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Greenup has begun, but is there actually significant forage? Can we switch from winter grazing strategies to spring grazing? Those are the questions that Colt Hamilton with Hamilton Native Outpost is asking. This video was shot the first part of April, and the burned part of the field has a green cast to it. The cattle prefer the fresh green growth of the burned area as opposed to the unburned portion that has green growth but also last year’s brown residual.
Is it a concern that the cattle are grazing before the native warm and cool season grasses have reached the minimum recommended height? We don’t think so, if done carefully, because it is common for frost to “burn back” the new green growth, which makes us believe that the plants are adapted to this – you just shouldn’t overdo it.
Where it hasn’t been burned, the brown grass of the previous year’s growth can help to balance the high protein, fresh growth of the green grass resulting in cow piles that are a better consistency.
On this particular year, Colt concludes that in the first part of April we have reached spring with a significant accumulation of forage and rapid plant growth. Consequently, management has switched to rapid rotation of the livestock.
#cattle #grazing #spring #nativeplants #nativegrasses #nativewildflowers
