To survive the current feed economy livestock producers need to graze their livestock as long as they can.  Every day livestock are meeting their nutritional needs through grazing they are being fed as economically as possible.  Typically cattle producers utilize corn residue as a feed source but, in Ohio, sheep producers need to consider grazing corn residue as well.  When corn stalks become available for grazing livestock producers need to move to take advantage of this resource.

Because the feed is in contact with the ground and deteriorating in the field you should start grazing corn residue as soon as the combine pulls out of the field. The nutrient value of residue declines the longer it is exposed to weathering. Sixty days after harvest is the window for maximum feed value. After 60 days it may not meet the needs of your livestock and you will need to provide supplemental feed. Grazing residue right away will provide a better feed.

Wind damaged fields can have more grain left in the field after harvest than normal.  Check fields for excess grain before grazing. Too much corn left in the field can cause acidosis and founder. In these cases cattle need to be adapted to a higher grain ration before grazing. They should initially be turned into residue with their rumens full if a problem is expected.

Strip grazing will also force the animals to eat leaves, cobs, and stalks instead of just gleaning the grain.  Giving animals only a few days or weeks worth of corn residue at a time utilizes the forage more efficiently.  Strip grazing provides a more uniform diet.  Leaving cattle in the entire field for a couple months or longer means the livestock will initially pick the grain and some of the leaves. Eventually they will only have the stalks, or the least nutritious plant part, left and will need to be supplemented.

Typically fence and water are the excuses used for not grazing corn residue.  There are several inexpensive, temporary options for both. Check out Rory’s article for fencing and “Watering Systems for Grazing Livestock”

(http://www.iowabeefcenter.org/content/WateringSystemsForGrazingLivestockPub.pdf )

“Pumps and Watering Systems for Managed Beef Grazing”

(http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/envqual/eq0380.htm) for ideas on the water.

The time of year is quickly approaching when keeping pasture plants in a vegetative state is probably the hardest for forage producers. Managing pasture growth early in the growing season is important to maintain high quality and high quantity forage production throughout the spring, summer and fall. A “spring flush” occurs in cool season grasses because the optimum temperature for growth occurs and the most important nutrient, water, is readily available. Growth distribution of cool season grasses and most legumes are greatest in the spring when air temperatures are 70-85 degrees.

Start moving animals through your first paddocks when soil conditions permit and the plants are a few inches tall. Rotate livestock through paddocks or fields at a pace which gives them just enough time to graze the tops off the forage. Move on to the next field and let livestock graze the same way. This will help stagger forage growth, keep more plants in a vegetative state and reduce seed head formation as the season progresses. This is a good strategy, but being able to keep ahead of grass growth when the temperatures warm and the growth explosion occurs is easier to say than it is to do.

In the first rotation each spring livestock preferences are not very noticeable, but as grasses and legumes grow, livestock preferences for certain forages begin to show and uneven grazing patterns appear. Problems arise in many paddocks across Ohio because fescue is mixed with orchardgrass, bluegrass, ryegrass and clovers. If allowed, cattle will eat other grasses and clovers to the ground and leave the fescue standing. Using heavy stocking density on small paddocks at this time may help, but moving livestock frequently will be necessary to make this approach work. After the first or second week of May, in our area, if you have fescue plants that have been refused to this point, they will not likely be grazed in the next rotation or in the remainder of the summer rotations. If large amounts of un-grazed fescue persist in the paddock, clipping or bush-hogging should be considered as an option. This will stop seed-head production, reduce shading of other plants and may allow more favorable grass/legume growth in the paddock. Remember, taking proper care of the forage plants is the key to high quantity and high quality forage production throughout the year.

Soil that is too wet can complicate grazing management too. When livestock repeatedly trample wet soil, the soil aggregates are broken down, and air spaces in the soil are reduced. This process is called pugging. Care should be taken so pugging does not take place over large portions of your grazing area. Severe pugging can decrease forage growth for weeks, maybe months, so fencing livestock onto a heavy use pad or using a smaller sacrifice area to feed hay in, may be the best option if conditions like this exist. Paddocks that are well drained or those that are predominantly fescue are good choices to use early. If minor pugging does occur, plant production will not decline very much. It may even boost production of clovers because opening the soil can stimulate new plant growth if viable clover seeds are present.

