PASTURE MANAGEMENT: JUNE IS A TRANSITION

Rory Lewandowski, Extension Educator, Athens County, Buckeye Hills EERA

June is often a transition time for pasture management. Generally in early June moisture and temperature are still favorable for good cool season grass growth. It is also a time when grasses are maturing if seed heads have not been clipped or grazed off and, even if an earlier clipping was done to remove seed heads; there can be new seed head production. The emphasis in many pasture management systems at this time is quick rotations through pasture paddocks to try to keep up with grass growth and to try to keep seed heads grazed and/or clipped off.
As we get past mid June and into later June our weather pattern often changes. Summer has arrived. It generally becomes warmer and drier. Cool season grass growth slows down. Plants clipped in late June remain in vegetative growth. The emphasis on pasture management now must shift to reflect this change in cool season grass growth. Pasture rotations should be slowed down. Paddocks that were dropped or left out of the spring rotation can now be worked back in to the rotation.
Keep in mind the two important “R’s” of pasture management: Residual leaves and Rest period. Do not overgraze pastures as the transition is made from spring to summer. Make sure that leaf cover is left after a grazing pass. In beginning level grazing schools, we generally talk about leaving a residual of at least 4 inches of plant leaves. That leaf cover will provide the plant with a photosynthetic base to continue growing and recover more quickly from defoliation caused by grazing. The residual leaf growth will also provide shade for the soil. Shading will help to keep the soil temperature cooler as compared to exposed soil and it will help to reduce moisture loss due to hot temperatures. Cooler soil temperatures and retained moisture will help cool season grass to grow better longer into the summer period.
Rest period is simply the time it takes the cool season plant to recover or grow back to the target grazing height. Rest period is what dictates how soon a pasture paddock can be grazed again. In our beginning grazing schools we talk about an 8-10 inch beginning grazing height for most cool season pasture mixes. An endophyte infected fescue stand is an exception; and the recommended beginning grazing height is 6 inches. The rest period between grazing passes increases with cool season grasses as the transition is made from spring to summer. Slower growing grass needs a longer rest period to recover after grazing. The exact amount of time needed is related to the residual leaf cover that remains after a grazing pass. Less residual leaf cover translates into longer rest periods.
June is an important time to pay attention to cool season grass growth and make appropriate management changes as we transition from spring to summer.

Pasture Growth by May 23, 2010

The following table shows the growth from pastures participating in the project. For information about the project see the introductory post. 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 2010

Week Starting	Fields sampled	Minimum	Maximum	Average	Past 5 yr Average
	(no.)	(pounds of DM per day)
March 28	9	2.7	66	38.6	na
April 4	14	7.7	93.4	34.4	na
April 11	20	2.4	188.3	56.4	na
April 18	19	0.2	184.5	44.8	60.9
April 25	19	21.54	189.5	78.2	75.2
May 2	51	3.3	232.7	101.8	78.6
May 9	40	1	232.8	80.5	86.4
May 16	49	3.8	256	66.2	100

Pasture Growth by May 16, 2009

The following table shows the growth from pastures participating in the project. For information about the project see the introductory post. 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 2010

Week Starting	Fields sampled	Minimum	Maximum	Average	Past 5 yr Average
	(no.)	(pounds of DM per day)
March 28	9	2.7	66	38.6	na
April 4	14	7.7	93.4	34.4	na
April 11	20	2.4	188.3	56.4	na
April 18	19	0.2	184.5	44.8	60.9
April 25	19	21.54	189.5	78.2	75.2
May 2	51	3.3	232.7	101.8	78.6
May 9	39	1	232.8	78.8	86.4

Champaign County Pasture Walk – May 27, 2010 6-9PM

OSU Extension – Champaign County has a late spring pasture walk planned for May 27th, from 6-9PM.  Even though I grew up on a cow-calf operation in southern Ohio, I have forgotten most of what I knew. I have attended these Pasture Walks in Clark, Shelby, Miami and Darke counties in the past and have always learned a great deal. They are casual events held in the pasture, often with animals nearby. We usually talk about the pasture we are in, then move on to other discussions about the grazing animals or pasture settings of those who attend. We always have lots of questions, too – and address all of those.

