Pasture Management

[MikeC]

Pasture Management
January 21, 2008

Did you put your pasture to bed right?

As I study the important role that carbon plays in our environment, I keep coming up with useful information. Carbohydrates are the sugars that give animals and people energy; this same kind of energy is also stored in plants. This stored energy is given to us by sunlight—free and clear from any lending institution and it’s up to us to become wise about the use of this free energy.

Fall pasture management is another critical grazing management time to make sure you don’t screw up next year’s forage production. About two to three weeks before that hard killing frost is the time to put your pasture plants to bed right (healthy) for the winter.

To better understand this requirement, we have to go inside the plant and follow the movement of carbon. Think of the green leaves in your pasture as the solar panels that collect this free energy and store it as carbohydrates. These carbohydrates need to be present in healthy root systems
and other parts of each individual plant to provide the needed energy to push new shoots up next spring.

Bud formation is also determined in the fall of the year on many important grass species. These buds will later sprout and become the new grass tiller the following spring. This is another important reason to put your pastures to bed right.

Without adequate carbohydrate storage and bud formation, I have seen pastures only produce half their potential early spring forage. I proved this to myself by observing forage utilization cages (no grazing inside small cages) placed in key livestock grazing areas. I then measured the forage production the following year.

Where the cage set the previous year, a small square area, three feet by three feet, the plants were tall dark green in color with abundant fully developed seed heads. Outside the cage area, the same grass species were pale green, half the height and with no seed heads. Obviously the previous year’s grazing strategy was detrimental to forage production the following spring.

There are two critical times to take close control over your grazing management. One is during rapid plant growth when maximum root elongation happens, on into seed formation, and the other time is just before fall freeze up.

This is where pasture walking for solutions can really pay off. You simply need to pay close attention to what growth stages your plants are in and make adjustments accordingly. The other requirement is you need several pastures; more is always better. You will also need some built-in flexibility within your pasture rotation schedule to be able to change your management anytime you see fit.

After working with one Montana rancher where we came up with 36 pastures, he would say to me, "It’s this flexibility that I now have that gives me advantages." For example, he can now stay away from his neighbors’ fence lines due to Tricomonosis problems in his neighbors’ bulls. He would find out which pastures his neighbor would use and then adjust his pasture rotation.

Here is a great tip to keep track of all this more closely. Pack a shovel with you at all times (it comes in handy if you ever get stuck). Find an average looking important forage plant and dig it up, roots and all. This way you can look much closer at the lower portions of the plant.

Count how many leaves have already pushed out of an individual stem on one grass plant shoot. Once beyond the four-leaf stage, you are probably entering into fast root elongation and it’s time to rotate your animals as fast as you conveniently can.

In dry rangeland country, this usually is the only time period you can significantly grow grass. It’s that time of year to "flash graze," meaning just drift your animals through all your pastures without stressing them.

When you come out of a pasture, it should appear un-grazed. This will guarantee the maximum ability for plants to store carbohydrate sugars. This applies only to short-grass prairies’ ecosystems.

In the fall of the year, just before freeze-up, don’t stay too long in any one area. This putting your pasture to bed right is really bud and carbohydrate management. Proper fall grazing management will increase next year’s total forage production.

Some of these carbohydrates will also be used by the plants for winter survival. If you look closely, you will see some slight green growth occurring on warm winter days. It pays big dividends to think about how to store more carbon in your pasture’s root systems to determine next year’s forage production. You can make high profits by over-grazing, but that’s not sustainable. A good goal is sustainable profits, not just high profits for a single year. Most good grass managers already know this. It simply means to not stress plants during fast plant growth and again in the fall of the year. This is basically a good long-term management strategy. — Wayne Burleson

[Wayne Burleson is a land management consultant working out of Absarokee, MT. You can visit with Wayne at 406/328-6808 or E-mail him at [email protected]. Wayne also has an educational web site at http://www.pasturemanagement.com.]

