Pasture and Swath Grazing

[perfecho]

Looking at putting in an early crop to graze off in June before it heads out and then swath/fall graze.
Usually use an oat/barley/wheat (small % wheat) combo for swath grazing, but not real happy with their condition this winter...
Suggestions.....

[smcgrath76]

Perfecho - We seed quite heavy and use a mixture of oats, barley and fall rye. We have also used oats, barley and winter triticale. I am not sure which I prefer, but the winter triticale which is fairly new for us has impressed me.
We are going to try a straight Spring/winter triticale mix this year if I can find the spring seed. Some folks I know are pulling nearly 300 day an acre off this.
Varieties in the last couple of years
- AC Mustang and waldern oats(big forage yield from the mustang)
- cowboy barley and one other variety that escapes me at the moment.
- Hazlet and Musketeer fall rye
- Pika winter triticale
The other nice thing with those winter cereals is that they become awfully nice green pasture in April the next year.

[wlc]

What about grazing standing corn .
Much higher prod .
Cows gain weight

[WiltonRanch]

Corn is okay if you do everything right. If you don't it sucks when you compare costs to cool season crops. Besides why do you want to give seed companies and Monsanto a bunch of money every year? Not enough money in cows to be stuck in that program. As well certain areas don't get enough heat or long enough frost free periods to depend on it. Some years it's fine then the next you get an early frost and you're out there supplementing so they don't starve to death.

[perfecho]

Likely will put some grazing corn in for the winter grazing, this average is for early grazing and then early fall grazing, just before weaning.
Sean, I have heard good things about triticale...have used years ago for silage. Believe there are varieties with less awns, but it takes cows a few days to get used to. Will look into more and look for supply.
Thanks all for input......

[perfecho]

Sean, the 300 day would certainly be enough to carry 1 cow per acre over the complete winter....
I am currently about 2 acres/cow....about 180-200 days.
Let us know if you find a supplier......

[kato]

We always graze corn, but it does not work when it's muddy, at least on our heavy soil. When the ground is muddy they tramp it down and waste a lot.

[grassfarmer]

perfecho have you tried this grazing in June then leaving it to fall to swath deal before? I only know of one person that tried it once.
What was wrong with your swath quality this winter?

[smcgrath76]

Perfecho - the 300 was top performance from the work done by West Central Forage and I think was around Stony Plain country. I think there were significant inputs used.
I have found a few seed suppliers, but they are pretty far away from our place. I will "relook" and post the links.
The newer varieties are quite good and actually a better balanced ration than corn.
Our experience so far with corn is that the labour requirement is good, the cost is bad.

[perfecho]

GF...no, haven't tried the grazing in June, was hoping someone else had. Have seen a neighbor do a little with fall rye, seemed to work, but don't know the details...( a far off neighbor...)
The swath grain is probably ok this winter, the younger cows are little butterballs, but the older cows are not quite where I would like to see them.
Also, some of the genetics, mostly brought in, are not as easy fleshing as I like to see.....so I will just have to concentrate on the fatter ones ;-)
Also think that the oat straw doesn't get cleaned up as well as barley, so may put more barley than oats next time.
Know when I have done in past with just barley, was able to make them clean up to the ground before they went on. Maybe just becoming more soft as I get older....

[grassfarmer]

The guy I knew that tried it once found it was very hard to get the early season grazing density/timing right - took too much off and it never really came back.
I've never swath grazed but spent plenty time thinking about it. The problem seems to be seeding date so that it isn't too mature too early in the fall which most people seem to get, then it suffers rain damage in September, mould then the cows don't clean it up to well.

I have a friend who I consider the expert on swath grazing - winters hundreds of cows this way every year in a high snowfall environment. The key to his success is seeding date - seeds July 1st, swaths October 1st and suffers no weathering issues (other than swathing in snow sometimes lol) Feed analysis shows his swaths are higher quality than I can achieve with cereal silage. With the higher quality the cows will dig for it and clean it up no matter how much snow (even last winter). I think he gets around 250 days/acre and puts down 50lbs N.
The real key to his success is moisture - the land he uses is too wet to seed in May but there is still enough moisture to get a big crop every year seeded on July first. Once I understood his conditions I knew I couldn't do it on my place because of the moisture issue so I quit thinking about swath grazing. It's a heck of a system if you can do it well.

[perfecho]

Have had fantastic results seeding as late as July 15th, but poor results seeding July 1st. Like you said, usually moisture related....and sometimes if it turns out to be a cooler summer, a lot of growth is lost. Settling on around June 15th these days.
Have seen totally decimated crops caused by hail in early July come back and be harvested....so was thinking the grazing should work as well.
One thing I am doing now, is leaving the first paddock in swaths and baling the other paddocks, but not putting twine on the bales. Then if it snows too much or I want to swath little earlier, I am not risking the crop as much. It is pretty easy to either take the bales into the first paddock after it is cleaned up or if one is not as lazy as I, you can move your electric wire to give enough bales for 3 or 4 days.
I used tumble wheels for the swath grazing and use bale feeders when I bring the stringless bales over....feel they waste less. Any forage I leave behind due to no strings, gets eaten up when that paddock is empty of bales and I let the cows into it.

[perfecho]

But by the results your friend is getting, I have a lot to learn......

[grassfarmer]

The baling up is something I'd considered too - definitely a way to preserve quality and reduce weather risk. And using ring feeders to limit the waste I like also. I don't think some people's systems are properly thought through with regard to cost effectiveness - all too often the easiest system is picked. I know of one guy bale grazing at the moment with purchased $80 bales - costing $2.66 a day for the hay only.

[DGoodrich]

If the cows aren't doing well on a feed - any feed - it's not necessarily the varieties in the feed, but the nutrients. If your soil isn't healthy and/or you don't fertilize to compensate for what's lacking in the soil, the forage crop will be lacking as well. The mixture can be whatever you want it to be, doesn't mean it's nutritious. Think of buying produce at the store - in a bag of carrots one might taste sweet and the rest could be like eating cardboard.