Victor lives in Indiana where conditions are now perfect for grazing stockpiled pasture. No matter where you are, here are great tips for making the most of what you’ve got.
When to Start
If possible and practical, it is best to not start grazing stockpiled forage until it goes dormant. Until it goes dormant, every time that solar panel of leaves is removed, the plant will draw from the reserves in the roots. If you hurt those reserves too much, and you will set back spring growth. If you don’t allow longer rest period in the spring to allow the plant to build back roots and reserves, you can really hurt your forage stand. There are times where grazing can be beneficial, such as for reducing competition early spring for frost seeded legumes. We will consider it dormant at this point.
How Much to Give Your Livestock
If you are new to stockpiling, there are a few things to think about. It is usually best when first entering a field to give your livestock at least two or three days’ worth of forage. You should start the grazing process on the end of the field with the water. You might be able to use a portable watering system for a while moving it along with the livestock, but that type of system gets challenging to keep from freezing. Back fencing is not nearly as important once the forages go dormant, so there is nothing really wrong with just utilizing water on one end of the field, as long as the walking distance and the time frame on the field doesn’t create too much trailing.
The allocation that you gave the livestock can now be grazed down to the desired residual height, ideally still 3 to 4 inches for most fescues and orchardgrass. Once the plants are at that desired stop grazing height, it is time to allocate more. To get the highest efficiency, daily allocations are best, but you can increase the amount as needed, especially if you are going to be gone a day or so.
Fencing
These allocations are easy to do with temporary fence, especially if you are not back fencing. If you are back fencing, you need three sets which would include a reel, poly-wire, and enough step-in posts to complete a run across the field. If you are not back fencing, then two sets are best, but you can make it with just one. With two sets, you can have one in place, and move the second with less concern of the livestock moving faster than you do. If back fencing, the third fence is the back fence. Once the livestock are moved into the new allocation, the old back fence can be moved ahead of time for the next allocation. This is especially nice if you are fighting daylight or timing of that next move.
I prefer to keep things easy and also where I’m less likely to accidently shock myself. Solid plastic handles on the end of the poly-wire means you can hang it on a hot or non-energized wire and it won’t be “hot” until you make it hot. You then make it hot using jumper leads which look like little miniature jumper cables. It also helps to have a set of these per run also. While I’m still on the topic, I recommend buying quality poly-wire! The best poly-wire has eight or more strands of stainless steel strands in it. I’m not a fan of poly-tape, which is very similar, but usually ribbon-like and about a half inch wide. The tape is harder to keep taunt and nearly impossible with ice or snow on it.
Strip grazing of stockpiled forage can be done on any size of field, but longer, more narrow fields are certainly the easiest to work with. When you are laying out new permanent fence divisions, consider this if you plan to do any stockpiling. My wife thinks that any run over 300 feet is too much when she has to fill in for me…so we have gone with more longer, narrower fields, and I have to admit I find it kind of nice too.
A step-in post with a smaller, yet strong steel tip and a foot peg for easy installation works the best for the frozen soil conditions that are ahead. When grazing heavier stockpile, you will find that the ground does not freeze much unless we get extended sub-zero temperatures creating a nice insulation blanket. Keep your choice of reels reasonably cheap at least to start with if you are going to be doing short runs. Longer runs make it easier to justify more expensive ones because of the gearing.
Good quality stockpile is usually tall fescue. Nothing stockpiles as well and holds its nutritional value longer through the winter as tall fescue. If you have stockpiled orchardgrass, use it first. Orchardgrass starts falling apart fairly quickly and has little value as winter progresses. Quality stockpiled tall fescue quite often has better feed values than a lot of hay that is fed at the same time. (We’ll talk more about this next week!)
Unless you are still grazing fall-planted winter annuals with corn stalks, a lot of the value of corn stalks has been depleted by now and continuing to graze them will mean supplementation will probably be required. Sorghum-sudangrass has been frozen and dried off two or three weeks by now and could provide some grazing opportunities if still present. If you have ample stockpile of corn residues and annuals to continue grazing until the end of the year then you are already more efficient than most livestock producers; good job.
Keep warm and keep on grazing!
Victor,
Thanks for the practical advice, on an number of fronts here.
I think geared reels are worth the money, even for beginners. Time and daylight are limiting esp this time of year; and I can walk so much faster with a geared reel, which allows me to ‘beat’ the cows to the edge much easier.
Quality step-in posts worth the money. The tabs on them last longer when the wire is pulling into the thickest part of the post, instead of away from it whenever the wire isn’t perfectly straight. Our SE US drought so bad this year, that the couple of posts we had with thicker metal spikes were worthless in clay soils. Thinner diameter spikes the way to go, esp. if soils dry or freeze. Online sellers of these post are oft users, and advise well on what lasts.
As for avoiding shocks, I wear a pair of neoprene coated gloves and insulated soles, so when I touch the wire inadvertently, or have to fix something, I feel it much less. There’s a huge difference among different brands and styles of boots.
We keep an eye on the weather and give the cattle more when rainy/windy in 30s or bitter cold, less on balmy days in the 50s.
Looking forward to your next installment, on fescue over hay. Our cows much prefer frozen fescue over the best local hay I can offer. Post-digestive feedback informs their choice.