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strip grazing

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Hayguy

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have been doing some strip grazing this spring on some fall seeded rye. just wondering how much do you grazing guru's give the herd at one time, a day's worth,a week's worth? more? less?
 
I currently have about a weeks worth in each area but I'm going to cut each one in half and mabey go even smaller.

A good friend moves his cows every morning and is running 32 cows on 18 acres and they are doing very well - - - - he has 18 lots and they ( cows,calves and lots ) look great - - - he has been on this system for about 10 years - - - raises great calves and he AIs everything which is easy to do with handleing them every day.
 
I like to move the cattle daily to new pasture. It gives me a chance to check the herd for any challenges.
 
What I do isn't considered strip grazing but more rotating through sub divided pastures. We have 415 pairs that graze about 320 acre pastures for about 5 days then after 60 days of rest they go through the same pastures at a little slower rate. I have found if I get through my entire rotation before the warm season grasses go to seed the regrowth is really good if it rains of course.
 
The trick with Rye is to keep it from heading out. As I understand it you will get rewarded for as muck work as you want to put into it, meaning the more often you move them the greater the reward. I'm sure there is a point of diminishing rewards. If it is possible I'd try them everyday on the rye. Just for an experiment. :D
 
can't believe the production the rye is giving us, am going to have to try making rye hay this next week weather permitting. and yes the trick is to keep it from heading. all an experiment :wink: :lol:
 
I've chopped and bagged Rye for silage. Maybe not the best silage but certainly the best way to feed rye other then grazing.
I have also made lots of baled hay/green feed from fall rye. Mine always seems to be headed out with a little bit of grain. I would grind it into the feed bunks with a bale processor then wear out a pitch fork throwing it back in the bunk as the calves pushed it out. :?
Maybe the best hay made with rye would be before it heads and gets stemy.
 
this rye is still quite vegative with a fair amount of leaf, still in the flag leaf stage but not for long. my local rye expert says to cut between the flag and flowering,which is what i hope to do, but they are forcasting significant rain for wednesday/thursday so we will see what it looks like after that
 
We try to balance a lot of things when we graze. When things are growing really fast (like now) we move cattle a lot more often (every day or two), when it slows down in later summer we extend that out to 5 days to a week.
As a general rule - the faster you move (smaller paddocks) the more production per acre, the slower the more production per head.
 

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