If you’re a row crop farmer thinking about adding livestock or increasing your grazing numbers, you’re not alone. You might be wondering how to implement an effective grazing strategy on your farm and a year-round grazing operation is more achievable than you might think. By following a seasonal protocol, you can set both your livestock and your land up for success.
The Big Picture
You will want to start grazing as soon as possible this spring to cut down on hay costs and improve animal performance. Ideally this means grazing some cereal rye or winter triticale that you planted last fall. If you didn’t get anything planted last fall, then the next best thing will be to plant a mix of cool season spring annuals as soon as possible. Ideally plant a mix that is 70% grass, 20% legume and 10% other broadleaves. Plan on giving the mix around 6 weeks to establish depending on the weather you have. If you have perennial pasture, this cool season mix can be utilized in the late spring and early summer to supplement your perennial forages.
Next you’ll want to plant a warm season mix. This is where you can add lots of diversity from different plant families. Try to incorporate at least 5 different plant families into your mix for optimal soil health benefits. You can graze this mix through the summer or grow it as stockpile forage to be utilized in the winter. Once the hot summer months are wrapped up it’s time for another round of cool seasons. If you’d like to have grazing into the winter and following spring choose a cover crop that will withstand your winters.
Where to start this spring
Spring oats are known as one of the fastest growing crops and are known to be excellent mycorrhizal hosts. Oats also provide great yield potential in terms of tonnage. As nitrogen fixers, spring peas increase the level of nitrogen in the soil while also accumulating high levels of it within the plant. This makes them a protein-rich feed option for cattle and other livestock. Barley, though not the highest yielding spring crop, offers extremely high quality forage. Barley is also very tolerant of high pH or salty soils, making it a good option for growers with those conditions. Oats, paired with the nutritional quality of the peas and barley, makes for an excellent trio.
Adding Diversity
Spring triticale is another excellent grass option. Triticale is highly palatable and produces huge amounts of biomass. Other cool seasons like crimson and berseem clovers, brassicas, and broadleaves can help add diversity to a spring mix. Forage collards and turnips pack a punch when it comes to palatability and phacelia will attract beneficial insects. Add a small amount of flax into your mix as a mycorrhizal host, forage for pollinators and an additional plant family.
Spring Grazing Tips – Keep Livestock Moving
Rotational grazing (or Adaptive Management Grazing, intensive grazing, whatever you may call it) is simply the best way to implement grazing on any piece of ground not only to maximize forage efficiency, but also to have the most positive impact on the land. No matter what form of rotational grazing you use, strategically moving the livestock across the land to mimic natural grazing cycles (a grazing event followed by a much longer period of rest) is the best way to regenerate an ecosystem with livestock.
If your livestock are calving, lambing, or even kidding this time of year, rotational grazing will help improve herd health by breaking up the parasite cycle. This is especially important with baby animals in the picture as their immune systems are still developing and growing strong. When you rotate the animals through a pasture, and give areas sufficient rest, parasites from manure are broken down by the biology in the system, helping to reduce the impact on the animals.
The key to successful rotational grazing is the recovery period. In the spring, when the temperatures are warming up (not hot yet) and many regions receive sufficient rainfall, the plants grow readily and abundantly. Pastures usually require less rest during this time.
If you are moving the livestock you inevitably need to move their water and mineral sources. During a wet spring, things can get pretty muddy around these two high traffic areas. To reduce the impact to the land, try moving these sources around and try to choose the drier spots in the pasture for the livestock to congregate.
Decisions To Make In Heavy Rains
If you know you’re going to receive heavy rain in the near future, consider moving your livestock to a different location or a sacrifice area. Livestock, especially cattle, can really do some damage to a perennial pasture or an annual cover crop after lots of rain. In the case of an annual cover crop it may be ok to allow them to tear up a small section of the area if you can get back to it and smooth it out later in the year. In the case of a perennial pasture, it’s usually worth the effort to get them off the ground while things dry up so as to not damage the perennial stand.
If you don’t have the option to relocate your livestock you may consider moving them more frequently when the ground is wet. A faster, lower impact graze will help minimize the damage that hoof traffic can cause and additional residue left covering the ground creates a barrier between the animal and the soil. Once things dry up you can return to that area to graze the left over residue and the new regrowth.
Livestock integration is one of the 6 principles of soil health and provides immense benefits for the land and the ecosystem when managed properly. On the other hand mismanagement can cause lots of damage to the land and have long term impacts on the health of the ecosystems surrounding it. Utilize these tips to make the most of your spring grazing season and continue improving your soil for the years to come.
