swath grazing

[Loneranger]

i'm a new member. faster horses got me started-she called me loneranger because i'm the only one around here brave/dumb/guts enough to try something different. this year i tried some swath grazing. did some winter wheat swaths and it was working great till it snowed under with lots of hard, difted snow. also did some alf, which also snowed under. cows really can't get at a lot of it now. was wondering if any of you had any tips for me. one guy told me he had it happen too, but cows ate it all when it thawed out in march.

 

[RSL]

We swath graze a lot and crusted snow can be a problem, although you would be surprised how much a cow can go through. They will eat it up when it thaws, and it will definitely save your grass if you can start grazing later, and your whole farm will likely produce more. If you swath graze a piece repeatedly you can eliminate fertilizer, build topsoil, etc.
There are lots on this site with more grazing knowledge than I, but swath grazing can be a real money saver/maker.

 

[PureCountry]

It's happened to us many times, too. Depending on how much snow you have, there are various things we've done over the years. One is just drive down the swath with your truck/tractor wheels on the swath; breaks it up enough for them to get at it. Or, put the tractor blade or bucket just over top of the swath and plow a little off. It sounds like work, but it's less than feeding everyday, and usually we've only had to open a bit and the cows root along on their own.

The easiest on equipment, fuel and bank accounts, is to turn some horses out with them. They instinctively paw more than a cow, and the cows learn quick to follow. Another option is find yourself a couple of bison/buffalo cheap somewhere. I haven't seen anything tackle crusted swaths better than them. A friend of mine turns his buffalo AND elk cows out, and his beef cows follow behind. Remember, where there's a will............... :wink:

 

[per]

Don't worry loneranger and welcome. Those swaths haven't gone away. All of the above options will and can work. If you are going to wait it out it will be available again in the spring. Try to avoid the mud. Some here graze at night and bring them to a pen or adjacent grass paddock in the day to avoid the pugging. Every year will be different and smaller strips allow for better utilization.

 

[LaramieRiverWrangler]

Very timely topic. This is only our fourth year for swath or windrow grazing. Definitely great for saving the cost of tradtional harvesting.
The best part is that you are feeding the hay on the ground where it was grown and returning the nutrients to the soil. What little hay the cows do not eat is trampled as litter back into the soil along with urine and manure.
My question for the more experienced winter graziers out there is your comments on swath grazing versus grazing standing forage. Are we getting enough added benefit from swath grazing to justify the cost of mowing and raking?
On this ranch we are swathing the meadows to improve the quality of the forage we offer to the cows. Our standing forage tests poorly compared to the hay that we leave for them in a windrow. What are some other thoughts out there?

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Very timely topic. This is only our fourth year for swath or windrow grazing. Definitely great for saving the cost of tradtional harvesting.
The best part is that you are feeding the hay on the ground where it was grown and returning the nutrients to the soil. What little hay the cows do not eat is trampled as litter back into the soil along with urine and manure.
My question for the more experienced winter graziers out there is your comments on swath grazing versus grazing standing forage. Are we getting enough added benefit from swath grazing to justify the cost of mowing and raking?
On this ranch we are swathing the meadows to improve the quality of the forage we offer to the cows. Our standing forage tests poorly compared to the hay that we leave for them in a windrow. What are some other thoughts out there?

Me thinks you answered your own question.

A lot of people swath graze Oats or barley and standing alfalfa is just sticks.

 

[Faster horses]

Welcome to the site, Loneranger.
Gee, imagine that...a man who LISTENS. :wink:

Since I don't know much about swath grazing and I don't want
to highjack this thread, I'll leave it for those who know and
understand it.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Welcome to the site, Loneranger.
Gee, imagine that...a man who LISTENS. :wink:

Since I don't know much about swath grazing and I don't want
to highjack this thread, I'll leave it for those who know and
understand it.

"A man who listens" :shock:

Must be married.

 

[Just Ranchin]

What we have found works after a big snowfall is to feed about 50% of what the cows will need for the day and let them go out and work for the other 50%. They can sometimes act like they are being starved but if you give them reason to stay out there, it is surprising how much more grazing is out there. DO NOT leave it to the spring as the cows will trample it into the mud and all will be lost.

 

[Grassfarmer]

Very timely topic. This is only our fourth year for swath or windrow grazing. Definitely great for saving the cost of tradtional harvesting.
The best part is that you are feeding the hay on the ground where it was grown and returning the nutrients to the soil. What little hay the cows do not eat is trampled as litter back into the soil along with urine and manure.
My question for the more experienced winter graziers out there is your comments on swath grazing versus grazing standing forage. Are we getting enough added benefit from swath grazing to justify the cost of mowing and raking?
On this ranch we are swathing the meadows to improve the quality of the forage we offer to the cows. Our standing forage tests poorly compared to the hay that we leave for them in a windrow. What are some other thoughts out there?

