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Winter Grazing Small Farm Problem
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<blockquote data-quote="RDFF" data-source="post: 1659737" data-attributes="member: 39018"><p>I'd say it probably depends on what species you're looking at. Some plant species have to start all over with all new growth in spring anyway, and whatever is left after the hard freezes is just "residue" at that point, so grazing it off will probably not do much harm. Exception here might be alfalfa with a crown above the ground... could kill that if you take that crown. And then there are some, mostly in the grasses, that can just go "dormant", and then they will restart when it thaws and just continue to grow from what's already out there as young, vegetative top growth. Winter rye is a good example of that... if you've got intact above ground growth in the fall and into winter, anytime you get some above freezing sunny weather with the leaf blades exposed, you'll swear that it greened up again. I had that here in Minnesota just this past week... rye was about 3" tall when it froze hard... but we got a bit of "freezing rain" weather with not much snow cover, and sure enough, that rye where exposed to sunlight "greened up" overnight... capturing carbon/photosynthesizing! Ground was still generally "frozen"... and it <u>still</u> is actively functioning. That clipper turned into a 4" snow, and the temps went back down into the single digits, so back into dormancy it went again. That absolutely proves the benefit of having a "live root" in the ground though through the winter... even though you think it's not doing anything, I'm convinced that even when it's cold... really cold, that plant is still alive and functioning.</p><p></p><p>In general though, I agree with Stocker Steve's comment above, and that's definitely the more appropriate plan forward. If you had alot of stockpiled forage out there though, you could probably take "some" of it and still be OK. Take half, leave half... pretty much all the time. You won't be hammering the root system when you graze so much when you graze it now when it's dormant, but you will be taking away photosynthesizing "power", and if you take too much of that, it'll have to slough off root reserves in spring to restart. Leave enough to let it have plenty of solar panels to get going, and you'll be OK. The more you take now though, ESPECIALLY if you take it down more than half of what's out there, the less yield you'll get on the first spring growth... so "take half, leave half" is good advice.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RDFF, post: 1659737, member: 39018"] I'd say it probably depends on what species you're looking at. Some plant species have to start all over with all new growth in spring anyway, and whatever is left after the hard freezes is just "residue" at that point, so grazing it off will probably not do much harm. Exception here might be alfalfa with a crown above the ground... could kill that if you take that crown. And then there are some, mostly in the grasses, that can just go "dormant", and then they will restart when it thaws and just continue to grow from what's already out there as young, vegetative top growth. Winter rye is a good example of that... if you've got intact above ground growth in the fall and into winter, anytime you get some above freezing sunny weather with the leaf blades exposed, you'll swear that it greened up again. I had that here in Minnesota just this past week... rye was about 3" tall when it froze hard... but we got a bit of "freezing rain" weather with not much snow cover, and sure enough, that rye where exposed to sunlight "greened up" overnight... capturing carbon/photosynthesizing! Ground was still generally "frozen"... and it [U]still[/U] is actively functioning. That clipper turned into a 4" snow, and the temps went back down into the single digits, so back into dormancy it went again. That absolutely proves the benefit of having a "live root" in the ground though through the winter... even though you think it's not doing anything, I'm convinced that even when it's cold... really cold, that plant is still alive and functioning. In general though, I agree with Stocker Steve's comment above, and that's definitely the more appropriate plan forward. If you had alot of stockpiled forage out there though, you could probably take "some" of it and still be OK. Take half, leave half... pretty much all the time. You won't be hammering the root system when you graze so much when you graze it now when it's dormant, but you will be taking away photosynthesizing "power", and if you take too much of that, it'll have to slough off root reserves in spring to restart. Leave enough to let it have plenty of solar panels to get going, and you'll be OK. The more you take now though, ESPECIALLY if you take it down more than half of what's out there, the less yield you'll get on the first spring growth... so "take half, leave half" is good advice. [/QUOTE]
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