Rejuvenating Old Pastures
When we first looked at the farm we hoped to buy in Minnesota, it was early May. The grass was just beginning to green up, but the weeds hadn’t really sprung into full gear. The fences around the old permanent pasture needed some work, but we could visualize a herd of animals out grazing. By the time we went out for the closing in August, we were sure we’d made a terrible mistake: The pasture was so heavily infested with thistles that we couldn’t even make out the fencelines, much less walk through the pasture.
Figure 4.3. This is a typical S-type curve that represents growth of most living organisms. Note how growth begins somewhat slowly, then in the middle period it speeds up (as evidenced by the steep climb of the curve in the center), and then finally slows and tapers off. This is similar to the growth spurts children go through.
(Modified from André Voison, Grass Productivity. Covelo, CA: Island Press, 1988, p. 12.)
Figure 4.4. The objective of clipping is to take off growth in the high growth part of the curve. Ideally, you would clip grass when it reaches point C, and take it down to point B. Never clip below point A.
11 Rules of Thumb for Grazing and Clipping
Rule 1. In a fairly well-developed pasture, graze plants that have reached at least 6 inches (15.2 cm) of growth. In a newly seeded field, wait until plants have reached 8 or 9 inches (20.3 to 22.9 cm), and avoid grazing if the field is wet.
Rule 2. Graze before plants reach a height of 12 inches (30.5 cm). Most plants begin going to seed when they’re somewhere between 1 and 1g feet (30.5 to 45.7 cm) tall. One exception to this rule is Sudan and Sudex grasses (see the discussion on page 32), which aren’t grazed until they’re at least 18 inches (45.7 cm) tall.
Rule 3. Leave an absolute minimum of 3 inches (7.6 cm) of green leaves on plants after grazing in a well-established pasture, and 4 inches (10.2 cm) in a newly seeded field. This is a rule that most farmers seem to break when cutting hay. They take the hay off right at ground level, resulting in lower-quality hay (instead of sitting up on a cushion of plant stems, it sits on the ground and takes longer to dry) and less hay production during the year.
Rule 4. Maximum forage production occurs when each grazing period removes 40 to 50 percent of the plant’s leaf matter.
Rule 5. The more paddocks you have created, the easier they are to control growth with livestock. This improvement is remarkable for the first eight to ten subdivisions, then remains impressive up until about thirty subdivisions. This increase in productivity with higher paddock numbers is the result of increased recovery periods, better utilization of available forage, and more even distribution of manure. Using temporary subdivisions is an easy way to increase paddock numbers quickly, and with minimal expense (Figure 4.5).
Rule 6. When the grass is growing fast, move animals fast; when the grass is growing slower, slow down the movement. This strikes most people as backward, but it works.
Rule 7. If the grass is getting too far ahead of your animal’s ability to graze it (overmature) during the early part of the growing season, mechanically clip some for hay, for silage, or just to be left on the field as green manure. Overmature grass loses its nutritive value as well as its palatability.
Rule 8. When deciding if it’s time to move your animals, look at the most severely bitten plants in the field. If they are being eaten down below the 2-inch (5.1-cm) mark, move the herd.
Rule 9. When growth is slow, rest periods lengthen; when growth is fast, rest periods shorten.
Rule 10. Under most circumstances, your best initial investment will be fencing.
Rule 11. To best manage both grass and livestock, look at the paddock you last grazed to determine growth rate; look at the paddock you’re currently in to assess stocking rate; and look at the paddock you plan to go to next to see if it has gotten enough rest.
Figure 4.5. As the number of paddocks in a field or farm increases, the time spent in each paddock, or grazing period (in days), decreases. For example, if a field was traditionally grazed for 180 days with all the animals placed in at the beginning of the 180-day period and removed at the end, the grazing period would be 180 days. Divide that field into two paddocks, and the grazing period drops to 90 days in each paddock; divide it into three paddocks and the grazing period becomes 60 days.
We were stoic, and went through with the closing. The neighbors had their advice for us: Apply 2,4-D amine at twice the recommended dose. We were in for an uphill battle.
Mechanical Clipping
The first step we took was mechanical clipping. Along the fencelines, we used a walking tractor with a sickle bar attachment. Walking tractors are like rototillers, but they allow for attachment of a variety of implements, not just tillers. Away from the fences, Ken used our Farmall M (circa 1948) and a semimount sickle mower that ran off the PTO (power take-off). In the permanent pasture, we created two permanent subdivisions the first summer. We used polywire to create additional temporary subdivisions. (For more information on fencing, see page 33.)
Whenever we walked around, we carried some seeds in our pockets to throw on the bare spots left where the weeds had been thickest. During the winter, we fed overly mature hay, which had lots of seeds in it, out on the permanent pasture. Timely clipping continued each year, with fewer thistles all the time. By the time we moved, the old pasture was separated into six permanent subdivisions, and we rarely used temporary fencing in those areas.
