SOUTHWEST GRAZING NOTES
Volume 2 Number 1 January-February 2005
Michael G. Altizer—Grazing
Systems Specialist
As a grass farmer
do you want to?
1. Increase livestock numbers?
2. Lower fertilizer costs?
3. Lower labor costs per animal unit?
4. Make animals easier to handle?
5. Improve water quality?
6. Make more money from your livestock
operation?
Then you should
look at what controlled grazing can do for your operation. Read on how one
Middle Fork grazier made a system work. I know I’m preaching to the choir but I
also know most systems can be improved.
EDDIE and his COWS
A quick coupler is a fitting
that can be placed in a waterline and tapped into to place a temporary watering
trough. If placed in the right location, these can significantly help grazing
distribution in a grazing system.
The water line
parallels the lane, which bisects the main 60 acres of the farm. Permanent high
tensile fence was installed in front holding lots, the cattle lane and two lots
in the back, which can be used as shade lots. All division fences on about 60
acres is temporary poly wire which gives Eddie the management alternatives to
give his herd forages as required. Using poly wire also provides 25-30 acre
unfenced fields that can be hayed as needed with no obstructions.
I developed the grazing plan and
thought that Eddie should keep his 25 cows and run a load of yearlings that
could leave the farm by August 1st so stockpiling could begin for
winter. Eddie decided to stay with all cows and early thought the farm would
support 50-60 cows.
This last November when I was on
Eddie’s farm for the first time in 2-3 years I was pleasantly surprised at how
the operation had progressed. Eddie had gotten up to 45 cows, but with feed
supplies on hand (some 2 years old), knows he can carry over 50 cows. He was
still grazing paddocks in November and had 30-60 days grazing left. Eddie has
not been using any nitrogen for stockpiling but uses whatever nitrogen the
clover will produce for growing fall stockpile. I asked Eddie how much
fertilizer he had used over the years and he couldn’t remember using any. He
had his supplier check his records and found that 6 tons of
Eddie
makes hay on paddocks not needed for early season grazing. Hay is stored in the
paddock using poly wire and is then unrolled on that paddock in the winter.
Organic matter was sampled in 2004 and found to be 5.1%. Many of our old
cultivated fields and continuously grazed pastures have organic matter contents
between 2-3%. That’s why ground is hard and has low water holding capacity.
Organic matter is just like a sponge.
One of Eddie’s first projects after
getting the grazing system up and running was to build cattle working
facilities. All paddocks are located on the lane and the lane terminates at the
working pens so cattle can be trailed in at any time with no hassle to man or
beast. Working facilities were designed as a one-man operation.
During the 9-10 month grazing season
Eddie rotates cows every 3-4 days. This rotation is continued, to a lesser
degree’ in wintertime as hay is fed on paddocks that the hay was produced on.
In January Eddie was unrolling some two-year hay that didn’t have much quality
but Eddie was thinking about how much organic matter was going back on the land
with the un-eaten hay and manure that was being deposited. Dry cows looked good
on this winter-feed. Eddie doesn’t calve until April and calves are sold in
late fall. Steer calves sold in December weighed 567pounds.
I think that Eddie may be taking too
much fescue out of his pasture mixture in 1997-1998 his pasture was 100%
fescue. By using rotational grazing Eddie has been able to manage what his cows
eat. Eddie says that he doesn’t like clumps of grass in his pastures so he’s
letting the cows stay maybe a day longer than I would and parts of a paddock
are being grazed below 2 inches. When this happens repeatedly fescue cannot
compete and blue grass and white clover will come in those areas.
Eddie would welcome visitors He can
show you a pumped portable livestock water system. He can show some excellent
pastures that have had limited fertilization but excellent grazing management.
He can show you a simple but effective fence and lane system that gives him
ability to manage a cowherd with minimum labor.
The only part of this equation not
addressed is profit and you’ll have to ask Eddie that question when you visit.
Eddie has a web site. Its address is http://home.ntelos.net\~ecopenhaver
Grazing In
Some Facts and Many of My “Bias’s”
Poor water distribution and poorly
designed or non-existent fencing systems does not give managers the ability to
make livestock use forages as they grow. Cost share funds have become available
the last 10 years to develop grazing systems. These funds are Federal and State
and are administered by NRCS and your local Soil and Water Conservation
district. Fencing streams, ponds and sinkholes, and developing a controlled
grazing system improves grass cover and decreases water run off and there by improves
the water quality of our streams.
Controlled grazing (Rotational, MiG,
Prescribed) is a system of putting a large number of livestock on a paddock for
a short period of time and then removing livestock and giving grass time to
regrow. About 95% of grass’ growth potential comes from sunlight. If we don’t
leave 2-4 inches of leaf area when we remove livestock from a grazing area
(paddock) then the grass must use its root reserves to regrow. This weakens the
plant and eventually we end up with only plants that can stand close grazing
such as bluegrass and white clover. These forages are of high quality but have
production potentials much lower than other forages. Cattle will overgraze some
areas and will under graze some slopes and these slopes will grow up in brush.
