C4-Foraging Around, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 12, 2003
♦ President’s Corner ♦
Tim Fritz
PFGC President
The weather certainly has been a chal
lenge lately. The summer of 2002 was hot
and bone dry. The fall of 2002 was wet
and cold. Winter lasted too long and this
spring was cool, wet and that yellow thing
in the sky was absent most of the spring.
Summer has started warm and sunny but
who knows what the rest of the year will
bring.
It is very obvious to me that a diversity
of forages with flexible harvesting systems
are needed. This spring dry hay was im
possible to make, baleage and haylage
were difficult, and grdfcing required excel
lent management including improved
lanes. Irish weather required Irish forage
harvesting. I visited a farm on a pasture
walk in Maryland that for their surplus
spring growth was using the Irish system
of direct-cut silage in which the forage
(ryegrass in this case) was flail-chopped,
stacked on a pile, covered with plastic, and
the air vacuumed out.
Hopefully, this weather will not be re
peated soon but some lessons should be
learned. Don’t put all your forages in one
system. Flexibility and diversity of species
are critical to maintain a supply of high
quality forages. Last summer BMR (brown
midrib) sorghum sudangrass and forage
sorghum shone, and this spring ryegrass
did very well after a rough start.
Most people already know how to make
high quality hay and haylage. The bugs
are being worked out of balage especially
with the advent of inline wrappers. The
Irish direct-cut system is usually not
needed but is worth exploring. Grazing is
in its early stages of adoption and, with
low commodity prices, needs to incorpo
rated into mainstream agriculture for east
ern agriculture to thrive.
With good management grazing can be
a very profitable way to make milk and
meat! The stored forage systems are
needed to help manage surpluses and
shortages of forages. If you are ready to
join in the grazing game, learn from oth
ers’ mistakes and do some research before
you jump into grazing. The learning curve
is steep, but for most folks it is very enjoy
able. But don’t think you will be laying
around watching the cows (or other graz
ing livestock) do all the work for you! This
system requires management and is a skill
that may be essential for financial surviv
al. The remainder of my comments will
focus on grazing systems and in particular
as it relates to dairy. But the ideas are rele
vant for other animal species as well.
While grazing, the cows are working for
you in harvesting forages at their prime.
You are the boss sending your workers to
harvest the crop. The trick is to keep the
workers busy as much as possible in the
right field. In other words, the crop should
be at its prime most of the time and there
should be enough of crop available for the
cow to harvest. It really isn’t that hard to
do, and when you fall short you can al
ways feed a little stored feed. Isn’t that
what stored feed was invented for? Also
when you don’t have enough cow workers
to harvest the forage, bring out the ma
chines to get it harvested in a timely fash
ion. Mistakes will be made, but thankfully
pastures are very forgiving. After a few cy
cles of grazing you and your cows will
catch on.
Grazing works for one simple reason:
cows, as ruminants, are made to be on
grass. Their four stomachs are naturally
adapted to forage consumption, not heavy
amounts of grain which is often fed on
many farms. You, the boss must be like a
good shepherd and put the cows (or sheep
in the case of the shepherd) on good pas
ture. When the system is running efficient
ly, the financial benefits come from several
factors:
• Less capital overhead;
• Low cull rates/more cattle sales;
• More milk sold per farm worker; and
• Lower feed costs through premium
forage quality.
Here are the key components for mak
ing the system work: the Fence, the Lanes,
the Water System, the Crop, the Land
Base, the Cows, and the Manager.
The Fence is essential for making man
aged grazing work. Its primary purpose on
a managed system is to keep the cows out
of the Crop which has not reached its opti
mum harvest stage. Cows should not be on
paddocks longer than three days or new
shoots may be grazed off weakening the
plant and resulting in lower yields. Ideally,
a new break (additional fresh pasture)
should be given two to three times a day
for intensively managed pastures. For
most dairies, single strand fencing is all
you need. A rule of thumb for paddock
size (area where cows are grazing) is
40,000-80,000 pounds of animal per day
per acre depending on pasture density and
supplemental feeding levels.
The Lane is essential for getting the
herd to the right paddock without destroy
ing too much pasture. Heavily used lanes
should be improved to move cows to and
from paddocks during marginal weather
conditions. Improved lanes range from
simple crowning of dirt all the way to a
the
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narrow strip of concrete. But don’t spend
too much money up front until you know
where the problems will be and that you
are committed to making the system work.
Because lanes will not grow a crop, I pre
fer lanes that are narrow. Equipment lanes
£ (Grazing is very similar
to the game of chess. A
lot of moves must be
made to succeed, but
there are many ways to
succeed. 9 9
ideally should be kept separate. Fences
making up the lanes should be designed
for flexibility of cow movement and equip
ment crossing (easily dropped or moved.)
The Water System: Cows obviously
need clean fresh water to produce milk.
However, this component is a little contro
versial. Since lush grass contains about 80
percent water less water is needed for a
Tim Fritz
PFGC Pesident
grazing herd than a herd consuming drier
rations. Most recommend a pressurized
water system that relies on above ground
160-psi black plastic piping that follows
the lane system to carry water to each
paddock. Ideally, it is looped with individ
ual legs going to remote paddocks. Porta
ble tubs with hill flow valves are connected
by couplers and are moved to wherever the
herd is moved. In addition to water in
each paddock, lots of water should be
available when the herd comes in from
pasture. Cows drink most of their water at
this time. For large herds, water storage
tanks are very important.
The Crop is essential for providing high
quality forage to the cow. Some folks in
the grazing world simply recommend
planting fence posts and let the cows har
vest whatever comes. Most, however, have
figured out that you reap what you sow.
This is not to say that native pastures can
not be productive with good management.
I rarely recommend that old pastures be
plowed under for a startup operation.
Only after the full system is up and run
ning and the old pasture falls short in
some way should renovation take place. A
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