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Farm Facts: Speeding up pasture growth

April 10, 2008|DAN GRIGSON

Pastures are growing very slowly which is getting us in trouble quickly. Usually by now there is plenty of pasture for our cattle and we have stopped feeding hay. This year grass is not growing fast enough to provide cows the feed they need. Many of you don't have much good hay left so your cows are eating the grass right into the ground. This is hard on our pastures not to mention our cows who need plenty of good feed now to produce milk for their new born calves.

People are asking me, why is grass not growing? My answer is because of the damage due to last years dry weather and the extended cold weather this spring. The other question farmers have is what should I do for my pastures? I suggest that if you haven't already fertilized them that you immediately get a buggy and spread some fertilizer. I suggest that you apply 75 pounds of urea, 75 pounds of DAP, and 75 pounds of 60% potash to all of your pastures or at least half of the acres. Even those fields that have some clover in them will benefit from the nitrogen. This little bit of fertilizer will only cost you around $75, the cost of 2 round bales, and this fertilizer will produce a lot more grazing and hay than that. This fertilizer will put grass and clover growth in high gear when we get some more warm weather.

Hay field growth will be short also, so I suggest you do soil tests on them and get them ready for summer and fall growth. Without a soil test a thumb rule for grass or grass clover would be 100 pounds of DAP, 100 pounds of 60 percent potash, and 75 pounds of urea/acre. For alfalfa use 150 pounds of DAP and 200 pounds of 60 percent potash per acre. This will also be a year to do some stockpiling of grass. To do this, you put ammonia nitrate on the field in August, pull the cattle off and allow the grass to grow up, and then in November and December let the cattle graze rather than eating hay.

Also, consider using rotational grazing this year. Rotating livestock on pastures improves a grazing system and increases income. The cheapest feed on a livestock farm is the feed animals harvest for themselves. Nutrients harvested by grazing cost less than half as much as nutrients harvested and fed as stored feed like hay and haylage. Improving a grazing system increases pasture utilization and fertility as well as forage quality and supply. Depending on the forage, rotating results in pasture use of 70 percent or more, compared to use of 40 percent or less when pasture is continuously grazed. Nutrient recycling reduces the need for fertilizer on grazed pastures. Less than 10 percent of the forages' phosphorus and potassium are removed by livestock. They return most of these nutrients to the soil in their manure and urine. Nutrient removal is much less when pasture is grazed than used to make hay. Thus starting a good pasture rotational system reduces fertilizer top dressing much less than what you need for hay.

Forage quality improves when pasture areas rest between grazing cycles. Animals allowed continuous access to a pasture trample and waste significant amounts of forage. These areas often grow up becoming more mature and lower in quality. Rotated pastures have higher digestibility because forage is kept in a vegetative and growing stage with less dead and over mature material compared to continuously grazed pastures. Animals tend to select only the best and leave the worst when pastures are not rotationally grazed thus the significant waste of forage.

The bottom line or rotational grazing is a big dollar profit return for a small amount of labor and a little fence work.

For more information on forage topics, contact me at the U.K. Extension Office at 365-2447.

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