The location for Champaign County for 2010 is 4838 Church Rd, Urbana, home of Steve and Gina Roseberry – the Roseberry Cattle Company.

We will have Bob Hendershot, USDA-NRCS Grazing Specialist speak to the group about grazing management.

* With the economics of the past couple years for both grazing livestock and forages, many should benefit from Bob’s discussion on pasture species, planning for grazing, fencing, water availability and animal management.

The Roseberry’s are revamping their operation. They bought the property 12 years ago and are converting the operation from a grain farm to a pasture, hay and livestock farm. The farm originally had no facilities for animals so they are building their infrastructure from scratch. Recently added: pond with plans for a solar pump, fencing, and lots of new seedings. They also have plans for a barn.
* They are running a cow-calf operation or can run stocker cattle.
* They also train cattle horses.
* Sell natural beef by the whole, half or quarter.
* Website: www.roseberrycattlecompany.com  

Ron Nieman of the Champaign office of USDA-NRCS has worked with the Roseberrys on planned livestock improvements and will share with the group his perspective on federal EQIP support for practices. Members of the Champaign County Soil & Water Conservation District office plan to be in attendance as well.

Area OSU Extension educators will also be on hand to assist and to promote their Pasture for Profit programs.

All local grazers should plan to attend, no reservations needed, May 27th from 6-9PM. The location is 4838 Church Rd, Urbana - hosted by Steve and Gina Roseberry – watch for the OSU Extension Field Day direction signs leading to the site. Other events will be posted on: http://ohioforages.blogspot.com/  
Directions: travel northwest from Urbana on SR 29, to Church Road, turn left (south) and go to 4838 Church Rd on the west side of the road – look for signs. As an alternate route from the south, you can take Church Road north from SR 560.

Harold Watters, OSU Extension in Champaign County. Contact 937 484-1526, or watters.35@osu.edu.
http://champaign.osu.edu - our county Extension website.

All educational programs conducted by Ohio State University Extension are available to clientele on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender, age, disability or Vietnam-era veteran status.

Athens Area Grazing Council Meetings

The May and June Athens Area Grazing Council meetings are set. The May meeting will be held on Tuesday evening May 25 at the Athens County Extension office, located at 280 West Union Street behind the Athens Health Department on the Athens County Fairgrounds. Rory Lewandowski will be presenting a program with photos from the OSU Extension Sheep team trip to Australia. The meeting will begin at 6:30 pm. There should also be time to talk about current pasture and grazing conditions.
The June meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening June 17 at 6:30 pm. The meeting will be hosted by Scott Pfeiffer. Scott and Joanne Pfeiffer are vocational agriculture instructors at the Federal Hocking High School and they maintain a herd of shorthorn beef cattle. Their farm is located at 4315 Marion Johnson Road, outside of Albany in Athens County.
Over the past couple of years, Scott has been involved with the pasture and grassland FFA contest, and at the meeting on June 17 there will be some learning stations taken from the FFA pasture and grasslands contest. I’ll have more details and information about the evening posted on the Athens County Extension web site on the grazing news page as we get closer to the meeting date. That page is located at:http://athens.osu.edu/topics/agriculture-and-natural-resources/grazing

Pasture Growth by May 9, 2010

The following table shows the growth from pastures participating in the project. For information about the project see the introductory post. 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 2010

Week Starting	Fields sampled	Minimum	Maximum	Average
	(no.)	(pounds of DM per day)
March 28	8	2.7	64.9	35.2
April 4	13	7.7	93.4	31.9
April 11	19	2.4	188.3	53.4
April 18	18	0.2	184.5	43.7
April 25	16	21.54	143.6	69.7
May 2	47	3.3	222.9	99.8

Pasture Measurement Project 2010

The Ohio Pasture Measurement Project is in full swing for 2010. For more details about this project check out the original post. Basiclly, this project involves graziers measuring the same pasture field every week using a commercially available rising plate meter and reporting the measurement. We then calculate how much the pasture is growing during that week. (The specific plate meter we are using is made by Jenquip and available through Eagle Dairy Direct.) Results will be posted on this blog.

This year we have over 29 volunteers measuring their pasture.

2010 Pasture Measurement Locations