Past Season Drought Challenges Met By
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
ROCKSPRING (Centre Co.)
Graziers need to set aside some space
to be used as a sacrifice area during a
drought in order not to permanendy
damage pasture stands, according to
several who spoke in August during
Ag Progress Days.
According to Tom Calvert, formerly
with the Natural Resources Conserva
tion Service (NRCS) and a sheep pro
ducer from Greene County, producers
need to ensure that plants are not hurt
by overly grazing them, especially dur
ing a drought.
Calvert spoke on a panel with two
other producers and an NRCS grass
land management specialist at a gra
ziers woricshop next to the conserva
tion resources technology tent during
Ag Progress Days.
According to Duane E. Pysher,
grassland management specialist with
NRCS and moderator of the panel,
some growers believe that a plant
stores its carbohydrate energies in the
root system. That’s simply not true.
Actually, the “storage reserves are
above ground,” noted Pysher. If the
plant is too heavily grazed and is under
stress (by cold or drought), very little
energy is stored.
Overgrazing late in the season or
during drought can readily hurt stands
and impede plant growth the following
season.
During drought, producers must
maintain supplemental feed and
change stocking rates accordingly,
noted Larry Lohr, dairyman from
Somerset County. That’s where a com
bination of supplemental feed and a
total mixed ration (TMR) system can
be most helpful and provide the
flexibility needed when pasturing is
not available.
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Three producers spoke at a graziers workshop during Ag Progress Days. From left, Larry Lohr,
Tom Calvert, and Woody Zook.
During the season, producers were
hit hard all over the state by the fourth
drought in seven years. The state dec
lared a drought watch in several coun
ties, particularly those in the southeast
ern part of Pennsylvania.
Woody Zook, beef producer from
Chester County, used his experience
from droughts in the late 1980 s. He
learned to maintain a sacrifice area and
feed supplemental hay for a two-week
period of time.
This year, like the droughts of the
late 1980 s, graziers were challenged
with coming up with alternative ways
to provide feed for cattle.
Lohr has been involved with inten
sive grazing systems on his farm for 12
years. He said he was reluctant to try
out grazing on his farm, and went in
with the expectation, he noted, that it
wouldn’t work.
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Foraging Around, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 1, 1997—Page
At the time he was managing 40
cows. Where he expected the transition
from conventional dairying to grass
based to take six months or more, he
found it could be done readily with
in six weeks. Now, Lohr milks 90-100
cows (with replacements, about a total
of 150-200 head) on paddock sizes
ranging from 1.1 to 1.5 acres. Overall,
Lohr maintains 350-400 acres of land,
including rented acreage.
Since the transition, he has saved
money by grazing cows and seen
health improvements for the herd.
Lohr sees “a lot better situation with
the feet and leg health ... so many
advantages to it you can’t even count
them all.”
One challenge he faced was coming
up with enough water for his cattle. He
advised producers to select a large
enough line with a big enough flow to
Graziers
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the paddocks.
Tom Calvert, a sheep producer from
Greene County, said he has been “with
sheep forever bom there, married
there, lived on wife’s home farm.
Sheep have been my life.”
Covert maintains 65-120 ewes on
13 primary acres of intensively grazed
pasture. Grazing has allowed him to
lamb on pasture, benefitting health of
the sheep overall.
Woody Zook, another panel mem
ber and a Chester County freezer beef
producer, said that in 1980 he pur
chased the family farm and wanted to
find some way to farm part-time. Zook
began with an intensive grazing prog
ram that he has continued to this day.
Now he maintains 32 acres in perma
nent pasture. He cares for 30 brood
cows and 30 calves. Seven of the 32
acres are in some form of warm season
grass.
Zook said, “we manage the grasses
the cattle do the grazing.” The only
equipment Zook uses are a tractor,
mower, and a grain elevator.
Much of Zook’s business involves
direct marketing of the freezer beef.
“1 have not found any drawbacks to
intensive grazing at all,” Zook said.
“It’s a management tool, and we’re
still going through the learning curve.”
Lohr, dairyman from Somerset
County, uses a lot of different varieties
and species on the pastures. The pas
tures are made up of 60 percent
legumes and 40 percent grasses.
Zook uses different clovers and a
bird’s-foot trefoil/fescue combination.
He also uses a clover variety called
Southern Cross, a New Zealand red
type clover.
Lohr noted it is important to try var
ieties on small plots to see how they’ll
work on the farm. ‘Try experiments on
your own farm and see what works for
you, because it doesn’t work' every
where,” he said.
Zook said that any grazing system
has to have flexibility in it. "You often
don’t know what plants will do and
how fast they’ll rebud,” he said, so it’s
important to build a plan for times of
drought.
Also, Zook noted that he clips a lot
of his chicdry pastures. He clips a
seven-acre field twice a year.
Calvert, sheep producer from
Greene County, clips when he can get a
chance to take care of weedy areas and
for reseeding.
199