ANGUS BEEF BULLETIN EXTRA

April 6, 2020 | Vol. 13 : No.3

management

Finding the Right Fit for Forages

Maximizing your forage mix means longer and more productive grazing.

A stocker manager’s bread and butter is in forages. Grazing should be able to efficiently grow a young calf with few feed costs. Finding the right mix of forages takes some thought and some legwork, but it is valuable time spent.

Gene Fults, rangeland management specialist with USDA National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) West, says, “The rumen is as important to [calves] as a well-managed forage system is to the ranch.”

Ideally, a good pasture should provide a long grazing season; high, quality yield; persistent growth; and should be easy to establish and manage inexpensively, says Gary Bates, director of the University of Tennessee’s Beef and Forage Center.

“The forages you choose for that pasture really depend on your location’s temperature and rainfall,” he says.

It’s good to remember forages include both grasses and legumes. Within each of those categories are cool- and warm-season forages, plus annuals and perennials. This amount of variety is important to keep in mind to diversify your forage stands.

“We switched from grazing to maximize the pounds of beef per animal to pounds of beef per acre. That has affected the true profitability for our operation.” — Jerry Doan

It is not possible to produce forage all year with one forage species, Bates notes. As a rule, at least for his area of the country, Bates likes to have a perennial grass as the pasture’s base and add legumes to it. Legumes add quality to the forage by reducing the need for nitrogen fertilizer, and can potentially lengthen the grazing season.

He suggests thinking of the forage program by month, with the effort to keep the forage level somewhat consistent throughout the year. So, for example, if tall fescue is your base grass, its growing season is from September to November, and then March to June. Then add a warm-season grass for May through September. Winter wheat can supplement those cold months to reduce feeding hay to about 60 days.

He recommends using 75% cool-season forages and 25% warm-season. Don’t put those forages in the same pasture, because cattle will overgraze the cool-season forages.

Jerry Doan, of Black Leg Ranch, McKenzie, N.D., says in addition to diversifying forage species, rest is paramount. Many of his pastures were overgrazed, but after allowing them to rest, cattle performance while grazing nearly doubled.

“We switched from grazing to maximize the pounds of beef per animal to pounds of beef per acre. That has affected the true profitability for our operation,” he says.

Doan also promotes leaving litter after grazing. If that litter is knocked down, carbon is put back into the soil. Water can infiltrate much better when litter is left on the ground, and less evaporation occurs. Weed pressure also reduces.

Doan’s philosophy is to feed half of his forages to cattle and half of his forages to the soil. He employs cover crops to cut winter feed costs, build soil health and propagate wildlife.