No Fertilizer needed!

[KMacGinley]

Since we went to Management intensive grazing 5 years ago, we have not bought any fertilizer!

We run our cows on 1/4 acre of pasture each day at each place and move them in the afternoon, when the sugars in the grass are highest.

We Do Not let the cows graze the whole pasture at once.

Since doing this, clovers and legumes have proliferated without seeding.

The pasture is lusher every year.

We spread the manure from the cows wintering area on the pastures. After the first grazing, never during the winter, this lets the grass use it rather than evaporating or going into the groundwater. (Nitrogen.)

Anyway, that is how we do it.

 

[Dave]

That is what I do on the home place. I figure 40 cows per acre per day. I move the wire ahead of them everyday in the afternoon. If the field is big enough I put up a follow wire. I never allow them more than four days on any piece of pasture. So if the field is over 4 acres I use a follow wire.

I use a little bit of nitrogen in the early spring (100 pounds of 46-0-0) just to get the grass started. I am doing a better job of capturing winter manure. As I improve on this and do a better job of collecting manure I see using no fertilizer. I import all my winter feed to this place so the nutrients in the hay do have a lot of value. Hay that is 12% protein has 38 pounds of N per ton. At today's fertilizer prices getting everything you can out of manure gets to be more important.

 

[dcara]

How do you collect the manure? With a rake & frontend loader?

 

[Dave]

Because I live in this area with our lovely winter climate, the cows are fed in the barn or on concrete. Manure off the slab is scraped with a rubber tire scraper and pushed into a pile with a loader. The pile has a slab under it and walls around three sides. I wish it had a roof. In the barn I keep adding sawdust or shavings all winter. By this time of the year it is 3 feet deep. The cows do have access to a couple of acres that is pretty much just mud by this time of the year. I would get stuck for sure out there with the tractor so I don't go out there. I figure I am capturing better than half the manure. With more roof and slab I would lock the cows up for November 1 to April 1 and capture all the manure during that time.