Well-managed pastures keep operational costs down and increase beef production and profits. To be profitable, cow-calf and background operations should be structured around productive grazing systems instead of winter feeding systems.
Grant Lastiwka, a pasture specialist with Alberta Agriculture, said the University of Manitoba surveyed producers across Western Canada who changed from traditional pasture use to rotational grazing systems. Eighty percent of producers reported that livestock had a greater average weight gain, 91 percent reported greater pasture production quantity, 88 percent reported better pasture forage quality and 53 percent reported lower overwintering costs.
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The gains came with a cost. Eighty-three percent of respondents reported greater labour requirements, and 86 percent said they spent more time planning.
But for that investment, 88 percent reported that net farm income from their livestock enterprise was greater than under their previous grazing management system.
In research conducted by the Western Forage Beef Group at Lacombe, Alta., rejuvenated and well-managed old-grass pasture produced more than twice the animal carrying capacity compared to similar old-grass pasture without management.
Well-managed pastures increased production in the seven years studied and showed less variation from year to year, in contrast to continuously grazed, low-input, old-grass pasture.
Grazing costs about half that of feeding stored winter feeds. In WFBG research, swath grazing instead of winter feeding offered a savings of 60 cents per day.
This figure was supported by an Alberta Agriculture producer survey. Savings should be similar with a stockpiled pasture, but could be slightly more or less, depending on yields.
Snow concerns could be a reason why some cattle aren’t grazed longer, but snow does not become a factor in grazing systems until it is too deep or crusted for cattle to graze through.
Usually snow does not reach that point until sometime after traditional winter feeding has started on most farms or ranches. In spring, snow leaves by about mid-April, yet on most farms, most cattle are fed through mid-April, after the snow has melted. Therefore, the lack of pasture left for grazing in fall and early spring may be the issue.
The question then becomes how to produce more grass on existing pastures with less variability from year to year. The answer lies in rejuvenating pastures through the use of pasture assessments to identify problems.
Weed control, fertility and rotational grazing management can be used to rejuvenate the pastures and produce more forage, which means more animals can be grazed or each animal can be grazed longer on the same amount of acres.
A pasture that producers can count on is a must for the low-cost, high-profit beef producer. The only way to achieve this is through pasture rejuvenation and planned grazing methods.