Forages in early spring pastures are extremely lush. Plant material is only about 15% dry matter while crude protein is generally high, possibly 25-30%. Hay or supplemental feed should still be provided during the early rotations to be sure adequate dry matter is in the animal’s diet. Cattle producers, be sure to supply free choice mineral mixtures with adequate amounts of magnesium (12-14% Mg in the mineral mix) at this time of year and move the minerals along to each new paddock. This reduces chances of grass tetany in livestock that are grazing fast growing grass-dominated paddocks.

As rotations continue into mid and late May, more volume of forage should be growing in each paddock. Cool season grasses attempt to reproduce in the spring by shooting seed heads. If plants are allowed to flower and set seed, the quality of forage and production may be greatly decreased the remainder of the growing season. Regulating livestock consumption in each paddock to keep grass in a vegetative state should be the manager’s objective.

If legumes are the predominant species in a paddock, do not turn livestock into the forage while plants are wet. Bloat may occur. Wait until the surface moisture dries and feed hay before livestock enter these paddocks to reduce chances of bloat.

It is important to look ahead and monitor forage growth in your paddocks. Often, livestock cannot utilize all the grass produced in each paddock by the second or third rotation; therefore as a manager we must make decisions of how to handle the excess grass growth. What should we do if we have extra grass accumulating in the next paddocks? Selected paddocks could be made into hay and those paddocks brought back into the rotation later, but the grass should really be cut no later than the boot stage to keep these plants in a vegetative growing state. The problem with this strategy is, if we mow paddocks when we should, to keep plants in their maximum vegetative stage, (mid May) we usually cannot get the grass dry to make the hay. Clipping or bush-hogging some forage a few days apart in early May could be advantageous, even if it cannot be baled for hay. This will keep plants vegetative and highly productive so uninterrupted rotations can continue the next time around.

Many managers do however, leave those unneeded paddocks grow until haymaking weather arrives, usually June, and then make the hay from the forage that was not needed or could not be grazed at the proper height/stage. Be careful not to set aside too many paddocks if you choose this method because you may find yourself in a deficit situation for forage the correct grazing height as you make your next rotation in late June. Re-growth from set aside fields may not be ready to graze again until mid July depending on temperatures and moisture availability.

Wise use of fertilizer in the spring is also an important part of pasture growth management. Do not heavily fertilize all of your pastures early in the spring. If you need more pasture early, only fertilize a few of your paddocks. Late May or early June is a better time for fertilization. This will have several benefits. First, you are not adding to the excess growth problem most managers have in the spring. Second, you will be feeding the forage plants at a time before warmer and dryer weather is about to begin. The plants can use the nutrients at this time to maximize productivity before the “summer slump” occurs in late July and August. This provides additional growth at a time when it will be needed by the livestock and quality of this forage should still be very high. The type of forage and amount of forage produced in your paddocks is directly related to your pasture management practices.

Look at your paddocks and project in your mind what you think they will look like 2-3 weeks in the future based on the growing conditions. Then match your projected growth with what you actually observe at that later date. Doing this on a regular basis throughout different stages of the growing season helps one become a better grass manager.

Summary: If we use our livestock to harvest the forage we want them to harvest, at the time it needs to be harvested, better forage quality will be produced and greater quantity can be generated. The plants, the animals and you will be rewarded for properly managing the “spring flush”.

It is amazing that graziers say their focus is on the forage but they don’t measure it.
Most graziers use measurements related to animal production, like the reading from the bulk tank or the weight of animals on the auction sale receipt. These are good items to keep track of because they relate directly to income but they are not timely enough to help graziers make grazing decisions in their operations.

Measuring and recording the forage performance can be useful in making several grazing decisions. Of course the measurements you take should be in the context of the objectives and goals of your operation. Taking measurements just as an exercise makes no sense. Taking measurements that relate back to your objectives and goals can help you monitor progress and improve your operation.

There are lots of ways to measure forage such as, pasture sticks, falling plate meters, rising plate meters, electric pasture probes, and even the tedious method of cutting. With little expense, graziers can consistently determine how much forage is available by simply walking their paddocks.

One problem with measuring forage is that it is a dynamic, living community of plants that is highly variable. To overcome the variability, many samples must be taken in order to accurately estimate how much forage is there. This can be time consuming and tedious. Usually 20-30 samples are recommended per pasture or paddock. The second problem is that the amount of forage available is always changing; animals are consuming leaves and plants are growing. To account for this constant change, measurements need to be taken on a regular basis, usually every seven to ten days.

