Troy is home and healing, and has invited you on this mini-pasture walk of winter-grazing at his place. Here are lots of great pictures of his animals in action, along with the forage results for his stockpiled pasture and the sedges that the cattle like to eat this time of year.
Thought you all would be interested in these recent forage samples I took of stockpiled pasture in paddock 16. It’s the second to last paddock to finish the season out and is 107 days old. It is remarkable the quality and energy value even at this late date in upstate New York. I’m also wondering how much having this field fallowed 2 years ago for the grassland birds and then mob-grazed plays a part.
I also sent in a sample is of rushes (looks like a green needle) that the cows readily eat after frost. I’ve always been interested why they devour these wetland plants so much in winter and what nutrition these basically hollow, freeze-dried plants have. I see they are really high in Manganese and Molybdeum. A Relative Feed Value of 94 is also not bad.
Troy,
I have done a number of forage test this time of the year.They have all been good but the best were always when we had an early snow cover.Forage with a RFV of 130 would cost close to $200/T or more on a DM basis.Every day my 100 ewes are out there I am probably saving close to $50.
Today 12/20 I have about 10 days of grazing left but have been feeding hay for the last 4 days due to greater than a foot of snow currently on the ground. It is close to 50 degrees today they will be out tomorrow and be very happy.
Jim
Howdy, Toy,
I surely hope you are doing better.
Were the samples taken recently? They are quite good, I would say, for this time of year. no wonder your critters are doing well.
Happy holidays to you and yours,
Dave