Get ready for pasture grazing

Spring is at our fingertips and everything’s starting to green up. Feed is the number one cost of raising livestock, so producers are antsy to get their animals on pasture. 

Garry Lacefield is a retired extension forage specialist at the University of Kentucky. He says spring is the perfect time for pasture improvement. This includes soil fertility, the right species, and the proper seed planting.

"Establish it so there’s an optimum range of dates that we want to seed for your area and your farm. Also, depth is extremely important," says Lacefield. "One of the biggest mistakes that I see on farms is taking these little forage seeds and seeding them too deep. So, shallow, usually about ¼”, good seed-to-soil contact. Most of the forage seed’s going to have to absorb a lot of water before it can germinate."

Once it comes up, make sure the forage is ready to be munched on before turning out the animals.  

"Often times we can go to all the expense for buying the seed, seeding it, using the right fertility, then we get a stand, and we say that is so good let’s turn some cattle in there and graze it. And we graze it too quick. A grass for example has to develop some root systems to anchor itself in the soil," he says. "So, if we try to graze it too quick we can really do damage to the stand. And likewise, if we try to cut it too quick for hay or haylage, we could do damage on that establishment phase."

Depending on the species, there should be six-to-eight inches of plant growth before putting animals out there. You can test its readiness with a simple "cow-tongue test". Just as the cow wraps her tongue around the plants and pulls them to her mouth, grab a handful of plants. If they pull out by the roots rather than breaking off above the ground, the pasture is not ready for grazing.