Figure 4.6. A hand seeder is a helpful and inexpensive tool for increasing the diversity of plants in existing pastures. Use it to spread seed on bare areas or to seed a new plant variety into a pasture. In cold-winter areas, spread in late winter or early spring and the frost action will help “plant” the seeds for better germination.
Frost Seeding
An excellent technique for adding more varieties of plants — particularly legumes — to an existing pasture is frost seeding. We used the technique often over the years. Frost seeding works in any part of the country where regular freezing and thawing occurs. Go out in late winter or early spring and spread seeds in a thin layer over the surface of the soil. They can be spread on snow, but if there’s too much snow a quick spring melt will wash away most of the seeds, so it’s best to wait until winter’s accumulated snowpack is gone. We used a hand-cranked seeder to walk the seeds onto the frozen ground (Figure 4.6).
Cultivating
Another tool that came in handy for us while rejuvenating the old pasture was an ancient cultivator (Figure 4.7). This one I purchased at a farm auction. It was out back with the rusted junk equipment that only the scrap-metal dealers were interested in. It was mine for $22, and the scrap guys thought I got took.
Figure 4.7. Harrows are the traditional tool for spreading manure patties out, breaking up thatched sod, and aerating the topsoil surface, but an old cultivator can be used for the same job (and can often be picked up for scrap prices at farm auctions).
Ken would lightly drag the pasture with the cultivator to help break up the soil surface and spread out matted old growth and dung. After a few years, this treatment became unnecessary, but in the first year or two the pasture really responded to it. Breaking up the surface allowed air and water to penetrate into the soil better.
Converting Farmed Fields to Pasture
One of the first requisites for creating a quality pasture from a previously farmed field is patience: It takes a few seasons to get a good pasture. Think of it like art: An original painting takes more time than a paint-by-numbers. The original work doesn’t come with anything already filled in — it’s just a blank palette or a bare piece of ground. But an old sward, like the paint-by-numbers, already has some space filled in. It has some kind of a green background from the start.
The quality of the pasture is measured by a composite of features: plant height, plant density, plant diversity, and plant age. At the same height, the old sward will have more tons of dry matter. Not just a little more, either! There are more plants per square foot
, and there is more variety of grasses in an older sward than in a new one. These characteristics take time to achieve.
Preparing the Seedbed
Procedurally, planting a new pasture is like planting a hay field, and the field may serve both purposes. The first step depends in part on the previous crop. If the field was used to grow corn, or some other crop that was grown on ridges, you may have to plow the field first and then disk it. If it was used for small grains, or a crop that left a relatively flat surface, begin with just a light disking. Follow disking with a harrow to smooth out the seedbed. The rule to follow in preparing the seedbed is: Do the least amount of plowing, disking, and harrowing that you can get away with to yield a relatively even seedbed. After the seedbed is prepared, the crop needs to be drilled in, but be careful not to drill seeds too deeply. More new stands fail to take because of drilling too deeply than from any other factor.
If you’re a new farmer, try to hire a neighbor or a custom operator to do this work. Investing in the necessary equipment will take too much money, and you won’t need the equipment after your first couple of years.
Choosing What to Plant
Choosing what to plant will depend in part on past crops. When we got to Minnesota, our tilled fields had been in corn for years, and the farmers had used atrazine to control weeds in their corn. Atrazine kills most grasses, and residual amounts can stay in the soil for a year or two after the last use. With a little research, we found that Sudan and Sudex (a Sudan/sorghum cross) are closely related to corn, so they can tolerate the residual atrazine. Sudan became our choice the first year.
If you do need to use Sudan or Sudex, there are some considerations. Both these grasses can be toxic to livestock if they are grazed — or cut for hay — before they reach 18 inches (45.7 cm) in height, or right after a frost. The toxicity comes from prussic acid that’s produced in young plants, or by frost. If the plants are killed by frost, wait about two weeks before grazing or cutting. This allows the prussic acid to dissipate.
If you don’t need to be concerned with prior herbicide use, your choice of seeds is pretty much wide open. Plant a variety of seeds, including about 30 percent legumes. Check with local graziers, a County Extension Agent, or a seed dealer to find out what types of seeds do well in your area. In this day and age, most seed dealers carry pasture mixes, which makes things easy, but you can save some money by making up your own mixture. Appendix D, Grasses & Legumes, discusses a variety of grasses and legumes; it should help you decide what will be most appropriate for you to use.
Fencing Materials and Techniques
As the traditional saying goes, “Good fences make good neighbors,” and a few years in farm country teaches you the absolute truth of this. Fencing is one of the most important investments a small-scale livestock farmer will make, and it’s best made early in the process. As our friends Erik and Heather Olson learned when their pigs rooted up the neighbor’s lawn, good fences are best put in place before the animals arrive. This small patch of disturbed lawn cost them about $600 (which would have gone a long way toward fencing), not to mention a good deal of aggravation. Erik now says, unequivocally, “Fence has to come before animals.”