Without knowing your situation and assuming you are talking about swathing perennial grasses for winter feeding I will guess your crop in the swath is better quality than standing because you cut it at a stage when it was at higher quality and less mature than the stuff you left standing. If that is the case the other thing I would suggest is altering your grazing management so that the stuff you leave standing is younger and less mature than at present (possibly by grazing it lightly later in the fast growth period to ensure more leafy regrowth)which would give you the higher quality feed without the expense of swathing/raking. Do you suffer any winter kill by grazing perennials this way?

 

[Broke Cowboy]

Welcome to the site, Loneranger.
Gee, imagine that...a man who LISTENS. :wink:

Tsk tsk - no way I will ever let you chat with my wife.

You might spoil the 31 years of training I have tied up in her.

Finally just about got her to where she is nearly completely bomb proof and she also follows those silent commands really well.

8)

BC

 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the site, Loneranger.
Gee, imagine that...a man who LISTENS. :wink:

Since I don't know much about swath grazing and I don't want
to highjack this thread, I'll leave it for those who know and
understand it.

Welcome Lone Ranger. How is Tonto and Silver?

You have to watch Faster Horses. Next thing you know she will be planting a bug in your ear about what she would recommend you use for minerals. :???:














Faster Horses ot made me do it. :lol:


Lone Ranger if she does talk minerals she is well versed and you will end up ahead of the game. :wink:

 

[Northern Rancher]

I wouldn't use horses to paw for the cows if your on really rich cereal swaths-might end up with some sick ponies. Once I get my other computer back I'll show you how the mare bunch rummages through the bale grazing sites.

 

[per]

Loneranger, there is no perfect recipe to your problem but the perfect solution will present itself eventually. If the snow is drifted hard but not froze down driving down with the tractor or even blading it might work. I have ofter thought blading away from it right up to the edge could work allowing the cows to enter it from the side. Waiting has never failed me and being in a Chinook prone area sometimes I don't have to wait until spring. Only once here did I loose a fair bit to trampling or pugging in the spring. It was a storm after storm spring and there was no good place to be. I used electric fence to limit enough for 2 days and the calves would lay beyond the boundaries in the relatively dry swaths. It turned out to be a blessing. Keep on trying this stuff. My barometer for whether I am on the right track is it the neighbors are intently watching and talking about it. If it works they will be doing it a few years later. Straw bunches (something our grandfathers did) and swath grazing (also something our grandfathers did) are in vogue in this area right now. Anything to reduce the cost of production. Of course there are always the must feed hay etc etc or the won't work here etc etc folks out there. They have some good idea's too but don't let that discourage you from trying something different.

 

[Loneranger]

Thanks for all the feddback. I'm a litle late replying. RSL- i think it will be a lot better for the ground than just haying and hauling it off(mining the soil, instead of building it) PC-i do have my horses out with the cows and they have been pawing thru a bunch of it. Only problem is we really have a lot of snow and it really drifted and a lot of it is under deep drifts so hard i can drive my tractor over them. per-thanks for the encouragement. The neighbors do think i'm a little off. Mostly when we visit they don't ask, don't tell-like i have a drinking problem or something. Oh well, they are still good neighbors, tho. I hope i can use it in the spring, if i can't use it all this winter. I probably should have started with a smaller piece, but we were trying to beat the grasshoppers/heat and i thought i might as well lay it in a swath. I talked to a lot of people before i tried it, from canada to neb. The feedback i always got was it was pretty much idiot-proof, from rain to wind to snow, etc., so i thought this will work for me! I did 160 ac. ww and i first though i really messed up, but the cows took a few days to get onto it. I moved a poly wire every few days and sorked good till we got a huge snow/blizzard at Christmas. Moved them to alf then. They worked on it as best they could. It was pretty new stand of grass/alf. We grazed it early and then mowed/raked it into 35ft swaths. Did a forage anal. on it-was 10% pro 40%tdn. Been supplementing with some really good alf hay. Will keep on & hope for the best till spring. Thanks for the info jr,nr,gf, & all. Gotta go, but i have more questions for later.

