– Stan Smith, PA, Fairfield County OSU Extension
Despite suffering through a very wet late winter and early spring, the ‘D’ word (drought) has now returned to many local conversations. After the wet spring destroyed significant acres of newly planted corn and soybeans across Ohio, damaged the quality on a large portion of the state’s first cutting hay, and caused pastures to suffer from much trampling, the current dry conditions are causing reduced pasture plant growth.
The Drought Information Center website shows that as of June 14 only the western quarter of the state was labeled as “Abnormally Dry.” This designation is moving to the east, and will likely cover much of the rest of the state soon. All that being said, it’s apparent that it’s time to begin considering the alternatives for managing around poor producing pastures. Certainly it’s never too early in the summer to take a look at your forage and feed resources, and give some thought to alternatives that will hold you until cooler temperatures and precipitation return to Ohio.
- Wean early spring born calves – despite the dry weather market that is pushing grain prices, corn is still less than 4 cents a pound. See the article that follows by Dr. Turner on the subject of “early weaning.”
- As an alternative to offering supplemental hay, feed the cows 2-3 pounds of whole corn per head per day – one pound of corn replaces about 2 pounds of hay, and, it’s a whole bunch easier to haul. Feed it on the dry ground under an electric fence wire and the cows and calves won’t waste any. If you have adequate bunk space, wheat midds might be an alternative that’s even cheaper than corn.
- If your forage growth has stopped, pull the cows off pasture and feed hay or silage. Overgrazed plants won’t recover very well when precipitation and cooler temperatures do return. Roots transport moisture and nutrients to growing plants. As Jeff McCutcheon has mentioned in past publications, when plants are overgrazed, root growth stops and when root growth stops, leaf growth stops too. The result is no leaf to absorb dew or light rain, and no shading for the soil to retain the moisture that is present. During the 1999 drought, an Amanda (Ohio) area cattleman pulled his cows from the pastures in late July and August and fed from a corn silage bag. His pastures recovered much more quickly that fall, and were significantly more productive than others’ in the County that were allowed to be grazed down to the soil. Manage for the long haul – don’t destroy a productive pasture just to survive the short term!
- Wheat harvest is upon us, and this will provide vacant fields that you might want to consider planting oats on. During the extremely dry summer of 2002, you will recall the Wolfingers from Fairfield County planted oats into a harvested wheat field in early August, and strip grazed off about 5 tons of high quality dry matter per acre beginning in November, and continuing into March. In addition, if you are located in an eligible watershed, and are accepted into the Conservation Security Program (CSP) this year or next, CSP will offer you $30 per acre for extending the grazing season by late planting annual forages such as oats.
- After the calves are weaned and the cow’s nutrient requirements are reduced, if you don’t get harvested wheat fields seeded to oats, you may plan to graze wheat stubble and the volunteer wheat that emerges when some showers do occur. If you have a decent stand of volunteer forage, you might even consider applying a little ammonium nitrate to these fields to enhance growth. Beyond that, begin planning to graze corn stalks after corn harvest.
- Palpate and cull now before everyone else does. Moving culls now will not only save feed, but prices are also excellent . . . cull now, beat the rush.
- Apply ammonium nitrate to resting pastures – especially the fescue – sometime in the next month or so.
- When a little pasture top growth does return, don’t be impatient about grazing it. If you must graze on it, only top graze it lightly and move the cattle on.
In coming weeks, if the dry weather persists, we’ll explore some of these alternatives in more detail.