Ranchers have found that new strategies,including permanent watering systems, have boosted hayland performance
ELMWOOD, Ont. — Landowners who want to harness the full potential of forages may need to venture beyond the ordinary, says the co-ordinator of the North Dakota Lands Coalition.
Joshua Dukart, who spoke here March 17, cited the example of four North Dakota ranchers.
Todd McPeak of Driscoll used to maintain both pastureland and hayland. Today, the line between the two has blurred.
“This is what he told me. He said, ‘my hayland is not going to be called hayland anymore. It’s going to be pastureland that I hay once in a while.’ ”
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The change came after McPeak noticed that the resilience of his hay ground had deteriorated, particularly in drought-stressed years.
Dukart said too much forage had been taken, and too little was being returned.
McPeak began to fence and install permanent watering systems on his hayland. He also reduced his over-wintering costs by keeping cattle on pasture longer.
“Having dung, urine, saliva and hoofprints provides a different dynamic than the cutting bar. Now he has hayland that’s coming back around,” Dukart said.
“Production has tripled over the past three years.”
McPeak tries to keep his cattle on the land throughout the year. Hay is baled on the weakest field and additional bales are brought in.
This provides adequate feed, and the dung and tramped hay return fertility to the soil.
He has combined his winter bale feeding strategy with snow windbreaks. Several are built in succession, moving toward the prevailing wind. Hay is supplied in their lee.
Jerry Doan of Black Leg Ranch near McKenzie combines a cow-calf operation with cover crops, cash crops, wildlife habitat and agri-tourism.
Changes have been made in an effort to accommodate children who have decided to return to the farm. Stocking rates have tripled over the past few years.
The farm has 1,500 acres of cropland, and as much as 300 acres has been devoted to a multi-species cover crop, which Dukart said serves multiple purposes on the farm.
Hunters are brought in to control the wildlife that are attracted to the cover crop, largely deer and fowl.
The cover crop is then grazed during late fall and into winter. The vertical structure enhances cattle’s ability to reach plants through the snow.
The strategy allows Dukart to maintain several hundred dry cows on the pasture with an estimated savings of $100,000. The cows had previously been kept near the farmstead and fed hay.
“He told me it felt really weird not having to start up a tractor to feed those cattle,” Dukart said.
Sandy Richter of Menoken is working with cover crop cocktails to improve his sandy soil.
Dukart said the strategy provides an opportunity to increase plant diversity on the farm. Richter uses only warm season grasses and broadleaf species, such as millet, cowpeas, soybeans, turnip, oilseed radish, sunflower and sweet clover. The mix is grazed but not too heavily.
Dukart said 141 cow-calf pairs were once left on 72 acres of the mix from Oct, 1-17. The calves gained 3.1 pounds a day for a total gain of 52 lb. apiece, and the cows gained body condition.
Soil health also benefited, and some of the permanent pasture could be rested for a longer period.
Ron Hein of Wing tries to graze cattle 365 days a year, and uses four strategies to accomplish that goal.
- Forages are stockpiled for winter grazing.
- Cover crops and crop residues are grazed.
- Swath grazing can better maintain the quality of standing forages if managed correctly.
- Cattle are also bale grazed.
Hein’s overall philosophy is to provide supplemental feed over the winter months rather than confining cattle in one place and supplying them with stored feed.
The system involves moving electric fences at relatively short intervals.
Hein culls cows to develop a herd better adapted to his system. These tend to be thrifty rather than geared to high production.
He’s also moved to a May to June calving schedule. The calves are left with the cows until the following spring, which allows them to learn from their mothers how to forage under winter conditions.
“Since he changed his system around, his cows have had no problem calving,” Dukart said.
The cow-calf pairs are turned into a cover crop in the spring, and the cows are then pulled off and the calves left. Several producers in the area have adopted this practice, Dukart said.
Swath grazing can work well and provide better forage than a standing crop, but it requires cutting the forage at the right time.
Bale grazing is used as a last resort. Hein turns his cattle into a field where the forage was baled and additional bales added.
Dukart said the cattle tend to eat more than normal when a storm is expected and then huddle together to wait out the poor weather.
