SUMMER PASTURE MANAGEMENT

By: Cody Welchons, Ph.D. - Livestock Nutrition Center

With increased input prices in recent years the importance of reevaluating hay and pasture management, just as many have done with feed management, is of value to a cattleman’s operation. Utilizing summer pasture correctly can dramatically impact the bottom line whether through increased body condition in cows going into winter, increased weight gain of stockers, or harvested forages with higher nutritive values. Additionally, actively managing pastures allows a producer to reduce their dependence of purchased feedstuffs during the winter. The goal of this article is to discuss several topics that influence how a producer can optimize the use of forage production in a way that generates the greatest return to an operation.

Evaluate Your Pastures – The first step in ensuring success over the summer is to evaluate pastures prior to the growing season. This is especially important following a drought year. In evaluating pastures, pay extra attention to ones that were overstocked. Look out for areas that are bare or thin and identify forages and weeds present. By evaluating individual pastures you can determine a grazing plan that allows you to rest the pastures that are in poorer condition until they have had a chance to recover. Additionally, the control of weeds is of critical importance as they steal nutrients and can out compete desirable grasses. Following drought, pasture regrowth can be delayed, so controlling weeds early on will influence the health of the stand going forward.

Grazing Management – Specific grazing management strategies can affect forage quantity and nutritive value along with both individual animal performance and animal production per unit of land. The goal of any grazing management strategy should be focused on applying proper grazing intensity relative to forage production to achieve a desired outcome. Management of grazing intensity is achieved by altering the stocking rate on a given unit of land. To manage stocking rate, different stocking methods can be utilized. Pastures can be either continuously stocked or rotationally grazed. Much has been written about potential benefits and trade-offs of these stocking methods, but for the purposes of this discussion, think of them as ways to manage grazing intensity.

Continuous grazing is characterized by the grazing of one area over a long period of time while rotational grazing in its current form (short periods of grazing followed by longer periods of rest) was introduced in the early 1980’s as a way to ensure that the plant has time to regrow after being consumed and had the potential to improve harvest efficiency and subsequently animal production for a given unit of land. While continuous grazing can result in increased individual animal performance relative to rotational grazing, there is also an increased chance of uneven pasture utilization. Thus, while individual animal performance can be reduced in a rotational grazing system, animal production per unit of land is often increased. The correct stocking method is entirely dependent upon each individual operation as you consider time, labor, capital expenses, and animal production goals.

Planning for Winter – In most cattle operations the cost of winter feeding represents a large proportion of annual animal costs. In cow/calf operations, hay represents a large part of this feed cost. Included in the cost of feeding hay are not just the cost to produce or buy it but also the cost of feeding it. This includes shrink, hauling, feeders, and time. Therefore, one way to make the most of the fixed costs (not taking into account fertilizer costs) associated with putting up hay is to put up hay with a higher nutritive value. For example, an increase in protein of two percentage units can provide an additional 0.5-0.6 lb of crude protein when feeding 26-30 lbs of hay. This is the equivalent of feeding 2.5-3 lbs of 20% cubes.

Another way to potentially decrease winter feeding costs is by extending the grazing season. In the southern plains this means grazing to a targeted height (dependent upon if the pasture is native or improved) or haying by late summer and allowing for the grass to regrow until the first killing freeze. The stockpiled forage can then be grazed into the winter as forage production and weather allow.

How Does Forage Affect Costs? – Regardless of how we pay for pasture (annual lease, monthly rate, on the gain, etc.) Our forages are a variable, yet limited, feed resource. Much like a pile of corn silage, both variable and fixed costs associated with the production of that forage affect nutrient cost. Our goal is to estimate seasonal forage consumption so that expenses, like fertilizer, lease, and mineral costs (and/or opportunity cost) can be expressed on a per-ton basis. Furthermore, we evaluate these costs relative to some measure of nutrient intake so we can compare grazing to harvested or purchased feedstuffs to optimize profits. For perspective, when corn costs $8.50/ bushel, the cost of net energy for gain (NEg) is roughly $0.25 per Megacalorie (Mcal); depending on accounting systems and forage quality and production, costs per Mcal of NEg can be less than $0.10, making grazing the obvious winner, in terms of feed value.

While grass is often the most cost-effective ingredient in inventory, we also encourage our customers to consider how dilution of fixed costs may affect overall land profitability, much like diluting our supply of haylage in a grow yard. Similar to supplementing wheat pasture, under certain circumstances stretching warm season pastures with feed can improve profits by increasing production (gain) per acre and per animal. The value of this additional gain can even be more pronounced when we start bawling calves on grass because the value of preconditioning can be added to gain production. As feed demands decline into the summer, we expect byproduct feed prices to decline, relative to the flat price of grain. Because we typically value ingredients like soybean hulls, beet pulp pellets and corn gluten feed equal to or greater than corn in forage-based systems, we believe this decay in relative price will present opportunities to leverage these ingredients at a discount to traditional grain-based feeds. Evaluating the balance between minimizing cost of gain and maximizing profits per acre can be a difficult process, but it is certainly an exercise worth considering this year.

These are just a few of the many things to think about to assure that you can make the most of your summer forage production. By having a summer pasture management plan that clearly outlines your goals for the season, you can be proactive in managing your productions outputs rather than reactive when external factors throw a wrench in your operation.