August is a key time to be planning for stockpiling forage for winter grazing, either in fescue or bermudagrass-based systems. It seems like a long time to winter, but spending time now thinking through what you need to purchase, and how daily management will impact your ultimate forage yields is critical if you want to optimize your opportunity for winter grazing.
In fescue-based systems nearly all producers should be planning to stockpile part of their acreage for use during the winter. Stockpiling is simply accumulating forage growth and deferring grazing from when the forage is “ready to graze” (about 6-8 weeks of regrowth) until much later when it is needed. In the autumn this works especially well for tall fescue as it is the most resilient of our forages to weather and maintains its quality well into winter. In North Carolina we have been researching fescue stockpiling systems for many years, and it is a practice that I would never want to do without on my home farm in Southern Virginia.
Our on-farm research on 22 farms showed that after applying 54 lbs of nitrogen per acre to pastures about September 1, yield by early December averaged 2542 lbs of available forage per acre, and this provided 105 cow grazing days per acre during the winter grazing season. It is important to note that on these farms care was taken with the stockpiling process. Pastures were clipped or grazed and then rested during the month of August, and grazing was deferred until December or later.
Of course, your yield will be dependent on timely rainfall, but doing everything right including getting fertilizer out on time and given the grass a rest ahead of time will help make use of the rain when it does come. If you continuously graze pastures it is critical to note that cattle must be removed from these pastures about a month before fertilization if you want to get a successful stockpile.
The best fields to stockpile will be mostly tall fescue (other grasses and especially clover decay more rapidly than fescue), and fertility status (including pH) should be adequate to support good forage growth. Nitrogen has traditionally been recommended at between 50 and 100 lbs per acre, but producers need to consider both the cost of nitrogen, and the ability of their land to produce without supplemental nitrogen when making a decision on application rate.
Source of nitrogen is often discussed, and the least expensive source (30% liquid urea/ammonium nitrate or UAN) may not be the best choice for autumn applications. The reason for this is not well understood but it has been speculated that burning of the green leaves can set the plants back for several weeks which can make a big difference in the amount of forage accumulated.
Urea is another less expensive source of nitrogen, but it also has it’s limitations. Urea can be hydrolyzed on the surface of the soil in hot dry weather resulting in the loss of nitrogen as ammonia gas. A good rain immediately following application can reduce the problem of burn with UAN and the volatilization from Urea, so if you use those sources they should be applied right before a rain if at all possible.
The nitrogen source of choice for stockpiling in the past was ammonium nitrate, but because of public safety concerns it is no longer widely available to farmers. In its place, many suppliers have developed a formula of granular 34% N that is a mix of ammonium sulfate and urea. This product spreads like ammonium nitrate, but also provides significant sulfur which may be needed in some situations. Be aware, however, that ammonium sulfate is among the most acidifying of nitrogen fertilizers, so expect an increased need for lime where it is applied.
Many producers have also used a lot of poultry litter, biosolids, or have a good rotational grazing system with substantial legumes. Each of these situations may result in a lot of nitrogen cycling in the soil. Sometimes, there is nearly as much yield without nitrogen application as one might expect with the addition of N, so in those cases farmers would benefit from not applying nitrogen at all. In a study conducted several years ago with Dr. Alan Franzluebbers we found many farms with a high level of grazing management could not economically justify applying supplemental nitrogen.
As stated earlier, the stockpiling process should start with clipping or grazing in August followed by at least 2 weeks of rest before the nitrogen application. Pastures that have been grazed short during summer (to less than 3 inches) should be rested for 4 weeks prior to the nitrogen application. The nitrogen fertilization should occur in mid-August in the most northern and mountainous parts of Virginia, and in the mountains of North and South Carolina. In the Piedmont, application of nitrogen should occur near September 1 and in the Coastal Plain regions it should be in mid-September. This will allow for at least 60 days of good growth before cool weather slows the forage accumulation.