The most accurate method used to determine the amount of forage available is cutting. Cutting is simply to take a known area, usually a one or two foot square, cut all of the forage in that area, dry it down completely, weigh the sample and convert it to pounds of dry matter per acre. Taking samples in this manner does take time. Most people use it to calibrate some other faster method of measurement. In managing your operation, accuracy is not as important as consistency. Faster methods can give consistent and fairly accurate results.

The easiest measurement of forage we can do is height. There seems to be some common confusion about using plant height to measure forage. Do livestock eat inches of forage or do they eat pounds of forage? Actually they eat pounds. To make it simpler, we take water out of the equation and say pounds of dry matter. Since the primary function of forage is to be used as feed, then converting its measurement into feed terms makes sense.

Two factsheets from West Virginia University; A Falling Plate Meter for Estimating Pasture Forage Mass and Estimating Pasture Forage Mass from Pasture Height are good references for graziers on measuring forages. Rayburn & Lozier do a good job of discussing using a ruler, a falling plate meter and a rising plate meter. (http://www.caf.wvu.edu/~forage/foragelstcenter.htm) Any of those tools could easily give you consistent information that is accurate enough to use in your management.

If you make time to determine average pounds of dry matter per acre for each paddock once a week, it would reward you with huge dividends. It will tell you how much forage you have in each paddock, which in itself is useful information. You will quickly see which paddocks need to be grazed next. If growth has stopped, you can quickly calculate how many days of forage you have left to graze.

Doing it on a weekly basis also allows you to calculate more useful information. Two consecutive weekly measurements can be used to calculate how fast the forage is growing. You can determine if you to a need to change your management because growth has either increased or decreased. Looking at a years worth of data you could calculate how much forage you actually grew and if you can carry more animals. It can help you identify the top yielding paddocks and the lowest yielding paddocks. You can determine ways to make the lower yielding paddocks produce more. Using measurements next year will help you determine if what you tried actually worked.

Measuring pastures and using the data is not the most exciting topic in grazing management. But it is one of that will make you effective in your management.

The 2009 Appalachian Grazing Conference will be held at the Lakeview Resort in Morgantown, West Virginia on March 6&7. For more information and registration details, log onto http://www.wvca.us/grazing_conference.

Log on and get registered soon as the reduced lodging rate of only $76.00/single occupancy coupled with the conference registration of $75.00 is only available until February 2.

Want to be a better manager of your pastures and your livestock at the same time? If you live in Northwest or Eastern Ohio, here is your opportunity.

The Hancock County Extension Office will offer a grazing school on March 12, 19, and 26 in Findlay, and the counties of Belmont, Guernsey, and Monroe will hold their school on March 16, 23, and 30.

For more information regarding the school in Findlay, contact Gary Wilson at the Hancock County Extension Office at (419)422-3851. For the school in Eastern Ohio, contact either Steve Schumacher in Belmont County at (740)695-1455; Clif Little in Guernsey County at (740)489-5300; or Mark Landefeld in Monroe County at (740)472-0810.

This O.S.U. Extension Coordinated Program is an effort to provide outreach programs in several areas of sheep production. We invite sheep and goat producers from around Ohio to come to one or more of the educational sessions to learn more about different areas of sheep and goat production.

Programs Sponsored by: Ohio Sheep Improvement Association, Roger A. High, Executive Director, contact (614) 246-8299 or rhigh@ofbf.org or visit our website at www.ohiosheep.org for more information. Contact Extension Educators for possible meeting fees.

When, Where and What?

Wednesday, January 14, 2009 “Mt. Victory Program”
Location: Mt. Victory Plaza Inn, Mt. Victory, OH
Time: 6:00 p.m. – PAID RESERVATION IS REQUIRED FOR MEAL
7:00 p.m. – Program begins
Registration for meal: $15.00/person: Paid Registration due by: January 5, 2009
Speaker: Bob Hendershot, USDA/NCRS Grazing Specialist, “Pasture Management”
Contact: Wesley Haun, Logan County Extension Educator at (937) 599-4227

Tuesday, January 27, 2009 “Springfield Program”
Location: Clark County Extension Office, 4400 Gateway Blvd., Suite 104, Springfield, OH
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Speaker: David O’Diam, OSU Meat Lab Manager, “Lamb and Goat Carcass Evaluation”
Contact: Jonah Johnson, Clark County Extension Educator at (937) 328-4607 or
Tim Fine, Miami County Extension Program Assistant at (937) 440-3945

