Stock piling pasture forage

[Bright Raven]

I moved the cows into the birthing pasture. About a month ago, I started mowing the rest of my pastures short to set them up for stockpiling. I also hired a friend with his tractor and manure spreader and put 12 hours of full time spreading manure on the top pasture. Top pasture means the area on top of the ridge. This area is called ridge and holler topography. Made up of long ridges with deep hollers.

My question - after mowing the areas short how long does the regrowth last before the protein and carbohydrate levels diminish?

As you can see, the regrowth is coming on good:

 

[1982vett]

Guess short answer would be till it boots a seed head.

Good looking grass ya got their.

 

[Bright Raven]

A bit of explanation. That first picture is a shot of the area where the manure came from. It is manure that is scraped off my winter hay feeding area. The pile had accumulated over the last 4 winters of feeding. After spreading, we got a lot of rain. That manure went right to work. It gave the vegetation a boost.

The following picture only shows a small part of the top pasture. The ridge turns to the right and runs toward the back of the farm. I suspect there is 30 acres total in the top pasture.

 

[Bright Raven]

Guess short answer would be till it boots a seed head.

Good looking grass ya got their.

Thank you. It has surprised me. Best pasture I have had since I owned this place.

Question: will it seed out this late? Dun was a good stockpile authority and so is Kenny Thomas. It is a subject that I have not studied.

 

[Ebenezer]

Fescue and orchardgrass or ____?

 

[1982vett]

Yeah. To much distance between you and me for me to know what to expect. I know mine has greened up nicely also since we started to get some rain. I see some varieties shooting heads here and their rather than growing leaf.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Guess short answer would be till it boots a seed head.

Good looking grass ya got their.

Thank you. It has surprised me. Best pasture I have had since I owned this place.

Question: will it seed out this late? Dun was a good stockpile authority and so is Kenny Thomas. It is a subject that I have not studied.

Mine doesn't usually head out if I mow it around the end of August, and it frosts by the end of October. Your's might since you will have a little longer growing season.
If you don't get any snow, that brown stockpiled fescue in January is might fine stuff.

 

[Bright Raven]

Fescue and orchardgrass or ____?

Fescue, orchardgrass, ky bluegrass, red clover.

 

[Bright Raven]

Guess short answer would be till it boots a seed head.

Good looking grass ya got their.

Thank you. It has surprised me. Best pasture I have had since I owned this place.

Question: will it seed out this late? Dun was a good stockpile authority and so is Kenny Thomas. It is a subject that I have not studied.

Mine doesn't usually head out if I mow it around the end of August, and it frosts by the end of October. Your's might since you will have a little longer growing season.
If you don't get any snow, that brown stockpiled fescue in January is might fine stuff.

Thanks. That is what I needed to know. I still hope Kenny sees this. Virginia is about like Kentucky.

Banjo is also a good source on pasture. But he does not show up very often.

 

[snoopdog]

If I had a window , Id cut it for hay, but it'll make fine pasture this winter

 

[kenny thomas]

Thank you. It has surprised me. Best pasture I have had since I owned this place.

Question: will it seed out this late? Dun was a good stockpile authority and so is Kenny Thomas. It is a subject that I have not studied.

Mine doesn't usually head out if I mow it around the end of August, and it frosts by the end of October. Your's might since you will have a little longer growing season.
If you don't get any snow, that brown stockpiled fescue in January is might fine stuff.

Thanks. That is what I needed to know. I still hope Kenny sees this. Virginia is about like Kentucky.

Banjo is also a good source on pasture. But he does not show up very often.

If the fescue is a higher percentage of the grass that should be your January and February grazing. I only have 20 acres stockpiled but I expect that to have enough forage to do 35 cows for 45+ days this winter. I challenge you to feed hay first, unrolled of course, and hold the fescue till Christmas. Take some forage tests after the first killing frost then again before you graze the stockpile. I spread 46-0-0 at 150 lb to the acre on mine but also covered a small area with plastic to keep any urea from getting to it. The extension service is going to take samples from each area before i use it starting around Christmas. I will post the results.

 

[kenny thomas]

3 years ago i closed the gates on 3 fields on September 1. I forage tested each field in December. The first field was steep and i done nothing except close the gate. It grew some and tested 12.4%. The second field was also steep but I spread 100 lb per acre of 34-0-0, it grew probably double the forage amount and tested 14.8%. The third field was almost flat and i drilled 2 bushel of winter wheat per acre and also spread 125 lb of 34-0-0 per acre. It grew great but tested 20.2%. All these tests were collected in mid December. I strip grazed each field and made them clean the forage up before giving them more. The field with the wheat I strip grazed 300-450 lb calves on and also gave them hay because the forage was so high in protein. I gave them enough each day to let them graze part of the day and finish the day on the hay.

 

[kenny thomas]

Was this a little extra work? Sure it was but it sure saved a lot of hay and i didnt rut the fields during the wet times. If the ground froze or dried out I would unroll hay on the already grazed areas. If it rained I gave them some stockpiled forage.

 

[Banjo]

Most cool season grasses only goes to seed in the spring....you may have some in the fall, but i think its because it never seeded out the first time. Fescue peaks after a few frosts. One nice thing I like about fescue is ....ironically.....cattle don't like it too much right now which is a good thing IMO. You can turn them into field full of nice fescue...as pictured... and they will go for the clovers and summer grasses scattered thru it and just mostly bite the top off the fescue. In other words they won't eat into the ground right now unless you just force them too.
Right now I like to turn my cows into the pastures that have lots of fescue.....leave them a day or two then move to another one. The previous paddocks will regrow rather quickly if you don't force them to take it down too short.

 

[plumber_greg]

They will eat rescue the best in dormancy stage after a hard freeze.
Have heard of it testing 16 %in winter here. Gs

 

[ddd75]

i've been treating fall like spring with rapid pasture rotation. I feel like i'm getting a lot more grazing days then stockpiling. The cows are so fat I'm starting to call them pigs.

 

[Bright Raven]

i've been treating fall like spring with rapid pasture rotation. I feel like i'm getting a lot more grazing days then stockpiling. The cows are so fat I'm starting to call them pigs.

Yes. Same here. This has been an extremely weird weather year.

 

[Texas Gal]

Yeah. To much distance between you and me for me to know what to expect. I know mine has greened up nicely also since we started to get some rain. I see some varieties shooting heads here and their rather than growing leaf.

I was stockpiling Bermuda grass ........until the army worms showed up in biblical proportions. We starting spraying then the rain started -almost 4 inches yesterday and more in the forecast. My stockpiling plans are shot to $hit at this point I fear. It's been a challenging year with drought, 110+heat and now army worms when it did start to rain. :cboy:

 

[Stocker Steve]

My question - after mowing the areas short how long does the regrowth last before the protein and carbohydrate levels diminish?

Are you curious about fescue, planning to add clover, and/ or trying to optimize forage grazing sequence ?

 

[Banjo]

i've been treating fall like spring with rapid pasture rotation. I feel like i'm getting a lot more grazing days then stockpiling. The cows are so fat I'm starting to call them pigs.

Yes, essentially what they call flash grazing...short period of time then moving...as long as we are in the growing season it will regrow as long as its not grazed too short. Short grass grows really slow. Fescue will grow until it gets really cold, then I will let them graze it shorter.