-Foraging Around, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 20,2002 222 MICHELLE KUNJAPPU Lancaster Farming Staff Art Thicke, Enchanted Meadows Farm, LaCrescent, Minnesota, believes in rest. A speaker at the Southeast Pennsylvania Grazing Con fernce in February, he pre sented his experience and success with extended rest in pasture management. Thicke manages pasture which includes 500-foot roll ing hills well suited for graz ing. A shallow silt loam with a limestone base serves as the basis for his pasture. Thicke, his wife, and nephew milk 85-90 Ayrshires. The cattle have adapted well to the hills and have proven themselves in ef ficiency and longevity, said Thicke. The family has used the managed grazing system for 17 years. The farm is comprised of 90 acres. Extended rest is key in his grazing program. “When I did that, my farm just came alive,” he said. “This system works better on my farm. That’s not to say it’s going to work on your farm,” he said, encouraging producers to decide for them selves which forages and ro tation times work best for their own farms. “You have to find what’s right for you.” Much of the farm is 15-20 fltf u Fertilizer C< u 2 His Farm ‘Came Alive’ With Extended Rest percent slopes, which lends itself to grazing. Thicke has 40 pastures and begins graz ing early for Minnesota April 15-20. At that time he gives each pasture a 20-day rest. While the springtime means a 20-day rest, by June the rest is extended to 40 days, followed by a 60-day rest in the fall. He usually gets a 220-day grazing season. The extended rest is made possible because of the type of diverse forages grown in his pastures. Thicke exa mined the best forages on his land and noticed that they needed extended rest. “I used to do eight to nine rotations and now I do four to five ro tations,” he said. The idea of rest is only rea sonable, according to Thicke. “If we were raising grasses for hay, we’d never cut it five or six times, so why would be harvest it more with cows? “I try to push the envelope on the time of rest,” he said. “The longer they’re out there, the more they deposit manure and the more they get good vegetative feed.” As the grasses decrease in cooler weather, Thicke adds feed and hay and “keeps grazing as long as possible,” he said. December is usually an ending point for the graz- G 4 The New Leader G 4 Series Spreader can spread more acres per day" with a wider range of material application rates-than any other granular applicator currently on the market. The new L3OZOG4 variable rate broadcaster allows you to I Spread lime With effective swath widths up to 60*. I Spread fertiliser with effective swath widths up to 00*. The New Leader L 202064 Is also available. For more information contact; Annville Equipment Co. 470 Palmyra-Bellegrove Road AmtvHle, PA 17003 717/867-4631 or 80Q/233-0&Z.0 Email: aeci@pacinline.com website: aniwllleeqiilpmentcompany.com Building the best since 1939. SERIES and Lime Spreaders mg season. The farm has almost two miles of lanes, made from six to eight inches of limestone, “one of the most important investments,” he said. Blue 5 5-gallon barrels and floats serve as water sources for the pastures. Benefits include a diverse offering of forages for the cows, herd comfort in the longer grasses, and less food purchased because of the in creased tonnage. The cows do not have a problem eating the longer grass, said Thicke, “But then, they’ve never been off of the farm, so they don’t know anything else,” he said. Additionally he supplements the lactating cows’ diet with 10-12 pounds of grain and the dry cows with four pounds. From the health stand point, having too-lush grass, which may be characteristic of shorter pastures, may lead to food rot, said Thicke. “It’s too good of feed,” he said. “A nutritionist wouldn’t recom mend that kind of concentra tion.” Thicke has noticed that his cows do not crave hay as they used to, and he does not have any more prob lems with bloat. Maintaining pastures with proper management is im portant to Thicke. In 1976 was the last time he fertilized a pasture and has not reseeded 20-25 years. “I figure, every time I plow my pasture I’m going back,” he said. Another benefit is the in crease of wildlife and birds on the farm with the longer grasses. Also the biological activity of the soils and grasses can be maintained even during summer heat with the bigger canopy. As for pasture health, he clips all pastures once a year, “if you want to have life in your soil you have to feed it,” he said. Waiting until the burdock and thistle are just coming into head will help in weed control. Clipping also allows all plants to have equal footing, so the shorter plants are not continually overshadowed by other faster- or taller- grow ing plants. Beside extended rest, other key elements include using bulls from his own cows and ...made to Cast Contact your nearest dealer. SOMERSET BARN EQUIPMENT Somerset, PA 814-445-5555 SOLLENBERGER SILO CEDAR CREST EQUIP. McMILLEN BROTHERS Chambersburg, PA Lebanon, PA Loysville, RA 717-264-9588 717-270-6600 717-789-3961 wintering cattle on the farm’s pastures. After he noticed that the calves from his clean-up bulls, animals from his farm, were superior to the AI calves, Thicke began to save three to four bulls a year from this best cows. In breed selection, he does not look for extremes, which has led to uniformity in his herd, but does put emphasis on a good disposition and a shallow udder, important for a grazing animal. Working up the soils is not necessarily bad for the pas ture. “Don’t be afraid of rain,” he said. If the animals are only in the area for one day and the area gets enough rest, a mud-riddled area can come back even stronger than before as the plants put down strong root systems. One example of the ani mals working up the land to the benefit of the pasture is Thicke’s wintering system. Wintering his animals out side has proven to be not only economical but also healthy for the animals. Around the end of Novem (Turn to Page 23) liberdome Incorporate* PO Box 11 • Lake Mills, Wl 53551
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