Monday, February 9, 2009 “Burton Program”
Location: Geauga County Extension Office – Patterson Center, 14269 Claridon-Troy Rd, Burton, OH
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Speaker: Roger A. High, OSU Sheep Extension Specialist, “The Management Continuum”
Contact: Les Ober, Geauga County Program Assistant, (440) 834-4656

February 25, 2009 “Bryan Program”
Location: Williams County Extension Office -
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Speaker: Dr. Bill Shulaw, OSU Preventive Veterinarian, Beef and Sheep, “Internal Parasite Management”
Contact: Flo Chirra, Williams County Extension Educator at (419) 636-5608

Wednesday, March 4, 2009 “Fostoria Program”
Location: Ag Credit Services Corporate Office, 610 West Lytle St., Fostoria, OH
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Speaker: Dr. Steve Loerch, OARDC Ruminant Nutritionist”, “Ruminant Nutritional Programs utilizing Dried Distiller’s Grain’s (DDG’s)”
Contact: Ed Lentz, Seneca County Extension Educator, (419) 447-9722 or Gary Wilson, Hancock County Extension Educator, (419) 422-3851

Monday, March 16, 2009 “Licking/Muskingum Program”
Location: Licking Valley High School, Haynesview Drive, Hanover, OH
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Speakers: Roger A. High, OSU Sheep Extension Specialist, “What Market are You Breeding For?”
Katherine Harrison, General Manager, Blystone Farms, “Marketing to the Ethnic Population”
Contact: Howard Siegrist, Licking County Extension Educator, (740) 349-6900 or
Mark Mechling, Muskingum County Extension Educator, (740) 454-0144

Thursday, March 19, 2009 “Barnsville Program”
Location: “New” Farm Bureau Building, 100 Colonel Dr., Barnsville, OH
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Speaker: Roger A. High, OSU Sheep Extension Specialist, “Sheep Nutrition”
Contact: Steve Schumacher, Belmont Co. Extension Educator, (740) 695-1455 or
Mark Landefeld, Monroe County Extension Educator, (740) 472-0810

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 “Lisbon Program”
Location: Crestview Local School, 44100 Crestview Rd. , Columbiana, OH
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Speaker: Roger A. High, OSU Sheep Extension Specialist, “Lamb and Goat Quality Assurance”
Contact: Julie Herron, Columbiana County Extension Educator, (330) 424-7291

UNKNOWN DATE AT THIS TIME! 2009 “Bryan Program”
Location: Unknown at time of release – More details later
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Speaker: Dr. Bill Shulaw, OSU Preventive Veterinarian, Beef and Sheep, “Internal Parasite Management”
Contact: Flo Chirra, Williams County Extension Educator at (419) 636-5608

We are setting these programs up as “district” programs to reach as many sheep and goat producers around the state of Ohio as possible. We encourage you to come and to get your sheep and goat production questions answered.

A small ruminant production school for sheep and goat producers will be held this winter in Athens County. The school will be held on 5 consecutive Tuesday evenings beginning on January 27 and continuing February 3, 10, 17 and 24. The school will be held at the Athens County Extension meeting room and will run from 6:30 pm until 8:45 pm. each evening. OSU Extension, Athens County and the Ohio Sheep Improvement Association (OSIA) are sponsors of the school.
This is envisioned as the first of several multi-week schools for sheep and goat producers that will be offered over the next several years. The 2009 school will focus on marketing and breed selection. Though marketing is often presented as the last step in educational programs, it really needs to be thought about early on when developing a sheep or goat enterprise. A successful sheep or goat enterprise should be put together working backwards from where animals will be marketed. Some breeds and production systems fit certain markets better than others. Some producers may only want to consider a limited range of market options. Understanding what marketing options are available and what type of animal each particular market wants can help to define breed selection and/or production systems. On the other hand, if a producer is locked into a certain breed and/or production system, understanding markets may offer insight into where/how their farm’s animals should be marketed for best returns.

