Dr. Chris D. Teutsch, University of Kentucky Research and Education Center at Princeton
In March we often find ourselves wringing our hands waiting for grass growth to start and a short time later our pastures are growing so quickly that we can’t seem to keep up with them. This time of the year can often be one of the most challenging for graziers. Grass growth goes from nonexistent to excessive in a matter of weeks and if you are properly stocked grazing livestock can have a hard time keeping up with it. The following suggestions can help you to control spring growth and get the most out of your spring pastures.
- Implement rotational grazing. In order to fully utilize the spring flush of pasture growth YOU must be in control of grazing. In a continuous grazing system, the cows are in charge. By utilizing rotational stocking, you start to make the decisions. Implementing a rotational stocking system may be as simple as closing some gates. They key is to just get started!
- Start grazing before you think the pastures are ready. One of the most common mistakes that graziers make is waiting too long to start grazing in the spring. If you wait until the first paddock is ready to graze, by the time you reach the last paddock it will be out of control. Starting early allows you to establish a “grazing wedge” (Figure 1).
Figure 1. The “grazing wedge” simply refers to having pasture subdivisions or paddocks at varying stages of regrowth from just grazed to ready to graze.
- Rotate animals rapidly. The general rule is that if grass is growing rapidly then your rotation should be rapid. This will allow you stay ahead of the grass by topping it off and keeping it in a vegetative state.
- Do not apply spring nitrogen. This should not be a problem this year since nitrogen prices are off the charts. Applying nitrogen in the spring will make the problem of too much grass at once even worse. In many cases you are better off to save your nitrogen for stockpiling in the fall.
- Remove most productive paddocks from rotation and harvest for hay. Graze all paddocks until the pasture growth is just about to get away from you and then remove those productive paddocks from your rotation and allow them to accumulate growth for hay harvest (Figure 2).
Figure 2. In the spring during periods of rapid growth, some paddocks can be removed from the rotation and harvested for conserved forage. Cutting at the late boot or early head stage will optimize yield and forage quality.
- Increase stocking rate in the spring. If it is possible, a good option for utilizing spring growth is to increase your stocking rate. This will allow you to harvest more of the available forage and convert it into a saleable product. This can be done by adding some stockers or thin cull cows to your rotation and then selling them when pasture growth slows. If you are in a fall calving system, you are better positioned to take advantage of spring forage growth since the calves will be larger.
Figure 3. An alternative to harvesting excess forage as hay or baleage is to increase your stocking your stocking rate by adding more animal units in the spring and then decreasing animal numbers as plant growth slows due to higher temperature during the summer months. While this is a viable approach, it is not practical on smaller part-time operations.
- Even out seasonal distribution of forage by adding a warm-season grass. Adding a well-adapted warm-season grass that produces the majority of its growth in July and August would allow you to concentrate grazing on your cool-season paddocks during periods of rapid growth (spring flush). After cool-season grass growth is slowed by higher temperatures in late spring and early summer, animals can be shifted in the warm-season paddocks for summer grazing.
- Bush-hog out of control pastures. The benefits of clipping include maintaining pastures in a vegetative state, encouraging regrowth, and controlling weeds. Clipping pastures costs money, so make sure that the primary reason for bush-hogging is pasture management, not aesthetics.
- Stockpile out of control pastures for summer grazing. Although forage quality decreases as the plant matures, the quality of spring stockpiled pasture is sufficient for dry cows and in some cases can result in reasonable gains on growing animals (Figure 4) during the summer months. This is especially true if using novel endophyte tall fescue and the pastures were clipped at the early boot stage to promote vegetative regrowth. This could be a cost-effective and simple way to provide additional grazing during the summer months.
Figure 4. Excess growth in the spring could also be stockpiled for grazing during the summer months. This is accomplished by removing some paddocks from the rotation and allowing growth to accumulate during late spring and early summer. It is important to remember that only about the one-half of the available biomass should be grazed. The remaining residue will protect plant crowns from high temperatures and reduce soil moisture loss during summer months.
One of the things that I enjoy the most about grazing operations is that there is no one size fits all. What works on your farm may not work on your neighbor’s. One of the most important features to build into your grazing system is flexibility. This will allow you to adapt as conditions change!
For more information on grazing management contact your local extension agent or visit http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Forage/ and https://www.youtube.com/c/KYForages.