From The Pastures: High forage quality

Even though my stockpiled grass forage is short, about half way up my shin, it’s lasting longer this year than it did last year. Last year, the forage was almost waist high. I also have one farm to graze yet that I’m not going to get to because it’s time to bring the ewe’s home and give the rams their Christmas present!

I think the quality of the forage is higher than in the past due to the drought. What I lack in quantity, I make up with in quality. The ewes’ body condition scores are between 3.0 and 3.5, so they have just the right amount of fat on them for breeding.

I plan on starting to unroll hay in about two weeks; I still have a lot of stockpiled cover crops to feed before I start feeding hay. The replacement ewe lambs and the breeding rams have been eating the stockpiled cover crops at home for a month and I’ll put the ewe flock in that field also to graze all of that down before starting to feed any hay. That should put me at Jan. 1.

Jan. 23-24 is the Driftless Region Beef Conference in Dubuque, Iowa. Also on Jan. 23-25 is the GrassWorks Grazing Conference in the Wisconsin Dells — always a lot of fun for graziers and their familes. Then on March 11-12 is the Illinois Grazing Lands Conference titled “Maximizing Every Acre with Managed Grazing” at the Northfield Inn in Springfield, Illinois. Southern Indiana Grazing Conference is in Odon, Indiana, on March 26. For more detailed information, go to www.ilgrazinglands.org.

Have a merry Christmas and a happier New Year!