From the Barns: Key teaching points

It appeared as though we were going to have a repeat of our luck with weather for our Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition Pasture Walk scheduled for Dec. 9 here at River Oak. We always seem to bring rain when we schedule. Well, it did rain three-tenths of an inch the night before, but Dec. 9 turned out to be a good day with some sun and reasonable temperature.

We were almost overwhelmed with the attendance, 45 hardy grazers wanting to find out more about winter grazing. We were not able to move on the hayracks, but doing some walking and then driving everyone to our south 20 and in worked OK. I will repeat my main teaching points here for review by those attending and new for you readers who did not make it:

• Stockpiled fescue is the forage of choice at least in this part of the world. It should be stored starting about Aug. 1 and not later than Sept. 1. This gives you around six weeks of growth before the first hard freezes, so that photosynthesis ends and plants store sugar for some outstanding grazing. Usually, this is around 8 to 10 inches of growth, although, not so much this year due to the drought.

• When you are ready to graze, most likely around Nov. 15, you can do so with few concerns about what you are leaving behind. The tall fescues are very hardy and will withstand overgrazing.

• And you are thinking ahead to the next spring when you want to have as little competition as possible for frost seeding a red or white clover into the paddock.

• So, for the only time of the grazing season that you would do that, not taking half and leaving half, you are completely taking all the fescue you can, making the cows eat each clump right down to the ground. So, the pounds of dry matter per acre is high and you will be using each paddock longer than expected.

• You do need to be observant and look out for heavy rain or snow that would result in pugging and permanent damage to the paddock.

• I did mention cows only, simply because they do the best work in grazing the fescue down tight. The 12 years that we had only heifers here at River Oak cost us an overaggressive fescue crop that resulted in less and less success with frost seeding. Now that we are back to cows exclusively, our red clover is making a comeback.

• Follow all this aggressive grazing with 3 to 4 pounds of red clover per acre in February frost seeded.

• Since another of the great things about winter grazing is a heavy distribution of manure pats throughout the paddocks, not just in the shade or near a water source, follow that with an aggressive harrow that spreads out the thawed pats and leaves the paddocks looking great and awaiting the spring moisture that will have you ready to begin grazing again around mid-April.

• When you do begin grazing again you will want to flash graze, moving rapidly to allow recovery and growth of your frost seeded clover.

And, of course, with the drought-shortened stockpile this year, we are winding down our winter grazing. Part of the 120 head we have had here will be calving soon, so Carson will be moving them into his brand new building. The spring/April calvers will probably stay here for the rest of the winter and have a harvested feed diet.

I will be repeating an alert to place on your calendars. The Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition, the new voice of grazing in our state, will be hosting a late winter grazing conference in Springfield at the Northfield on March 12-13.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Allen Williams from Mississippi. As some of you may remember, Allen spent a lot of time in Illinois working with us on the Illinois Grazing Project. I have the greatest respect for him and always am learning when he is doing the talking. So, plan on taking that in and look for details as they come out in the coming months.

Happy New Year! Stay safe and sane as winter storms come and go!