Winterfeeding hay out on pasture vs in corrals.

[PJungnitsch]

Hi, I'm winding up a research project comparing winterfeeding out on pasture vs feeding in the yard and spreading manure with equipment.

For example this is a map of soil nitrogen levels under where a couple bales were fed out on pasture. Averaged a gain of 104 lbs/acre, with levels rising up to about 550 lbs/acre, just in the soil.

No soil N gains where manure was spread.

A lot of the info has made it's way out already, but I'm putting up a webpage of my own on the project, with links to the finished report (masters thesis) when it is done and more info on the subject as I find it.

http://www.angelfire.com/trek/mytravels/nutrientmanagement.html

Any questions give me a shout before I forget everything!

 

[Red Robin]

How can there be no soil N gains where manure was spread?

 

[Soapweed]

Sometimes too much feeding out in the pastures can cause weeds.

 

[PJungnitsch]

How can there be no soil N gains where manure was spread?

Most of the nitrogen that goes through the animal is in the urine, in the form of urea (liquid 46-0-0). That got boiled away by the sun in the manure that had sat in the yard all summer before we scraped it up and hauled it. That's my understanding from digging through other research on the subject.

So there was hardly any available nitrogen (nitrate, ammonium) in the hauled manure to soak into the ground. I measured very little in the stuff in the manure spreader. A lot of N was there, but almost all of it was tied up in organic matter, 'hard' nitrogen.

The grass did pick some up later on in the season, but not that much.

OTOH where the cattle were fed directly on the pasture the urine (basically commercial liquid nitrogen) got the chance to soak directly into the pasture and get captured in the soil.

 

[BlackCattleRancher]

You must have awful cheap hay, our hay ground is competing with corn and beans and I'd be throwing money away to feed hay like your feeding. The bale processor is probably the best option, if you only feed what they'll clean up in a few hours and not use for bedding.

BCR

 

[andybob]

Did you compare yards which have been 'bedded' using straw, barley straw especially absorbs ammonia and releases it later when spread on the fields, hence the use of bedded yards in the U.K.

 

[Andy]

I agree that feeding out on the pasture or hay ground is the best option, but to say that there is no N value in the manure that you hauled is wrong. The organic matter will break down as time goes and will greatly increase the fertility of the soil.

 

[Frank in West Dakota]

Sometimes too much feeding out in the pastures can cause weeds.

And that can be used as an advantage! I feed on gumbo spots, or high alkali areas, to get weeds to grow. If you get a good stand of kochia, or thistle, eventually, you'll have a stand of grass.

 

[PureCountry]

I agree that feeding out on the pasture or hay ground is the best option, but to say that there is no N value in the manure that you hauled is wrong. The organic matter will break down as time goes and will greatly increase the fertility of the soil.

The point of their research and findings was that spreading hay with a processor, or just bale-grazing, was alot faster method of improving the soils/pastures. Yes over time manure will break down, but when you feed cows out there, you're bringing in nutrients from another field/farm, and using the cows to fertilize your own land. The results happen in the very next year, as opposed to years down the road.

I've seen extensive presentations on this research study, and it's very good data. The next phase of it is to study how much nitrogen may be running off of these areas from rainfall or runoff, and having negative environmental impacts.

 

[PJungnitsch]

You must have awful cheap hay, our hay ground is competing with corn and beans and I'd be throwing money away to feed hay like your feeding. The bale processor is probably the best option, if you only feed what they'll clean up in a few hours and not use for bedding.
BCR

This trial was really about where cattle are winterfed and not how. I've seen people winterfeed out on pasture in a lot of different ways, and some do use feeders for efficiency. Seems to be a juggle between cost of feed and cost/hassle of feeding.

That said, we did measure feed used on this trial and the cattle fed out on the pasture and those fed in the drylot were given about the same amount of feed and bedding and performed about the same.

It is not a great comparison as the shortages in research money we had meant that the drylot system didn't exactly match up. Same cow herd, but the drylot animals were fed greenfeed/straw vs hay/straw (same TDN though), and the drylot animals were bedded with chips instead of straw so their straw bedding was estimated.

OTOH it was about the most efficient drylot system possible (greenfeed and straw tubground together, and fed every day in bunk feeders).

 

[PJungnitsch]

Did you compare yards which have been 'bedded' using straw, barley straw especially absorbs ammonia and releases it later when spread on the fields, hence the use of bedded yards in the U.K.

The corral was bedded here too, one difference being probably that here it sat empty over the summer and the manure and bedding was hauled in the fall, most common in this area. So the most potential for loss. Spring hauling does seem to capture a bit more ammonia and nitrate N in the studies I've seen, although losses are still huge.

The big gains in N that I found in studies was in liquid and slurry systems.

 

[PJungnitsch]

I agree that feeding out on the pasture or hay ground is the best option, but to say that there is no N value in the manure that you hauled is wrong. The organic matter will break down as time goes and will greatly increase the fertility of the soil.

There is certainly N value in the 'hard' nitrogen, I measured about 5% recovery in the grass in 18 months from the raw manure.

Longer term studies, some going many years, get up to around 10%.

And the organic matter itself gives a benefit to the soil, plus all the phosphorus and other nutrients.

It just seems to be a very inefficient system to get your hay nitrogen back into the pasture. For every 100 lbs N fed to the cows on the pasture, I recovered 34 lbs was recovered in the grass. For every 100 lbs fed in the corral, about 1 lb was recovered in the grass. Even if you double or triple the recovery it's still not going to be very good.