Gallagher Expert Series: Reflections on Grazing Management

Reflection is a powerful tool for continuous improvement in farming. Evaluating the year's successes and challenges can help farmers make informed decisions for the future. Reflect on the past year by reviewing records, assessing livestock performance, and evaluating pasture conditions. Use these insights to adjust your grazing plan, implement new strategies, and ensure you're prepared for the following year's challenges (Rodale Institute).

We all have the power to reflect, but when we rely on our memories as records for our farming operations, we'll make the same mistakes year after year and forget what we did to bring about positive change. Our brains are built to think, not to remember. Since our brains know this basic fact, it's a calming feeling to know we have all the crucial information needed to avoid mistakes and multiply successes across our farm with our records.   

 

Livestock Records

One of the best examples of livestock records I have seen was the Cattelog from Windy Acres Farm. As a completely manual system, it listed each cow with every possible bit of information needed to assess each animal and its value to the farm. Very few of us utilize fully manual systems nowadays but have moved to more digitalized forms of record keeping. Whatever route you take, the goal is to understand each animal's value to your farm's ability to remain profitable.  

On my farm, the records most important to me are:

• Tag numbers.
• Birth dates.
• Matching offspring to mothers.
• Body Condition score at weaning offspring
• Weight of offspring at weaning.
• Health records.
• Coat type (rough or slick).
• The thriftiness of offspring.

These records will immediately inform the culling of your bottom ten to twenty percent of the herd or flock, which should be done annually. Culling is a powerful tool, but we shouldn't cull by looks alone. Good records will show that the cow in a lower body condition may well have a big calf, and she is giving the calf all she has. Culling her would be a mistake!

When recording the thriftiness of calves and lambs, it goes without saying that keeping track of weight gain is essential for assessing your pasture management.

 

Pasture Management Records

There are many grazing practices to reflect on, and accurate records will highlight missed opportunities and successes worth duplicating. For example, if you are currently rotating livestock once a week, increasing the rotation to twice a week can increase the utilization of your forage by ten percent or more. That's the same as adding 10% more acreage at little to no cost. Seeing the results on paper is more of an incentive to move animals twice a week across the farm when it's not just a hopeful idea but a concrete reward.

If fertility is off on a particular field, and you fed hay there this spring, with accurate records, it's easier to remember the amount of hay fed and the technique used. Allowing forage to stand longer in the spring can control weeds by shading the ground when they normally germinate, and this is easier to recall if you have recorded grazing heights when you leave a field and the date of grazing.

More detailed records, like the ones I use for training workers, include notes on a field's forage diversity (cool and warm season forages); knowing these things allows you to improve your fields by understanding when you normally have lulls in your forage diversity.

My typical records for each field will include;

• Number of acres
• Livestock
• Date grazed
• Beginning grazing height
• Grazing days
• Ending grazing height
• Weather
• Forage type
• Field number

 

Number of Cows x Number of days/Number of Acres = Cow days per Acre

You'll find that "cow days per acre" is one of the more telling calculations to compare forage production and utilization based on your management of those fields. Record the number of cows that grazed a field and multiply by the number of days on that field. Now, divide by field acres to give the grazing day per acre, forage production, and utilization.  

At year-end, add the grazing days for each field and compare fields. The ability to compare fields is a fascinating study. Why did a field have more grazing days than the others? With accurate and detailed records, you can see how rotating livestock quicker or leaving more residual cover will move the needle on your bottom line.

Judging your pastures by looks alone is like culling a good cow without consulting your livestock records first. Sometimes, a rougher-looking pasture may provide more grazing days and even better animal performance. For example, a lush, beautiful pasture may be too washy and go right through the animals without providing much nutrition. If we allowed that lush forage to get a little more fibrous, it would slow down the rate of passage and improve animal performance. Keeping good records would allow us to replicate that management strategy in the future.

If you are already keeping good records, they can be used to aid you in receiving additional funds from programs like conservation stewardship programs.

NRCS designed the CSP (Conservation Stewardship Program) to reward land users who are doing good land management; these managers can receive additional funding by applying additional enhancements to their management plans. Proper records are a big part of this program.

Records can also be beneficial if a disaster occurs, and the Farm Service Agency is paying for the loss of animals or pasture.

 

Going Deeper, assessing your pastures with online tools

Two indispensable tools for assessing your pastures are the Pasture Condition Score (PCS) and Determining Indicators of Pasture Health (DIPH); both are tools developed by teams of professional NRCS grazing specialists. 

The Pasture Condition Score (PCS) sheet uses ten indicators evaluating pastures based on live plant cover, percentage of desirable plants, soil cover, plant diversity, percent legumes, plant vigor, compaction and regeneration, utilization and severity of use, livestock concentration areas, and pasture erosion. Whichever indicator scores the lowest calls attention to an indicator that would likely be the most beneficial to focus on for pasture improvement. The PCS gives the pasture an overall score that allows you to compare pastures across the farm.  

Determining Indicators of Pasture Health (DIPH) is an assessment of the ecological function of the pasture. DIPH compares pastures to a reference state, which can be a pasture on the farm that comes closest to your ideal. This reference pasture should be on a similar soil.  DIPH also looks at several indicators to score the pasture.

The DIPH doesn't rate a total score; however, it does call attention to indicators rating the lowest as having the highest potential for improving pasture soil site stability, hydrologic function, biotic integrity, and livestock management quality factor. These assessment tools are to be used in different seasons annually or when an issue needs to be assessed.

Then, record how the fields are trending up, down, or erratic. If plant cover ranks low, allowing plants to recover longer and not grazing as long can improve plant cover. If plant diversity or legume rates are low, consider frost-seeding legumes. If soil cover or litter cover and depth score low, consider allowing forages to get more mature prior to grazing, then graze with a high density of livestock to tromp some of the forage to improve cover. High stock density can also improve utilization and uniformity of use.  There are lots of options to address indicator needs.

Proper record keeping for your farm is an investment in the future and analyzing them before taking action will help to keep your mistakes in the past. Take a breath between the hard, low-paying jobs and give yourself a raise by recording activities, decisions, inventory, and financial inputs and outputs. Records have the potential to raise your pay grade.