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Donkey development xmlspear6/28/2023 ![]() Using reasonable estimates in the formula, tempered with good judgment, can give a fairly accurate estimate of the pounds of animal live weight each acre can be expected to support. Length of the grazing season is how many days that pasture is expected to feed the herd. The range is typically from about 2% for maintenance up to 4% for first calf heifers in low body condition. Intake is daily forage requirement expressed as percent of bodyweight or pounds of forage per pound of animal live weight. As travel distance to water increase beyond a quarter to half mile, depending on environment, grazing efficiency begins to decline. In rangeland environments, annual utilization rate should usually be kept to less than 60%. Missouri research has shown seasonal utilization rate on tame pastures can be increased to 65 to 70% with grazing periods of 3-4 days and up to 85 to 90% when grazing periods are less than two days. ![]() Research from many different forage systems around the world indicates that 35 to 50% of forage grown in a season is actually consumed by the grazing livestock in a continuous grazing situation. less than 4 days) can significantly increase seasonal utilization rate. As grazing periods become longer, more forage is wasted due to manure fouling and camping. Two primary factors determine utilization, length of the grazing period and spatial grazing distribution. Seasonal utilization rate represents the percentage of the annual forage production that is actually consumed by the grazing animal. Forage production can be affected through management practices such as fertilization, interseeding, and planned grazing, as well as stocking rate itself. (Forage Production X Seasonal Utilization)įorage production is the annual forage dry matter yield and is expressed as lb forage/acre. There is a basic relationship between pasture and animal factors that can be used to estimate appropriate stocking rate using this formula: We don’t always have the luxury, nor can we afford that level of education. The best way to determine the appropriate stocking rate is through years of experience on a particular piece of pasture. Dry fall cows is my favorite because they offer the greatest spring and summer pasture management opportunities due to their low nutrient requirements. On our operation we have run steers, beef replacement heifers, dry fall calving cows, spring cow-calf pairs, as well as horses.Īnything that will eat grass and someone will pay you to maintain can be used as contract grazers. Most people immediately think of growing steers as contract animals, but there are many other options that can offer even more management flexibility than steers. The base stocking level is the number of animals I can maintain over the winter on stockpiled forage with minimal hay supplementation. The way I have accomplished this over the years on our own ranch is to maintain a base cow herd on a year-around basis and then use contracted animals during periods of excess pasture growth. This is not always practical to do nor economically feasible. The most obvious is to change animal numbers and thereby increase or decrease forage demand. ![]() ![]() There are several ways of varying animal demand for forage. While we often think of stocking rate in terms of animal days or animal months or just plain animals per acre, it is really forage demand we are concerned with. Because forage productivity is not constant throughout the year, stocking rate cannot be held constant on a year-around basis without supplemental feeding. Carrying capacity is the appropriate stocking rate that maintains animal performance and land condition at acceptable levels. Because each animal needs to eat a particular quantity of grass every day and an acre of land has only so much capacity to capture solar energy and grow grass, there is a pretty definite relationship between stocking rate, animal performance, and land quality. Stocking rate is the number of animals or amount of grazing pressure we place on the grassland resource. I would like to explore each of those in this presentation. Those principles are appropriate and variable stocking rates, maintaining forage intake, appropriate post-grazing residual, balanced rest and use, and maintaining a pasture rotation. In that time, I have found there are a few key principles of grazing systems management that are critical to success across a wide range of environments and enterprises. Over the past twenty years, my life has largely been devoted to pasture and grazing research, as well as maintaining an active daily involvement in commercial cattle and sheep production.
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