As summer starts to wind down, we begin to think of options for fall grazing. During a dry year such as this, it’s important to have a backup plan as grass begins to run low. A simpler option is to water in chaff rows after cereal grain harvest if water is available. Another option is to graze your last cutting of hay instead of cutting and baling it. Or if you are concerned about the risk of bloat, you can still cut and rake your last cutting and then have cattle graze the windrows. You can use portable fencing to only allow them to graze one row at a time to lessen the hay loss to trampling.
Another option is to incorporate cover crops into fields following grain harvest. Choosing a winter annual such as triticale, wheat or oats should give you good grazing through the fall if you get it in and watered before it turns too cold. Other species you can include in your mix are turnips, radishes and peas, which will also grow well during the fall.
One way to increase the production on a fall-grazed pasture is to manage your grazing using rotation, strip or paddock grazing. Calves should only be allowed in one area for up to three days. After three days, they will start to graze the areas previously grazed and will cause more selective grazing, decreasing the overall usage of the pasture.
It’s also important to consider who you are feeding in the fall. If you choose to graze your fall stocker calves in paddocks for three days, they should be able to use 55% to 60% of the forage available. (Shorter grazing lengths will allow for better utilization.) When calculating how large to make your paddocks, you need to know how much forage is there. The easiest way to do this is to consider what the field would produce if hayed.
Next, you need to calculate how much forage your calves will need to eat. Calculate grazing on 3% of the calf’s bodyweight. For 100 head of 600-pound calves, this would be 1,800 pounds of forage for one day. So when you consider the forage utilization of 55% to 60%, you would need a paddock for 100 head for three days to be roughly 5 acres in size.
Using cover crops, annual cereals and quick rotations are just a few options to increase your grazing days during the fall season.
