When do you move cattle to pasture?

[The CEO]

When is the best time to move cattle out to pasture? I live in north/central KS.

Thanks :cboy:

 

[dun]

When there is forage enough to support them and it's not so wet as to cause pugging.

 

[The CEO]

Thanks! Does the grass have to be totally green? I have tall grass in the pasture, but it only has a little that is greening up this time of year.

 

[dun]

Thanks! Does the grass have to be totally green? I have tall grass in the pasture, but it only has a little that is greening up this time of year.

Sort of depends on what kind of grass it is. If the tall grass is growth from late last year it may be of better feed quailty then the hay you're feeding. Right now our cows are out eating the old grass from last fall and trying to eat the newer green stuff of which there isn;t much. They would rather eat that stuff then the OG hay I've put out for them. Which BTW, suits me just fine.

 

[bandit80]

When is the best time to move cattle out to pasture? I live in north/central KS.

Thanks :cboy:

Depends on the type of grass you are grazing.

Based on your location, if you are grazing brome, you want to be careful grazing it too early. Brome grazed too early will not grow the rest of the spring, especially if grazed off in the jointing stage. I am in northeast Kansas, and we don't start grazing brome until the 3rd or last week in April, and that may get pushed back this year.

Fescue on the other hand, I like to hit it early and hard. Seems to help from it getting too stemmy in the summer months. I think Aaron had a good description a while back. When you can grab it with your fist, and the tops of the grass are even with the top of your fist. You can also use this method for any annuals planted for spring grazing.

If you have a warm season or native grass, it is probably better to wait until May, when that grass starts growing good in your area.

 

[The CEO]

Thanks Dun & Bandit80. The pasture has about 5 different grasses in it. Most of it is native and warm season grass. Would it hurt the grass if I moved cattle out before it really started growing?

Thanks again for your help.

 

[bandit80]

Thanks Dun & Bandit80. The pasture has about 5 different grasses in it. Most of it is native and warm season grass. Would it hurt the grass if I moved cattle out before it really started growing?

Thanks again for your help.

I would say most of what you are seeing grow right now isn't the warm season grasses. Based on your location, it is probably cool season grasses that are greening up right now. Ideally, it would be great to wait a week or two in my opinion, but sometimes hay supply, mud, etc force us to kick the cows out earlier.

I would venture to guess as long as you are not overgrazing the pasture, you will probably be OK. I'm guessing there is some dead grass in the pasture from last year's growth. If so, they will eat that along with the fresh growth. Just don't overgraze and you will be OK.

 

[dun]

The green you're seeing isn't WSG, either weeds or CSG. WSG doesn;t do anything till later in the year, thus the term Warm season grass. The WSG doesn;t even thnk about starting to gorw here till usually May. WSG is much more sensitive to grazing height then OG, brome and fescue. You need to leave at least a 6 inch stubble when grazing. That's the main reason that managing a mixture of WSG and CSG in the same pasture is almost futile.

 

[bandit80]

They are always there. We just rotationally graze them. What do yall put up in ya barn or something?

No, rather a smaller calving pasture, paddock, whatever you want to call it. We keep the cattle off of the brome until it gets a head start, and then open the gates. Some producers around us let their cattle roam on the corn stubble fields before kicking out to summer breeding pastures in late April/early May.

 

[bandit80]

Well that is neat I suppose. I dont have a calving paddoc per say. I several different fields for them to eat out of that I just rotationally graze them throughout the year

It is mainly a convinience thing. Cows calve in a smaller area close to the barn/house. After calving, they get moved to a different area. The sand hills system would be the best, but not everyone has the resources to do that.

 

[kscowboy]

grass green , cows hungry , checkbook empty , move cows to pasture , simple !

 

[The CEO]

Thanks for all your help everybody. I think I will move 1/4 of the herd out in a week since I'm getting really low on hay and move the rest the end of April.

 

[The CEO]

grass green , cows hungry , checkbook empty , move cows to pasture , simple !

I love the way you put that. :cboy:

 

[Razorback21]

Moving cattle pasture also has to do with rotation frequency and stocking rates...I didn't have a lot of cattle in the pen up at the house. Made the decision to move them out March 23 here in Southern Illinois. They started off doing okay eating each paddock down but as it as warmed, the grass growth is starting to get away from them. May have to go buy a few more to keep up with the growth.

 

[bncsimps]

How big a deal is it for the pasture to be dry? Fortunately here in northern Al we've been getting much needed rain!!! The pastures are green and I'm out of hay....what gives??? :help: Looking forward to your reply.

bks

 

[dun]

How big a deal is it for the pasture to be dry? Fortunately here in northern Al we've been getting much needed rain!!! The pastures are green and I'm out of hay....what gives??? :help: Looking forward to your reply.

bks

It just needs to be dry enough that their hoofs don;t pug to badly. That being said, with all the rain we've had this year we've been running them on wet/muddy pastures because that's all we have. If it's a hay field I hold them off till it's dry enough that they wont damage it.