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Foraging Around, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 24, 1998—Page
DUANE E, PYSHER
Grassland Management
Specialist
Natural Resources
Conservation Service
I just finished reviewing the list
of Pennsylvania Forage and
Grassland Council’s Outstanding
Pasture Producer Award winner
from past years. What is it that
makes a pasture producer outstand
ing?
The word “outstanding” is defined
by Webster as the “act of standing
out”. That does not mean “standing
out” as in your fields or pastures,
but is to be “conspicuous”. In my
definition, it means the grazier who
does everything right plus a little
more. It is the “little mores” that
makes that difference.
The “little mores” refer to such
things as paying attention to the
needs of the forages while effective
ly meeting the feed demands of the
grazing livestock, preventing over
grazing, keeping plant density at
optimum, maintaining fertility lev
els, keeping good records, maximiz
ing profits, extending the grazing
season, and filling in the voids.
Now what do all of these things
mean? Or how do I accomplish all of
these? you may ask.
When a grazier is as concerned
about the needs of the forage as they
are the livestock, then the system is
on the right track. It is most impor
tant that livestock perform to the
optimum and return the most ani
mal products (milk, meat, and wool)
as possible.
The forages also have their needs.
If they are consistently going to pro
duce forages that allow our livestock
to make maximum production, then
we as producers must take care of
those needs.
The needs refer to rest periods
between grazings, stubble heights
after grazing, optimum grazing
heights for turn-in, and so on. It
means that the grazier must be
going out to look at what the forages
are doing and planning the system
around those observations. These
observations are not to just monitor
where tomorrow’s forages are, but
also those for two weeks down the
road.
The prevention of overgrazing is
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critical in maintaining the persis
tence of the stand. Proper rest peri
ods need to be maintained between
grazings. These vary from species
or with the time of year. The stub
ble height left after grazing must be
high enough to ensure an adequate
reserve of energy for the regrowth of
the plant.
The rest period is important so
that the energy reserve level is able
to be replenished before grazing
occurs again.
Another consideration in over
grazing is the length of time that
livestock have access to a pasture or
paddock. This period should be
three days or less. After three days,
the plants are starting to regrow
and grazing will remove this new
growth before the energy reserves
are replenished. This reduces the
persistence of the stand and, if it
continues, will kill the stand. If you
limit the amount of land available to
grazing, you caii reduce the amount
of spot grazing that occurs when
livestock have too much forage
available.
Plant density is another factor
that needs attention, for several rea
sons. The number of plants per
square foot, or other land unit,
needs to be high so as much sunlight
as possible is intercepted and con
verted into green plant tissue or
energy. This increased forage out
put and should also provide for max
imum livestock output per acre. It
also means that there will be a good
canopy of leaves over the soil to pre
vent erosion. By not having open
area in the grass cover, weeds will
not establish easily because the for
ages are competing for and utilizing
the sunlight and nutrients that the
weeds need for growth.
If you want to asses vour pas
tures, be sure that when you are
looking at them, you are looking
straight down, Looking out over a
stand always makes it look thick.
Therefore, by looking straight down
you eliminate this illusion. If you
feel your stands are thin and you see
more bare earth than you should,
you need to consider strengthening
the stands with no-till for grasses
and perhaps frost-seeding for
legumes. There are other methods
of establishment. You need to use
whatever works for you. What is
important is that you get the stand
density increased to make better
pastures.
Maintaining or building up fertil
ity levels is key in establishing and
maintaining good productive pas
ttt&s> "TM'uslfof soil tests to bring
field conditions to proper levels is
highly recommended when you
establish pastures. Retesting every
3 to 5 years will ensure that your
levels are being maintained. Top
dressing every year is recommend
ed, especially for nitrogen if you do
not have at least 30 percent legumes
in your stands to provide the nitro
gen source.
ap 4
To extend the grazing season,
either earlier in the spring and/or
later into the fall and even winter
months, you need to consider what
forages or crop residues are avail
able at that time and plan to utilize
them. This is possible by having a
perimeter fencing system around
your whole farm which allows you to
take advantage of being able to
graze crop residues or fall-seeded
small grains. You can even fill in
those summer slump months with
other forages to graze, such as bras
sicas or annual warm season grass
es.
59