Pasture Growth by June 22

The following table shows the growth from pastures participating in the project. The information is reported in pounds of dry matter grown per acre per day. It contains the reported results as of the posting date. Some reports may be delayed for various reasons. Previous week’s information is updated when it is received. The current table will reflect the total information available.

Weekly Pasture Growth for 2008

Week Starting	Fields sampled	Minimum	Maximum	Average
	(no.)	(pounds of DM per day)
April 6	4	18	109	53
April 13	3	18	118	59
April 20	5	26	138	73
April 27	19	20	197	72
May 4	29	28	211	114
May 11	30	12	220	92
May 18	12	15	200	88
May 25	24	14	172	71
June 1	19	7	138	45
June 8	11	9	75	46
June 15	25	1	115	29

Pasture Growth by June 15

The following table shows the growth from pastures participating in the project. The information is reported in pounds of dry matter grown per acre per day. It contains the reported results as of the posting date. Some reports may be delayed for various reasons. Previous week’s information is updated when it is received. The current table will reflect the total information available.

Weekly Pasture Growth for 2008

Week Starting	Fields sampled	Minimum	Maximum	Average
	(no.)	(pounds of DM per day)
April 6	4	18	109	53
April 13	3	18	118	59
April 20	5	26	138	73
April 27	19	20	197	72
May 4	29	28	211	114
May 11	30	12	220	92
May 18	12	15	200	88
May 25	24	14	172	71
June 1	19	7	138	45
June 8	11	9	75	46

Pasture Growth by June 8

The following table shows the growth from pastures participating in the project. The information is reported in pounds of dry matter grown per acre per day. It contains the reported results as of the posting date. Some reports may be delayed for various reasons. Previous week’s information is updated when it is received. The current table will reflect the total information available.

Weekly Pasture Growth for 2008

Week Starting	Fields sampled	Minimum	Maximum	Average
	(no.)	(pounds of DM per day)
April 6	4	18	109	53
April 13	3	18	118	59
April 20	5	26	138	73
April 27	19	20	197	72
May 4	29	28	211	114
May 11	30	12	220	92
May 18	12	15	200	88
May 25	18	14	140	68
June 1	18	7	138	46

Darke County Pasture Walk June 19

The Darke County Pasture Walk offers a unique opportunity to learn more about grazing. The June 19th educational program will be held at the farm of Michael and Dixie Thompson located at 7357 New Madison-Coletown Rd. Greenville, OH (from Greenville take SR 571 West towards Union City. Turn left on Wagner Rd. then turn left on New Madison-Coletown Rd.). The program will start at 6:30 p.m. and is open to all farmers working with any species of grazing animals.

Managing pastures for maximum forage production not only results in highest yields in terms of quantity, it also means grazing animals will consume the best quality. How do animal managers set up the finest grass/legume smorgasbord for their cattle, sheep, goats or horses? Intensive grazing and rotational grazing are terms that often come to mind, but attention paid to additional details reward farmers with improved performance.

Bob Hendershot, State Grassland Conservationist for NRCS, will lead the pasture walk, examining forage species and weeds. His comments on forage nutrient requirements, grazing paddock layout and harvest management will benefit all who attend.

Once again, anyone who grazes beef or dairy cattle, sheep, goats, horses or other animals are welcome to come, ask questions and offer their ideas. Please register by calling the Darke County OSU Extension Office at 937 548-5215 or email foster.99@osu.edu prior to June 19th.

Determining the Cost of Hay

I’ve had several conversations regarding the cost of hay recently. One person, trying to determine what to charge for essentially renting hay ground, reasoned that if the renter was going to sell small square bales for $5 or more per bale, then they ought to have at least $2 per bale as their share. Another person told me that if there is a lot of grass growing that gets made into a lot of hay then hay will again be cheap ($50-60/ton?) as in past years. The cost of producing hay can be determined from the value of nutrients removed plus the equipment costs. Whether hay is actually worth what it costs to produce it is yet another question.

According to the Ohio Agronomy Guide, each ton of grass hay removes 40 lbs of nitrogen, 13 lbs of phosphate (P₂O₅) and 50 lbs of potash (K₂O). I called two local fertilizer dealers to get prices on per ton bulk quantities. Urea (46-0-0) was quoted at $690 and $788/ton, DAP (18-46-0) was quoted at $1050 and $1375/ton and potash (0-0-60) at $600 and $665/ton. Using these prices to replace the nitrogen, phosphate and potash removed in a ton of hay resulted in a cost of between $61.41 to $70.66 per ton. Since I was using DAP to replace the phosphate removed, this also provided about 5 lbs of nitrogen. The remaining 35 lbs was replaced using urea. Besides the fertilizer cost, there should be something figured in for spreading the fertilizer. Using the 2008 Ohio Farm Custom Rates, the average cost for spreading dry bulk fertilizer is about $4.50/acre.

