Stockpiled Fescue

[WarEagle73]

Just wanted to share a video from Extension in Alabama. Pretty cool what you can do with fescue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRpVu1dnUOM

 

[True Grit Farms]

I wish someone would develop a fescue that would grow here. I'm jealous.

 

[Tim/South]

His cows look to be in good shape.
I wonder if that field if fescue has been tested for the ergot endophyte? Some K31 fescue has very little harmful endophyte. Another field might test 90%. As good as those cows look I am banking the fescue is non toxic.
I have seen some beautiful winter grazing up around Cullman county and it was all fescue, no ryegrass. Almost unbelievable.

I have attended some of the meetings Alex puts together. I always learn something.

 

[Bigfoot]

His cows look to be in good shape.
I wonder if that field if fescue has been tested for the ergot endophyte? Some K31 fescue has very little harmful endophyte. Another field might test 90%. As good as those cows look I am banking the fescue is non toxic.
I have seen some beautiful winter grazing up around Cullman county and it was all fescue, no ryegrass. Almost unbelievable.

I have attended some of the meetings Alex puts together. I always learn something.

No seed heads on his. I'm beaten he's fine.

We all want we ain't got. I can raise all the rescue I want, and I want to raise some bermuda.

 

[Tim/South]

I planted 25 acres of Cheyenne 2 Bermuda last spring for hay. Decided to not harvest it and let the roots take hold. Clipped it twice at 6 inches, sprayed it once for weeds and once for the new invasive Bermuda Stem Maggot. It is thick and turned out better than I could have dreamed.
I am chomping at the bit for spring warm up to arrive. Feel like a kid in the candy store.

 

[dun]

Our stockpiled fescue hasn;t been green for a couple of months. Cows don;t seem to mind, it's about like they're eating standing hay.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Our stockpiled fescue hasn;t been green for a couple of months. Cows don;t seem to mind, it's about like they're eating standing hay.

Half of my herd was still eating fescue till back on Saturday after the snow. I'm thinking now I should of left them for another couple weeks. They were a lot happier eating that brown grass.

 

[dun]

Our stockpiled fescue hasn;t been green for a couple of months. Cows don;t seem to mind, it's about like they're eating standing hay.

Half of my herd was still eating fescue till back on Saturday after the snow. I'm thinking now I should of left them for another couple weeks. They were a lot happier eating that brown grass.

We put out some baleage when we had the now/ice and temps in the low single digits. Girls are still spending most of their time out on the stockpiled stuff. They'll stop by the baleage when they leave from getting a drink but don;t spend more then a couple of minutes.

 

[talltimber]

Although I'm feeding old hay, that's what I'm seeing here as well, especially the last few days of warmer temps. Plenty of grass for them out there yet. I've probably fed maybe 8 to 10 bales this year. The shell is so crappy it almost takes two bales to make one by the time I get the rot shell removed for them. Inside still looks good and they eat it good.

 

[dun]

We didn;t get the stockpile growth last fall like we usaully do. No rain during thr prime growing period of august and September then we got 10 inches in a couple of days the end of October.

 

[talltimber]

Same here. I am understocked and the cows couldn't keep up with the grass up through practically July. Once it quit raining though, they were gaining fast. I had my calves turned out on the hay/stockpile ground. I sold in September and they had it clipped down pretty good. No bounce back when I sold them due to no rain.

 

[Ebenezer]

I wish someone would develop a fescue that would grow here. I'm jealous.

Ever looked into Bromegrass?

I planted 25 acres of Cheyenne 2 Bermuda last spring for hay.

Best hay I ever bought. Great stuff.

As good as those cows look I am banking the fescue is non toxic.

Not necessarily. Add legumes, feed decent minerals and select the right cows (genetics). I posted some pictures under the stockpile thread taken on Monday. Fescue test 90%+ for endophyte. Cows do well on a no fertilizer program with focus on legume enhanced system. We grow less total height of forage but make up for it with higher efficiency of utilization. But the saving are big. I do not know if improved fescues are tough enough for strip grazing year in and year out. Some cattlemen here have used the most famous brand of friendly fescue with poor results: less growth, will not get out of the row patterns after 2 years, higher and faster consumption for a total of less carrying capacity. Bottom line: the cows have to fit. One summer rotation here is for them to graze off mature fescue seed heads much like a grain crop. They do a good enough job that annual mowing is not required.

