cut off date for fall grazing

[thwack]

does anyone concern themselves with getting their cattle off of their pastures to a sacrifice area and feeding hay to give their grasses time to recover before killing frost? Iam in MO and have mostly fescue pastures and am thinking about moving cows to sac. area in the next week or so.

 

[dun]

Now would be the time of year that you want to grass to grow so you can have the cows grazing the stockpiled fescue. We usually don;t start feeding hay until late march or early april, but our pastures aren;t over grazed during the year.

 

[thwack]

Thanks for the reply Dun. If i recall correctly from NRCS grazing class, late fall grazing of non stockpiled pastures will not give grasses and legumes sufficient time to build up needed reserves for winter.This could possibly lead to a thinner/weaker stand next season. Have you ever experienced this?

 

[dun]

Thanks for the reply Dun. If i recall correctly from NRCS grazing class, late fall grazing of non stockpiled pastures will not give grasses and legumes sufficient time to build up needed reserves for winter.This could possibly lead to a thinner/weaker stand next season. Have you ever experienced this?

With fescue it doesn;t happen but does with warm season grasses. Google "stockpiled forage" and you'll get a ton of data. The real advantage to fescue is that it can be stockpiled for winter grazing. If you're in the droughty part of MO there might not be much fall growth but there will be some. Fescue has it's dormant period during the heat of summer not winter.

 

[Banjo]

Thanks for the reply Dun. If i recall correctly from NRCS grazing class, late fall grazing of non stockpiled pastures will not give grasses and legumes sufficient time to build up needed reserves for winter.This could possibly lead to a thinner/weaker stand next season. Have you ever experienced this?

Just don't graze too short.........keep your rotations moving rather quickly. most people in rotating force their pastures to be grazed too short before moving to the next paddock ...so as not to "waste" anything. Grazing too short is what uses up the root reserves.

 

[MarkM]

Zone 7, SE OK nice recent rains

I rotate daily. This paddock has rested for 55 days. Should I graze it once more or leave it as is?

 

[dun]

If you need the feed now I would graze t otherwise I would stockpile it for later

 

[Banjo]

i would agree with Dun.........also you can let grass rest too long, according to the experts.
I don't know how tall the grass is in the above pic, but if you're getting good moisture, being this early, letting them crop off the top half of it won't hurt anything, but if you're cattle are like mine they will go after the short stuff, bermuda, crabgras etc. before they hit the taller OG/ fescue at least untill frost.
Now would be a good time to overseed OG/fescue if needed.

 

[MarkM]

dun,

Thanks. This is my first year and I am a little intimidated by not knowing how much to allow each day on the poorer areas. I know, you don't learn unless you experience.

Poorer areas. :yuck: Plenty of work to do next year.

i would agree with Dun.........also you can let grass rest too long, according to the experts.
I don't know how tall the grass is in the above pic, but if you're getting good moisture, being this early, letting them crop off the top half of it won't hurt anything, but if you're cattle are like mine they will go after the short stuff, bermuda, crabgras etc. before they hit the taller OG/ fescue at least untill frost.
Now would be a good time to overseed OG/fescue if needed.

I have been struggling with that all summer. They will eat the bermuda to the ground before they work on the fescue very much. Do I use the bermuda as a guide and then clip the fescue behind them?

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Fall grazing in our best time! We pulled them in the sacrificial pasture this summer, and fed hay, because we were not getting any rain therefore no growth. We did not want to take the grass too short. When our first big storm hit in mid-Aug, we put down nitrogen to get a jump on growth. Now our fescue is growing, and we are rotating about every 5 days to a new pasture. It will continue to grow, so keep grazing. This is cool season grass time ;-)

 

[Banjo]

I have been letting them do the same except I don't have much bermuda and what I do have isn't real palatable. My areas that need attention are crabgrass spots where the fescue has died out in places and the crabgrass takes over, we have had enough rain so far that they have been able to be picky about what they eat, as you know cattle prefer short grass over taller grass for some reason unless its ryegrass.
Them being picky is a good problem to have, I have not been forcing them to clean up a paddock so I have been clipping the fescue all summer about six inches or so leaving lots of leaf area and it is starting to grow real well now that it is coming out of dormancy.