Many areas of the northern grain belt face a long and costly winter feeding period.
Harvesting, baling, storing and handling hay, as well as transporting manure are labor intensive and increase the fuel requirements and equipment inventory.
“But recent work in western Alberta has indicated there is potential for extending the grazing season by stockpiling the second growth of perennial pasture until early spring,” said Brendan Kowalenko, rangeland agrologist with the Saskatchewan Grazing and Pasture Technology Program in Unity.
He said second-growth forage sampled in the early spring in the Meadow Lake region contained 10.5 percent crude protein, with 52 percent total digestible nutrients in the grass and 42 percent total digestible nutrients in the alfalfa. Similar climates suggested to him that grazing practices similar to western Alberta could be conducted in northwest Saskatchewan, but differences in forage species and snow cover could affect suitability of the practice.
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With the support of Saskatchewan’s agriculture development fund, Kowalenko conducted a project that aimed to monitor the liveweight change of cows and calves on overwintered forage. The weight change would indicate whether this technique is suitable for extending the grazing season in northwest Saskatchewan.
A total of 25 cows and 20 yearling heifers were weighed at the beginning and end of the early spring grazing season: mid April to mid May.
The forage base was a four-year-old, 50-acre, 50-50 mixture of meadow brome and alfalfa in the Meadow Lake region. The animals were also supplied with 13 brome/alfalfa hay bales, which provided about 10 to 11 pounds per head per day of feed and bedding.
“At the conclusion of the project, both cows and yearling heifers maintained their weight, which suggests overwintered forage in combination with moderate hay supplementation provided sufficient quality feed for lactating cows in good condition.
“But the yearling heifers should have been gaining about 1.3 to 1.8 lb. per day. So yearling heifers either require a better quality ration or some supplementary grain along with the pasture,” said Kowalenko.
He said the advantages of grazing overwintered forage re-growth in the early spring include savings on the cost of stored feed. The pasture is also cleaner, which can reduce problems with scours.
Kowalenko also points out some potentially detrimental impacts of the practice. These include soil compaction and the grazing of new spring growth, which is when the forage plants are particularly sensitive to grazing. Cattle should be removed from overwintered forage fields before the onset of new growth.
He also recommends that growing animals such as yearlings not be placed on overwintered forage unless feed tests indicate both a high protein and total digestible nutrients content, or unless some additional supplement is provided.