Exterior fences are crucial, since they protect your animals from the outside world, and the outside world from your animals. What type of fence you need around the exterior depends on the type of livestock you’re keeping, how much money you want to spend, and, to a lesser extent, your proximity to neighbors and highways. It also depends on how badly your livestock wants to get out; if the feed is very good inside the fence and water is available, they don’t usually have a burning desire to leave.
Wooden fences are beautiful but very expensive. Barbed-wire fences are difficult to construct and maintain, and animals that get caught in one often hurt themselves badly. High-tensile fences are moderately expensive but work well when combined with electric, especially for exotic animals such as bison, deer, or elk. For most small-scale farmers, smooth-wire electric fences are the least costly and most effective choice.
Permanent fences represent a large investment; they should be well constructed and require minimum maintenance. The investment is depreciable on your taxes (ask your accountant). Table 4.1 reviews various fencing materials. Check appendix E, Resources, for a list of suppliers of fencing materials.
Electric Wire
We fenced the perimeter of the farm with smooth electric wire, and once animals were trained to it, two strands — one about 1½ feet (45.7 cm) off the ground and the other about 3½ feet (107 cm) off the ground — kept in horses, pigs, sheep, and cows. Baby pigs and lambs could walk under the bottom wire, but they never strayed too far from Mom. We used a single low strand (6 inches, or 15.2 cm) around the garden to keep animals out of it.
FENCING GEESE
Our first summer on the farm, we had a flock of geese. Being kind of naive about geese and gardens, we thought, “Oh boy, we’ll use the geese as weeders.” The problem that no one mentions when they write about weeder geese is that when garden plants are very small — new transplants, for instance — the geese eat them readily. I spent one day transplanting all kinds of plants I’d raised from seeds, only to look the next morning and see virtually none left. The mystery of the disappearing transplants resolved itself as soon as Ken let the geese out of the barn: They marched right for the garden and cleaned up what few transplants they’d missed the previous day. That’s when we ran the electric wire, about 6 inches (15.2 cm) off the ground.
The geese marched over. One goose grabbed the wire in its beak and couldn’t let go because the shocks kept it locked on, so I turned off the fencer for a minute, and the goose dropped the wire. Said goose went squawking away. I expected to have to repeat this procedure more than once, but geese are smart, and the entire flock learned from the one goose’s experience. After that, the flock would walk over and stare at the fence, but none of them ever grabbed the wire or entered the garden while it was up. When the plants were big enough for the weeders to come in, I’d drop the wire for them.
Table 4.1
FENCING MATERIALS
On permanent interior fences, we used just one strand of electric wire placed about 2 feet (61 cm) off the ground. Temporary subdivisions were always created using a single strand of polywire.
Training animals to an electric fence can take some patience on your part, but once trained, most animals will respect the fence. To train animals, have a small and well-fenced area. If your animals are already fairly tame, the training pen can be made up of just two strands of smooth electric wire. On the other hand, if you’re training animals that are kind of wild, fence an area securely with wood, barbed wire, woven wire, or stock panels, and then use electric wire inside it. Don’t force animals into the fence: Let them investigate it on their own. Placing small dabs of peanut butter or molasses on the wire, or on aluminum cans connected to the wire, will help attract the animals to it. An animal that touches the fence with its nose won’t forget the experience; the damp end of a nose conducts very well.
A tactic that Mike and Keri Salber, dairy farmers in Browerville, Minnesota, use to help train animals to a new fence is to cut plastic bread bags into strips about 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide and tie them on the fence every 50 feet (15.2 m) or so. Movement of the strips helps alert the animals to the fence’s location. Mike says this also helps keep the deer, which are thick around his farm, from taking down the fences.
Aluminum vs. Galvanized Wire
Deer take down the fence when they run through at night and don’t see the fence until it’s too late. This is less of a problem if you use aluminum wire instead of galvanized. Aluminum wire is brighter after dark, and the slightest breeze causes the wire to whistle, which seems to make the deer aware of its location so they simply jump over it. We started out using galvanized, because it’s quite a bit cheaper, but aluminum is much lighter and easier to work with, conducts better, and lasts longer; the fact that animals — both domestic and wild —
always seem to know where it is makes it worth the extra expense.
We had one ewe for a while that was always looking for a way out, and leading the rest of the flock with her if she found it. Like this ewe, some animals make a habit out of checking the fence to see if it’s on. If you get one of these critters, it may be best to send it down the road or put it in the freezer, rather than having continual trouble with all your animals.
The Fence Charger
When you use electric fencing, one of the most important components you’ll purchase is the fence charger. This is one device that you should plan to splurge on: Buy the best low-impedance fence charger you can afford. Look for a model that has a good warranty and replaceable components. The biggest cause of problems for high-quality chargers is lightning: A strike anywhere near your fence can take out the charger, but there are lightning arresters available from a number of companies. Our charger warranty includes repairs for lightning damage if the arrester is installed on the fence (Figure 4.8). We keep a cheaper model as a backup, but it isn’t designed to handle miles of fence. It can keep a small area secured in an emergency.
Small-Scale Livestock Farming Page 6