Topics that will be covered at the small ruminant production school include:
• Ethnic Marketing Options for Sheep and Goats: Katherine Harrison-Haley, Blystone Farm, Canal Winchester
• Meat Goat Breed Selection: Dave Mangione, Extension Educator, Ross County
• Producing for the Commercial Sheep Market: Rick Reynolds, Manager, United Producers Inc., Mount Vernon
• Marketing Considerations/Direct Marketing: Don Van Nostran, Athens County Sheep Producer
• Sheep Breed Selection: Roger High, OSU Extension Sheep Specialist, Director Ohio Sheep Improvement Association
• Current Issues in Sheep and Goat Production: Rory Lewandowski, Extension Educator, Athens County and Curt Cline, Athens County sheep producer
• Carcass Evaluation: Understanding your Product from a Consumer Perspective: Dr. Paul Kuber, OSU Extension Meat Specialist
• Pulling it All Together/ Matching Animal to Pasture Production: Daryl Clark, retired OSU Extension Educator and Muskingum County sheep producer

Cost is $25 and includes registration and materials for 1 to 2 people from a farm business, $10 for each additional person from the same farm operation. Also included in the cost are speaker fees, handout materials and refreshments. Make checks payable to “Athens County Extension”

Pre-registration is requested to the Athens County Extension office by Friday, January 23. Contact the office by phone at (740) 593-8555 or Rory Lewandowski by email at: lewandowski.11@osu.edu

Because the feed is in contact with the ground and deteriorating in the field you should start grazing corn residue as soon as the combine pulls out of the field. The nutrient value of residue declines the longer it is exposed to weathering. Sixty days after harvest is the window for maximum feed value. After 60 days it may not meet the needs of your livestock and you will need to provide supplemental feed. Grazing residue right away will provide a better feed.

Wind damaged fields can have more grain left in the field after harvest than normal. Check fields for excess grain before grazing. Too much corn left in the field can cause acidosis and founder. In these cases cattle need to be adapted to a higher grain ration before grazing. They should initially be turned into residue with their rumens full if a problem is expected.

Strip grazing will also force the animals to eat leaves, cobs, and stalks instead of just gleaning the grain. Giving animals only a few days or weeks worth of corn residue at a time utilizes the forage more efficiently. Strip grazing provides a more uniform diet. Leaving cattle in the entire field for a couple months or longer means the livestock will initially pick the grain and some of the leaves. Eventually they will only have the stalks, or the least nutritious plant part, left and will need to be supplemented.

Typically fence and water are the excuses used for not grazing corn residue. There are several inexpensive, temporary options for both. Check out Rory’s article for fencing and “Watering Systems for Grazing Livestock”

(http://www.iowabeefcenter.org/content/WateringSystemsForGrazingLivestockPub.pdf )

“Pumps and Watering Systems for Managed Beef Grazing”

(http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/envqual/eq0380.htm) for ideas on the water.

The first and most important activity is good grazing management. Specifically, keep from overgrazing. Overgrazing in the fall could ruin next years forage production. It is more critical now than any other time of the year. Overgrazing is not caused by having too many animals in a field. It occurs when you keep animals in a field too long or bring the animals back before the forages have recovered. The length of time is determined by plant growth. The animals should be removed before plants they initially grazed start to re-grow.

Overgrazing can be avoided by paying attention to forage residual, grazing time and rest. You should leave at least 1200-1500 lbs. of DM per acre or 2-3″ of green forage when you pull animals from a field. You should remove the animals before the forage starts to re-grow. The pasture should recover to above 2400 lbs. of DM acre or 6-8″ before turning the animals into a field.

Fall is a critical time for our cool season perennial forages. In the cooler temperatures leaf growth is slower while photosynthesis does not slow down. This increases the reserve carbohydrates in the plant. Cool season forages in the fall store reserve carbohydrates and use them to develop new tillers and roots. Carbohydrate storage, new tiller and root development can only happen if there is enough leaf area for photosynthesis. These three things are accomplished with little additional leaf growth. Making management decisions that negatively impact this development will hurt survival over winter and growth next year.

You can help your pastures by fertilizing. If you only fertilize you pastures once a year you should be do it in the fall. You have a fairly large window to accomplish this, the months of September through November. Fall is an excellent time to apply fertilizer to our pastures. Fall is the time when most of our forage plants are growing roots, developing tillers and storing energy for winter. Proper soil pH and adequate soil nutrients will enhance forage competitiveness. Take a soil test and follow the recommendations.

Nitrogen can be applied in fall. Late fall applications of nitrogen, from October through November, will increase grass tillering, root growth, and energy storage. This will help with spring green-up and improve competition against weeds. Apply after grass growth has slowed, but before the plant has gone dormant. Use a low rate of 30 to 40 lbs. of N per acre.