 

[Grassfarmer]

Thanks for all the feddback. I'm a litle late replying. RSL- i so think it will be a lot better for the ground than just haying and hauling it off(mining the soil, instead of building it) PC-i do have my horses out with the cows and they have been pawing thru a bunch of it. Only problem is we really have a lot of snow and it really drifted and a lot of it is under deep drifts so hard i can drive my tractor over them. per-thanks for the encouragement. The neighbors do think i'm a little off. Mostly when we visit they don't ask, don't tell-like i have a drinking problem or something. Oh well, they are still good neighbors, tho. I hope i can use it in the spring, if i can't use it all this winter. I probably should have started with a smaller piece, but we were trying to beat the grasshoppers/heat and i thought i might as well lay it in a swath. I talked to a lot of people before i tried it, from canada to neb. The feedback i always got was it was pretty much idiot-proof, from rain to wind to snow, etc., so i thought this will work for me! I did 160 ac. ww and i first though i really messed up, but the cows took a few days to get onto it. I moved a poly wire every few days and sorked good till we got a huge snow/blizzard at Christmas. Moved them to alf then. They worked on it as best they could. It was pretty new stand of grass/alf. We grazed it early and then mowed/raked it into 35ft swaths. Did a forage anal. on it-was 10% pro 40%tdn. Been supplementing with some really good alf hay. Will keep on & hope for the best till spring. Thanks for the info jr,nr,gf, & all. Gotta go, but i have more questions for later.

Did you really mean 40% TDN :shock: :shock: If so you have bigger problems than snow crusting - that level of energy is way too low and I would suggest you should be supplementing with a high energy source rather than a high protein one.

 

[Loneranger]

GF- The test came back 39.9%tdn and 10%pro. Ran thru it with my nutrition guy and 10lbs alf hay and 20lbs swaths should meet cows needs ok. So, if I safety up and feed alf a little on the heavy side, I should be ok-? The way we did it was we grazed it in june and came back in july and mowed and raked it, so it was pretty palatable, like 2nd cutting. But as i watched all summer, and you can imagine that it turned dry and brown/black, I started thinking I made a mistake. Am I the only guy that has ever tried to swath graze alf? If not, then how do you do it? If you cut early, it will lay all summer, as in my case, even tho it was like 2nd cutting. Or if you wait till sept to cut it, it would be nothing but sticks anyway. :?

 

[per]

I had a nice long explanation of what I do and a bunch of photo's and went to look in another gallery and lost the post. So now the Cole's notes version.
Here's my basic plan on Alfalfa.
Graze in spring as long as I have nerve with soap if possible.
Hay first cut in early July.
Swath second cut in late August preferably a couple weeks before that big frost. If nitrates are a problem after a frost then wait to graze. Nitrates are water soluble and will leave a swath.
I don't for some reason have many pictures of grazing Alfalfa but here are a couple.

Just finishing up.

No rain this year to make second cut so the windrows are 30 footers.

 

[Denny]

Alfalfa spoils easily I think. Put up in round bales stored outside the rains will really rot the outside to which it will be black in color.I bet being cut in july the weather ruined your feed. Here we would'nt dare do that by fall the grass would have grown up thru the swaths and would be a total loss. I think swath grazing would work if you could plant the oats per say the end of july and had a late fall then swath them just before freeze up. Here it rained for a month straight this fall would have been tough on any swaths.I guess for me once its in the swaths running the baler thru is'nt that big of project even if you just leave the bales to be grazed on where they drop.

 

[Grassfarmer]

GF- The test came back 39.9%tdn and 10%pro. Ran thru it with my nutrition guy and 10lbs alf hay and 20lbs swaths should meet cows needs ok. So, if I safety up and feed alf a little on the heavy side, I should be ok-? The way we did it was we grazed it in june and came back in july and mowed and raked it, so it was pretty palatable, like 2nd cutting. But as i watched all summer, and you can imagine that it turned dry and brown/black, I started thinking I made a mistake. Am I the only guy that has ever tried to swath graze alf? If not, then how do you do it? If you cut early, it will lay all summer, as in my case, even tho it was like 2nd cutting. Or if you wait till sept to cut it, it would be nothing but sticks anyway. :?

I don't understand your nutrition guy then - as far as I know requirements for a mid pregnancy cow to maintain condition in winter are energy levels of 55% (60 in last trimester). To balance off 20lbs of your 40% TDN swaths the 10lbs of hay you give them would need a TDN of roughly 85% to bring them up to 55% TDN overall :shock: :shock: There are not many feeds that are 85% TDN - it would take a very good pellet fed at 10lbs to counter those swaths. The barley or oat straw we feed as a dilutent usually has a TDN of around 50% - sometimes 55% so 40% would indicate very low quality gut fill.
How do your cows look condition wise on these feed - on paper this would scare me but maybe there is something I don't know about your conditions or cattle?