Winter Grazing During Dormancy

[KevinN]

I have a small farm and can't afford to injure my pastures by over grazing. Here in central NJ we go into such bad drought conditions in the summer that I have to take the animals off pasture or they will eat them down to earth and the forage can become severely damaged. I usually take them off pasture leaving a good stand for the winter to aid in the spring recovery because I've read that if the forage is grazed too heavily before winter, the pastures are less resilient because the root systems can't store enough energy for the winter. I would like to know if it is safe to graze the dormant grasses hard after they have already gone dormant without injuring the root systems? Thanks, Kevin

 

[kenny thomas]

I have a small farm and can't afford to injure my pastures by over grazing. Here in central NJ we go into such bad drought conditions in the summer that I have to take the animals off pasture or they will eat them down to earth and the forage can become severely damaged. I usually take them off pasture leaving a good stand for the winter to aid in the spring recovery because I've read that if the forage is grazed too heavily before winter, the pastures are less resilient because the root systems can't store enough energy for the winter. I would like to know if it is safe to graze the dormant grasses hard after they have already gone dormant without injuring the root systems? Thanks, Kevin

I will start grazing stockpiled fescue on December 20th. I strip graze it using a poliwire and electric fence box. They graze it until hardly nothing is left. The reserves are in the roots by then.

 

[KevinN]

I will start grazing stockpiled fescue on December 20th. I strip graze it using a poliwire and electric fence box. They graze it until hardly nothing is left. The reserves are in the roots by then.

Thanks, that's helpful

 

[Cowman42]

There was a study done in Wisgonsen a few years ago showing that pastures grazed over winter after dormancy didn't grow any slower than stockpiled pastures that were skipped. Spring growth was the same for both. I think I remember that dormancy was the key though. If the fall growing cool season grass was grazed or cut when the plant was building root reserves it WAS stunted during spring flush. I changed some of my grazing in the fall and it seemed to be true for me. I actually feed hay in a brushy floodplain during six weeks in the fall and the cattle eat some hay and browse poplar/cottonwood shoots during that time. So far has worked out well. They stay fat and then when dormancy hits they are eating stockpile while the snow starts. Winter is pretty easy here and so they nibble on short grass all winter through the snow and fill up on varying quality hay. My best pasture gets grazed down to the nub over winter and come back stronger than ever every spring. I also unroll hay over the whole field over winter, frost seed what ever legume is cheap that year, and then spread manure with a tire drag once it thaws before it gets too wet. If the jeep tires sink more than an inch or starts throwing mud then I waited too long and I stop. Doing this I have turned a wore out field of nothing but broomsedge and goldenrod into decent pasture that can carry more than 1 AUM with usually less than 7 4x5 per AUM per year. Cattle get nothing but hay and pasture all year.