Good things about KY 31

[Texasmark]

That's the topic. No boo birds on this one please, just happy thoughts.

 

[Ebenezer]

https://www.facebook.com/Fescue-Fungus-Resistant-Angus-Cattle-123421162390026/

 

[Texasmark]

Dead on answer! Thank you sir. Real conditions from real people making a living doing real things. Even though I'm not a Facebook "Folk", they let me read through the articles anyway. Answered my question.

 

[BFE]

As far as I'm concerned, Ebenezer and those like him have it figured out. Chasing names and paper bulls is a crapshoot at best in the fescue belt, unless you want to prop your animals up on a feed bucket every day. It's taken me a while to learn that lesson.
Good thing about KY31? It's a tough grass. Bad thing about KY31? It's a tough grass. It will out compete all the others. Find the cows that can make it work.

 

[10-e-c-dirtfarmer]

KY 31 Rules to follow if you have a cow/calf in the fescue belt:

1. Raise your own replacements heifers, because you keep bloodlines that work best on your ground, your management style, and KY 31.

Please add any rules/comments, I want to see where this goes.

BTW I have several more rules, and I will add from time to time for discussion

 

[kenny thomas]

KY 31 Rules to follow if you have a cow/calf in the fescue belt:

1. Raise your own replacements heifers, because you keep bloodlines that work best on your ground, your management style, and K 31.

Please add any rules/comments, I want to see where this goes.

BTW I have several more rules, and I will add from time to time for discussion

Totally agree. I have some cows that do fine with the fescue and some that want to stay in the ponds. I cull them out pretty quick.

 

[kenny thomas]

Stockpiled it can last all winter with very little loss of forage value.

 

[Lbass]

Ease of establishment, it can be broadcast, grain drill, no-till in the spring or fall.

Stiff competition with minimal management, and i mean grazing management or fertilizer, it's just tough. There are crop fields here that they spray glyphosate on every year at least once... By next spring there will be a large amount of volunteer fescue, generally growing quite well from all the excess nitrogen from the previous crop.

It holds up equipment and cattle very well in the winter time and if they do pug, theres a pretty good chance it'll be back.. Only place I have problems is my portable salt and mineral feeders and I now just take them away when it gets to muddy.

And most importantly for me and my operation.

In the words of Jim Gerrish, "there are 3 reasons to have fescue, January, February, and March"








And there they are, Jan. Feb. & March. Better than any hay I bought this year.

However it is a 2 headed beast and the other side has been discussed.

 

[Lbass]

I'll try to snap a picture tomorrow, but keep in mind I have a lot going on and my memory is operating at full capacity.

This is pugging and recovery from running 50 cows on .6 acre daily strips.
January 12, February 23 and hopefully tomorrow. The strip is still a little rough walking across, but its growing fine. Cows won't be back here until the end of April. Its got time.

 

[kenny thomas]

No pictures but I turned in on a paddock today where the fescue was so big it was laying over. It's going to get ahead of me. Gonna flash graze it to try to keep up.

 

[Lbass]

This will be my first spring with actual infrastructure that will make executing a plan possible. I figure I"ll get to learn some more knocks on grazing this year though, particularly with seed head suppression. Right now I'm moving through at 5 acres a day and leaving some behind. This week I'll probably drop to 3 acres or so a day. I'll know more when it's to late.

 

[kenny thomas]

It's hard for me to ever get the numbers just right. I can control most of the seed heads but still learning.

 

[Lbass]

Here is the recovery today. Hat for scale. You can see some bare dirt, coming back pretty strong.

 

[rnh2]

Every $ I spend on urea to stockpile it saves me $2 in hay and at least another $1 in protein. And I don't have a good strip grazing set up either

 

[Texasmark]

Thanks for keeping this going. The more the merrier.

 

[BFE]

Every $ I spend on urea to stockpile it saves me $2 in hay and at least another $1 in protein. And I don't have a good strip grazing set up either

I'm sure you've posted about this before, but when do you put urea on your stockpile? I'm assuming late summer.

I'm going to rotate more this year, not necessarily rotational in the traditional sense(although that's to come in the next couple years), but moving them through the year to the different pastures which are spread out from each other. The plan is to finish up at the home place on cornstalks and stockpile. I'm wondering if I should graze it now, move them out and then fertilize late summer to make best use of the grass, as opposed to just letting it go all summer. I have plenty of rented hay ground, so I don't want to bale on my own. Also, when the stockpile is gone this winter, I'm planning on unrolling hay to help build soil. My plan is to build my soil, I'll import my "fertilizer" from someone else's farm.

 

[Ebenezer]

It's hard for me to ever get the numbers just right. I can control most of the seed heads but still learning.

Seedheads are a plus. Use them for one rotation to let the cows and sheep graze mature seedheads for that rotation. Leave the stems as is. The stems keep direct hot drying summer winds off of the forage. No, we do not have eye damage or pinkeye problems.
There is more dew in the sections with the stems left intact. I've run parallel plots on the farm. The mowed sections will go dormant earlier in a drought or a hot spell. If you don't believe it, try it.

Other rules to build on - cull for hair coat and symptoms, fence out ponds and streams, if possible, and use troughs. That speeds the selection process. Go out on a hot day and see which animals are grazing and which are in the shade. Make a note. Select offspring from the first group.

 

[Texasmark]

It's hard for me to ever get the numbers just right. I can control most of the seed heads but still learning.

........Go out on a hot day and see which animals are grazing and which are in the shade. Make a note. Select offspring from the first group.

Black sells down here. Black consisting of Aberdeen Angus can't take the heat and are in "shade" group 2. Toss in ⅜ Brahman, aka Brangus and they fit group 1. Besides that offspring come out heavier earlier and you still retain the naturally polled, diamond shaped head for ease of calving, good momma qualities like disposition and big bags.

 

[Ebenezer]

All we have is Angus. They will graze in the sun if they are the right kind. We used to have some Brangus. They raised bigger calves that sold for less. Not icing on the cake for us. But markets and regions are different. Weaning weights are important indicators. They will have a link to the most important economic issue: breed back. Once you get that part of the sewing machine oiled and purring the next step up is longevity. No place here for a one calf wonder cow.

 

[ClinchValley86]

Great thread right here!

I know it can't be killed. It should have died my first 2 years.

I've got 3 head left to cull. The rest seem to be good one it.

Ebenezer and all y'all are a wealth of knowledge. TexasMark you too. All of y'all.