Try to cut corners on legumes and minerals and it will hurt you.

 

[poorfarmer]

Interested in how this stock piling affects your stocking rates. The only way I could stock pile is if I pulled my cows off toward fall and fed hay then instead of in winter. Are most of you making a first cutting of hay and stockpiling the second cutting? Soil compaction in winter? Do most of you have flat ground you run? I am interested in cutting cost, but I am finding hard to wrap my brain around it with my terrain and climate unless I cut my stocking rate in half.

 

[Ebenezer]

What % of your current stocking rate is there to pay for hay and commercial fertilizer? Starter question.

No haying here: economics.

Wet winter or very wet spells: a lot of plugging. Replant with good legume seeds and go on. Slopes from 1% to 20%.

More economics for me than maximizing animal production in various options.

 

[M-5]

I wish someone would develop a fescue that would grow here. I'm jealous.

Ever looked into Bromegrass?

I planted 25 acres of Cheyenne 2 Bermuda last spring for hay.

Best hay I ever bought. Great stuff. .

Everything Ive read on it, it does not do well down here. Too many diseases and doesn't do well in the humidity

 

[M-5]

 

[poorfarmer]

What % of your current stocking rate is there to pay for hay and commercial fertilizer? Starter question.

No haying here: economics.

Wet winter or very wet spells: a lot of plugging. Replant with good legume seeds and go on. Slopes from 1% to 20%.

More economics for me than maximizing animal production in various options.

Location? What is your stocking rate?

 

[Banjo]

Stockpiling is what folks do when they are conventional grazers. They set aside a hayfield or any field and keep the cows off of it till Nov. or Dec.
We used to do that all the time before we went to IRG/MIG/HSDG what ever you prefer to call it.
Now I don't do any fall "stockpiling" in the classic sense. I am stockpiling all the time. I try to keep my rest/recovery times as long as possible....60 to 90 days. I prefer 90 or better most times.
If I start in October with a 90 day rotation then I already have grass till Jan. 1, but I'm going to make smaller allocations so I will have maybe 120 days of grass, which gets me to Feb.1.
Everything I graze in Oct. will regrow and now I have that to graze. Most likely will get growth in Nov. and Dec.
So should have enough to get to Mar.1-15th
Same way in the summer...if it stops raining in June I should still have enough grazing till Sept. 1. by then hopefully it will have rained and it doesn't take a whole lot of rain to get grass going with this system.

 

[talltimber]

Banjo, I have a hard time wrapping my head around how a guy would rotational graze and never have to worry about fescue going to seed (making seed heads which are highest in the endophyte). I have been told by a local fella that he intensive grazes ("like the buffalo's did"), they only pick it once a year, according to him, and I just can't imagine how that could be that his cattle "are never on fescue with the heads on it" and he never bush hogs?? Would have an idea? When I asked him he muttered something about "you got to keep them moving"? :lol2:

 

[Banjo]

Banjo, I have a hard time wrapping my head around how a guy would rotational graze and never have to worry about fescue going to seed (making seed heads which are highest in the endophyte). I have been told by a local fella that he intensive grazes ("like the buffalo's did"), they only pick it once a year, according to him, and I just can't imagine how that could be that his cattle "are never on fescue with the heads on it" and he never bush hogs?? Would have an idea? When I asked him he muttered something about "you got to keep them moving"? :lol2:

Not sure I understand the question. Fescue only heads out one time a year, if it does after that its only minimal seedheads. After the spring flush you don't have to worry about it, unlike other grasses such as crabgrass, ryegrass, and one that I have here called caucasion bluestem, they are just constantly trying to head out over and over. I'm not sure if I could pick my whole farm just once per year, but I am more like 3 to 5 times. One of the keys to endophyte is adapted cattle and then keeping your own heifers and on and on.