How many guys graze off the hayland

[ALLFARMER]

I have an older alfalfa grass hay field that I am grazing this fall. Since our snow comes and stays till spring 2 or 3 feet of snow should I expect any winter kill..... We will get out killing frost tonight.

[Kathy]

Grazing now shouldn't hurt the hay, but watch for nitrates that could build up in the grass, especially right after the first killing frost. If its is an older haystand, and the grass/alfalfa is not lush... this shouldn't be a problem. Knock on wood.

[burnt]

I lost two big calves last fall after they got into some pretty good alfalfa right after a frost. I found them bloated late in the same day.

They had been (slipping under a high spot in the fence and)getting into that same field regularly up until then.

So I found out that it warrants a great deal of caution.

[smcgrath76]

We winter graze, and/or spring graze many
of our hay fields. Some of our neighbours
have actually had fairly good success
swath grazing alfalfa/grass pastures.

[topper]

I fall graze all my hay fields that have a fence around them. Have for years and had no winter kill issues that I noticed. I like to see some bloom on the alfalfa before I turn them out into it. Most of my hay is alfafa grass mixture and I notice the cattle will go after the grass first and then start at the alfalfa once that is cleaned up. I have never lost an animal to bloat yet but may have been lucky. I think the biggest problem would be if a new growth of young alfafa starts to grow and they have nothing else left to graze.

[DogPatch]

If more fellows had their land fenced, they could easily pay them off with the feed left from windrows and headlands. In fact, if the headlands were grazed off on a regular basis, we likely wouldn't have the ergot problems we are seeing. However if the ergot is really bad in the brome grass, then thats a problem for the cattle.

[tweaker101]

We have been grazing our hayfields for the last four years, with no problem..we do wait for a good shot of frost and then put the cows in. We are usually able to graze the second growth till atleast the second week in December depending on snow...works for us. Have not seen any loss in yield from doing this.

[brian99]

Make sure the animals go out full, not hungry. Watch em the first day for bloat. It happens pretty quick. If the alfalfa is burned down a little by frost you're probably fine. Winter kill comes from damaged crowns, not eating off the frozen top growth. If there's no mud and the crowns aren't disturbed, you're in great shape.

[ALLFARMER]

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

Grazing 250 animals on 380acres hopefully we can last another month. Then I'll give swath grazing oats a try. The swath is so wide and that land has lots of roots on it so that is keeping me from getting to excited about getting the baler into it.