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Gaining Value from Range Shield Products

Using Range Shield For Spring and Fall Grazing to Improve the Health of Native Pastures

• By grazing Range Shield pastures in late-spring and early fall instead of native pastures, you give native pastures additional time needed to prepare for and recover from winter-stress and summer grazing.

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• Range Shield products provide high quality spring and fall grazing options allowing producers to save their native pastures for summer grazing.

• By providing grazing alternatives to native pasture during the critical spring and fall months when native pastures are highly vulnerable to damage from grazing, Range Shield products improve the health of your native pastures while lowering your feed costs!

How To Plant

New Seeding

• Firm seed bed is required.

• No-till is the preferred method whenever possible.

• If planting into a prepared seedbed it is important to firm the seedbed prior to planting and roll the field after planting.

Renovating or Rejuvenating Existing Pasture

• The Range Shield family of products are excellent choices for situations in which cool season pastures need to be rejuvenated or completely renovated.

• In situations where a pasture is going to be completely renovated the old forage can be replaced with one of the Range Shield products suitable for your precipitation zone.

• No-tilling into existing pasture is a simple, easy, and cost-effective way to improve pasture quality.

• Success is highly dependent upon available precipitation, soil health & type, and subsequent grazing management.

How To Plant

Planting - When & How

• Range Shield products are best planted using a no-till drill directly into existing stand.

• Planting into a prepared seed bed necessitates firming the seedbed both prior to planting and after planting.

• Range Shield products can be planted in early fall, dormant seeded during late fall/early winter, or planted early spring ahead of seasonal rains.

• Range Shield products will perform best when planted at 1/8 to ¼ inch deep into a firm seedbed, ahead of moisture.

• We recommend planting at least 6 weeks ahead of winter or summer.

• Although Barenbrug takes great care to provide the highest quality seed, establishment success is highly dependent upon available precipitation, soil health & type, and subsequent grazing management.

Seeding Key Success Factors

• Correct seed depth (1/8 – ¼ inch)

• Good soil seed contact, i.e., firm seed bed is important

• Using a properly working and calibrated rangeland seed drill is critical. Drills that bounce or otherwise don’t follow the counter of the terrain cause skips or seed to be placed to shallow or worse too deep.

• Adequate moisture is critical.

• Proper subsequent grazing management will have a tremendous effect on persistence & longevity of a new planting:

• Do not start grazing new pastures until Range Shield products are at least 10-12 inches tall.

• Do not graze below 5-6 inches.

Incorporating Legumes

• We recommend using legumes in conjunction with Range Shield products whenever possible.

• Any drought tolerant legume such as alfalfa, sainfoin or sweet clover etc. can be used in conjunction with Range Shield products.

• Barenbrug’s Alfabar™, a blend of grazing tolerant alfalfas, has proven to be highly effective with Range Shield products.

• We recommend planting legumes simultaneously with Range Shield products at a rate of 3/4 to 1-1/2 lbs. (alfalfa equivalent seeding rate) per acre along with the full seeding rate of the Range Shield product.

• Planting the legumes using the small box on the seeder usually works very well.

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