A pasture with good grazing management and with good soil fertility should out-compete weeds. This is the main reason I don’t spend a lot of time talking weed control. Occasionally we still have problems. For some of our biennial and perennial weeds fall can be an excellent time to apply herbicide. A few weeds that come to mind include: Wild Turnip/Birdsrape Mustard, Canada thistle, Wild Carrot, and Poison Hemlock. A few cautions, all of the broadleaf herbicides that can be used will also remove the legumes and there can be grazing restrictions depending on the herbicide and type of livestock. Check the 2008 Weed Control Guide or call your local Extension Office for specific recommendations.

Legume removal is the other reason I don’t usually mention herbicides. Legumes in pastures are desirable. Having 30-40% clover, on a dry weight basis, in your pastures will help reduce you nitrogen needs, fill in growth during summer, and provide a higher quality feed for your livestock.

How can we avoid over grazing when we are running out of growing pasture? If you are dealing with ewes after weaning then have you considered feeding your poorer quality hay? After weaning, a mature ewe’s nutritional need is the lowest it will be in the production cycle. Because of the rainy spring most of the first cutting hay is not that good. This may be the only time during the year when the poor quality hay that was made in June could meet the ewe’s nutritional needs.

Another option is grazing corn residue. Corn harvest can provide an opportunity for additional feed that can be grazed. The residue that is left in the field is not a bad feed for about 60 days after harvest.

Jeff McCutcheon, Extension Educator, Knox County

From a plant health standpoint, overgrazing during the fall is more detrimental to the plant compared to overgrazing followed by rest in the early part of the growing season. Here is the reason why. Early in the growing season environmental conditions are generally favorable for rapid growth. Rapid growth means regenerating leaf area. This allows the plant to quickly get to the point where photosynthesis replaces any storage carbohydrates that were used to start growth following defoliation and to then put excess carbohydrates towards further growth. In the fall of the year environmental conditions are not as favorable for rapid growth. We can’t count upon an overgrazed plant being able to generate a lot of leaf growth. Physiologically, the plant growth response, the ability to put out new leaf material, is more sensitive to low temperature than photosynthesis. In other words, even when plant growth might be very slow, if there is leaf area present, photosynthesis is taking place. On a practical level this means that since the plant growth rate is slowed the carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis during this time period accumulate in plant storage organs. This is exactly what the plant needs to survive the winter and produce new growth next spring.

We sometimes use the term carbohydrate root reserves to make a distinction between carbohydrates used for growth and those used for storage. Technically, our cool season grasses store the majority of carbohydrate reserves in stem and tiller bases, some in rhizomes and only a little in roots. Regardless of the technicality, root vigor and volume is linked to leaf growth and vice versa. However, this technicality does help us to understand some management aspects of pasture grass and fall carbohydrate storage. For example, orchardgrass stores carbohydrates in the lower 3 to 4 inches of stem bases and tillers. Tall fescue and bluegrass both maintain carbohydrate storage at the base of tillers as well as rhizomes. Tall fescue and bluegrass can both tolerate lower grazing/clipping heights than orchardgrass.

Once we reach the fall period it is critical that grass plants be managed to insure that adequate leaf area is left after a grazing pass. Photosynthesis will provide the carbohydrates needed for winter storage, provided there is adequate leaf area. Since leaf growth will be slow, this means leaving a typical grazing residual plus some extra. For orchardgrass this probably means 4 to 5 inches at a minimum. Tall fescue and bluegrass should probably be managed to leave a 3 to 4 inch residual. What is the consequence of not maintaining enough leaf area in the fall and overgrazing the plant? Last year’s drought provided us with the perfect example. In Athens County I saw pastures that were overgrazed in the fall that were very slow to green up and start growth in the spring. I saw overgrazed pastures exhibit lower growth rates. Some pastures never got back to pre-drought productivity.

I sometimes get asked at what point in the fall can grasses be grazed to soil level without harming the plant? This has to be once top growth has ceased and when soil temperature falls below 40 degrees F. Depending upon the year, that is likely in late November or even into early December in our area. Of course, overgrazing in the fall of the year might be used as a strategy to weaken a dominant grass stand and set it up for a frost seeding of clover. This could allow the clover seedling to compete more favorably with the grass and result in better establishment.

Fall is not the time to relax grazing management. It is a critical time for the plant to build carbohydrate reserves. Good grazing management in the fall is the first step to more grass growth and better grazing conditions next spring.

Rory Lewandowski, Extension Educator, Athens County