TIMELY TIPS September 2023

Fall chores, preparing for winter

There’s so much to consider when managing a farm, and when you’re doing it using regenerative practices, that list seems to grow exponentially in the fall.  In this newsletter, I’ll cover how to manage your pastures for optimum growth and soil health. We’ll look at everything from evaluating your soil structure to fall mowing, hay feeding, seeding, tree selection, and calculating your hay needs. 

PASTURE WALK

Our next Pasture Walk is set for October 19, 2023.  I have held this pasture walk at Big Spring Farm for 25 years and my father held them here before me. This year, we moved our grass-fed dairy here to the farm and added dairy sheep to the mix.  We’ve increased the goat herd and are in the process of taming the CRP ground that goes into production this year after 15 years of rest.  We’ve built a new dairy barn, and Brayden will be converting much of the CRP wilderness to dairy pasture.  We’ll be adding the walnut silvopasture to the tour this year. 

See this year’s flyer here. 

MANAGING PASTURES FOR OPTIMUM GROWTH

This time of year, we focus on managing tall fescue and other cool season forages, including orchard grass, brome grass, brassicas, and legumes.  Plant growth is very dependent on leaf area and carbohydrate reserves.  Carbohydrate reserves for regrowth are typically in the plant base, stolon, and/or rhizome; this is how the plant maintains energy for future growth.  Ideally, keeping a minimum height of 4” will maintain those carbohydrate reserves, and you’ll see optimum growth.

Since animals don’t graze evenly, base your rotation on protecting your most desirable forages.  The number of leaves on the grass is very important.  Many folks recommend grazing at the 3-leaf stage, so there will be three pointed leaves per plant with a leaf sheath around the stem.  I strive to keep three or more leaves on each plant.  They will generally grow till they have five leaves per plant, then they begin to brown out and shade green leaves below.  We don’t want that.  Keeping three leaves on every plant will maintain grass in a vegetative state (high leaf-to-stem ratio) for the optimum balance of production and palatability.

SOIL HEALTH

Dig a little learn a lot.  You don’t have to dig over 4” to learn a lot about your soil and your management’s effects on the living environment below the grass.  Hopefully, the soil surface is covered with residue and abundant worm castings.  You’ll see an increase in worm activity when temperatures are moderate and moisture is present.  What you want to see next is a granular soil with lots of pore space.   Pore space is essential for soil life to thrive, moisture and nutrient holding, and air exchange.  If the soil is in flat layers, known as platy soil, that’s a sign that it didn’t have enough cover when it was grazed, or the livestock stayed too long on that paddock, which is probably why the soil was bare.  You can find a good example of a platy structured soil next to a trail but look under an old manure pile where grass is growing for an example of good soil structure.

Roots are always the answer to improving soil compaction, not tillage.  A long recovery time of 60-90 days can do wonders because roots and soil life are at work during the grass recovery time.

ESTIMATING HAY NEEDS

If you buy your hay, it’s best to buy it now.  The big question is,” How much will I need?”  Feeding 60 days or less is typically ideal, but if you’re overstocked relative to your management and are unable to stockpile even a bit of grass, you may find you’ll need to feed for the full 180 days or more.  How do you know?  Experience is one way, but it is best to do the math because every year is going to be a little bit different.  I’ve put together a post on my website to show the detailed calculations for anyone interested.  

Feeding hay in the Fall

Always inventory plant communities to decide where hay feeding needs to happen.  Feed on undesirable vegetation or where soil fertility is lacking.  Soil testing can help with that decision.

While there are many different strategies for renovating pastures, you first need to know your goal for your pastures.  Do you need to get rid of an invasive like nimblewill, or is it to establish a perennial in an annual stand of crabgrass or ragweed? 

The typical ways to renovate involve herbicide or tillage.  This is a time when you need to choose your evil carefully; they will both have severe negative effects on the soil.  For a more regenerative approach to changing the plant community, I encourage farmers to look to high-density grazing instead and then feed hay on that area until all the vegetation is impacted.  I’m not particularly eager to pug land deeper than the three inches of a cow hoof, but pugging may be enough to turn the plant community around.

When you need a good stand quickly, seeding is always an option.   It’s always good to start with annuals since that’s how nature renovates, with succession.  Annual ryegrass is a great smoother plant, and I like to plant a small grain like barley, oats, or triticale in the mix to provide production over a longer period of time.  You can add more species for diversity, such as one pound of buckwheat, one pound of turnips, or radish, but be careful with brassicas like radishes because they can smother other species.

