For Release March 6, 2001

AGRI-VIEWS
by Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent

If you didn’t read last week’s column, this one won’t make much sense. If you need a copy and can’t find last week’s paper, give me a call or view the column on the Extension Office web site, http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/geary.

6. Graze grass short in the first half, let it rest in the second half. The key part to this guideline is in knowing that the warm season native grasses need to have adequate growth going into fall to store up food reserves in the roots. What happens to the grass prior to July 15th isn’t nearly as important as what happens after July 15th. It doesn’t matter whether you are doing early season intensive stocking, haying, or season long stocking, there has to be adequate leaf material in August and early September for the plant to recover. That’s why early intensive stocked pastures need to have, must have, cattle off by mid-July. That’s why we want haying finished by August 1st, if not before.

7. Don’t let spring growth get away. We are at a series of commandments that are all interrelated with each other. Cattle eat leaves first. Leaves are much more nutritious than stems and seed heads. Graze (or hay) in such a manner that you maximize leaf component, not total weight. Stocker cattle will do better in the first half of the season because of the higher nutritional value of the grass. Take advantage of that and then look to other forages, or even the feedlot, for the second half of the season. Maybe you could double stock through early July, then turn the stockers into a corn field and let them start grazing down the corn through fall.

8. With proper management, production from rotational grazing and continual grazing is the same. The key phrase is proper management. It all depends on how hard you want to work. Increased production will probably be more a key of the management time you put into the project, not the grazing system. Remember, they now call rotational grazing MIG, which stands for management intensive grazing. If you are currently using season long grazing, and you don’t want to put in any more managemetn time, then rotational grazing will not gain you anything, and your results may be worse than status quo. Results are not related to the type of grazing you do, they are related to the time you are willing to put in.

9. Remember three critical grass factors: height, density, and leaf to stem ration. Remember what I just said about leaves. Where do leaves come from? Leaves are connected with tillers. Most of our warm season natives are bunch grasses. The bigger and healthier the bunches the more tillers they will produce. The more tillers they produce, the more leaves there will be and the better the cattle will perform. If pastures are constantly burned early and overgrazed, the bunches become smaller, the tillers become fewer and undesirable grasses and weeds invade.

10. Potential yield is proportional to tiller density. Well, if you can’t figure that out from number 9, we’ve got a real problem! You’ve got to have the plants present before you can have the tillers. The more tillers you have, the more leaves you have. The more leaves you have, the more forage production and ultimately more beef production you will have.

So, there you have it. Ten very basic, and very interconnected principles. It all comes down to knowing your grass and taking care of your grass. It may mean leaving behind some long held beliefs and practices. It may mean relearning what you thought you already knew. And what do you get out of it? Better grass and better livestock production!

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