Page 24 - Oct22020

It pays to maintain
It pays to maintain The Midwest Cattleman · October 22, 2020 · P24

cover!
cover! By Victor Shelton, NRCS State Agronomist/ rare occasions, especially under livestock after removal of just the
top one third of available forage
is probably ideal under these con-
Grazing Specialist
I’ve not been on the road as tive and remain in somewhat of ideal moisture conditions and ditions instead of the traditional
with lots of forage present, you
much lately and it’s been nice a contingency plan mode. I have can occasionally remove slight- mindset of graze half and leave
half. You want to leave slightly
to watch minute, daily chang- to remind myself that the next ly more forage, but it’s generally more behind for the same rea-
es in things as the days shorten drought period could be only two best not to. Removal of too much sons we started discussing earli-
and the nights become cooler. A weeks away and to keep a game leaf area will slow photosynthe- er and if you do so, you will nor-
few spiny pigweeds in the barn plan in check to help reduce sis and regrowth, but if only done mally keep forages growing a lot
lot were one of the first things the negative impact if it occurs. on rare occasion on only single longer and be rewarded with a
to catch my eye. They first quit There are limits though. paddocks or small parts of a pas- little more production.
growing, then with each addi- What could you have done ture, it won’t be too detrimental. You may not have been short
tional cool night you could see a differently? Sometimes nothing, If there is a lot of growth present, on forages at any point and time
darkening of the leaves and more but for future ruminations here removal can be misleading due to or at least it didn’t appear that
maroon showing. They don’t like are a few options. Maintain soil a fair amount of forage being laid way, but I like to go back and con-
the cooler weather; I don’t like cover. You don’t want to see any down rather than consumed. If sider animal bite size. To start
the lack of sufficient moisture. bare ground and you want a good that happens, it may not be con- with, how does a cow eat? If she
If you have been diligent dense stand of forage and resi- sumed by the grazing livestock,
about maintaining cover and not due to keep the soil cool and re- but some of it will be consumed can, she will take her tongue
and reach out with it and wrap
overgrazing this summer — then duce evaporation. Maintain good by the microflora of the soil live-
at least you are doing everything stop grazing heights, you know, stock and that is continued on page 26
you possibly can do to conserve the live leaf and stem material never a bad thing.
moisture. I grazed a couple fields that is left behind after a graz- They need fed too.
just a bit closer than I should ing event. That is the shortest When we are in
have in advance of this dry late amount left, not the tallest. For a timeframe of de-
summer/early fall period. It was most cool-season forages, that is creasing moisture
supposed to rain! It didn’t. Fields four inches so to have the short- and especially if
with closer to six inches of resid- est be four inches, there will be at growth is slowing
ual left behind bounced back bet- least one third of the forages at down, then we need
ter. least six inches or more. to adjust that stop
It would probably be dan- Let’s think a bit more about grazing height, leav-
gerous if we could predict the that last statement. That stop ing slightly more be-
weather far enough in advance grazing height is a good average hind and not graz-
to make a better impact on pas- guide to stick to, but there are al- ing as close. Moving
tures, but we can be more proac- ways exceptions to the rules. On

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