Pasture improvement Part 2

[midtncattle]

I am still learning about pasture improvement from you guys. So far I have learned that sowing white clover and Annual lespedeza will help with some of my concerns. I live 30 minutes from Alabama state line in TN. In my area is their something I could sow in late fall to help cut back on hay use in December- March? Wouldn't want it to negatively effect my fescue!

 

[MartinFarms]

I am directly east of you in Northwest Georgia just North of Ft.Payne and South of Chattanooga. I no-till an annual ryegrass beginning of September and "normally" start feeding hay around mid January till mid March. Coupled with stockpiling my fescue I have cut down from 4-5 round bales a head to 1-2 depending on weather.

 

[luke03cr]

Im farming just east of knoxville, i have seeded all our pastueres in tall fescue since its a cool season grass and grows up till about 40 F degrees. The fescue holds its protein and tdn value well into the cold winter, so that makes it great for stockpiling. If your looking to do pasture improvements i would plant about 15 lbs per ac. of fescue before oct 1. Then i would come in and plant about 6 to 8 lbs of red clover in 1st of feb. and let it frost seed into the ground. The clover is a legume that will put nitrogen back into your soil, so less fertilizer is used, and you will hopefully see a very strong stand of fescue for your pastures and hay come next spring.

 

[midtncattle]

Tell me a little more bout how you guys are stockpiling and about how many acres per head.

 

[luke03cr]

Tell me a little more bout how you guys are stockpiling and about how many acres per head.

Well i can only stockpile about 10ac. with 1 of my feilds. Its mostly fescue with a few other grasses. Its not much for our 30 head herd, but it does help with keeping hay in check. we cut our hay in that feild first of sept. then shut that field off. Then come in and fertilize about 50lbs of ammonium nitrate per ac. It grows good for about a month and half or so. Then i dont turn any cattle on it till after the first frost or till they have the pastures clipped down good. At that piont i herd them all into that stockpiled field, set up a water trough and lock them in that field till they graze it down good. At that point i let them back out of the field and shut it off. Then its time to feed out the hay for remainder of the winter.

 

[Banjo]

Tell me a little more bout how you guys are stockpiling and about how many acres per head.

Well i can only stockpile about 10ac. with 1 of my feilds. Its mostly fescue with a few other grasses. Its not much for our 30 head herd, but it does help with keeping hay in check. we cut our hay in that feild first of sept. then shut that field off. Then come in and fertilize about 50lbs of ammonium nitrate per ac. It grows good for about a month and half or so. Then i dont turn any cattle on it till after the first frost or till they have the pastures clipped down good. At that piont i herd them all into that stockpiled field, set up a water trough and lock them in that field till they graze it down good. At that point i let them back out of the field and shut it off. Then its time to feed out the hay for remainder of the winter.

Sounds like you have a plan....you could get more mileage out of your stockplied fescue if you did fast rotations on it. Like 1/2 acre or less per day. Fescue will continue to grow unless it gets severely cold....if you leave enough leaf area that it can photosythysis the sunlight. If you graze it all the way down it takes to long to recover and too much energy from the roots to come back. Same way with the rest of your pastures. Only graze about 1/2 of the plant down......don't worry about thinkin your leaving too much. If worst comes to worst you can always let them back in at any point to graze it down if you really needed to.
You can overgraze in the winter same as you can in the summer..............something to think about.

 

[luke03cr]

Good points Banjo, I will look into giving that a try for this fall.