It is true that hay can be produced without fertilizing. I see it happen all the time here in Athens County. So, should fertilizer cost be part of determining the cost of hay? Yes, because each ton of hay removes those nutrients whether they are replaced or not. It is a matter of pay now or pay later. The soil can get mined to the point where it is no longer practical to produce hay. To restore soil to good productivity then takes a massive investment to restore soil fertility. Every year I get phone calls where people say they will fertilize in the future, or they are waiting for fertilizer to get cheaper because it is too expensive. If your soil fertility levels are good, and you are pretty sure fertilizer prices are going to decrease, then go ahead and delay fertilizing. However, you should still include some fertilizer charge into your hay cost calculation based on that future fertilization.

The next part of calculating the cost of hay production is machinery/equipment expense. I used average cost figures from the 2008 Ohio Farm Custom Rates. These rates are based on survey responses of Ohio farmers. Your own equipment costs may vary, and if you know what they are, plug those in. For those who don’t know, this is a good place to start. Mowing is valued at $11.13/acre, tedding at $6.13/acre, raking at $6.59/acre and large round bale baling and hauling at $8.81 per bale. Since we talk about hay in terms of price/ton, these per acre costs will have to get converted into costs /ton. Here is where fertility will pay some dividends. As tonnage yields increase, the machinery costs of mowing, tedding and raking decrease on a per ton basis.

Let’s consider an example where hay production is at 2 tons per acre and large round bales weigh 1000 lbs. The machinery costs are $5.56/ton for mowing, $3.07/ton for tedding, $3.29/ton for raking and $17.62/ton for baling and hauling the bales. If we need to do one tedding and one raking before baling, our total machinery cost is $29.54/ton. Adding the machinery cost to the lower of our fertilizer quotes ($61.41) results in a total hay production cost of $90.95/ton. At the higher fertilizer quote ($70.66), the cost is $100.20/ton. This does not include the cost of spreading fertilizer.

Now, it may be possible to reduce these hay production costs somewhat. You might find a better deal on fertilizer. Maybe you have an even distribution of 30% or more legumes in your hay mix, so the legumes provide nitrogen. Possibly you can spread some livestock manure that accumulated on a heavy use-feeding pad. You might be able to take out a pass with the rake if the weather is right and just tedd the hay. Maybe your machinery costs are a little lower. The point is, even with some of these conditions, hay is still going to be an expensive commodity. If you are making your own hay, these production costs are there whether that hay is mowed and baled at 15% crude protein and 65% TDN or at 7% crude protein and 48% TDN.

Then again, maybe the best situation is to find a neighbor or some other person who likes to make hay and hasn’t pushed a pencil on the costs. You just might run into a good deal.

Some Pasture Management Do's and Dont's

To this point, (end of May) the 2008 growing season has been good for the cool season forages that make up the vast majority of our pasture acreage. However, barring a very unusual year, we can expect that June and July will bring us stretches of dry weather and hot temperatures. Growth rates of cool season grass pastures will decline. Getting the most out of your pasture demands management, especially as growth rates decline. Here are some management dos and don’ts to consider as we enter the summer months:

• Don’t ignore the seed heads that have accumulated in your pasture paddocks. A plant in reproductive growth producing seeds is not putting energy into leafy growth or producing tillers to fill in thin spots in the pasture sod.
• Do clip seed heads from pasture grasses, allowing the plant to go back into vegetative growth that will result in more total forage being produced over the course of the growing season.
• Don’t ignore uneven grazing patterns in your pasture paddocks. This indicates that selective grazing is occurring, allowing some plants to be overgrazed while others are becoming too mature. In this situation, forage utilization is being compromised.
• Do consider adding more pasture divisions, more paddocks to your pasture system when uneven grazing patterns are noticed. This means you will be grazing your cattle on smaller areas, increasing the stocking density. This will reduce the amount of selective grazing that occurs. Forage utilization will increase, manure distribution will be more uniform and pasture clipping can be reduced. All positives given the high cost of forages, fertilizer and fuel.
• Don’t ignore the take half leave half principle. If this rule is violated and pastures are grazed down too low, the result is that plant root growth stops, and plant root reserves may be used to re-grow leaf tissue, diminishing the vigor of the plant root system. In addition, when adequate leaf cover is not maintained, the sun is able to penetrate to the soil surface, increasing the soil temperature and moisture evaporation from the soil. This will result in reduced plant growth.
• Do pay attention to when it is time to move the cows to a new paddock, and do provide adequate rest periods to allow a paddock to recover to proper grazing height before allowing cattle to make another grazing pass. As we get in to drier and hotter weather, grass growth rates will slow down. Rotation speed between paddocks will also have to slow down to provide the plants with a longer rest or recovery period. Consider the following charts as a guide:

