LENORE, Man. — Cow plops can tell you something about the condition of a pasture. So can things like earthworms, the amount of bare soil and the soil colour.
Don Green, a Manitoba Agriculture forage specialist, looks at these when assessing pasture condition. His assessment is thorough, as demonstrated during a tour with cattle producers near Lenore on June 20.
He carefully notes the location of each site in the pasture that he visits during the assessment. Then he can return to the same sites on future visits when trying to decide whether the pasture is improving.
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Green also takes note of factors like the time of year, whether the pasture has been recently grazed and what the weather was like.
Livestock trails are noted, as well. The trails may be the favoured route to a water source, but there may also be pastures where the grass closer to the trails is being more heavily grazed than other areas of the field.
Once he has all those details jotted down, Green takes a closer look at the ground. He identifies the types of plants growing there and their stages of growth.
He takes clippings of the grass for weighing. He clips the grass no lower than what it would be grazed by the cattle.
Green then looks at the surface and gauges how much bare soil is present. His rule is that a healthy pasture usually has less than 10 percent bare patches.
He studies the amount of litter on the soil surface. The older leaves trashing the surface help hold in moisture. Litter can also break the impact of raindrops and allow moisture to trickle into the ground rather than running off. Too much litter can smother plants, Green wrote in a booklet provided during the tour.
He also tries to learn more about the pasture’s nutrient cycle. He digs into the soil and looks for earthworms, which are often a sign of a healthy nutrient cycle.
Darker coloured soils tend to be a good sign, he said, because they can indicate higher amounts of organic matter and good nutrient cycling.
During the pasture tour, Green also drew attention to cow patties. These can tell producers a lot about the condition of a pasture. According to Green, manure in a healthy pasture will be broken down within a year. Patties that linger much longer may be a sign of a slow nutrient cycle.
“What it means is the nutrients are stranded on the soil surface and are not available to the plants. The nutrients are trapped inside the manure.”
At the end of his assessment, Green tallies up the points for each of the sites he has examined. The points are based on things like the type of plants present and whether they are desirable or undesirable in terms of pasture productivity. Points are also based on percentage of plant cover on the soil, litter cover and litter depth, earthworms, livestock trails, and how well the manure is cycled into the soil.
After changes have been made, follow-up assessments can help reveal whether they were beneficial.
