Endophyte Free or More Clovers and Lespeza?

[cfpinz]

WHO??

Aw, shucks! You caught me. I was pushing my new endophyte-resistant hybrid heifers, it won't happen again.

cfpinz

 

[Cowdirt]

WHO??

Aw, shucks! You caught me. I was pushing my new endophyte-resistant hybrid heifers, it won't happen again.

cfpinz

cfpinz,
Guess you'll just have to sell them with your other "used" cows. You know--- the bobtailed ones with the rough coat standing in the pond that are limping. :lol:

 

[cfpinz]

WHO??

Aw, shucks! You caught me. I was pushing my new endophyte-resistant hybrid heifers, it won't happen again.

cfpinz

cfpinz,
Guess you'll just have to sell them with your other "used" cows. You know--- the bobtailed ones with the rough coat standing in the pond that are limping. :lol:

Don't have any of those, already sold them to creaturelink.

cfpinz

 

[MoGal]

Most of Missouri is fescue pasture.

I don't have the answer for your grass problem or how to fix it but have you considered having the vet out to draw blood and test 2 or 3 of your lowest producing cows for vitamin/mineral deficiencies??

Clip that pasture when the stem starts growing.

 

[rjk]

Went to a mineral speech, (of course, salesman), and if I remember correctly put on by ADM. They claim to have a product that has a endo fighter in it, they say it works. After seminar, I asked rep about my pastures, (k31,white and red clover,and some orchard), and he told me half the fight was over with the clover in the pastures. I had a local farmer also tell me the best preventative for endo is to mix with clover.
Also sow clover and lespedza when fertilizing. I watch for signs of endo since one of my first cows lost the tail switch, and haven't seen signs since, but this year hard to tell since we actually had a dry, hot summer. One plus, probably only plus, for the hot and dry spell, is that the fescue didn't do much and that hay meadow was full of red clover after first cutting. Hopefully, this will be enough to make it through this winter, since without rain, no more cuttings were justifible.

good luck and merry Christmas.
rick

 

[ALACOWMAN]

IN my area of north ala. fescue and clover work great together along with orchard grass. i would work more toward the cattle end of it. like dun said get a good mineral for high endo fescue

 

[rmcva]

We've been experiencing a decline in our cattle's health and production over the past 5 years and we are searching for a remedy to our situation. Below I will explain.

History & Problems

We are located in Virginia. Currently we are on a Rotational Grazing Management Plan. Our pastures are mixed bluegrass, clover, orchard grass, and the majority now being KY31. Here is what we have - 7 pastures varying between 2-30 acres per pasture. Rough total of 90 acres. We rotate 47 cows and roughly 35 calves on those cows between the different pastures. When we move the cows they will devour all grasses except fescue within a matter of days. There's ample fescue but the cattle will not eat it. When comparing these pastures to others in the county there is more grass here.

KY31 has taken over the more fertile fields since beginning our rotational grazing at a rate of near 90%.

We've begun soil PH and Fertilization programs and planted clover. That of which succeeded in primarily aiding the growth of the KY31 with no help toward the other grasses.

Since the beginning of our Rotational Grazing (roughly 5 years), our weaning rates have dropped drastically every year.
Cows are losing tails, many cows are sore footed, initial milk production in some cows after calving is very slow, taking 3-4 days to come in.
All cows stand in the creek most of the time. Some even laying flat in the creek.
Over 1/2 the cows are not shedding hair until late fall, if at all.
Spring calving cows if not bred before March, will not breed again until fall.
Calves are more prevalent to scours, pink eye, and foot rot. Newborns are more prone to navel infections as well.
Our cattle on rented pastures, that are not tended nearly as often, are outperforming the cattle on our home pastures.
We've fed mineral with Tasco, we've tried mineral with MTB?, we've tried hay with pasture grazing in summer months, we've tried drilling clover and broadcasting clover in early spring, all of which have yeilded no results.

Due to many failed attempts to resolve our cattle/forage problems we are desperate to make the right decision to proceed with. We believe an entire grass change to Max Q or seeding heavily with a combination of Lespeza, white clover and red clover is in order.

Has anyone else experienced these types of problems with any solutions?

I live in Va. as well. Have 130 acres of fescue. Had fescue since the 50's. Know all about problems with fescue and know some ways to avoid problems and use fescue too.

Are you using manure/chicken litter to fertilize your grass? We have soil in this area that if more than 2 tons of litter is used the cows won't eat the grass.

Do you use Ammonium Sulfate in your fertilizer blend or straight Ammonium Sulfate instead of Ammonium nitrate? With higher prices lots of dealers use Ammonium Sulfate and not telling the buyer. I've had problems with that and it got worse with the drought years. Ammonium Sulfate,dry weather and fescue don't work good together. If we have timely rains it's no problem.

What breed of cattle do you have?

The worst time of year for me with endophyte is cleanup time for the fields I use for winter stockpile. It has to be grazed lower than 3 inches. That's mainly done in July and it's always hot here in July. If it's dry I'll feed some corn gluten/soy hull pellets about every 3 days and that helps.

I rotate graze too. I found some years back that I need to drag each rotation after the cows have been moved to keep those green spots down in the fields. If I don't drag the manure I have lots of clumps of grass that the cows won't touch when they come back to that.