Springtime Decisions

Jordan Penrose, Ohio State University Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Morgan County

Spring is finally here in Ohio! With it being spring, that means it is time for grazing, but also the time for decisions to be made. We are at that point now where we are going to find out how pastures are going to come back after last year. I know some people are tired of hearing about the drought from last year. A question that may start to focus around pastures is whether we do something with them or not. April is one of the months that we can plant a wide range of different forages. Then after April, you have to wait till August to plant, unless you plant summer annuals. Some things you may want to look at this spring are pasture conditions, soil fertility, grazing management strategy, and your infrastructure.

A lot of these points that I mentioned are very intertwined with one another. Pasture condition and soil fertility can go hand and hand. When you look at your pasture’s condition, the first thing I would recommend is to soil test your pastures, especially if you have been having some issues in your fields for a while and see what your fertility levels are for your fields, it is recommended that you test your soil every three years. Some fields that are having issues could be fixed by simply getting your soil fertility levels to where they should be. Also, keep in mind that if your levels are bad and you reseed that new seeding may not do well.

After you have considered the soil fertility in your pastures, the next thing you want to do is go through and evaluate what they look like. The drought and winter could have been hard on your pastures. You want to look for things like bare spots, do you have excessive weed growth, or does one field just look like it is slower to respond than it has in the past and is slower than other fields around it? By going through and looking at your pastures and seeing what they look like will help you decide what needs to be done, you may not have the time to replant this spring, and you may have to do it in August. If you end up needing to reseed some pastures in August just watch the weather so that you can get a timely rain on your new seeding to help start to grow. Two options could be used to reseed your fields are interseeding or complete renovation.

Interseeding is an option that can work with what you already have growing in your pasture and can help improve pastures without completely starting over. This method involves planting new forages directly into an existing pasture to boost the stand’s quality, increase its diversity, help fill in gaps in the existing stand, and add some species that might be more drought tolerant. Complete renovation is for cases where the forage stand has been severely impacted, but this option may yield the highest quality forage in the long term. If doing a complete renovation reseed the field with a mix suited to the soil type and intended use. Allow the new forage to establish fully before grazing, as it needs time to build strong root systems. Complete renovation may seem intensive, but in severely depleted fields, it often provides the best chance for a productive and resilient forage stand in future seasons.

A lot can be solved with good grazing management practices. If you have been using good grazing management practices for years, you may not even have many problems this spring. Last fall I saw farms that have been using grazing management practices have pastures come out of dormancy when we got rain from Hurricane Helene, and so far, this spring I have seen those farms and others come out of dormancy and start to green up and grow without many issues. By controlling problem weeds, nutrient movement through your pastures, and knowing when to move cattle, can improve stand life in your pastures, allow you to have a longer grazing season, stockpile fields to get you through the summer slump, make less hay, or sell hay because your need of hay is down. Remember the animal goal is to eat the best tasting, most desirable plant available, and if that plant re-grows, eat it again. The plant’s goal is to reproduce itself and produce a seed head.

The last thing that I want to mention is about your infrastructure. If you have had your cattle in one place since last fall what shape are your fences in? Are you wanting to make a change to the way your paddocks are set up?  What shape are your waters in? If you want to renovate some of your infrastructure, and more specifically your paddocks try to have water in one area, shade in another, and minerals in another so your cattle will move around that paddock and utilize the pasture efficiently. If you are wanting to make a change remember that change is never easy, change is always criticized, and there is no growth without change. What is your motivation to change? Is it to reduce stress, new challenges, make or save money, or expand/downsize? Are you committed to trying something different? There will be criticism. Are you prepared for it? You will probably fail at something. Can you rebound?

Source: Ohio State University