Intensive grazing

[Sandhusker]

Does anybody out there run an intensive grazing program under irrigation or know much about it? I was wondering what kind stocking rates were used.

Only 57 day until kickoff - GO BIG RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Mike]

Does anybody out there run an intensive grazing program under irrigation or know much about it? I was wondering what kind stocking rates were used.

Only 57 day until kickoff - GO BIG RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Know a guy in NW Florida that rotates and irrigates intensively. He runs 2-3 head to the acre.

The price of nitrogen may have cut that back a little though.

Do the Huskers play Troy again this year? :lol: :lol:

 

[Sandhusker]

Does anybody out there run an intensive grazing program under irrigation or know much about it? I was wondering what kind stocking rates were used.

Only 57 day until kickoff - GO BIG RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Know a guy in NW Florida that rotates and irrigates intensively. He runs 2-3 head to the acre.

The price of nitrogen may have cut that back a little though.

Do the Huskers play Troy again this year? :lol: :lol:

I don't know if Florida info will do me much good. This would be for maybe a seven month grazing season, probably six. I was interested in putting a pencil to it to see how many calves a person could run in a yearling deal or how many cows year-round in a multi-circle operation. I was hoping to find the balance of grazing/haying needed to make the deal work, if it would at all. Land is so dang high anymore a person has to try to come up with an angle to get more cows/acre off it.

Also, I was wondering what folks might be seeding in Nebraska.

No Troy this year, but they are coming down the line. We've got USC and Texas both, so don't give me any crap about our schedule! :evil:

 

[Jinglebob]

Does anybody out there run an intensive grazing program under irrigation or know much about it? I was wondering what kind stocking rates were used.

Only 57 day until kickoff - GO BIG RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Know a guy in NW Florida that rotates and irrigates intensively. He runs 2-3 head to the acre.

The price of nitrogen may have cut that back a little though.

Do the Huskers play Troy again this year? :lol: :lol:

I don't know if Florida info will do me much good. This would be for maybe a seven month grazing season, probably six. I was interested in putting a pencil to it to see how many calves a person could run in a yearling deal or how many cows year-round in a multi-circle operation. I was hoping to find the balance of grazing/haying needed to make the deal work, if it would at all. Land is so dang high anymore a person has to try to come up with an angle to get more cows/acre off it.

Also, I was wondering what folks might be seeding in Nebraska.

No Troy this year, but they are coming down the line. We've got USC and Texas both, so don't give me any crap about our schedule! :evil:

If you could figure the tonnage from hay or whatever else they were growing off from the pivots, you can figure 3 % of the critters body weight a day, that it would eat. That would give you a fair idea, Sandyhusker.

 

[Andy]

There are a couple of ranchers in Nebraska doing that. Kevin Fulton I think is one and the Ferrall ranch I will look it up and make sure the names are correct and see if I have any phone #'s.

 

[pknoeber]

Yep, I know a few guys here in SW KS that do it.

A lot of it depends on the grass and water/fence system. One guy is running about 150-200 replacement heifers on a 1/2 circle (65 acres).

Another guy is running lord only knows how many cattle on his irrigated grass. But he's got it cross fenced into like 12 or 16 paddocks, and has a pretty extensive water system in place. Sure does run a lot of cattle on it. And there are times that he's still swathing some grass to stay ahead of it.

If you'd like, PM me with some specifics and I'll see what I could figure out. It'll be different up there, but I would bet that there'll also be a lot of similarities.

Phil

Oh yeah, almost forgot...GO CATS!!!

Edit: I just re-read your post more carefully. Down here on the warm-season grassed guys have been putting the cattle out in mid-late April, up into mid-may and running about 400-500 stockers on a full cirlce. They'll run them until they run out of grass, usually sometime in September. A lot of it depends on how much they want to fertilize. When they're running 500 head for the full season, it can take up to 200 lbs of N to keep up.

 

[Sandhusker]

Thanks for the info, folks, although I'm a bit hesitant to believe anything said by someone who says "Go cats". :wink: I just trust they know more about grazing than they do football. :lol:

I don't really have any specifices - I'm just kind of looking for some generalities. This subject has come up several times with different customers of mine and I'd like to have something somewhat intelligent and helpful to say.

