USING RESERVE HERD DAYS
IN ROTATIONAL STOCKING
R.L. Dalrymple
Agronomist And
Special Projects Coordinator
Rotational stocking (grazing) units
range from very low paddock num
bers to the very high paddock numbers
and from the very basic managed to
the very highly managed unit. In vir
tually all units the managers have
some form of management style and
guidelines. In the last issue of The
Forage Leader, I mentioned the use of
a technique “Reserve Herd Days”
which is a technique that provides
management guidelines for the graz
ing unit managers. We will discuss
that technique in more detail in this is
sue.
Many years ago, as we managed
grazing units for ourselves and con
sulted with others (often by phone or
letter), we needed a technique to judge
forage reserves (availability), forage
flow and other things. The technique
needed to be quick, easy, grazier
friendly, sufficiently accurate and
easy to determine in the field or in a
conversation over the phone. Thus,
the RHD technique evolved for us.
We have successfully used the RHD
technique to help manage forage and
livestock on the Controlled Rotational
Grazing Unit near Ardmore for many
years. Hopefully this information will
make some sense and be helpful to
other graziers, consultants and re
searchers.
Reserve Herd Days (RHD) is a
measurement in days of reserve forage
for a given herd of livestock on the
acreage in consideration. The basic
purpose is to determine the days of
forage reserve (availability) for a par
ticular herd on a particular area of for
age at a given time. The rest of this ar
ticle will illustrate some of the various
reasons and functions for RHD.
It has been said, “A person must
measure in order to manage.” RHD is
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a measurement and the readings of
that measurement are used to make
grazing and livestock management de
cisions. The readings must be used to
be useful. And, when the long-term
RHD parameters of a given unit are
known, the future readings for years to
come have more meaning.
RHD can be determined for any
unit It is much easier to tally the in
formation in a rotation ally stocked
unit than a continuously stocked unit.
It is simply easier to tally RHD from
individual smaller paddocks than on a
relatively large single paddock. RHD
is also more easily determined by the
usual manager, rather than a stranger
to the unit The manager has experi
ence on the unit as an observer and can
more easily and accurately determine
the RHD based upon that experience
of how fast the herd utilizes given
paddock forages, etc. But, anyone can
do it.
There are several methods to make
the RHD determinations: (1) visual.
(2) calculated, and (3) measured.
The grazier will commonly use the
visual method of RHD readings be
cause it is the quickest and easiest.
They can quickly observe the accur
acy of the estimate by frequent moni
toring of the unit and they can update
it immediately any day. Consultants
and researchers often use the calcu
lated or measured procedure and I of
ten use all three estimates in an effort
to counter check and be more accur
ate. It is good for the grazier to learn
all techniques to better understand the
dynamics of forage and stock relation
ships. With experience any procedure
is adequately accurate for practicing
grazier use.
Determining RHA by the visual
method is simply done by estimating
the days the held can graze on each
paddock to be used. There is no con
sideration to whether the forage is
property recovered, just what is graze
able that day. One simply asks the
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Foraging Around, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 7, 1995-Page
Date: May 10,1997
Paddock No. RHD Notes
1 i “
2 3
3 ‘/a
4 0 Just used
5 ~T~
6 2
7 5
§ IQ Could hay
Total 28.5 Excellent reserve
for now
Table 1
question. “How many days can my
livestock graze here?” Then comes an
answer. Of course, the type of grazing
is considered in that thought full
use, top-grazing, etc.
For example, let’s use an eight-pad
dock unit and make visual readings of
RHD. Do not fret about acres and
Hints On
population should be in the range of
1.2 to I.S million seeds per acre, or 28
to 34 plants/square foot. This requires
a planting rate of 96 pounds/acte (3
bushels per acre). Cut die seed rate of
oats to VA bushels if under-seeded
with a legume.
• Plant a good variety. The results
of this year’s variety demonstration
plot are enclosed along with several
yield results from Penn State Trials. It
is interesting to see how well the
varieties Armor, Hercules and Qgle
did when compared to some of the
newer varieties. Generally, pick the
highest yielding varieties available
from your seed supplier.
• Plant with fertility. The typical
fertilizer application on the pound per
acre bases for for 80 bushel yield of
oats would be DAP at ISO, urea at
135; and potash at 200. This mix
would provide 89 pounds N, 69
pounds of PjO,, and 122 pounds of
K 2 O. A complete fertilizer like this is
best for spring oats. If manure was
spread in the field for several years,
there may not be any need for addi
tional nitrogen. The fertilizer can be
placed on through the drill or bulked
on before planting. With low fertility
number of livestock for now. In this
case, the herd is there and the grazing
experience is a guide to the readings. I
usually list these readings in my pas
ture notebook or on a form. (See Table
1.)
This method is very grazier friend
(Turn to Page 22)
Growing Spring Oats
(Continued from Page 20)
levels in the field, apply the necessary
fertilizer that is needed for the de
veloping new oat plants.
• Weed control. In oats planted
alone without a legume, under-seed
ing then controlling the broadleaf
weeds such as ragweed is important
for maximum oat yields. Stinger,
Peak, MCPA, Harmony Extra, Buc
tril, Bronate, Banvel and 2,4-D arc all
labeled for spring oats. Take care dur
ing the year previous to planting oats
in a field that the amounts of trizine
herbicides arc kept to a minimum or
use a substitute herbicide with no car
ry over potential.
• Insect control. The control of
damaging insects is usually not
needed in most years in oat produc
tion. Cereal leaf beetles can be a prob
lem some years, but many common
insecticides will control them.
• Disease control. This is not usual
ly a concern to spring oat producers.
However, oat diseases are a major fac
tor in oat production and losses from
diseases can be higher in oats than in
the other small grains.
Using improved varieties with good
disease resistance has prevented the
losses from the diseases that plague
oats. Crop rotation is the other means
of controlling diseases in oats. Oats
should not be planted back into a field
for at least three years after the last oat
crop in that field to prevent losses by
diseases.
213