Timely Tips – February 2022

Timely Tips – February 2022


Winter Grazing:

Mud and Seeding

 

It’s been a long, cold, wet winter in Tennessee/Kentucky, and this inevitably brings on the potential for lots of mud. Hay feeding strategies and maintaining cover are crucial to reducing mud and compaction. Seeding areas denuded from feeding will increase production, reduce weeds, and improve soil health.

Mud Management

Here are a few considerations to reduce the impacts of mud

  • Number One – maintaining good vegetation
  • Stockpile pastures intended for winter feeding
  • Feeding away from travel areas
  • Unroll hay on areas to build fertility and weedy areas (48-14-48/ton N, P2O5 & K2O)
  • No hay ring around good hay with 20 plus cattle
  • Where possible, bring in hay from the side of the field that has more cover, not through the cattle
  • Feed over the fence
  • Move hay feeding location each feeding
  • Set out hay when dry or when the ground’s frozen
  • Ration bale grazing with polywire
  • Fenceline feeders and manger feeders used only in wet, muddy conditions
  • Use these conditions to your advantage, pug out undesirable vegetation
  • Reseed areas lacking cover 

ips for Winter Seeding

      • Frost seed in February, ideally on frozen ground or snow
      • Ideal time to seed legumes 
      • Drill or harrow in March
      • Cool season grass, ideally drilled in September
      • Warm season grass like crabgrass broadcast seeded on lightly tilled soil in Ma

        Seeding Feeding areas

      • Persistent use areas, seed bermudagrass or tall fescue
      • Seed something to utilize excess nutrients and reduce weeds, annuals are fast and reduce weed issues
      • 2-4-8 Renovate! 2lbs white clover, 4lbs red clover, 8lbs annual lespedeza on thinner soils. If cost is a concern, use this ratio, reduced.
      • Pelletized lime works well to bulk up the seed mix.
Monthly Grazing Management for Cattle

Monthly Grazing Management for Cattle

This is a timeless, indispensable resource that I put together a few years back for  NRCS and Gallahger Fence.

This calendar helps you to prioritize your  grazing and forage management tasks for cattle.  With so many components within the wholistic management schedule, having all of this information in one place will help to ensure that your  key management tasks don’t take you by surprise or, even worst, get missed for another season.

Information on how to manage grazing within transition periods, stretch forage supplies, apply different seeding mixes to different situations, determine the best hay feeding strategy for your operation, and more can be found in this calendar.

Timely Tips – June

Timely Tips – June

We are at the change of seasons.  A time to contemplate and plan for summer forage. Note in the graph above, as temperatures hit 80 degrees F. or higher cool season forage production decreases and warm seasons forages kick in high gear.  I encourage you to make warm season and drought management decisions prior to the end of the recommended seeding date for warm season forages, July 1.

 Options:

  • Stockpile cool season forage into summer
  • Graze a field hard to release the seed bank for natural regeneration
  • Seed summer annuals
  • Seed summer perennials
  • Fertilization to improve warm season production

Stockpile cool season forage into summer. 

Although I think it is wise to carry some cool season growth into summer, the quality of it will be dependent on temperature and rainfall.  It may hold all summer but if it gets hot and dry it will just be some carbon to lay down and forage quality will be very poor.  Red clover and annual lespedeza will extend growth into summer.

Graze a field hard to release the seed bank for natural regeneration

It’s a lot like rolling the dice.  Unless you know the field well you may release some warm season species you don’t want. This technique works extremely well for release of bermudagrass, crabgrass and dallisgrass.  Other plants that are also likely to grow white clover (if it is cool and moist), ragweed, lambsquarter (both test like alfalfa but stock don’t always consume them), spiny amaranth (weed due to spines other amaranths are palatable and high quality), cocklebur (bad weed, big canopy, sometimes consumed), nimblewill (terrible grass weed that looks like bermudagrass, not readily grazed). Grazing 20% of the pastures low May –June is a decent strategy.