Once forage is accumulated, you should wait until December or later to graze, after the toxin levels in KY31 decline. This is sometimes a stumbling point for producers that may be out of grass before then, but if you will change your thinking about this, autumn is actually not a bad time to do some hay feeding before going to the stockpiled grazing at a later date.
At my home farm in the southern Piedmont of Virginia, we generally save most of our stockpile for after the holidays when we know ergot alkaloid toxin levels have declined, and when we would rather be grazing than feeding hay. We fertilize September 1, then accumulate forage until just before Christmas and then try to have forage to graze through the end of February. We rotationally graze pastures not targeted to stockpiling during the autumn, and will start unrolling some hay when those pastures are mostly utilized. We often will feed hay for the first 30 days of calving (from mid-October to mid-November) which helps us with our calving management. This allows stockpile to accumulate, and also makes for a short 30 to 45-day winter hay feeding period during March in a normal year.
One new development is Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue which doesn’t accumulate the ergot toxins, so it can be grazed before the holidays without problems. If you have established some novel fescue then you can graze those stockpiled fields first, and then move to KY31 later. Research at NCSU has shown that Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue is as productive and as resilient in a stockpiling system as is Toxic Tall Fescue.
Frontal Grazing. Frontal grazing is a critical management tool for getting the most out of stockpiled forage. Giving cattle strips with no more than 3 days of forage available will stretch grass by preventing the damage and decay of forage the cattle don’t yet need. The slow rate of regrowth means you don’t need to use a back fence, simplifying the process. Also, the systematic management of the cows with frequent movement calms them down, makes them easy to check and count, and just in general makes them easier to deal with.
As you get started with frontal grazing you will find that it is actually quite an easy process, but you do need to have an eye for animal behavior and residual forage amount to get the best results. In our research we have typically targeted an 85% utilization of the available forage (down to a 2 inch stubble height), and that is very efficient and works great for cows, but we have always thought it might limit the performance of growing animals. Recently we published a three year study that showed that giving a more liberal forage allowance than we usually provide (about 25% more available grazing) reduced the animal grazing days we got out of the pasture, but improved the gains on replacement heifers by about 0.25 pound per head per day.
In that same study we found that providing a protein tub to the heifers improved their performance by a similar amount as the extra forage allocation. The combination of the two were additive such that supplemented heifers that were given extra grass and a protein tub gained about 0.50 lbs per head per day more which can make a real difference to a developing heifer.
Bermudagrass can also be stockpiled for autumn grazing, so in systems with a bermudagrass base plan on fertilizing with 50 lb/acre of nitrogen in late August after a grazing or hay cutting, and allow the forage to accumulate for about 6 weeks. Then, instead of taking a last hay cut, frontal graze the pastures as described for stockpiled fescue. These pastures will deteriorate rapidly once freezing temperatures arrive, but it can provide good grazing for cows through about the middle of November. It is critical in bermudagrass systems to remove the old summer growth through grazing or cutting of hay as that old material will be of very low nutritive value once autumn grazing begins.
August is time to think about your winter feed supply and to prepare for stockpiling forage. Whether your system is based on tall fescue or bermudagrass, stockpiling for fall and winter grazing can really help reduce your hay feeding bill.
For more information on stockpiling tall fescue plan on attending an educational webinar presented by Dr. Miguel Castillo at NCSU on October 2, 2024 from 3 to 4 pm. For registration go to this link: https://go.ncsu.edu/efsme8b. Or, go to the NCSU forage program website, https://forages.ces.ncsu.edu
~ Matt Poore, NC State and Chair of the Alliance for Grassland Renewal. Article reprinted from Carolina Cattle Connection, August 2024
The Alliance for Grassland Renewal is a national organization focused on enhancing the appropriate adoption of novel endophyte tall fescue technology through education, incentives, self-regulation and promotion. For more resources or to learn more about the Alliance for Grassland Renewal, go to www.grasslandrenewal.org
The Alliance for Grassland Renewal 