Growers of cattle: ’13 grass greener

But focus is still on conservation

Arkansas cattle ranchers, in the wake of the 2012 drought that dried up pastures and shrank hay supplies, turned increasingly this year to management techniques aimed at conserving grass, state agricultural expects say.

Techniques included frequently moving their herds from one pasture to another, allowing the grass to replenish.

“The more rest the grass gets, the healthier it will be,” said Adam Eades, district conservationist with the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Rotating pastures also kept the grass taller, he said, enabling it to develop deeper roots to draw more moisture and nutrients.

“Just managing how many cows you have on each given acre is really important,” he said, adding that “the concepts are not real complicated.”

Dale Courtney, a Randolph County cattleman who runs a cow-calf and steer operation, said 2012 was difficult because it required him and other producers to rotate their herds frequently to keep from overgrazing pastures. Still, he said, he had to start feeding hay earlier than normal. He also grows various crops and said that after harvest, he baled leftover stalks and straw to use as cattle feed and to conserve his grass.

“By rotating, most of our grass stayed with us,” he said of his pastures last year. “We just learned not to overgraze our grass and let it grow by sections.”

This year’s cooler-than normal weather has been a big plus, he said. Courtney’s herd at any given time, he said, is about 400 head of steers and 250 to 300 cows.

Courtney credits pasture management practices with making his operation better and delaying the need for buying feed.

“For the amount of cattle we have, we got through it in a lot better shape than we would have if we hadn’t used some of these management practices,” he said about last year.

Ron Morrow of Farmington, who operates three farms, said this summer has been tough but not nearly as bad as last year was. He said he didn’t quit feeding hay to his cattle until April this year because of the chilly, late spring, which limited grass growth. Morrow noted that where he farms, the soil depth is shallower than in other areas and, thus, it loses moisture quickly.

“I’m not hurting right now, but I was hoping for a second hay-cutting. I didn’t get that,” he said.

Jeremy Huff, state grazing lands specialist based in Little Rock with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, said rotating herds keeps pastures more productive. The agency also emphasizes using watering alternatives to give producers diversity in providing quality water to livestock in multiple fields.

Ponds typically are the most-used water sources for cattle, he said, but wells and rural water systems can also be valuable.

An increasingly popular watering alternative, Huff said, is the use of gravity flow from ponds to multiple fields. In such instances, the water flows over rocks and through grass, which helps filter it.

“It’s a reliable way to provide quality water to livestock,” he said. “Last year, many producers ran out of water before they ran out of forages.”

A cow can drink about 30 gallons of water on a summer day, he said.

“We are getting dry right now, but it is much, much better than last year,” Huff said. Temperatures this year, he said, have been well below last year’s.

“That really makes a big difference in terms of soil temperature and keeping moisture in the soil,” he said.

Business, Pages 25 on 07/31/2013

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