Seed summer annuals. 

Crabgrass, cowpeas and lablab are the only species that UT recommend planting as late as July 1.  Forage & Field Crop Seeding Guide For Tennessee

Crabgrass Improved Variety Options Crabgrass improved variety options:

Quick and Big and Red River.

Quick and Big is fast growth and Red River has a longer growing season.  You may want to seed a blend of the two, sometimes folks add annual lespedeza to the mix.

The seeding rate of crabgrass is 3 to 5 lb/ac.  If you add annual lespedeza 8 to 10 lb/ac.  Crabgrass is a reseeding annual that responds to disturbance at least once a year.  Cowpeas, high quality drought tolerant legume which makes a good smother crop if you have an undesirable weed you are trying to control.  Even though it is a little late for millet you may want to add 10-20 lb/ac. of pearl or browntop millet with the cowpeas.  Lablab is typically grown for wildlife food plots but is good forage for ruminants too best used in a mix.

 

Seed summer perennials

Bermudagrass is the only plant UT recommends planting as late as July 1.  I usually just recommend bermudagrass on areas that are planned for heavy use areas or where nutrients are going to be high.  Bermudagrass has some issues, stem maggot (it kills the primary stem tip reducing production) which most spray an insecticide for control, grazing could be used to reduce impacts also bermudagrass does best where nutrients are high.  There are several improved bermudagrass varieties: Cheyenne II (highest producing seeded type); Laredo (Allied seed variety, blend of Mohawk , KF-194, & Rancher; Wrangler (most cold tolerant).  You can also establish bermudagrass with clippings using Vaughn’s No. 1 which is typically thought of as the Cadillac of bermudagrasses for our area. Bermudagrass can produce high tonnage, be used hard and overseeded with clovers and winter annuals the second year after establishment.

Another warm season grass option although it is too late to seed now is native warm season grass (NWSG) it’s best sown when seed are exposed to a couple of cold chills (vernalization). Now is the time to start planning for it.  I like NWSG sown on lower fertility soils so weed competition is less. On low production you are not giving up much production while the natives are establishing for a couple of years. Usually herbicides are used to establish NWSG however an option to establish it without herbicides would be to terminate existing vegetation with tillage plant a summer annual leaving most of the biomass on the soil surface then no-tilling in cereal rye.  Dormant planting NWSG in December – April into cereal rye.  Rolling down the cereal rye in early April for weed control.  Natives will emerge through the residue in the spring.

Fertilization to improve warm season production

Applying nutrients to grass May – July increases warm season production.  Nitrogen has the biggest impact on forage production, nitrogen also increases protein content in the grass.  Typically no more than 60 lb of nitrogen is recommended in one application and typically applications should be scheduled 30 or more days apart. I personally don’t like over 45 lb of nitrogen in one application because if it turns off dry, high rates of nitrogen can cause forage to accumulate nitrates.

Dealing With Drought

Dealing With Drought

During droughts it is tempting to graze all pastures and to graze them short, however,  short grazed pastures provide almost no feed and leaves many plants dead and others in such a weakened condition that they cannot respond well when conditions return.  In the long run, it’s best to start feeding hay in a small portion of the farm any time grass is grazed to about 2-4 inches so that those plants will be in better health for regrowth following the stress period.  Cattle cannot take enough bites in 12 hours of grazing to meet their needs when the pasture is less than about 3 inches height….so you may as well feed hay to meet their needs and protect the pasture.

The following considerations are based on the situation found on many livestock farms in East TN as of this week.  Pastures have been completely used and hay has been fed for several weeks by many producers.  The “surviving” vegetation in many pastures include bermuda, dallisgrass, grease grass (called purple top), broomsedge, nimble will, and  various “weedy” types such as horsenettle, thistle, yellow crown beard, chicory.  There is some possibility that tall fescue, orchardgrass and bluegrass will survive where they have not been grazed below 2-inches for long periods of time.

Considerations for the next few weeks that might help address short term feeding expenses and provide forage in late winter and early spring of 2017.

