Our internet went out for a few hours, and I've been itching to get back to the house and share this stuff:
Grass samples taken on native prairie in the Battle River Hills, November of 2007. This was a fogged pasture, meaning we didn't touch it all year. I took 2 samples. The 1st being the poorer stuff. I took clippings of the brown dry material that would get eaten last. The 2nd sample I took was the cream - seed heads and all green material taken from deep in the litter on the soil surface. This is always what the cows go for first, then eat what's left. All numbers are on a dry matter basis.
First sample - brown material: We didn't receive K levels in these for some reason, which I wasn't happy about.
Protein - 5%, ADF - 48.8%, TDN - 53.3%, RFV - 65, Ca - .32%, Phos - .12%
2nd Sample - green material and seedheads:
Protein - 6.4%, ADF - 44.4%, TDN - 56.4%, RFV - 73, Ca - .35%, Phos - .16%
From November 2nd to December 21st 150 pairs grazed this stuff. They got loose mineral and from Nov 20th on received 10lbs of hay/day supplemented by average estimates. From Dec 21st until March 31st they were on bale grazing paddocks closer to home.
Now for the good news......On March 31st we had some hay hauled into this "fogged" pasture and we scattered the bales out randomly and pulled the twines off. April 1st we trailed the cows back to this pasture, and they had free access to the bales, as well as all the stockpiled forage they had been on in Nov-Dec. They stayed there from April 1st to May 20th, when we trailed them 1 mile to our calving grounds. The pasture was rested for the rest of the year.
In early fall, the local research/forage association asked about taking some samples, and this is what they found:
Taken December 5th, 2008 from the native pasture that had been fogged in '07 and bale-grazed April/May of '08. 2 samples were taken from an area where the bale grazing coverage was uniform and consistent.
Protein - 12.38%, ADF - 32.34%, TDN - 63.7%, RFV - 111.5, Ca - .48%, Phos - .13%, Potas - 1.37%
Protein - 14.69%, ADF - 35.84%, TDN - 61%, RFV - 105.3, Ca - .44%, Phos - .18%, Potas - 1.98%
This showed us what amazing things can be done with resting pastures, and of course adding tons of organic matter in the form of bale-grazing litter. If bales weren't so expensive, we'd do this every year over larger areas of the ranch. Just goes to show, if you feed the soil, it will feed you.