More from your pasture
BY BETH NESBIT
Staff Correspondent
RECTOR Livestock producers
traveling to Penn State’s South
western Field Research
Laboratory in Westmoreland
County today are learning prac
tical methods of extending the
grazing season.
Careful management of pasture
and forage allows this lab to keep
its beef cattle grazing from April
through November, according to
lab superintendent. Bill Downs.
“We keep 30 head of brood cows on
pasture,” says Downs. “Visitors
can see some of the techniques we
use to keep cattle on more forage
and less hay. And many of the
techniques will also work for
sheep.”
Over the past five years. Downs
has maintained a system of
leaving cattle on a pasture for a
period of time, then moving them
toa new section of pasture.
One technique, outlined by Penn
State Extension agronomist Sid
Bosworth, involves stockpiling
fescue and orchardgrass for
grazing in October and November.
surrounding a pasture of rape.
These cows, whose calves have just been taken from them,
will be moved to adjoining fescue pastures for the winter.
Downs checks a fescue pasture. About one-fourth of the
farm’s acreage is planted in fescue.
At Southwestern Research Lab Field Day,
farmers leant how to extend the grazing season.
In this case, the term “stock
piling” refers to taking cattle out
of a pasture in August, then fer
tilizing it and allowing it to grow
until mid-fall. At this time of year,
fescue and orchardgrass produce
large quantities of high quality
feed and do not go to head. Fields
selected for stockpiling receive
from 50 to 75 pounds of nitrogen per
acre.
The cattle are kept on or
chardgrass and clover until late
October, when they’re moved to
the fescue pasture. Provided with
supplemental baled hay, they can
be kept on fescue pasture even
after the ground is snow covered.
Two other crops being
showcased at the field day are
birdsfoot trefoil and brassicas. A
legume, birdsfoot trefoil provides
good pasture during mid-summer.
Brassicas, a family of crops that
includes turnips and rape, provide
pasture from August through
October.
Used in the Mideast for years,
rape has only recently been in
troduced in Western agriculture.
Rape can be used as a pasture
poly
’’few*
Round bales in the Soul restern Field Research Laboratory's calving pasture help to
protect young calves from harsh winds in the spring, says lab superintendent Bill
Downs.
carry-over in place of other
These brassicas are
particularly good for preparing
ewes for lambing.
To keep beef outdoors all winter,
even through calving, Downs
places round bales in the pasture,
then moves the cattle from one set
of bales to another by means of
portable electric fences. Cows are
moved into a freshening pasture in
February and remain there
until early May.
Cropland terraces combat soil erosion
LEESPORT - “For centuries
fanners have effectively used
terraces to combat soil erosion and
improve tillage practices on
sloping around,” says John Fior of
the USDA Soil Conservation
Service in Berks County.
More than 4,000 years ago the
Incas terraced their steep
hillsides, and over 2,000 years ago
rice fields were terraced in the
Phillipine Islands.
The earliest types of terraces
used in the United States were
little more than hillside ditches
with narrow ridges and deep
channels which could not be far
med and eventually became weed
and briar patches. These struc
tures were often unsatisfactory as
conservation measures because of
poor engineering, poor con
struction, and maintenance
problems. They were used mostly
in the southern states where far
mers followed continuous rotations
of com, cotton, or tobacco.
“Terraces are widely used today
in many parts of the world”, says
Fior. The vineyards of Europe, the
rice paddies of South East Asia,
and tiie wheat fields of Australia
are just a few examples. These
terraces are raised level benches
supported on one or more sides by
masonary walls or sloping banks of
turf.
“In the United States the term
terrace has become identified with
a hillside channel constructed for
the purpose of diverting surface
water runoff,” says Fior. Surface
water is intercepted by the terrace
and diverted to a safe outlet. The
slope length over which surface
water travels is shortened and soil
washing is minimized-.
Surface water may also be
stored in the terrace where it,soaks
into the ground and is available for
crop use during drought periods.
Terraces are recommended in
high rainfall areas on sloping,
highly erodable, intensively far-
Three bales at a time are fed to
the cattle, and a total of about 60
bales are fed during this period.
These bales are organized so that
cows receive higher quality hay
closer to their freshening dates.
To effectively manage cattle on
small pastured, the laboratory
utilizes a six-volt poly wire solar
fence developed in New Zealand.
The fencing, “allows for less labor
and more flexibility when the
cattle are in small pastures,”
med cropland where basic con
servation practices such as con
touring and stripcropping are not
sufficient protection against
surface water runoff and soil
erosion.
“In Pennsylvania diversion
terraces and cropland terraces are
the basic types used,” says Fior.
Diversion terraces are designed to
carry water and are seeded with a
permanent sod cover after con
struction. They should be main
tained by mowing periodically and
may be cropped for hay. These
terraces are spaced 300 to 400 feet
apart and may have deep wide
channels depending on the size of
the watershed draining into them,
the steepness of the surrounding
topography, and the nature of the
existing plant cover.
Cropland terraces are designed
to be farmed in addition to
diverting water and saving soil.
Flood projects
LANCASTER Over one Bucks and Montgomery Counties,
million dollars in damages from Greatest damage reduction was
Hurricane Gloria were prevented on the Brodhead Creek and
by flood prevention projects in five Neshaminy Creek drainage areas
small watersheds in Pennsylvania,. at $570,000 and $350,000 respec
reports a USDA economist. tively, added Kemmerle.
.The heavy rains from Gloria Four other small watershed
caused some smaller streams in flood prevention projects in
eastern Pennsylvania to exceed eastern Pennsylvania showed no
flood levels. However, streams significant runoff or flooding. They
protected with USDA Soil Con- were the Kaercher Creek water
servation Service flood prevention she d, Berks County; Mauch Chunk
dams held back runoff and reduced watershed, Carbon County; east
or eliminated flooding. branch of the Brandywine Creek,
SCS Economist Stephen Kern- Chester County; and the Little
merle noted a total damage Schuylkill River, Schuylkill
-reduction of $1,122,000 on fne County.
watersheds-the Greene-Dreher in Flood prevention projects on
Wayne Pike, and Monroe Coun- small watersheds are operated
ties; Martins Creek, Susquehanna under Fublic Law 566) the
County; Brdohcad Creek, Monroe Watershed Prot ection and Flood
County; tributaries of the p reV ention Act and administered
Lackawaxen River, Wayne b the USDA Sm , conservation
County; and the Neshaminy Creek, se rvlce
explains Downs.
Soil Conservation personnel
were also on hand at the field day
to explain the lab’s SCS-designed
water system. The system drains
several wet pastures and stores the
water in 500-gallon tanks.
For more information on ex
tending the grazing season, or for a
booklet summarizing the day’s
presentations, contact your local
Penn State Extension office.
They are useful on moderately
sloping farmland where intensive
rotations of row crops and small
grains with little or no hay crops
are necessary to make a profitable
income.
Cropland terraces have wide
shallow channels with low grades
and gentle slopes that are easily
fanned. They are generally more
shallow than diversion terraces
and spaced more closely together
so that intensive cropping can be
maintained without excessive
surface water runoff and soil
erosion.
“Cropland terraces should
always be supplemented with the
best possible conservation prac
tices to maintain soil fertility and
productivity,” says Fior. Con
servation tillage, crop residue use,
cover crops, liming and manuring,
fertilization, and other practices
are important for good soil
management.
stop damages