Wheat pasture grazing

[Coosh71]

I have always been told it's not safe to graze spring calving cows on wheat field because of potential calving issues. Well my vet tells me today that his family runs all their bred cows on wheat for the entire winter with no calving issues and always have. I'd be interested in all your experiences and comments. Thanks.

 

[TCRanch]

Very common around here. In fact, a lot of people plant wheat specifically for grazing - not for harvest. The cows (and especially the calves) get "wheat butt" when they're first turned out but they regulate after a few weeks. Same thing when I turn my calves out on the brome.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Very common around here. In fact, a lot of people plant wheat specifically for grazing - not for harvest. The cows (and especially the calves) get "wheat butt" when they're first turned out but they regulate after a few weeks. Same thing when I turn my calves out on the brome.

But have they already calved when they are turned out? He is asking about pregnant cows.
Maybe the wheat is growing so fast it isn't real high in protein??? Don't grow it and no one grazes it out here.

 

[TCRanch]

Pregnant, pairs, weanlings, retained heifers - and the occasional bull that has no regard for a fence. My BFF tries to reserve the wheat pasture for the weanlings & retained heifers (see aforementioned bull) but a lot of neighbors use wheat as their primary source of feed during the winter. There may be a difference between winter wheat & WHEAT but I don't know since we don't graze it. Protein & energy content is generally higher plus it can save money by not having to put out bales & supplementing less with cubes. That's assuming there's enough rain & it takes.

 

[Coosh71]

Wheat planted in September/October here is very common. However most if not all turn out weaned calves at 5-600# and pull off in Feb/March at 8+-900#. Question is am I going to kill all my bred cows by throwing them on wheat from October-end of April while they haven't calved yet. Wheat is pretty potent and will sustain a growing steer from 500-900# with nothing but rumensin blocks to supplement thru the winter.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Coosh - I totally understand your concern. To me, lush growing wheat will be super high in protein. High protein = larger calves. How much larger?? I don't know.
A lot of vets are not real knowledgeable about nutrition.
TexasBred is out "go to" on nutrition. Maybe he will chime in.

 

[cjmc]

The only concerns I know of when grazing wheat pasture are tetany (probably not much of a concern in cows that haven't calved), nitrate poisoning if the wheat was heavily fertilized & is under stress (drought, frost, hail), and then bloat.

 

[Coosh71]

Thanks all.. bloat and all around here is handled with rumensin blocks and free mineral with rumensin. Vet I have started using swears it's false that wheat blows calf sizes up. Says if you are concerned about size pull off wheat 45-69 days before calving. He said that that's when protein plays a roll in the calfs growth=pounds... Doesn't make a damn bit of sense to me but I'd love to run ALL my cows on wheat during winter vs add'l costly supplements

 

[Allenw]

You can graze dry, bred cows one day out of three on wheat and they will get enough protein for the other two days on good wheat.

 

[Coosh71]

Hey Allen, thanks. So are you saying that the calves would grow too large if bred cows were left on 24/7?

 

[Allenw]

The cows can get too fat and the calves can be bigger. It depends on how lush the wheat pasture is.

http://beefextension.com/pages/ccnutr.html Link to Oklahoma Beef Extension page click on Supplementing Beef Cows to open a pdf file of the fact sheet, on page 6 it talks about limit grazing high quality pasture.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Great article.
So, that makes me wonder if areas that are able to graze lush green small grains, do you have reproduction problems? Or would you never be breeding cattle while they are grazing?
Why I ask, is that here in NY, grass grows super lush in spring, with super high protein levels. I have a bugger of a time with fertility at this time. BUN (Blood Urea Nitrogen) gets too high. The cattle cannot utilize that much protein, so it converts into urea. You can go around your fields and find 2-3 foot circles of burnt grass. The ammonia in their urine burns the grass. With this much ammonia, it changes the PH in the uterus. They are super healthy, cycle like crazy, but the sperm or embryo cannot survive in this environment, so the cattle come back into heat on their normal cycle.
I have to get them bred BEFORE lush grasses or supplement (force) with low quality hay.

 

[1982vett]

Can't say I see any problems. I had issues with a bull back in 16. Busy as a bee on 40 cows. Then noticed he was working cows that should be calving soon. Tested good just wasn't getting the job done. Dropped a new bulls out in middle December, Palpated in April and they got all 40 with 1 being a month later than the rest.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

1982 - Do you mean they were out on high protein fields?
For those that grow small grains. When does it start coming up? Wouldn't the protein level decrease as it got older?
I know I only have about 2 maybe 3 weeks of BUN. First, it's too short for them to consume much, then it's too much water, then it's "just right" - mid 20's protein, not too much fiber.
Now, this is as "I" understand the process of our protein level HERE.

 

[NolanCountyAG]

I wouldn't run bred heifers on wheat through calving. But you shouldn't have any problems with cows, we do it every year if our wheat is doing good enough. If you are worried about calving problems I'd start looking at replacing your cows.

 

[1982vett]

Jeanne. Here is some oats from January 2009. Note said I had turned 13 bred heifers on for about 3 hours a day every other day for 3 weeks.

Here is some cows with calves from the same time period

Hate to say, talking BUN is over my head. Never known it to be an issue.

Planting dates have shifted over the last 35 years. We used to dry plant late august to early September. Could count on the tropics for several good rains in September. Wait to long and it would be to wet to plant. We could turn on in November about the time of a killing frost. Nowdays lucky to have enough moisture to get it in by mid October which puts turning on around mid December.

 

[Coosh71]

Thanks Nolan that's exactly what I was looking for. Just never run bred cows on wheat so wasn't wanting to screw up big time and kill half my herds. Thanks again to everyone. Jeanne I wish we had that lush green issue lol. Just never have too much grass around here.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Year after year, we would have a few weeks nothing would settle. Also, a month or so into rotational grazing we would find burnt circles all around our pastures. I finally read an article on BUN and it all made sense.

 

[Tbrake]

I noticed a considerable increase in birthweights when cows were running on wheat all winter, but the cows bred back real well. (January and feb calves) Would highly recommend against running bred heifers on wheat. Turnips don't seem to have quite as much affect, but changed clean up bulls on that pasture as well as ai studs