 

[dun]

Excellent post. That's the reason I've alwasy pitched to not overgraze pastures. I see people graze them to the dirt in the fall and wonder why they don;t have grass worth squat the next year.

 

[gerardplauche]

Great post!!! :tiphat: :tiphat: :tiphat:
I agree, I almost feel like posting pics of my neighbor's pasture. It has turned to a mud wasteland. At the beginning of the fall he bought several very large commercial cows and they have been steady dropping weight ever since. I am amazed that he continues to add to his herd in an already heavily overgrazed pasture. It surely is a sad sight.

 

[novatech]

Those that sold off stock during drought will reap the benefits, those that did not :frowns:
I planted a small tifton plot this last year in order to get sprigs for next year. It looked to me like the tillers were still growing after the first frost, so I marked some and observed there growth. It amazed me to see how much growth took place after I thought it would be dormant. With just 2 warm days in a row I can see an inch of growth. Since first frost , over 3 feet. I bet there is a lot more under ground.

Thanks for the post Mike

 

[MistyMorning]

Good read, thanks...I will also check out the website.

 

[novaman]

Those that sold off stock during drought will reap the benefits, those that did not :frowns:
I planted a small tifton plot this last year in order to get sprigs for next year. It looked to me like the tillers were still growing after the first frost, so I marked some and observed there growth. It amazed me to see how much growth took place after I thought it would be dormant. With just 2 warm days in a row I can see an inch of growth. Since first frost , over 3 feet. I bet there is a lot more under ground.

That wasn't growth!! The cows were pulling on the runners slightly out of the ground

I recall an article similar to this which stated something to the effect of allowing your hayfield to grow back to about 10" or so going into winter so it would have an ample opportunity to store the nutrients necessary to pop back up in the Spring. After the first frost, it could be grazed without harm to the future of the plant. THe practice has been working for our Bermuda field.

I have no idea with Bermuda but most grasses are set back by grazing them after they have gone dormant.

 

[KenB]

Those that sold off stock during drought will reap the benefits, those that did not :frowns:
I planted a small tifton plot this last year in order to get sprigs for next year. It looked to me like the tillers were still growing after the first frost, so I marked some and observed there growth. It amazed me to see how much growth took place after I thought it would be dormant. With just 2 warm days in a row I can see an inch of growth. Since first frost , over 3 feet. I bet there is a lot more under ground.

That wasn't growth!! The cows were pulling on the runners slightly out of the ground

I recall an article similar to this which stated something to the effect of allowing your hayfield to grow back to about 10" or so going into winter so it would have an ample opportunity to store the nutrients necessary to pop back up in the Spring. After the first frost, it could be grazed without harm to the future of the plant. THe practice has been working for our Bermuda field.

I have no idea with Bermuda but most grasses are set back by grazing them after they have gone dormant

Why is it that defered grazing is recommended?

 

[dun]

Why is it that defered grazing is recommended?

It allows the grass to store nutrients for spring growth. Once the grass is dormant, as long as you don;t remove the growth points (don;t recall the fancy name) the grass will recover earlier and more healthy in the spring.

 

[novaman]

Why is it that defered grazing is recommended?

It allows the grass to store nutrients for spring growth. Once the grass is dormant, as long as you don;t remove the growth points (don;t recall the fancy name) the grass will recover earlier and more healthy in the spring.

Defered grazing is not recommended by those that truly understand the physiology of grass. Many people believe that once the grass is brown it is dead and further grazing will do no damage. The fact of the matter is that come spring that browned grass will green up and resume growth. It sets the grass back by grazing it off in the fall and winter.

 

[TexasBred]

Don't think I've ever seen those "supposedly dead" tops of my coastal turn green again and start growing come spring or I would instantly have 8-10 inch grass. I have seen new growth come up from the runners which are rooted. Any stored nutrients would be in the roots.

 

[IluvABbeef]

Why is it that defered grazing is recommended?

It allows the grass to store nutrients for spring growth. Once the grass is dormant, as long as you don;t remove the growth points (don;t recall the fancy name) the grass will recover earlier and more healthy in the spring.

