Secret Weapon For Farm Profit: Start Stockpiling Tall Fescue In Missouri After Aug. 15
FORSYTH, MO.
Stockpiling is allowing grass to grow undisturbed for use at a later time. In the case of tall fescue in Missouri, the time to start stockpiling is Aug. 15.
“With stockpiling, the pasture is left undisturbed until December or later when the tall fescue starts to go dormant. This lasts until early March,” said Will Knuckles, agronomy graduate student, University of Missouri Extension.
The period of late-November through February is when the stockpile should be used to reduce the dependence on supplemental feed.
“The fact that tall fescue is one of our most common forages, its growth habits, and Missouri's weather patterns lends itself particular well to being stockpiled in the fall,” said Knuckles.
To increase the efficiency of this stockpile period, Knuckles says it is important to fertilize with nitrogen in mid-August at about 40 to 50 pounds per acre for a production benefit of about 50 percent. This can also be done through early September but, the benefit would only be 30 to 55 percent of the August benefit.
During this application, it is possible to apply potassium and phosphorus, at rates recommended by a soil test. To obtain information about soil testing contact the nearest county University of Missouri Extension office.
“One of the great benefits of tall fescue is that it can stay green during the winter dormant period and retain nutritional value longer than other cool season grasses,” said Knuckles. “The nutritional value will be suitable for beef cattle, but may not meet the needs of dairy cattle.”
It has been shown that cattle can gain more than a pound a day from grazing on tall fescue versus tall fescue hay where gain can be 0.25 to 0.5 pounds per day.
“In heifers, the practice of grazing stockpiled tall fescue shows they have about two times the daily weight gain using less than half the amount of corn gluten feed a heifer on a dry lot would use,” said Knuckles.
This is substantial when considering that the cost of feeding cattle can be reduced up to 70 percent by stockpiling tall fescue instead of hay and other feeds.
“Considering that feed and grazing expenses are roughly about 40 percent of a cow-calf operation budget, it is an area to makeup some profit in the declining beef market,” said Knuckles.
The efficiency of the stockpile can be further increased by using strip grazing. In continuous grazing where cattle are left in an open field picking and choosing where and what they eat, grass use is only about 30 percent. With strip grazing, by using a portable electric fencing to reveal smaller portions of the pasture at a time, about 60 percent use can be obtained. ∆