New "supergrasses"

[agmantoo]

Looks like you have 11 different pastures so that means that it rests 11 or 12 days before turning back in. The electric fence is how you have your pastures divided ? Also it looks like a lane down the middle of your propery to tie the pastures together.

Cowboy,

Initially I started out having lots of small paddocks but they were very inefficient when it came time to do any mechanized work. I worked out a means to still have the benefits without the disadvantages. What I have now are two parallel high tensile wires marking the paddocks with the minimum number of permanent cross fencings. Usually I start the herd grazing from one end and progress slowly toward the other end. P1 strip can take a month to go from one end to the other since I only allocate what grass I want them to eat in a 24 hour period. Only in droughts do I need more than an acre/day for feed. Some paddocks can be idle for months. I partition the area to graze with the polywire and stepin posts. Yes, that is a lane in the middle. I use the wires on it to transmit the output of the energizer. There is no need to keep all the fences hot.

 

[hillbillycwo]

Agmantoo,
How close do your cows graze the grass to the ground? How much stubble do you leave?

 

[agmantoo]

hillbillycwo

I normally allocate enough grass/paddock size to where the cattle will have left about 3 inches of forage following the 24 hour grazing period. If I leave the ~3 inches it does a lot to control weeds. I do rotary cut the pastures to clip weeds and the grass will rebound faster than the weeds to help suppress them. Drought ruins my regimen. I have learned to discipline myself to feed the tallest forage that I have regardless of the season and the moisture. I do this to allow the remaining forage to recover as much as possible. Most of the time that works but when or if we have an extended drought I do permit the cattle to graze down to about an inch. We had a dry summer and fall and it remains dry at this time. Hopefully the situation improves before spring. I do frequently overseed by broadcasting in an effort to have a good plant population. I know that I do a lot of unconventional things and that many people think that I am fabricating what I post. I assure you that is not the case. I have become a very low cost producer and my net profit before taxes is much higher than conventional cow/calf producers. Anyone here that is going to be in my area is welcome to stop by with an advanced notice. I have had visitors from Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina , South Carolina. Some of them were non believers also before their visit. I encourage anyone that is in the business for profit to convert to rotation grazing.

 

[shaz]

Agmantoo,
How did you start this program? What kind of shape were your pastures in? How many brood cows did you have?

 

[Isomade]

Agmantoo, I admire your operation. The thing I try to figure outs how to get water to the cows in this type operation. Currently our ranch is crossectioned into 40 acre sections we rotate every two weeks or so. There is a tank in each section. How did you address this?

 

[agmantoo]

Agmantoo,
How did you start this program? What kind of shape were your pastures in? How many brood cows did you have?

This farm was an exhausted row crop place owned by an old man that inherited it from his family. During a period of good economy the farm had been on the market for years yet no one would buy it. It has very rolling hills and only a portion was suitable for crop farming. The land was the only acreage that I found that was in my price range. The first few years I tried producing soybeans on it and the yields very miserable. The price at that time for soybeans was in the pits. I decided that I was going to cease to farm crops. I sold most everything but an old 20 years old track loader that I had owned for years. I started converting the farm into pastures. Each year I took 20 to 30 acres from non production to pasture and I bought the first commercial angus (heifers) from a lot of feeder calves that had been conditioned to go to the feed yards. When they reached breeding age I bought a registered bull. The calves off these cows were sold and I kept the heifers. I also bought hay equipment shortly after buying the heifers. I made no money to speak of. I did realize that I could grow grass and that I was able to feed the grass much longer than the neighbors. I could get by without hay until mid January while they were on hay from mid November. It became a challenge to see how far I could go into Winter without feeding hay. Within a couple of years I realized I could go all Winter. I did not like making hay as it was expensive and a lot of work. I sold the hay equipment after I managed to make it through Winter without hay a few times. About this time I realized that maybe I have been sold a "bill of goods" regarding the other inputs associated with being a feeder calf producer. When fertilizer went to $800 a ton I said to myself that is it! I ceased to buy commercial fertilizer and thought that I would have to partially depopulate. I was wrong, nothing changed. That is nothing changed but I had the fertilizer money in my pocket. About that time I also tried not worming. The heavens did not fall! I had never used a vet so that was not an expense. At this time here are the things I spend money for. I buy dung beetles, mineral supplement and salt, lime, castrating bands and ear tags, a little herbicide, a reduced amount of fuel and some forage seeds. In today's market for feeder calves, approximately 80% of the sale barn income is mine before taxes. (This figure excludes land purchase, the land should IMO appreciate to keep pace with times on its own.) I posted the last sentence not to be bragging but to let those interested in low input production to know what can be achieved.

