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Planning For the 2011 Grazing Season

What will the 2011 grazing season be like? If past years can provide any guidance, at some point it will be too dry, too wet, too much forage to graze and not enough forage to graze. A little bit of planning and preparation at the beginning of the season can pay big dividends by the end of the year.

Budget Grazing Inventories

The first step is to take inventory of what you have and what you need. Estimate the pounds of grazing livestock you will have each month. They will require about 3% of their body weight in dry matter each day.

Now estimate how much production you will get from your pastures. A very good to excellent pasture should produce 5,000 lbs of dry matter per acre. However, 60% of this will come in May and June, and the remaining 40% over the following 3 to 4 months.

Do you have enough feed to get you through to the end of October? What about November and December?

Example Budget

Table 1 budgets for 100 ewes weighing 150 lbs, and 150 lambs weighing 30 lbs at the beginning of the grazing season and gaining 1/3 of a lb per day. You can substitute your own numbers using this example.

This budget assumes the lambs are eating forage.

Although they maybe getting more of their energy from milk, the ewe will be eating slightly more forage to produce that milk. It is important to determine the total pounds of animals that are on the pasture. Their daily pasture forage requirement (dry matter basis) can then be calculated as 3% of their body weight.

The Table estimates the pasture production based on monthly totals. This will vary from field to field and to a certain extent on the weather. Note these numbers are estimates and each farm will vary. Use your own assumptions.

Strategies

As we can see in this example, June has a lot of pasture available. This could be made into hay or if well managed, provide carryover for July and August.

In August, we have a major shortage. How can you meet the requirement?
Feed hay made in June,

• Graze the second growth on hay fields,
• Plant an annual crop to supplement (sorghum-sudan, turnips, cereals, corn). These annuals could also be used for September and October pasture.
• Moving the lambs to a feedlot in August or September could also have a significant impact on the amount of pasture required.

A rotational grazing system that moves livestock every day or two leaves a good residual amount of forage in the field. This maintains a strong root system that will help "drought proof" your pasture, resulting in improved July and August production.

The quality of the pastures will vary and adjustments will be required. By moving livestock quickly in the times of rapid growth (May and June) you will leave significant forage behind which will be grazed in July and August, thus helping to balance the demand.

With a feed budget you have the beginnings of a great pasture season and can be prepared to make adjustments as you go.

Refer to "Budgeting and Measuring Pasture Production".