Rotating on smaller averages

[Kenlofarms]

I rotate on the 50 acres I own and do not on the 50 acres I rent. I would agree that rotating is the way to go. I rotate based on forage height and amount and not set days, I have found this to work better that a set time frame.

Remember you are a grass farmer and the cattle are the way to maintain your grass.

 

[JSCATTLE]

I feed in a lot made out of panels at my house .. in the summer I till it under .. the next year I plant my garden there .. I have 2 spots I do this with so I can rotate back and forth ..

 

[jallen]

How big a lot and how many head?

I feed in a lot made out of panels at my house .. in the summer I till it under .. the next year I plant my garden there .. I have 2 spots I do this with so I can rotate back and forth ..

 

[Bigfoot]

There usually in good shape by July. A certain amount of fescue seed is in the hay waste. Crabgrass will fill in where it's not.

 

[Banjo]

Wish all you guys would put your location up. What works here may not work there, but if we don't no where 'there' is.....
I'm not sure what kind of problem ur having unrolling hay. If its just flat out soupy wet and muddy they will tend to waste more of it, but otherwise I think the benefits outway the negatives......all cows, calves, etc. get to eat=less stress. It dramatically reduces the chances of a baby calf getting stomped.
Dedicate a acre or two and feed there, unroll or in rings, then let it heal this spring, meaning keep em off it till it grows back...even if it takes all summer, it can be your stockpiled grass next fall.

 

[jallen]

Sorry, near Cullman AL. Hour north of Birmingham. My cows just begged for more when they got to the point it was time to start looking a little harder for it. I will admit that I noticed my hay was lasting longer per roll The biggest thing I liked was equal opprlortunity for all to eat and that reason alone makes it appealing. I just don't have a good way to unroll it without avoid alot of labor. I did quite a few rolls by myself moving 20 yards at a time on the tractor and using a pitch fork to tear the bale apart. I would walk it by hand and put in piles about 10 years apart. 6-8 piles in a group and move another 20 yards and repeat. From a time standpoint it just got frustrating to do alone. I believe a lot of my problem is my cows aren't trained to clean up yet. I'm going to get by this year but next I'm going to make an effort and start out unrolling and see if I can get them cleaning up better. They would just stand staring at my hay barn hollering wanting more when there was more to eat in the field. Granted the piles weren't visible just glancing around but once you got out there I could Rake up piles as big as a kitchen garbage bag would be if it were full. I could get 20-30 good piles raked up like that and back to eating they went.

 

[fenceman]

Have you seen m5,s homemade roller in the tips tricks forum.
I often unroll by just using the front tire on the tractor to push the roll.

 

[jallen]

I just did. That's pretty neat, going to test out unrolling with the tractor tire first once it's dried out enough. If that don't work I'll try and get one of those put together over the summer. I rounder how easy it would be to push a bake with my Polaris ranger?

 

[M-5]

It would be easy as long as you have something that does not cause friction on the bale

 

[kickinbull]

I know there isn't a "right way" to grazing. I am tossing around a couple of different ideas for this years plan. I am stocking it light at 5 acres per head. I have 5 paddocks approx. 12 acres ea. First idea is to move them very slowly over each paddock, 2 months per, and end up only grazing one time per season. Second is to stockpile one paddock. Then split the remaining paddocks into 6 acres each. Rotating weekly between the remaining lots. It is not intensive enough to cause litter. Is it possible to graze this way and also stockpile for winter at the same time by not clipping. I am thinking that what is left will become litter by end of winter. Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[Ebenezer]

Comment from not knowing anything about your area or operation.

Are you overstocked? Need to feed hay and concern about forages always being ruined made me wonder.

Do you have any slopes/hills? Great places to start a bale at the top of the hill and let 'er go!

Do you soil test to know that all is OK there for desired forages?

In the big picture, the steps of priority for profit on grazing operations is 1-soil, 2-forage, 3-grazing management and 4-livestock. Most of us think from low to high rather than high to low because folks can make more money selling you livestock with more glitter and glamor than it is to stay home and take soil samples.

 

[GRTiger85]

it def makes a difference to rotate. I have a lease thats about 25 acres of coastal/native grass divided into 6 pastures. I run cows on it from april-october and always have plenty of grass as long as it rains. I had 15 pairs and a bull on it last year and they could barely keep up.

 

[Banjo]

I know there isn't a "right way" to grazing. I am tossing around a couple of different ideas for this years plan. I am stocking it light at 5 acres per head. I have 5 paddocks approx. 12 acres ea. First idea is to move them very slowly over each paddock, 2 months per, and end up only grazing one time per season. Second is to stockpile one paddock. Then split the remaining paddocks into 6 acres each. Rotating weekly between the remaining lots. It is not intensive enough to cause litter. Is it possible to graze this way and also stockpile for winter at the same time by not clipping. I am thinking that what is left will become litter by end of winter. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Your on the right track IMO. But I would look at 2 or 3 rotations per year instead of one unless you have an over abundance of acres. Leaving cattle for 2 months on one paddock and they will overgraze it, going back to the new growth every few days, which will weaken the root system.

