7/23/96

Contacts:
Jim Russell, Animal Science, (515) 294-4631
Brian Meyer, Agriculture Information, (515) 294-0706

EDITOR'S NOTE: The research in this release was presented at the American Society of Animal Science annual meeting in July.

EXPANDED GRAZING SEASON COULD REDUCE BEEF PRODUCERS' COSTS

RAPID CITY, S.D. - Beef producers can save money by stretching the grazing season for cows into the winter months, says an Iowa State University animal scientist.

"About 40 percent of the cost in cow-calf production is needed for stored feeds," said James Russell. "Producers could make significant cost reductions by extending the grazing season."

Russell conducted a three-year study of winter grazing at an ISU research farm in southern Iowa. He presented results of the study at the annual meeting of the American Society of Animal Science, July 23-26.

After the second hay harvest in early August, forages - either tall fescue-alfalfa or smooth bromegrass-red clover combinations - were stockpiled, or allowed to grow, for about 70 days.

From the end of October through mid-March, each cow grazed on two acres of each species of stockpiled forage. Russell also studied cows grazing on corn stalks and compared results to cows fed hay all winter in feedlots. Stored hay was fed as necessary to grazing cows to maintain adequate body condition to prevent future breeding problems.

"Grazing of stockpiled forages saved an average of 1.25 tons of hay per cow compared to the cows fed in feedlots," Russell said. "Corn-stalk grazing averaged a savings of seven-tenths of a ton per cow. The bottom line is that winter grazing of stockpiled forages seems to have potential for decreasing costs of stored feed to maintain beef cows."

"This year, with low calf prices, the good manager who can lower production costs will have the best opportunity to make a profit," he added. "We think stockpiled grazing can help lower costs. It also may give young beginning farmers who can't afford baling equipment or custom baling an opportunity to operate a beef production system."

Russell also calculated the hay balance - the amount of hay harvested prior to stockpiling minus the hay fed to grazing cows to maintain body condition. "We had enough excess hay to maintain one more cow in the feedlot during the winter. That excess hay could be sold, fed to other animals or used as part of summer grazing."

"One question we want to address is what to do with that excess forage," he said. "It could be taken as another hay cutting. We need to compare costs of another cutting versus letting animals graze it."

One limitation of the system, Russell said, is it takes a lot of land. "We might look at late-summer application of nitrogen to stimulate stockpiled forage growth. With 70 days of stockpiling, you get about a ton of forage per acre. If we could increase that to 1.5 tons per acre, it may help decrease acreage by a third." Other data have shown that stockpiled forage yields increased by 50 percent after applying 40 pounds of nitrogen per acre.

Russell has completed one year of a follow-up study in which cows grazed for two months on corn stalks at the rate of 1.5 acres per cow, then grazed stockpiled forages at the rate of 3 acres per cow for the rest of the winter. Results showed that cows needed only 800 to 1,000 pounds of stored hay to maintain body condition. Cows fed in feedlots needed three tons of hay to make it through the winter.

The research is funded by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at ISU.

News Releases Agriculture in Action Ag Online Communications Skills Home