What kind of grades would you get for managing your grazing system if there were report cards for graziers? Would you be satisfied with “D’s”? At a recent Athens Area grazing council meeting, host Curt Cline talked about a grazier’s report card. According to Curt, D’s are what graziers should strive for in grading their [...]
>I had an opportunity to travel with the Ohio State University Extension sheep team to Australia March 24 –April 9. Our group of 17 consisted of sheep farmers, extension educators, and extension specialists. Australia visit. We had the opportunity to visit a number of sheep farms, a few dairy farms, a couple of vineyards and [...]
A small farm livestock owner recently asked me about the benefit of pasture aeration and the application of fertilizer and lime. To answer the question, I had to do some review of studies that investigated pasture aeration and fertilization. That started me thinking about soil quality, pasture condition and the effect that pasture management might [...]
The hot dry weather that typically accompanies the months of July and August reduces the growth and production of cool season pasture grasses. It can be a challenging time to balance forage supplies, pasture health and livestock numbers. One option that some graziers use to fill in this summer slump period is warm season forages. [...]
In the last “About Grazing” column, Chris Penrose wrote about some early season grazing management. In this column, I want to continue that theme and examine the strategies of set stocking vs. rotation to begin the grazing season. There is a saying that goes “Well begun is half done.” It implies that how a project [...]
Let me paint you a winter pasture management picture. Here sits our grazier, indoors next to a cozy wood stove fire while the farm’s livestock graze contentedly on stockpiled forages and… what? Oh yeah, that’s right, once again we had a dry fall period and instead of being able to stockpile forage growth, we actually [...]
October signals the coming end to our pasture-growing season. In some cases the growing season equals the grazing season. When pasture growth ends, so does the grazing. However, for those graziers who have managed their pastures and watched over pasture health, the grazing season extends beyond the growing season.
Summer grazing management is generally about slowing paddock rotations and providing the grass plant with an adequate recovery period before another grazing pass is made. As if that were not enough of a management challenge, the pasture-based sheep and goat producer faces another twist on top of that. They must also manage summer grazing schedules [...]
The high cost of fertilizers has led some graziers to conclude that they can no longer afford to fertilize their pastures. Forage has now become an expensive feed. With hay prices expected to remain high in the foreseeable future, forage produced in a pasture situation becomes more valuable, as well. The question might well be: [...]