Shaz, I have roughly 100 brood cows including some replacement heifers. I ear tagged calf 91 today. I do cull a few cows as the need arises. Some say I am somewhat heartless at doing that. If a cow isn't nearly flawless she doesn't get a second chance.

 

[agmantoo]

Isomade

I am fortunate to have a couple of small streams that flow most of the year along with 3 small ponds. In addition I have located some Ritchie waterers in strategic locations. I have abandoned the conventional means of rotational grazing and arranged for my pastures, where permissible, to consist of two parallel high tensile wires. I run the two parallel wires as far as the terrain will permit. I have lots of rolling hills, some are steep. I place a wide lane as necessary to partition these long rectangles to permit the cattle to have access to the waterers. I also graze these lanes. Polywire and stepin posts are used to allocate the area between the two parallel wires that are to be grazed. The wire adjacent to the lane is raised and supported on a pvc pipe to function as a gate to give access to the lane(s). The cattle adapt readily to the regimen. They become very manageable within a few days once they understand the schedule. I have observed them standing patiently for hours waiting for "shift change"

This was taken today. In the top right you can see a portion of yesterday's paddock. As I mentioned earlier. I do not have an abundance of forage. The herd is getting 6/10ths of an acre at the location every 24 hours.

Here is the polywire separating today's paddock from tomorrow's.

 

[Flacowman]

What species of grasses do you have up there? When do you have good green up and when does it die back? Inches of rain per year on average? Inches that you have observed you can get by with? A lot of questions but you seem to be truly knowledgeable and not just full of hot air and I'm always curious about others' operations.

 

[agmantoo]

What species of grasses do you have up there? When do you have good green up and when does it die back? Inches of rain per year on average? Inches that you have observed you can get by with? A lot of questions but you seem to be truly knowledgeable and not just full of hot air and I'm always curious about others' operations.

Flacowman

I apologize for drifting away from the original topic but we are still on grass so I hope it is OK with you. I seem to latch onto topics regarding forage as I am always wanting to learn.

To answer your questions. My main grass is KY31, the fescue with the endophyte issues. I supplement that with annual rye grass and crabgrass. I use a lot of legumes also, mainly white and red clovers and some sericea and vetch. The rye grass will green up in mid to late Nov if planted early and it will be grazed late Feb. The fescue, which went dormant in Jan., will green up in Mar. and will be grazed until going dormant in late June/early July. The crabgrass will be growing in June and grazed in late July and August. Come Sept the fescue will break dormancy and grazing will start. The fescue will be both grazed and stockpiled. To accomplish stockpiling, I set aside that acreage and rapidly shift the herd over the area to be grazed and this effort supports the herd to the end of Dec. I will the start on the stockpiled fescue around the 1st of Jan. and feed that until the ryegrass greens up. I also stockpile fescue in late Spring/early Summer to get through the drought period of July and August as the crabgrass will not support the herd by itself. My legumes are mostly warm weather ones. It is surprising what the protein level of the fescue is when frost hits it, 20 plus percent is typical.

We typically get rain in the high 30 inch range. We are under this by more than 5 inches now and the dry period hit at a rough time for the fescue on which I put so much dependence. In 2003 we have a drought and I sailed through it fine at about 30+ inches rain for the year. In 2007 another drought hit and it was more severe. I had to buy hay but I only fed a few hundred bales. It all depends on what time of year the drought hits and for how long it lasts. My neighbors feed hay months before I have to during dry weather and Fall. My soils are in good condition and I have very little soil compaction on the red clay that is here. I think you saw the pics I took today. The neighbors pastures are all brown and very stressed.

