Three options or combinations of options that might ease the forage shortage for producers include confinement feeding, utilizing irrigated perennial forages for grazing rather than hay and planting annual forages.

Each producer has a little different system, including available resources, and will have to think through how these options might work together to allow burned native range much needed recovery time. However, regardless of how each producer puts the options to work, several things need to be considered.

Option 1: Confinement

Confinement feeding pairs does not have to occur in a feedlot. Alternative locations for confinement feeding pairs can be a pivot corner, fallow ground or as a last resort, a sacrifice area such as a calving lot. There are several things producers need to keep in mind if pairs have to be maintained in confinement; here are a few:

1) Feedbunks are not necessary to feed pairs in confinement. A hot fence can be strung along the edge of a pivot corner or fallow field, and feed can be delivered just across the wire, reducing the amount of feed the cattle waste by soiling or lying on the feed. It is important to have adequate feeding space (2 feet per cow and 1 ½ feet for the calf), especially if the pairs are limit fed an energy-dense diet. Pairs should have 350 to 400 square feet of pen space as well.

2) Lactating pairs with calves require a diet much higher in total digestible nutrients (TDN) than gestating cows. For example, a 1,200-pound cow in late gestation requires 9 to 11 pounds of TDN per day, whereas her lactating counterpart requires 15 to 16 pounds of TDN per day (60 to 80 days postpartum). A nursing calf begins consuming 1 percent of its body weight in forage before it is 3 months old and will need to be accounted for as well. For more information on supplementation needs, click here (PDF, 976KB).

3) Additional considerations would include access to water. This is especially true for young calves. Nursing calves need water not only for hydration, but also for rumen development. If pairs are moved somewhere calves are not normally housed, make sure they can reach the water source. Additional information on confinement feeding cows can be found here (PDF, 666KB).

Option 2: Perennial pastures

Utilizing perennial pastures for grazing rather than haying is a valuable tool if another hay source can be located and purchased for later use. Once calves are weaned, a mixture of poor quality hay or crop residue could be mixed with an energy-dense by-product to maintain gestating cows easily, freeing up the traditional hay source for emergency grazing. The irrigated perennial forage will likely support more pairs than the burned native range would have, eliminating the need to replace each acre lost.

The efficiency of grazing irrigated pasture can be improved by dividing the pivot into five to six paddocks and allowing 28 to 35 days of deferment for each grazed paddock. Irrigated forages can be lush when first available for grazing. Producers never want to turn hungry cattle out on a lush pasture. Introducing cattle to a high magnesium mineral and an ionophore or bloat guard before turning them out on the pasture can help prevent grass tetany and bloat. To learn more about growing perennial forages, click here (PDF, 688KB).

Option 3: Annual forages

Annual forages can be planted either on irrigated or dryland acres to stretch range resources. Planting cool-season annuals in early spring, warm-season annuals in May or June, and cool-season annuals again in late summer or early fall can make a forage chain to supply forage most of the growing season. For more information on planting dates, seeding rates and initiating grazing on annual forages, click here (PDF, 1MB), or contact the local extension office.

Nitrates and prussic acid are typically not an issue when irrigation is available but can be more of a concern when forages are planted on dryland acres. As with planted perennial forages, efficiency can be improved by dividing up the annual forages into paddocks to be rotationally grazed. Sometimes, annual forages can grow more rapidly than the cattle can use them, resulting in a lot of trampling and wastage. This may be a time to move the cattle, swath the forage down and return the cattle to windrow graze at a later date. For more information on windrow grazing, click here (PDF, 623KB).

Natural disasters are sure to strike, but confinement feeding, utilizing hay ground for grazing and planting annual forages are good ways to allow native range to recover without liquidating large numbers of the cow herd.  

• Karla Jenkins

• University of Nebraska – Lincoln
• Panhandle Research and Extension
• Email Karla Jenkins

PHOTO: Several wildfires earlier this spring led many producers to seek grazing alternatives. This photo was taken after a wildfire blazed through Woods County, Oklahoma. Photo provided by Greg Highfill.