Page 9 - MWC 10-21-2021s

Continue to “Stage” Pasture into Fall The Midwest Cattleman · October 21, 2021 · P9

By Victor Shelton, NRCS State Agronomist/Grazing Specialist
My wife has been splitting Staging now has more to do What should
open persimmon seeds. For with allocating out grazable you be grazing
those who don’t know what forage/fodder that is present, right now? If you
this is supposed to mean – it allowing as much time as pos- still need to stock-
is an old wives’ tale method of sible for plants to continue to pile forage or rest
predicting the upcoming win- grow to get maximum yield to pasture, then an-
ter weather. For clarity, I’m graze later, and knowing when nuals or crop res-
not saying my wife is old, but to graze what in order to max- idue can certainly
she does like to read persim- imize all of it and graze longer work. Corn stock
mon seeds! Traditionally, you while meeting livestock nutri-
split the persimmon seed open tional needs. continued on page 11
to reveal the whitish sprout
inside. It may require a bit of
imagination, but they are sup-
posed to resemble a spoon, a
fork or a knife. The spoon is Missouri Hereford Association
said to predict lots of heavy,
wet snow. A fork means you
should expect a mild winter.
A knife indicates an icy, windy Opportunity Sale
and bitter cold winter. Sur-
prisingly or luckily, it is often
correct. She split open sever-
al seeds this year – all were Sunday, December 5, 2021 • Sedalia, MO • Noon
spoons.
Now, I would not bank on
that information, but it is a Offering 70 Lots
reminder that we need to be Bred Heifers • Show Heifers • Fall Pairs • Open Yearling Heifers • Spring Pair Splits • Herd Bulls
prepared ahead of time for
whatever the weather decides
to throw at us. Breed Leading Sires Represented plus many others
Each year is a little differ- Churchill Red Bull 200Z • Churchill Kickstart 501C • Chez Dante 652D • R Excitement 4356
ent, so strategy and planning NJW 79Z Z311 Endure 173D ET • /S Mandate 66589 ET • R Leader 6954 • TH Frontier 174E
must be adjusted as needed HUTH FTF Torque C002 • MSU TCF Revolution 4R • C&L RR KJ 364C Jalapeno 973E
as the season progresses. It is
also important to have a game
plan on how to deal with un- Fall Opens Spring Breds
planned circumstances.
I like to try and think ahead
of the next livestock move –
often calling it staging. Early
in the season, the term stag-
ing is easier to understand.
It is the planned and predict-
ed, yet adjustable, allocations
for a set time frame. During
spring growth, you want to
keep forage as vegetative as
possible to provide quality
feed for grazing animals and
to maintain that solar panel in
order to increase forage yield
as much as possible with ade-
quate rest. A lot of that is tim-
ing of when to go back to the
first paddock and start over.
It requires a watchful eye to
know when to do that too.
By late summer, and into
early fall, the growing days
for forages start getting num- Hosted by: Missouri Hereford Association • For more information, please contact
bered. The impact of this is in- Matt Reynolds -- Secretary/Treasurer -- Huntsville, MO -- 660.676.3788 -- reynoldscattle@cvalley.net
tensified around Sept. 22 when
fall equinox kicks in – daylight
is now less than 12 hours per www.moherefords.org
day. This slight change in day-
light does slow forage growth.