Recording the 2005 Pasture Season

Have you recorded the events of your 2005 grazing season? Most of us are notorious for not writing down what happened when it happened. Yet these notes are essential for the best pasture management decisions for future years.

Each pasture season is somewhat different than the previous ones. Lots of rain makes for high yields of green grass, yet cattle gains are rarely as impressive as the grass growth. In a dry year, we expect the gains will be very low, and yet at weigh-off the gains are often better than expected. The amount and timing of rainfall has a big impact on forage growth, and 2005 was a year with great variation in amount and timing.

A good set of records that provide details of what has happened will allow you to accurately compare one year to the next. A pocket notebook and/or a three-ring binder can form the basis for a good system. It can be expanded from that point to a complex computer spreadsheet, if you are so inclined.

Your records should include:

• weather data- amount of rainfall, frost dates, and extreme summer temperatures.
• forage or sward information on species mix in the pasture, and plant density
• fertilizer applied
• pasture growth at different times during the grazing season
• livestock information including size, type and number of animals, beginning and ending weights
• grazing duration, stocking densities and frequency of moves to new paddocks
• beginning and ending dates of the grazing season
• amount of residual forage and condition of pasture at end of season, and
• amount and timing of any supplemental feed required.

A long list, but all these factors play a role and are essential notes in the record system.

There are a number of tools to assist in measuring the amount of forage present. Height and density are the two important components. The use of a grazing stick will help in determining the quantity of forage present, and improve estimates of forage amounts in your record keeping system.

Recording and accumulating this information will allow you to make accurate comparisons between years, allow you to analyze this year's results, and make grazing decisions that will have a positive benefit to your operation.

Each year is different in the grazing business, but analyzing your own management decisions will help keep the grass growing and your grazing enterprise profitable.

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