  1. Cull any cows that are not healthy or in poor condition or that are calving outside of a narrow calving window that fits with most of the herd.
    1. Consider that it takes about 16-35 lbs of good hay per day to feed a dry cow, and it will take more nutrients to feed a nursing cow or growing animal. Review Table 1 for effects of cow size on feed needs (assuming suitable forage quality).
    2. If drought and overgrazing has left only warm season plants surviving there will be virtually no grazing until next May. This means 6-7 months of feeding stored feed at $1-$1.50/ head/ day, plus labor and fuel.
    3. Cattle prices are not likely to improve over the next few weeks/month therefore “holding on” for better prices is probably not a “good bet” in this situation. 
  1. Sell weaned calves soon since prices have been dropping recently and are not likely to improve enough to cover additional feed cost that will be needed to keep them growing properly.

 

  1. If tall fescue or orchardgrass and bluegrass make up less than 50% of the pasture acreage, strongly consider no-till planting them as soon as possible, but before end of November. It is likely that 25-40 lbs N/acre will insure the seedlings can develop sufficiently this winter.  Remember that the normal planting dates are before mid-October, but if you have no surviving cool season grasses it might be worth a “gamble” to get some acreage planted.  Otherwise, there will be no cool season grasses on the farm next year.  In most years, spring planting of cool season grasses is much more risky than planting in late fall.  Do not plant annual ryegrass with these species as it will be very competitive and you will be “tempted” to graze it early next spring.  Do not plan to graze any cool season grass seedlings until next April or May when it reaches more than 8 inches of growth.

 

  1. To have a significant chance for late winter-early spring grazing, consider planting small grains with annual ryegrass in pastures that are currently mostly covered with bermudagrass and dallisgrass or dead crabgrass or pasture with a thin stand of tall fescue. The odds are that one can expect 2000 to 4000 lbs of forage if good stands are obtained and Nitrogen rates are at 100 lbs/acre or so.  This means adding 25-40 lbs of N next month and another 50-75 lbs/acre in March or April.  Count the cost as compared to alternative feeds.  Next fall August 15 to October 1 consider drilling in perennial cool season forages.

 

  1. The most consistent stands are usually obtained from drilling as compared to broadcasting on the surface of the soil, especially in the autumn-fall period. Seeding rates can usually be about 25-50% less when drilled as compared to broadcasting the seeds on soil surface.  When planting late it is often worthwhile to plant slightly more seeds per acre as compared to planting “on time”.

 

  1. In the future consider the cost of re-establishing a pasture vs the start of feeding hay a few weeks earlier than normal. University budgets indicate costs ranging from $50 to $200 depending on the soil fertility status, and type of replanting and species being established.  In addition, pastures that are less than 4 inches tall does not provide more than a 100-300 lbs of forage per acre that can actually be consumed ( this is less than 1/3 of a normal round bale of hay).  In addition most cows will lose weight when forced to graze such short grazed pastures.

 

  1. Hay quality may be marginal in some cases, therefore it will be worth a few dollars to get a feed test to determine if supplemental energy or protein will be needed to meet animal requirements. As a general rule, energy will be the most limiting factor so be cautious about just using protein supplements without knowing composition of hay or other feeds.

 

  1. Corn gluten feed may be one of the most economical alternatives, especially since it has high protein and energy level. However, pay attention to the price per lb. of dry matter.  Some by-products have significant amount of water in them.

 

  1. Graze residual growth in hay fields but do not graze below 2” in the winter. Remove cattle if pastures are prone to pugging (muddy and trampling of vegetation).  Rationing standing grass with temporary fence will improve grazing utilization.

 

  1. Crop residues may be a good option if properly supplemented with energy and/or protein as needed. However, removing more than 50% of the residue from the cropland can result in soil erosion and much less water infiltration, which can result in more drought stress in the future.

 Table 1.  The effect of cow weight on forage needed for the year and winter feeding period.