Winter
Winter
Providing Water for Beef in Rotational Grazing Systems with Tire Waterers
Despite its importance, water is often the most poorly addressed component of animal nutrition on the farm. It is essential that livestock have easy access to plentiful, clean water within every paddock of a rotational grazing system to realize maximum efficiency and production.
Winter Tips and Reminders
The winter is a time of adaptation for farmers in Kentucky. We have to change the way we manage our livestock in order to sustain the animals as well as preserve our pastures for the coming spring. As forage becomes less available throughout the months of December, January, and February, supplemental feed is the main alternative for most farmers.
When to Start Feeding Hay
When should I start feeding hay to my beef cows? This seems like a simple question with a simple answer. However, as with many questions, there often is not a single perfect answer. Being an academic, I have to justify my existence by taking a simple question and making it complex, right?
Maximizing Success with Frost Seedings of Clover
Literally thousands of acres of Kentucky pasture and hay fields are overseeded with clover, much of it frost‐seeded in late winter. Yet this is one of the few times where crops are seeded where we halfway expect not to get a stand, or we are not sure if the clover that comes is really from the seed spread.
Late Winter and Early Spring Reminders
Refine plans for pasture use for the upcoming grazing season; consider fencing, seeding, fertilization, herbicide applications, water and shade availability. Frost seeding of clovers should be performed between February 1 and March 1.
Minimizing Hay Waste while Feeding
If hay is stored and fed properly, hay loss can be minimized. Total losses from hay storage and feeding are estimated to exceed $3 billion annually nationwide. This does not include additional economic losses associated with labor used to store and feed hay.
Grazing Methods: Which One Is for You?
The flexibility of a grazing enterprise is what makes it appealing to many different managerial approaches. From the part-time farmer who has a few head of stocker calves during the growing season to keep the grass short, to the full-time producer who has a large cow-calf herd maintained year-in and year-out, grazing is often the preferred way to harvest forage.
Why Use a Solar-Powered Watering System
First, using solar power for pumping water from springs, shallow wells, ponds or creeks to watering troughs results in environmental and conservation benefits. These include reduced erosion, less pond and creek bank damage, and cleaner water by reducing contamination from animal waste.
Winter Watering of Livestock
As daily temperatures start to decline, most producers begin to focus on delivering stored forages to their livestock. Often, at this time the thought of an animal’s water needs are discounted. However, even in colder temperatures, water requirements of livestock are critical to maintain optimum animal performance.
Forage of the Month: Brassicas
Brassicas (including turnips, rape, kale, and swedes) are highly productive, digestible forbs that contain relatively high levels of crude protein. Animals will readily consume the tops and will also grub the root bulbs out of the ground. Dry matter yield depends upon soil type, fertility, time of seeding, and precipitation.
Forage of the Month: Spring Oats
When grass is in short supply during the fall and extra grazing sources are needed, spring oats can be used for grazing cattle during late fall. Oats is a high quality forage comparable to winter wheat and can be used for pasture, hay, or silage.
Grazing Small Grains
Small cereal grains, such as wheat, rye, oats, and barley, are multipurpose crops that can be used for grazing, silage, or hay production. Grazing pure stands of small grains is an effective way to extend the grazing season into the late fall and early winter, and then again in February/March for early spring grazing.
Winter Feeding to Protect Pasture
Sunny fall days make it hard to think about the approaching winter months and the less than ideal feeding conditions that come with the rain, cold and snow of Kentucky winters. Some producers can prolong the grazing season by utilizing stockpiled forages or winter annuals they planted in the fall.
Using Cover Crops for Grazing Cattle
The use of cover crops prevents soil erosion, increases soil organic matter and microbial activity, improves soil water retention, recycles nutrients and decreases soil compaction. Cover crops also provide an excellent way to extend the grazing season.
Frost Seeding
The frost seeding method allows seeds to be inter-seeded into undisturbed soils by scattering seed on top of the ground. The freezing and thawing action of the soil works the seeds into the soil where they can germinate. In Kentucky, the ideal time to frost seed is between February 10 and March 1, with mid-February preferred.
Fall and Winter Grazing
Many options exist to provide livestock with high quality forages for grazing throughout the fall and early winter months. In Kentucky, these options include utilizing perennial cool-season pasture as well as a variety of small grains and brassicas.
Tips for Stockpiling Fescue
Select the field that you are going to use for stockpiling fescue. Selecting the field or area to be allocated for stockpiling fescue in early August allows one to adjust grazing rotations or management as needed ahead of time.
Four Things to Think About Before the Grazing Season
Late winter is the time to really get the ball rolling in the right direction for a successful, upcoming grazing season. Producers need to act now to take the proper steps to set their operation up to maximize grazing this year. Below are four management areas to evaluate to start off on the right foot.
Winter Reminders
Evaluate grazing program for the past grazing season. Start planning for changes in forages or management that will be implemented in the spring or late winter. Apply phosphate, potash, and lime according to soil test recommendations.
Frost Seeding Clover: Just Do It!
Everyone is familiar with Nike’s ad campaign that encourages people to “JUST DO IT.” I am officially adopting this slogan for my 2017 Frost Seeding Campaign. Legumes are an essential part of a strong and healthy nitrogen cycle in grasslands.