 

[shaz]

Agmantoo,
So, you don't have a water source in every paddock. What is the maximum distance your herd walks to water and do you consider that less than ideal? In other words, what would you rather have.

Also wondering - how are you able to broadcast rye grass? I've tried it several time and zilch :???:

Thanks in advance

 

[agmantoo]

shaz

I have read that if the cattle do not have to walk more than 800 ft to water they will straggle to and from water. If the distance is greater, they will tend to go as a herd. Some areas at my place require the cattle to go as much as 1500 ft or more. They will go as a herd and usually loaf near the waterer for a spell. I have never observed a problem as long as they are sound on their feet.

A side note. I do not concern myself about the cattle eating enough due to the feed or water being apart. Some folks worry that cattle are in the shade rather than eating. I firmly believe that a brood cow or calf can get enough to meet their daily needs and to fill their gut in two each 45 minutes of grazing PROVIDED the pastures are in good condition. The rest of the hours in the day can be spent chewing cud and loafing. Remember, I do not finish cattle. I am marketing calves at ~550 lbs on the feed that my farm will produce as a low cost producer. It really doesn't matter very much to me if the calf is 6 months old or 8 months old as I am feeding cheap forage. I am concerned that the brood cow is in good condition for rebreeding. Gross income is not very concerning. It is the net income that gets my attention. I do not want to just turn money over, I want a chunk as my share left in my account.

As for getting the rye grass seed to come up by broadcasting. 20% more seed are broadcast than if I were drilling. I do not want to damage the existing forage so I do not pull the sod drill. Instead, for now, I have a mott brand plugger but I plan on buying an aereator. I can accomplish the plugging and seeding in a single pass as the seeder is electrically powered. I want to broadcast the seed and for some of the seed to fall or wash into the divots. Rye grass does best if it has a little soil over the seed IMO.

 

[kickinbull]

Agmantoo, I have read that you stockpile forage for 2 times of the year, dry late summer and also winter. On our dairy, we don't stockpile for winter yet, but we do need to make arrangements for late summer. We have used summer annuals, but I am not happy with the results or all the work it involves. I am considering lengthening the rest period of our paddocks right from the start of spring and use the area that would be the set aside in the rotation. And at the same time keeping them clipped, sort of like the lawn. Thoughts? Can you speculate what might happen. Thanks. KB

 

[agmantoo]

kickinbull

Your statement "I am considering lengthening the rest period of our paddocks right from the start of spring and use the area that would be the set aside in the rotation. And at the same time keeping them clipped, sort of like the lawn. Thoughts? "

Lengthening the rest periods is a great method to enhance the growth in all paddocks. It is not much effort to rotate daily and I strongly recommend doing so. Daily rotation should permit you to idle as much as 25% of the Spring and early Summer pastures. I only have fescue, some minimal bluegrass and a few volunteer grasses plus lots of clovers. My set aside area for late Summer stockpile starts about the time the main seed head shoot of the fescue starts to emerge. I run the Bush Hog to where only the tips of the fescue leaves get clipped. I will continue this until the seed head shoots cease to emerge. The seed heads are from the previous years growth and not new shoots. If there is ample rain the fescue will remain green until mid July and that is when I start needing the forage. I typically will continue needing the forage until late August/early Sept. Before the fescue starts its major Fall regrowing I will broadcast annual rye grass to supplement the stockpiled fescue as it is consumed and Spring arrives. I would think that you should come close to replicating what I do. Here is a pic I took yesterday and you can see the cattle are not on hay near the middle of Jan. I did feed some hay in Dec due to the drought reducing the quality and quanity of fescue that I normally have. I fed the hay in Dec so that I would not have to feed by tractor in inclimate weather. So far that has worked. Good luck.

Notice the lower leaves are still nice and green. The protein of fescue stockpiled exceeds fescue hay.