 

[jallen]

No not overstocked. Just want my grass to fill in better and to get rid of what sage is remaining. My place was not taken care of very well and was full of weeds when I bought it 3 years ago. It's come a long way but still plenty of room to make it better. Hoping rotational grazing makes a big difference for my grass. We will see

Comment from not knowing anything about your area or operation.

Are you overstocked? Need to feed hay and concern about forages always being ruined made me wonder.

Do you have any slopes/hills? Great places to start a bale at the top of the hill and let 'er go!

Do you soil test to know that all is OK there for desired forages?

In the big picture, the steps of priority for profit on grazing operations is 1-soil, 2-forage, 3-grazing management and 4-livestock. Most of us think from low to high rather than high to low because folks can make more money selling you livestock with more glitter and glamor than it is to stay home and take soil samples.

 

[jallen]

I do have hills that would work to unroll but my hay is not rolled tight enough for it to work well. i tried yesterday and it just fell apart and I ended up throwing a hay ring over it. I soil tested my first year and have not since. I'm testing once we dry out a bit and will go from there. Plan to have two tons to the acre of chicken litter put out late April ish.

 

[Banjo]

I rotate every 7 days which works best for me and my herd. You can rotate at whatever pace you want, from what I have read, my goal is to try and keep the grass in stage 2 growth. You don't want it to head out as nutritional value drops significantly and if the cattle are on it to long and they nip it really short it will take longer to recover. Also I set my recovery time at about 21 to 28 days. I am sure others have their own preferences and might be able to give more input.

I was wondering how far into the winter are you able to graze?

 

[Ebenezer]

No not overstocked. Just want my grass to fill in better and to get rid of what sage is remaining. My place was not taken care of very well and was full of weeds when I bought it 3 years ago. It's come a long way but still plenty of room to make it better.

Not arguing, but just saying. You might not be overstocked on an animal unit per acre basis but it sounds like you are overstock based on productivity of current conditions.

Anytime that hay or purchased is a dependency then there is a point to make a decision: 1- buy hay or 2- sell a few animals and use money to buy in inputs to make the soil better or healthier so that next year the hay issue can be decided based on a higher doable stocking rate.

 

[TexasBred]

No not overstocked. Just want my grass to fill in better and to get rid of what sage is remaining. My place was not taken care of very well and was full of weeds when I bought it 3 years ago. It's come a long way but still plenty of room to make it better.

Not arguing, but just saying. You might not be overstocked on an animal unit per acre basis but it sounds like you are overstock based on productivity of current conditions.

Anytime that hay or purchased is a dependency then there is a point to make a decision: 1- buy hay or 2- sell a few animals and use money to buy in inputs to make the soil better or healthier so that next year the hay issue can be decided based on a higher doable stocking rate.

You know it's not a sin to purchase hay especially when you can be selective and buy hay twice as good as you can put up yourself.

 

[poorfarmer]

I rotate every 7 days which works best for me and my herd. You can rotate at whatever pace you want, from what I have read, my goal is to try and keep the grass in stage 2 growth. You don't want it to head out as nutritional value drops significantly and if the cattle are on it to long and they nip it really short it will take longer to recover. Also I set my recovery time at about 21 to 28 days. I am sure others have their own preferences and might be able to give more input.

I was wondering how far into the winter are you able to graze?

Let me start off by saying that I am at the max or maybe even overstocked for the year but early when the grass is growing here´s where I am at. I will have a stocking rate of 1.5 pairs per acre from Middle of April or early May until about middle of July or early August depending on rain, but I need that rate to keep the grass from becoming to mature. I cut my first cutting hay as early as the weather allows in my area and then the second growth hay will be worked into the rotation as fescue growth slows. The hay ground will double the amount of acres per pair. I dry lot my cows from mid-november through mid april. I am stocked to high to graze into winter and when it get sloppy and nasty I don´t want my pastures torn up so they are coming in. I think in my area if I wanted to let them out during the winter months, I would have to be at about 1 cow per 4 acres or I would have a mess.

 

[Ebenezer]

No not overstocked. Just want my grass to fill in better and to get rid of what sage is remaining. My place was not taken care of very well and was full of weeds when I bought it 3 years ago. It's come a long way but still plenty of room to make it better.

Not arguing, but just saying. You might not be overstocked on an animal unit per acre basis but it sounds like you are overstock based on productivity of current conditions.

Anytime that hay or purchased is a dependency then there is a point to make a decision: 1- buy hay or 2- sell a few animals and use money to buy in inputs to make the soil better or healthier so that next year the hay issue can be decided based on a higher doable stocking rate.

You know it's not a sin to purchase hay especially when you can be selective and buy hay twice as good as you can put up yourself.

Yes, it is an individual decision and a local situation. It is merely a issue of economics and labor for me. No hay equipment here on the farm and none wanted. Again, personal and economic decision.

Most hay sellers around here would fall into the fisherman group that always catches plenty, the big one got away that was "this long" or the buck was the size of a fat steer. Hay making here is not an honored tradition of highest quality or a dependable quality. A lot of "residue" or overly mature forages are baled to make volume rather than quality. If I hit myself on the thumb with a hammer long enough I lose the desire to build with nails. About the same way right now on hay due to past hay bought and found to be less than said for more than it is worth. For me, hay is a tool and not a feed. Grazing is a cheaper and easier option. Just where I am in life and location. But that is just here and one guy's opinion.