Pure or Dominant Grass Pastures

Species	Pre-graze Height IN	Post-graze Height OUT
Perennial Ryegrass	6-7 inches	3 inches
Orchardgrass	8-10 inches	3-4 inches
Tall Fescue (Endophyte infected)	5-6 inches	1-2 inches
Tall Fescue (Endophyte free)	8-10 inches	3-4 inches

Grass/Legume Pastures (30% or greater legume)

Species	Pre-graze Height IN	Post-graze Height OUT
Orchardgrass/white clover	6-8 inches	2-3 inches
Tall Fescue/white clover	5-7 inches	2-3 inches
Grass/red clover	7-8 inches	2-3 inches

• Do take some time to look ahead to the summer months and have a plan for slower cool season growth rates. Will you be able to feed hay and hold cattle in a sacrifice area if grass growth stops? Can you manage your pasture rotations to slow them down and give plants an opportunity to re-grow to a proper grazing height? If you think forage will be tight, can you plant a summer annual forage like sudangrass or a sorghum x sudangrass hybrid? If so, this should be planted before mid-June.
• Finally, don’t ignore the economics of management decisions. Do take the time to analyze costs and benefits. If you can’t take advantage of the extra forage and increase in quality that is produced by clipping pasture paddocks or by putting in more pasture divisions, then these may not be good decisions.

Holmes County Pasture Walk June 11

There is a grazing dairy pasture walk at the home of Mose N. Mast in Holmes County this Wednesday evening, beginning at 7:30 p.m. The farm address is:

2973 TR 182
Baltic, OH, 43804

Chris Zoller, Extension Educator, will be presenting. Focus for this pasture walk is grazing management for dairy, weed control, and discussion of grazing annuals.

For more details, contact Grace Brewer, Holmes County OSU Extension at (330)674-3015.

Licking County Pasture Walk June 12

Whether you are a beginning or advanced grazier, if you want to learn more about rotational grazing and grass-finished beef, plan on coming to this year's first Licking County pasture walk, scheduled for June 12, beginning at 6:00 p.m, at Tom Maxwell's farm.
Tom Maxwell is a local Licking County producer who manages a rotational grazing system for his grass-finished beef operation on approximately 140 acres of pasture and hay ground. He successfully runs a management-intensive grazing system for his mostly Red Angus herd, and typically finishes about 10 head per year.
Enjoy a walk through the well-managed paddocks as we discuss with Tom his management practices for the farm. If you want valuable information about rotational grazing, this is the place to be! Refreshments will be served following the pasture walk.
Directions: From Granville, take OH-661 north for about 4.0 miles, then turn left onto Dry Creek Rd NW (Twp Hwy 10). Stay on Dry Creek Road NW for about 1.7 miles, the driveway will be on your right. The farm address is 2563 Dry Creek Rd NW, Granville. Look for signs.
Licking County pasture walks are sponsored by USDA-NRCS and Licking County SWCD. For additional details, call (740) 670-5329, or (740)452-8618.

Pasture Growth by June 1

The following table shows the growth from pastures participating in the project. The information is reported in pounds of dry matter grown per acre per day. It contains the reported results as of the posting date. Some reports may be delayed for various reasons. Previous week’s information is updated when it is received. The current table will reflect the total information available.

Weekly Pasture Growth for 2008

Week Starting	Fields sampled	Minimum	Maximum	Average
	(no.)	(pounds of DM per day)
April 6	4	18	109	53
April 13	3	18	118	59
April 20	5	26	138	73
April 27	19	20	197	72
May 4	29	28	211	114
May 11	30	12	220	92
May 18	12	15	200	88
May 25	18	14	140	68

Forages for Goats Field Day-June 28

Don't miss the Forages for Goats Field Day to be held Saturday, June 28, 2007 from 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM. This event will demonstrate how to diversify your forage base as an effective, economic, and sustainable strategy to reduce internal parasites and enhance animal performance in meat goats. Join us at Amazing Graze Boer Goat Farm, owned and operated by Mark Scarpitti and family, located at 4395 Richland Rd. NE, in the scenic rural community of Pleasantville in Fairfield County. This small farm is home to a registered Boer Goat herd comprised of sixty does, bucks, and young stock. Mark has developed a unique grazing system as a holistic approach to effectively managing the herd. This holistic system incorporates cool season and warm season forages as well as forages containing moderately high levels of condensed tannins.

This field event will feature a walking tour of grazing paddocks, a barbecue lunch, and several presentations related to designing holistic systems for meat goats.

Presentations for the day will focus on the following:
Fences, Heavy Use Pads, Composting, Water System,
Portable Housing and Paddock System Design
FAMACHA Scoring System, Fecal Egg Counts, De-worming Strategies,
Vaccinations, castration and debudding
Forage Establishment, Cool and Warm Season Forages,
Condensed Tannins-AU
Grazer Lespedeza and Birdsfoot Trefoil

For more information visit the Clinton County Extension web site, or give Tony Nye a call at 937-382-0901.