Below are some of the terms that you
will see and hear as you get into controlled grazing. This is by no means a
complete list but, is a few terms that will help you get started.
o Cell----A grouping if paddocks that are used
for one set of livestock. Most farms will have only one cell, however some
farms may have a series of cells. A purebred operation that has cows calving
different seasons, yearling bulls, yearling heifers, and herd bulls may need
four or more cells.
o Paddock-- A subdivision of a pasture
(subdivision of a cell). A paddock can be permanent with a 1-2 wire electric or
temporary using polywire to adjust paddock size.
o Grazier-- A human who manages grazing
animals.
o Grazer-- An animal that gathers its food by
grazing.
o Residual-- Forage that remains after a
grazing. Generally the higher the grass residual, the higher the animal’s rate
of gain.
o Stocking rate – A measurement of the
long-term carrying capacity of a pasture (cell).
o Stock Density—The number of animals on a
given unit of land at any given time. Example; 100 steers may be the long term
stocking rate of a cell but stock density would be the grazing of the 100
steers on one acre for one day.
o Stockpiling—The deferment of pasture for use
at a later time. Example; setting aside fescue pasture in early August and
applying nitrogen and letting the pasture stockpile for grazing in November or
later.
Summary of
Kit Pharo’s “From Production to Profit in Ranching”
Words in Bold
are from his presentation at the Virginia Forage & Grasslands Council
meeting in
Recently I’ve
heard a lot of people use the catch phrase “sustainable agriculture”. I’m not
sure I know exactly what that means, but I do know that it must begin with a
profit because agriculture that is not profitable is not sustainable. To be
profitable in the cow/calf business has never been easy. It’s been estimated
that only 10-15% of cow/calf producers make a profit every year. Most ranchers
are only profitable half the time. In agriculture we have very little control
over the markets and the prices we receive for our products. The only two
things we do have much control over are our production and our expenses. I’ve
noticed that successful people focus their time and energy on the things they
can control, rather than on the things they cannot control. Most farmers and
ranchers try to increase their profits by increasing their production, but we
can increase our profits just as easily by reducing and controlling our
expenses—maybe easier. What happens when we increase our production? Almost
every increase in production comes with a cost. It is never free. You can’t get
something for nothing. When we increase our weaning weights, for example, we
will almost always increase our expenses as well. Often a production increase
will have a negative effect on our net profit.
Kit Pharo gives us three principles to increase
profit by reducing feed expenses and matching our available forage resources.
1. Require our cattle to live within their means. They must
survive on what our ranch produces with minimum, or no, inputs.
2. Produce or buy cattle that fit our environment. If we
continue to use the wrong type of bulls, we will never produce the right type
of cows.
3. Cull and sell all
animals that do not fit our environment. We will never make any improvement if
we don’t get rid of the cows that require more than our ranch can produce.
Not all cows
are created equal. Some cows are much more efficient and much more profitable
than others. So, how do we identify our most efficient cows? What we really
need to do is identify our least efficient cows and get rid of them. Let me
tell you what we have done for the past fifteen years. We didn’t do it all at
once, but over the years we made a conscious effort to gradually reduce our
feed and feed expenses. This caused our hardkeeping, less efficient cow to come
up open or late-bred in the fall. These are the cows that do not fit my
environment. They require more than my ranch produces and they must be sold!
Which is
better, a 90% pregnancy rate or a 98% pregnancy rate? That’s a trick question.
It depends on what it costs to achieve a 98% pregnancy rate. In our herd, if we
get over 90% we figure that we either understocked our grass or overfed our
cows. In order to make some real genetic improvement some cows need to fall out
of that program. We like to force at least 10% out each year. The pregnancy
exam is the final test that our cows must pass. If every cow passed the
pregnancy test, what can we assume? The test wasn’t tough enough—some cows must
fail. According
to Pharo, you cannot get to 98% pregnancy rate with extra expenses. Most ranchers make the mistake of feeding
their entire herd enough to keep their poorest doing cows in production. They
don’t want any of their cows to fail the test. I cannot afford to keep and feed
cows that are not profitable. I want a cow that can support the ranch, instead
of being supported by the ranch! If I have to feed much hay or supplemental
feed to a cow, then the ranch is actually supporting that cow? The cows are
literally eating the ranch or farms profit! Who is working for who? That cow
needs to be working for me. I’d like you to consider two questions. Is your
ranch as profitable as you would like it to be? If not, are you making the most
efficient use of the available forage resources on you ranch?
His final words of wisdom were: “Love you wife, forgive you children, do
neither for you cows.”
You can get more information on Kit Pharo
and his operation @ www.pharocattle.com
Frost Seeding
February
and early March is the time to frost seed clovers in your pastures. I’m hearing
that nitrogen price is advancing fast so clovers that can fix nitrogen will be
of critical importance, as petroleum prices stay high. We need pH’s over 6.0
and adequate phosphate and potash levels. Soil tests are critical and free. See
your
Winter
pastures have to be grazed short before clover seed will get to the ground but
more importantly too much duff on the ground prevents seedlings from getting
established. I’ve been in several pastures this winter that will not get grazed
down so there will be no reason to seed.
A
pasture sward that contains 20-40% clover will produce much higher cattle
gains, will lesson adverse effects from endophyte infected fescue and can
provide enough nitrogen in the fall to stockpile a ton or more standing winter
pasture.
Michael G. Altizer
I want to thank the
Soil & Water Conservation Districts and especially Anthony Summitt for
formatting this letter.
If
you are interested in talking about grass or planning your grazing system
please call