For those that graze Fescue

[Farm Fence Solutions]

August fescue is better than May fescue.....Making hay, and grazing it. We always end up with a "hay" patch that doesn't get made when it "should". When we miss that early window, we wait until mid August, and it always ends up better hay than the spring made stuff. Fescue is all we have around here. You can plant anything you want, and in 5 years it'll be fescue. There is a saying around here...Short grass is good grass. We've been really dry at our place this summer, and the cows look better now than they did in June. It doesn't look like much out there to eat, until you walk through it.
As far as management goes, It's time to bushhog for the ragweed and we rotate pastures, but not on any particular schedule. It usually happens when somebody drives through a gate and doesn't close it.

 

[dun]

As long as it has shed most of the seed I just turn them in and let them graze. If there is still a lot of seed that falls easily I will clip it to just below the height of the grass leave then turn them in

 

[kenny thomas]

Thinking ahead, if you don't have a good amount of clover add clover to the mix for the future.

 

[dun]

Thanks Kenny...that is definitely on the horizon. I just got this place a year ago, and am taking it one step at a time. I got the soil right and wow...the fescue really did well.

Tim

Patience is your most important tool. You can;t undo 20 year or even 5 years of neglect and abuse in a year. Start with the worst areas and work to improve them, you may be surprised at how well some of those other poor areas will respond to fertility/ph and grazing management

 

[talltimber]

August fescue is better than May fescue.....Making hay, and grazing it. We always end up with a "hay" patch that doesn't get made when it "should". When we miss that early window, we wait until mid August, and it always ends up better hay than the spring made stuff. Fescue is all we have around here. You can plant anything you want, and in 5 years it'll be fescue. There is a saying around here...Short grass is good grass. We've been really dry at our place this summer, and the cows look better now than they did in June. It doesn't look like much out there to eat, until you walk through it.
As far as management goes, It's time to bushhog for the ragweed and we rotate pastures, but not on any particular schedule. It usually happens when somebody drives through a gate and doesn't close it.

FFS, are you cooling off by then? I've never heard anyone around me, or was convinced of it myself, that an uncut patch of fescue was better in Aug than May, around here anyhow. Now, September is another ball game, especially if it was either baled earlier or bush hogged?

 

[skyhightree1]

Thanks Kenny...that is definitely on the horizon. I just got this place a year ago, and am taking it one step at a time. I got the soil right and wow...the fescue really did well.

Tim

I remember this guy called sky told d&c for years stop fighting fescue and plant what's native and he would be good to go... d&c fought tooth and nail saying he would not then.... Few years later d&c did it and seems to be happy. :lol: ;-)

 

[dun]

Thanks Kenny...that is definitely on the horizon. I just got this place a year ago, and am taking it one step at a time. I got the soil right and wow...the fescue really did well.

Tim

I remember this guy called sky told d&c for years stop fighting fescue and plant what's native and he would be good to go... d&c fought tooth and nail saying he would not then.... Few years later d&c did it and seems to be happy. :lol: ;-)

It;s not native, although it;'s been here a 100 years or so, but if it wasn;t for fescue there wouldn;t be any cows in the MO Ozarks. The trick is to learn to work with it and not try to fight it.

 

[skyhightree1]

Thanks Kenny...that is definitely on the horizon. I just got this place a year ago, and am taking it one step at a time. I got the soil right and wow...the fescue really did well.

Tim

I remember this guy called sky told d&c for years stop fighting fescue and plant what's native and he would be good to go... d&c fought tooth and nail saying he would not then.... Few years later d&c did it and seems to be happy. :lol: ;-)

It;s not native, although it;'s been here a 100 years or so, but if it wasn;t for fescue there wouldn;t be any cows in the MO Ozarks. The trick is to learn to work with it and not try to fight it.

I apologize on misspeaking for the native but was meaning what's here and works effectively.. Darn you dun keeping me on my toes what's wrong with you ? If it wasn't for it there wouldn't be any here where I am. The other parts of the state can get away with alfalfa and timothy orchard here they don't last or won't grow.

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

August fescue is better than May fescue.....Making hay, and grazing it. We always end up with a "hay" patch that doesn't get made when it "should". When we miss that early window, we wait until mid August, and it always ends up better hay than the spring made stuff. Fescue is all we have around here. You can plant anything you want, and in 5 years it'll be fescue. There is a saying around here...Short grass is good grass. We've been really dry at our place this summer, and the cows look better now than they did in June. It doesn't look like much out there to eat, until you walk through it.
As far as management goes, It's time to bushhog for the ragweed and we rotate pastures, but not on any particular schedule. It usually happens when somebody drives through a gate and doesn't close it.

FFS, are you cooling off by then? I've never heard anyone around me, or was convinced of it myself, that an uncut patch of fescue was better in Aug than May, around here anyhow. Now, September is another ball game, especially if it was either baled earlier or bush hogged?

We have second growth by mid August. If it hasn't been cut or bush hogged, the standing dry matter give you a fighting chance to get it put up in decent shape. We are in a very humid area that rarely sees 4 dry days in a row this time of year, unless we string a hundred dry days together, in which case this conversation of August hay making would be irrelevant. Bird in the hand, two in the bush kind of thing. I was specifically speaking of fescue that had not been mowed at all, and I'm sure that September would be even better....if you miss the rains.

 

[talltimber]

I figured something like that. We don't get much rain usually in July and August. Sometimes stopping as early as mid to late May. Thank you for the clarification.