Mowing

September is the most important time of the year to mow pastures to keep light to desirable grass or get grass to germinate if you don’t have a good stand.  The window of time is rather tight because if you delay, you are missing potential time for growing grass for winter.  The ideal time to clip is within five days after grazing.  Longer than that, and you may want to delay clipping till after the next grazing.  The quandary is always whether to mow low to control more weeds or to preserve more grass by mowing high.

Seeding (order seed if needed)

When you start to think about seeding, always inventory what you have first.  Tall fescue plants 6” apart with three tillers can be managed for full coverage.  It’s a good plan to seed cool-season grass in the fall.  It’s best to plant perennials alone, without the competition of annuals, and then add legumes in February or March.  If seeding into warm season vegetation, I delay planting till the end of September with hopes that a frost in mid-October will knock the warm season vegetation back, releasing the cool season plants.

Trees (now’s the time to order)

Now’s the time to order trees if you need shade or are planning for silvopasture.  Consider trees that can tolerate compaction, make a food crop, timber, etc.  Until trees are 15’ or taller, they’ll need substantial protection from damage from animals.  The easiest place to protect young trees is a single row around  40’ apart down an existing fence line about 2.5’ away from the fence.  Run a second fence 2.5’ away from the trees.   A single wire will be sufficient for cattle, but sheep and goats will need two-strand fences placed about 8” and 26” from the ground (3^rd clip from the bottom and 3^rd clip from the top on O’Brien’s posts.)

When choosing trees for your pastures, look for the pros and cons.  Tulip poplars are great for quick shade but are prone to have limbs in the open.  Oaks are tolerant of compaction and have good timber value.  Standard fruit trees provide fruit, but they’re not great for shade.  Sugar maples provide great shade but are sensitive to compaction.  I like walnuts for shade in the pasture because although they’re somewhat slow-growing and need fairly good soil for good growth, they are the last to put on leaves and the first to drop them.   Loblolly pines are fast-growing and tolerant of compaction, and although honey locust is thornless, I don’t recommend them since their progeny will likely have thorns.  Many folks are planting new varieties of chestnuts as they are a good food source and provide some shade.  You can alternate species if you like.  Keep in mind the benefits of silvopasture are stacking enterprises on the same land.  Providing several trees for shade allows livestock to spread out in the pasture, distributing nutrients throughout the pasture and allowing for more uniform grazing.  Grass will have higher palatability is higher, but grass yield can drop if light to the ground is less than 50% for cool-season grasses or 60% for warm-season grasses.  

Weaning calves

Most regenerative-minded producers leave calves on the cow for ten months, but it is most dependent upon the cow’s body condition score (BCS).  If she is a 5 or 6 (moderate condition), leave them on, but if you can see more than three ribs, that’s a BCS of 4, and you’ll need to wean the calf.  If several of your cows have a BCS of 4, you need to change management or cull those cows.  

I prefer fence line weaning away from the road and somewhere in the middle of the farm.  I like the cow and calf to be able to touch noses, and a multiwire fence with bar gates works well.  If they are trying to get through the gate, you put a hot wire across the gate so they can’t put pressure on it.  

If your animals are used to rotation, let the calves in a good grass field under a hot wire, then lower the wire or close the gate and keep the cows on a grazed pasture.  Having access to too much good grass at this time will produce more milk and can cause a strutted udder and mastitis.  They will likely bawl for about three days and then get used to the idea.  Fenceline weaning reduces stress on both the mother and calf, and we find that we have very little bawling.  It only takes about 30 days for the cow to dry up, but we like to wait the full 60 days before putting them back together.  A multiwire hot fence is my preference for keeping them apart.

As a farmer, I always try to keep in mind that the name of this newsletter is Timely Tips, and for good reason. Timing is key in agriculture, and there's no better time to prepare for the winter than in the fall. It's crucial to make the most of this season to ensure a successful winter season. By taking the necessary steps now, we can avoid any potential problems and make sure our farm is ready for whatever the winter brings. 

Hope to see you at the pasture walk. 

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.

EVENTS

October 19, Big Spring Farm Pasture Walk, Adolphus, KY RSVP

October 31, Kentucky Grazing Conference, Low-Stress Livestock Handling, Elizabethtown, KY, UKForageExtension@uky.edu

November 1, Kentucky Grazing Conference, Low-Stress Livestock Handling, Lexington, KY, UKForageExtension@uky.edu

February 15, Grazing for Profit, Harriman, TN (865) 248-3159,

See Debbie’s website for more information on our products and direct marketing.  Rivercottagefarm.com