.  The later you go, the higher the risk for the seedling and your pocketbook.  There is still a little time left to get some winter brassicas planted, but don’t wait too long or you won’t have as much growth.  Forage type turnips or Pasja would be my choice at this time at about 4 pounds per acre and probably seeded with some Italian ryegrass or winter hardy variety of annual ryegrass at about 40 pounds per acre or winter oats at about 30-50 pounds per acre.  The combination makes for some good fall/winter grazing and then something to graze early spring too.  Cereal rye and triticale are also good options and probably best seeded as a monoculture.  Both can provide some excellent fall grazing if planted early enough and incredible forage production in the early spring.  Both do very well planted into corn stalks providing some fiber or dry matter to help balance out the rumen and improve the efficiency of it.  Cereal rye should be planted at about 60-90 pounds per acre and 75-120 pounds per acre for the triticale.  One particular producer I know in Dubois county used to always plant a small field of triticale which he would graze in the fall, then graze again in the spring and then still harvest a little grain off of…claiming the grazing increased the tillers and I think he was probably right…you just have to know when to get off of them and watch soil conditions. 

With the abundance of standing forages around the state, it might sound a little odd to suggest that you still consider supplementing some of it with some extra nitrogen right now, but I still feel it will pay.  You should know by now that I really like stockpiled forages and like I said many times before, tall fescue stockpiles better and holds value better than almost any other forage out there.  I would normally be promoting the clipping of summer grown tall fescue to increase the quantity of fall regrowth and the application of 40-60 units of nitrogen, but this time around is a little different.  Excess moisture with combined cooler temperatures in July have maintained continuous new growth throughout most of the season and we pretty much missed the slump period which is what I will blame for quality loss in this case.  I’ve seen an unusual lot of fields within the last few weeks that have not been touched since June – grazed or hayed, and were either grazed hard early or topped and have remained very vegetative since.  These fields would have normally become rank and lost palatability under hot, dry conditions, but faired well under this years milder conditions.  Saying all of this, we have the opportunity to boost the crude protein content of this forage by adding some nitrogen at this time which will maintain itself quite well most of the winter.  After the plant has had a good freeze, sugar content should also increase some providing some additional energy.  Of course, ideally, we should not graze this forage too hard until after it goes dormant, otherwise we weaken the plants ability to spring back quickly in the spring because we have reduced the amount of live roots and carbohydrate storage.

I’ve heard many times over that if you don’t like the weather here in the Midwest, just wait a little while because it will change!  The weather the past few years makes you stop and scratch your head and wonder what “average” really is until we think a little broader and consider that this year is just a small spot in time and in the long run, probably is still average.  The cable guy said it best, “42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot”.

Keep on grazing!

DTC's Forage Management Workshop, Beck Center at the DTC, September 3rd http://www.ag.purdue.edu/agry/dtc/Pages/september3.aspx

Purdue Annual Forage Day, Cambridge City, September 17th

http://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/forages/

4th NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GRAZING LANDS

December 13-16, 2009.   John Ascuaga’s Nugget Hotel & Casino, Sparks, NV

http://www.glci.org/4NCGLindex.htm

Heart of America Grazing Conference, Roberts Conference Centre, Wilmington, OH - January 20-21, 2010.  Details coming soon!

Northern Indiana Grazing Conference, Antique Auction Barn, Shipshewana, IN, February 5^th, 2010 - Details coming soon!

Southern Indiana Grazing Conference, Simon Graber Community Building, Odon, IN, February 11, 2010 - Details coming soon!