Spring Cattle Builder: High-Protein Forage for Early Grazing

0:04 So this is our spring cattle builder test plot area. So we have two strips here planted at two different seeding rates. We're kind of just looking at doing some trials there. But the spring cattle builder as the name implies, we're looking for a mix that you can plant in the spring and produce.

0:18 forage for cattle. It's as simple as that. So this is a four-way mix. We've got oats, beardless spring barley, impact forage collards, and some spring peas. So four species, three plant families. So we've got diversity, but the focus is forage value. So there's nothing in here that

0:39 Has any unpalatability.

0:44 Excellent feed. This is right at 60 days, these were planted April 15th. It's now mid-June. So you could have turned out probably 2 weeks ago. You could turn out today. And this is high-quality spring forage.

0:57 Yeah. When you look at this, you know, it's not as tall as say like some spring triticale that maybe you're chopping for silage or something. But when you look down in here, the collards are doing incredible and they're probably about 10 inches tall. And I would.

1:15 We're going to take some clippings and we'll find out. I would guess this is going to be pretty high protein. Probably, I'd be surprised if it wasn't 16 to 20% protein. Because I know those collards are high in protein. The oats and the barley aren't bad and the peas are going to be higher. So this is just going to be

1:33 Incredible. It would almost be a waste to just put some dry cows on it or something. But like putting weight on feeder calves or something like that. And with as valuable as they are, that can be money in the bank right here. So super high-quality forage if you're doing grass-finished animals, putting weight on feeders. This is really.

1:52 Something to consider. Especially if you had this, you could graze this, you know, two three times with proper grazing management and a little rainfall. And then you can come right into a spring cattle builder as well. And then just really have that forage chain set up for the whole year. So these are the types of things if you're

2:29 Stuff. A lot of times you want to think about your forage sources kind of in succession. So, you know, if you're a producer that has a lot of warm season grass pastures like perennial pastures, well, that's not going to be ready to graze until probably, you know, even another couple weeks depending on where.

2:44 You're at in the country. But so if you're looking for something early, now granted, you know, middle of June is not super early. But this mix could have been planted a month sooner. All right. So these things have frost tolerance, they have cold tolerance. So you can plant this on the first day that you have the

2:58 Right conditions to plant this mix in the spring. You probably can go plant this mix and it's probably going to work out just fine. Not every time if you have a really hard freeze, but early March, I'd be comfortable planting this in Nebraska. And so if your perennials aren't ready till late May or June, but you're like, hey, what can I be grazing,

3:13 You know, tail end of April, first of May and I don't have anything planted from last fall? This is what you should be looking at.

3:20 Yeah, planning the forages out ahead of time, knowing what you're going to, having different options. This is a great tool in the arsenal to feed your livestock.