Though I don’t know how it is where you are here in West Texas, it can be a challenging job keeping pastures productive during this time. It seems most years that mother nature does not want to cooperate with you and hold back needed moisture.
While you can not control the weather, there are steps that you can take to give your forages a chance. Things like rotational grazing and the correct stocking rate can go a long way. Here are some things to consider when you are facing another dry summer.
Practice good pasture grazing.
Along with the forages, how you let the pasture be grazed can significantly determine its effectiveness. Letting the grasses be overgrazed can hurt you in the short term and the long run. The thing to remember here is to “take half/leave half” and “allow enough rest.”
Leave plenty of grass.
The leaf area left over after a grazing pass provides the needed base for regrowth. The amount left over also shades the soil to keep the soil temperature cooler and help to reduce soil moisture loss. Studies have also shown that leaving half of the leaf area produces a minimal impact on the plant root system. So it would help if you didn’t cheat on this principle during the hot, dry summer.
As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, you want to leave about half of the left area when you move the cows out of the pasture. Leaving half will enable the plant to continue absorbing nutrients and moisture and recover more quickly. Taking off more than that will cause a significant decrease in the plant root system and slow down any recovery that would occur.
A good rule of thumb is to leave about inches of grass height to get the mentioned benefits. Maintaining this leaf amount provides the grass the best opportunity to take advantage of any rain you may get during the summer.
Allow pasture plenty of rest.
Once you have moved the cattle off, you should allow the pasture plenty of rest to allow the grass to grow back before you let them back on. The amount of rest needed will change depending on things like the amount of growth and the rainfall that you have received.
It is best to graze most of your forages when they are 8-10 inches tall. Some, like bluegrass and perennial ryegrass, can be used at 6-8 inches. But, for the most part, the previous scale should be used. Do not try to rush it but let your pasture tell you when to rotate.
One way to provide adequate rest is to have enough paddocks. Time for a bit of math work: Let’s say that it takes 35 days for your pasture to regrow to a height of 8-10″, and you keep your cows in each paddock for five days. Your results can vary; this is just what I am using as an example. The formula to use is 35/5+, 7 +1, or 8 paddocks to provide enough rest periods.
Use the correct stocking rate.
Using the correct stocking rate is essential to maintaining grass health. This rate means the number of animals that your acreage can hold without any detriment to your forages. Different factors go into determining this so that it can change from one year to the next.
A good idea to follow is to use a conservative stocking rate, not to stress the forages. When plants are consistently grazed too close before a drought, they will be less likely to survive because of their weakening condition. On the other side, doing that after a drought will not give the plants the rest needed to recover if droughts are common where you are, like here in West Texas, breeding herds should amount to at most 50% -70 % of the total carrying capacity.
Another thing to point out is that even if you have the acreage, it can still feed that number of cows. Stuff like weed population and even rock formations can impact the overall carrying capacity of your place. If you want to find out what your place’s real stocking rate is, check out my previous post, “Estimating your grazable acreage.“
Since we all know that conditions can change, keeping your stocking rate flexible is crucial. A flexible stocking rate is to make adjustments as needed. When things get drier than usual, reduce your herd size as required. You can start by selling your stockers or yearlings first to protect the integrity of your breeding herd. Also, keep accurate performance records every year. So if you need to sell your breeding herd, you will know which ones to get rid of first.
Take stock of weeds in the pasture.
Having too many weeds can impact the yield of your pasture. They will consume the water needed for your desirable forages while providing no benefits to your animals.
Take an inventory of your pastures to determine how big of a problem you have. Identify what types of weeds you have and their growth stage. These factors will tell you what kind of control methods you will need to use.
If there are not that many and they are in the early growth stages, then simply mowing them should be enough to keep them in check. However, a herbicide treatment may be necessary if there are many of them.
Supplement when needed
Cattle grazing summer pastures may benefit from supplementing their diet to improve their overall diet quality. At this time of year, forages typically contain less crude protein and total digestible nutrients. Also, late summer forages will have fewer of these than early summer ones. The level of nutrients may be something to consider if forage availability is less than desirable.
On most pastures, it is not unreasonable to expect growing calf weight gains of a little less than 2 pounds per day on summer annual grasses. The weight gains can range from 1.5 to 2.5 per day, depending on conditions. Bermudagrass topically supports an average daily gain of fewer than 1.5 pounds per day, with ranges from 0.7 to 1.8 pounds per day. The average daily growth will depend on the type of forage and its overall condition.
As with all types of management decisions, it is essential to monitor the results. Watching the results is so you can make adjustments as needed. What works right now may not work for you in a few months.
To get a more in-depth look at how you should manage your pasture, the NRCS has a booklet available called “Improving and sustaining forage production in Pastures.”