Fall Grazing of perennial forages

Fall grazing management can really ‘set the stage’ for next year’s perennial pastures. It is important to leave sufficient carry-over (litter) on pastures prior to the upcoming winter months. As much as it is tempting, overgrazing pastures in the fall period is not worth the loss of production in subsequent grazing seasons.

Producers are generally very careful in the spring to not turn cattle out too early onto their perennial pasture to allow plants time to recover from the previous winter. However, very few producers use the same level of care when fall grazing perennial pastures. It is just as important to know when to move cattle off a perennial pasture in the fall in order to retain a decent amount of litter on the soil surface, rather than grazing all the remaining forage prior to winter. In order to improve the potential of a pasture for the next year, in some situation it might mean pulling the cattle 1 or 2 weeks earlier off a particular field to retain enough litter on the soil surface in order to improve the success of next years’ grass crop. It is easy to fall into the trap of ‘grazing whatever is left at the end of the year’.

The question you might ask is “how much litter should be left behind on pastures prior to winter”? It is hard to give an exact amount, as there are a lot of different situations and scenarios out there on the landscape. But for most of our southern pastures, we should be leaving behind a minimum of 200-250 lbs/ac of litter on perennial pastures at the end of the season. In the Brown and Dark brown soil zones, litter is one of the main drivers of future productivity potential.

It is also important to note that the forage options a producer uses may need to change from one year to another. In drier years such as this year, maybe there are some other options available locally worth exploring, such as aftermath grazing (i.e. stubble, chaff) on annual cropland. It appears that the harvest is coming off early this year, which may lend itself to more opportunity for stubble grazing on annual cropland this fall.

Hopefully this will inspire everyone to ensure that their pastures go into winter in better shape (better litter on the surface) than in previous years, and thus help set the stage for better grass growth next year.

To hear Glenda-Lee's conversation with Range Management Extension Specialist Trevor Lennox click on the link below.