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Growing perennial
legumes with perennial
grasses offers numerous
benefits including often
extending the grazing
period. |
With
more pasture acreage converted to crops, livestock producers heard ways to
improve grazing gains at the Missouri Forage and Grassland Conference, Nov. 4-5
at Port Arrowhead at Lake of the Ozarks.
Management-intensive
grazing takes on new value, making more pounds of meat and milk per acre from
remaining pastures.
Topics
ranged from replacing toxic tall fescue grass with high-performance
novel-endophyte varieties to how ranchers can improve performance of land,
cattle and people.
Burke
Teichert, general ranch manager who supervises grazing on thousands of acres in
western states, marveled at Missouri’s advantage of 40 inches of rain a year
instead of 18 inches. On his ranches, he plans to increase grazing to two
rotations a year. In Missouri, producers return to grazed paddocks as quickly
as 21 days in good weather.
Management
covers more than grass and cows, Teichert said. Ranching includes finance,
marketing and people. “If you change one, you affect all.”
It’s
difficult to be expert in all, he said. “Call on others in areas of
inadequacies. Ask for help.” Invest in attending meetings, he said. He learns a
lot from other ranchers.
The
best way to boost profits is to cut overhead. “It’s hard to do, because we like
our stuff.” That includes horses, trailers, four-wheelers and pickups.
One
dollar invested should return two dollars instead of 50 cents, he said. “Cut
spending on things that rust, rot or depreciate.”
Dollars
invested in land and cattle can boost ranch profits. Increasing volume boosts
income, if costs are held in check.
Grazing
instead of haying reduces need for equipment. “Forage management profit comes
from grazing, not in haying,” he said. If you need hay, buy it or hire it
harvested.
In
starting his talk about the people part of business, Teichert asked: “How many
of you supervise people?” After only a couple of hands went up, he asked: “How
many have a wife and kids?” That brought a chuckle from the group.
When
he talked of acres of grass per cow, those who had been to the Missouri grazing
schools knew the benefits. With rotational grazing, grass quality goes up,
gains improve and land carries more cows.
“Profits
improve when acres per cow are cut and cows per person increase,” he said. “It
takes less labor per cow to manage 500 head in one herd than 500 cows in five
herds.”
As
grazing improves, it’s easier to add that one more cow. She needs little more
labor.
When
asked how many people for a cow herd, Teichert said he aims for three people
per 2,000 cows. But, he added, that requires contracting out haying and fence
building.
Teichert
returned the second day for more talk on ranching. “Use a systems approach,” he
said. “But realize that a system can’t be rigid. A ranch contains dynamic
biological, economic and social systems. It requires a lifelong approach.”
One
of his big advances was adopting planned, time-controlled grazing. Timing is
biological, not calendar time, he added. With weather in the mix, no two
seasons are alike.
Grazing
requires an astute observer, Teichert said. “You must learn quickly if a
pasture is overstocked or understocked. Grass must be kept in vegetative
growth.
“Rigidity
assures more failures than successes,” he added.
“Cows
must fit where they are going to live.” He noted that making too much genetic
progress, adding size, can lead to declining production. “Cows must live on
what is there, with a little help from you.” When grass runs short, know when
to feed supplements.
You
can’t full-feed cows, he said. “A little supplement, energy and protein, can
take rough edges off of Mother Nature. Look for times when a dollar spent
returns five dollars.”
Teichert
kept coming back to a previous theme. The best way to better profits is through
lower costs.
It
takes a while to learn that cows can graze through a foot of snow, Teichert
said. But when snow piles up waist deep, you must have a blizzard plan in
place.
Know
what you are going to do, in advance.
The
same applies to a drought plan. Starting to depopulate early in a dry time can
lead to less sell-off. Be ahead in your thinking, he said.
MFGC
holds an annual conference, but sponsors grazing schools across the state each summer.
The group also supports youth events in pasture judging and management.
The
group’s latest work includes the Alliance for Grassland Renewal. It teaches how
to replace toxic tall fescue with novel-endophyte varieties.
Click
for more information about MFGC.
(by Duane Daily, MU Writer)
Posts
Experts on sheep and goats top the Saturday lineup
at the Missouri Livestock Symposium,
Dec. 6-7 at Kirksville Middle School. University of Missouri Extension
coordinates the event.