Deferred grazing helps the plants reach their full growth potential. In other words, the grass completes its life cycle without any disturbances, and thus is able to absorb, use/store nutrients and CHOs for the next growth cycle, as well as drop seeds for new grasses to establish in (possibly) replacing the older sward. Not only that, deferring a pasture helps root regrowth to occur, because roots are and can be damaged by the intensity of grazing. Grass deferred until the next year is grass that is allowed to let its roots recover and grow. We, as grass farmers, are actually managing for root growth, because the 30% that we graze above ground, affects 70% of the plant below ground. Thus, with the ability to absorb/store/use nutrients, coupled with the ability for a sward to complete its life cycle and regrow and reestablish its root systems without any disturbances for all three, then you get a healthier, more vigorous pasture-full of grass for the next grazing season.

Dun, I dunno how that second statement of yours applies to deferred grazing, because to me that's more towards doing stockpiling for the winter. THAT is in a way different from deferring a pasture for a whole year.

Oh, and that fancy name is apical meristems.

Just my two cents.

 

[IluvABbeef]

Defered grazing is not recommended by those that truly understand the physiology of grass. Many people believe that once the grass is brown it is dead and further grazing will do no damage. The fact of the matter is that come spring that browned grass will green up and resume growth. It sets the grass back by grazing it off in the fall and winter.

I disagree. Once grass is brown it IS dead, but that's just on top. The grass leaves may be dead, but the rest of the plant is dormant (from the apical meristem to the roots). Further grazing in the dormant season doesn't harm the grass, its the grazing intensity and frequency of grazing on a particular area during a specific time period of a growing season that does the damage. That frequency/intensity does more harm to the root system because the roots have to regrow in order to boost more leaf growth. Ever heard of stockpiling? That's what some folks are starting do around here in the fall and winter, and it doesn't do anything to the grasses. Like dun said, just so long as you don't graze down to the dirt and take out the growing points and graze so hard you're going to get so much root death that A. the grass will grow back less vigorous than last year or B. there ain't no growth at all, the grass'll still come back. And browned grass don't green up again. Once its brown, its brown, AND dead. It's the tillering occuring from the base of the grass that you see as "greening up in the spring."

And TexasBred said it well without all the sciency stuff I put in.

 

[dun]

Dun, I dunno how that second statement of yours applies to deferred grazing, because to me that's more towards doing stockpiling for the winter. THAT is in a way different from deferring a pasture for a whole year.

Oh, and that fancy name is apical meristems.

Just my two cents.

Gee, I alwasy considred deferring grazing for a year to be allowing it to lay fallow. Deferring to me is postponing.
Old ways and terms are hard to change.

 

[KenB]

Why is it that defered grazing is recommended?

It allows the grass to store nutrients for spring growth. Once the grass is dormant, as long as you don;t remove the growth points (don;t recall the fancy name) the grass will recover earlier and more healthy in the spring.

Deferred grazing helps the plants reach their full growth potential. In other words, the grass completes its life cycle without any disturbances, and thus is able to absorb, use/store nutrients and CHOs for the next growth cycle, as well as drop seeds for new grasses to establish in (possibly) replacing the older sward. Not only that, deferring a pasture helps root regrowth to occur, because roots are and can be damaged by the intensity of grazing. Grass deferred until the next year is grass that is allowed to let its roots recover and grow. We, as grass farmers, are actually managing for root growth, because the 30% that we graze above ground, affects 70% of the plant below ground. Thus, with the ability to absorb/store/use nutrients, coupled with the ability for a sward to complete its life cycle and regrow and reestablish its root systems without any disturbances for all three, then you get a healthier, more vigorous pasture-full of grass for the next grazing season.

Dun, I dunno how that second statement of yours applies to deferred grazing, because to me that's more towards doing stockpiling for the winter. THAT is in a way different from deferring a pasture for a whole year.

Oh, and that fancy name is apical meristems.

Just my two cents.

When I asked about deffered grazing it was meant as deferring or stockpiling for winter feeding.