Phil, do you know what that one guy has planted?

 

[Brad S]

several guys graze under pivots near pratt. Its a pretty intensive deal. thing is you are always changing stocking rates due to growing conditions. I think they apply 80 to 100 pounds actual nitrogen on crab grass and graze 3 head of 5 to 6 cwts per acre when its growing good. the crab grass grows naturally, but some seed it also. crab grass grows pretty well from mid may to mid september. Sometime in late August you go in and seed rye or taller wheat variety, but it doesn't get cranking until mid october. From mid october until the first of the year you get some good graze perhaps 2 bigger steers per acre then things really get going in march when you can graze up to 4 steers per acre. On the rye you also apply 100# actual N. With the price of diesel the N is going through the system and there is no tillage. Sometimes the rye is applied with dry fertilizer and watered in and then cows trample it in. Crab grass has fewer maladies than rye pasture and a little better gainability. You'll pump a foot of water on crabgrass and half a foot on rye. You might get 1200 - 1500 # gain per acre on the crabgrass if you don't stay on the rye too long in the spring before. They usually do this on real sandy soil that won't raise nothing but weeds anyway, with fairly shallow water 30 - 90 feet.

 

[pknoeber]

I don't know exactly what types of grass he had on all the ground. He drove me around and showed me several different pivots that all seemed to have about 3 or more types of grass under them.
I do know that he has a whole shelf full of records about the grass and it's production though.

I'll talk to him and see what he says.

I will admit that he wasn't overly complimentary about any of the university people that he worked with. He thought that they were all about 2-3 years behind what he was doing.

 

[Andy]

I don't know exactly what types of grass he had on all the ground. He drove me around and showed me several different pivots that all seemed to have about 3 or more types of grass under them.
I do know that he has a whole shelf full of records about the grass and it's production though.

I'll talk to him and see what he says.

I will admit that he wasn't overly complimentary about any of the university people that he worked with. He thought that they were all about 2-3 years behind what he was doing.

That is very typical of university people to be a couple of years behind the most progressive producers.

 

[jigs]

Thanks for the info, folks, although I'm a bit hesitant to believe anything said by someone who says "Go cats". :wink: I just trust they know more about grazing than they do football. :lol:

I don't really have any specifices - I'm just kind of looking for some generalities. This subject has come up several times with different customers of mine and I'd like to have something somewhat intelligent and helpful to say.

Phil, do you know what that one guy has planted?

beating the Huskers 4 out of the last 6 years sure sounds like a "Go Cats" kind of guy knows what he is talking about!!

 

[lazy ace]

My father in law puts cows on Triticale (spelling) He seems to do good with that.

I am glad Jigs put up pictures of football players. I thought big red was a badmitten team

Have a good one

lazy ace

 

[greg]

Does anybody out there run an intensive grazing program under irrigation or know much about it? I was wondering what kind stocking rates were used.

Only 57 day until kickoff - GO BIG RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will apolagize ahead of time--But can't help it,intestive grazing around here--is no rain tooo many cows

 

[Brad S]

beating the Huskers 4 out of the last 6 years sure sounds like a "Go Cats" kind of guy knows what he is talking about!!

Just curious, why only go back 6 years? Why not only go back 2 years? Just say, "Go Cats, B12 cellar dwellers the last 2 years." Rah Rah Bill Snyder turned things arround 360 degrees.

 

[Econ101]

Start with Joel Salatin's book.

 

[jigs]

beating the Huskers 4 out of the last 6 years sure sounds like a "Go Cats" kind of guy knows what he is talking about!!

Just curious, why only go back 6 years? Why not only go back 2 years? Just say, "Go Cats, B12 cellar dwellers the last 2 years." Rah Rah Bill Snyder turned things arround 360 degrees.

last year neither team wanted to win.....was the sorriest game I ever listened to on the radio......

my two favorite teams are KSU and who ever is playing the huskers