My husband & I used to manage a 200 head cow/calf operation. They had lots of alfalfa throughout their rotational grazing fields. All the "men" were gone on a trip & I needed to change fields. I waited til noon (in September) to switch them to the new field which was mostly grasses but had a long thin strip of straight alfalfa. I went to lunch then decided to take some good cow/calf pictures. I had one dead, two down, & the majority of the rest bloated. I rounded up some construction crew, put all cattle in a holding pen, fed dry hay, tubed the worse ones (fortunately it worked!). Only lost the one that time, but another September day we lost a yearling. So, yes you can graze it, but be aware of the potential problem. Jeanne <A HREF="http://www.SimmeValley.com" TARGET="_blank">http://www.SimmeValley.com</A>
> I personally think the bloat issue
> is over emphasised, yes they can
> bloat but it doesn't seem to be as
> wide spread as one would think.
> Problem is, twenty head can graze
> and 19 of them will do fine and
> never have a problem, but the
> other one will bloat and maybe
> die. That pretty much means the
> other 19 are just going to pay for
> the one and if your lucky you'll
> breakeven. There are strains of
> alfalfa that have ben devloped for
> grazing they don;t seem to be as
> much a culprit as those that are
> strictly hay types. If I were
> planning on grazing alfalfa, I
> would first only run them in for a
> couple of hours inthe morning,
> pull them off, then run them in
> for a couple more hours in the
> late afternoon, then pull them off
> for the night. I would also
> provide a "Bloatgaurd"
> block starting before I started
> running them in. After a week or
> so, I would still leave the block
> available but would allow them to
> graze full time. If it has been
> hayed, and you are only grazing
> the stubble it may not be as
> serious a deal. But, (there are
> always buts in a deal llike this),
> when we were in the desert and our
> partner raised alfalfa, I
> suggested letting the calves
> winter on the stubble. He used to
> lease the grazing to the Basque
> sheperds to winter their sheep.
> His reasoning for running sheep
> verses cattle had to do with the
> crown damage to the alfalfa caused
> by the bigger foot and heavier
> weight. Also, the Basques rotated
> the sheep through so the alfalfa
> was never grazed low enough to
> damage the crown. Running calves
> you would have to really keep an
> eye on them to prevent them
> damaging the alfalfa crown. Of
> course, he had thousands of acres
> of the stuff, if you are only
> dealing with a 100 acres or so and
> used very low stocking rates it
> might not be a problem. Just my
> take on the situation.
> dunmovin farms
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