Pasture Care and Winter Feeding

During winter feeding, rain and snow are not friends to pastures. Add the typical 30s at night and 40s in the day, and you can quickly have a big mess on your hands. It is less of a concern when you plan to feed in a winter feed area or sacrifice lot. In those scenarios, you are prepared for the next step: renovation. If you feed bales outdoors in your pastures, mother nature and livestock can quickly leave your pastures battered and needing repairs before next season. What can you do to avoid some of this damage? Some things take months of pre-planning and may be an option for next year, while others can be done on the fly and should be considered for this season. This article will outline some options and provide you with more resources.

Planning for Winter with Species Diversity

Pasture species diversification is a great way to supplement winter forage supply while opening new options to avoid the destruction of your pastures. Species diversification doesn't have to be complicated or scary; it can be as simple as adding some tall fescue to a field for stockpiling. Stockpiling is a practice that involves resting pastures from the end of summer until they are grazed in the winter. Species for stockpiling include tall fescue, bromegrass, timothy, and birdsfoot trefoil. Stockpiling typically involves strip or rotational paddock grazing for short durations from November onwards. For more information on stockpile grazing, read Extending the Grazing Season- Stockpiling Pasture for Fall Grazing

Even as this practice grows in popularity, some producers still seem to be on the fence about fescue. We believe there is a place for tall fescue in a grazing system (even for the notorious 'Kentucky 31'). Tall fescue is productive, has a tough root system, and withstands more abuse than most pasture species. Additionally, the alkaloid content of tall fescue that causes health problems in grazing animals declines in the winter. Therefore, tall fescue is a great resource for stockpiling. The article Tall Fescue, Friend or Foe? written by the University of Maryland and Penn State agronomists, goes into more detail.

We can also use species diversification by interseeding warm-season grasses or legumes into our pastures for summer feeding. It isn't often considered, but one way to extend the grazing season is to increase your grazing options during the grazing season—warm-seasons do that. Figure 1, from Extending the Grazing Season with Plant Diversity, shows the benefit of adding these warm-season plants. The solid line represents the growing pattern of the cool-season plants. Typically, there would be a farm-wide lull in production during the hottest part of the year, known as the summer slump.

Figure 1: Illustrates the "summer Slump" in cool-season grasses. Figure Credit: S. Duiker

However, we can start to beat this summer slump by adding warm-season grasses, Figure 2. These grasses thrive in the hottest part of the summer and help fill this void. This allows us to save our cool-season grasses during the summer and free up cool-season grasses for stockpiling for later-season grazing.

Figure 2: The "Summer Slump" production loss is backfilled with the addition of warm-season annual and perennial grasses. Figure Credit: S. Duiker.

What Can We Do Now?

If you notice that your pastures are showing signs of distress and wear, you need to start making decisions. Can you move hay and livestock more often? Can a temporary winter feeding area be established as a sacrifice area to save the rest of the pastures?

Feeding outdoors will always result in some form of damage, but this will be reduced when the ground is frozen and the livestock are moved frequently. Some farmers will move livestock several times daily when they see increased soil pugging. To discourage the congregation of livestock, try taking minerals to locations different from water and hay. If hay is rolled out or fed in frequently changing locations, this will also help with manure and nutrient distribution for more fertile and productive pastures in the spring. Read Reducing Pasture Damage During Winter Feeding for more information.

If you already have a sacrifice area or are considering setting one up for the winter, maintaining that area is essential. These areas can get inundated with mud and animal waste in a hurry and they need to be correctly cared for. Placement is critical to these areas. One thing to consider is your location of livestock water and feed. Another consideration is your ease of access; a final consideration is how wet the land lies. Since livestock will be congregating here, it is important to keep away from streams, which could become contaminated. For more information on sacrifice areas and winter feeding, read Care and Condition of Sacrifice Areas. Constructing a covered structure with a concrete floor where livestock can be kept when it is too wet outside is a great way to avoid pasture damage.

Wrapping Up

When winter and winter decisions are upon us, our window for planting or species diversification is closed. That means we have fewer options. This article provides tips and resources for helping to make tough decisions during the winter months. Contact your local Penn State Extension Agronomy Educator if you need more assistance.

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and McIntire-Stennis Appropriations under Project #PEN04600 Accession No. 1009362 and by The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation under a subcontract from Capital RC&D.