Swath grazing

[CowgirlJamie]

What are peoples thoughts about swath grazing cereals? I’ve heard that doing this can actually save producers almost half the cost of overwintering cattle.

[perfecho]

That is our system, luckily last year I baled but left the twine off....will do the same this year just in case we get the snow cover we did last year.
Trying to make things as cheap and easy as possible...will keep me in this game a few more years!

[kato]

Too many deer here.

[grassfarmer]

So how is wildlife eating winter feed treated by crop insurance in the different provinces? Can you claim wildlife damage on grazing corn, swath grazing and bale grazing equally or are some covered and others not?

[kato]

No. Not one thin dime here in Manitoba. Grazing corn falls between the cracks. We had a huge snowfall two winters ago, and had to pull the cows out of the field because the fencers wouldn't work. The deer ate about five acres of standing corn. In spring the corn was still standing, and the ground was just covered in cobs that had the kernals nibbled off. That's how you know it was deer. Cows eat the cobs. Went to crop insurance to see if we could get a wildlife claim, and their answer was that we " hadn't harvested it in a timely manner".

Crop insurance is a joke on our farm. Grazing corn is our only field crop, and it would take a massive total hail wipeout to ever collect. It wouldn't be so bad if the premiums weren't the highest ones thay have. 75 acres/ close to $1500.

[grassfarmer]

I wondered how grazing corn was treated.

I think in AB your hay or green feed is covered - if it's baled and stacked in an area regularly monitored by the owner and that you allow hunters access.

Cereals cut for swath grazing would not be eligible either.

Gaining compensation on stacked hay etc would not be reliant on you having crop insurance - not sure if that's the case in MB?
I wonder if these payment rules should be changed to reflect new management strategies (recommended by the same Governments Ag extension people) of grazing crops in situ?

[kato]

It would help if they would make catagories for them. Grazing corn is lumped in with sileage corn now. I'm not sure about wildlife damage claims depending on being in crop insurance. It seems their mandate is to not make any kind of payment if they can help it anyway. One year we could only seed about a third of it, and what did grow was about 50% of what there should have been, and they still managed to take their samples and jiggy the numbers so there was no claim. That was when it became a bad joke to us.

Predator claims are handled by the crop insurance agents, but they are paid out by the province. We've never had one though. Too many donkeys. Lol

[DGoodrich]

Swath grazing worked some years for us in AB, some years it got snowed in too deep and crusted over. We'd turn horses out to paw through the crust and the cows learnt to follow and nose down where they horses has broke it open. That never lasted long though as the horses get tired of pawing if it's tough going. The cows and the horses start to burn more calories than they can take in and lose weight on the worst years. I prefer bale grazing. They can always get to bales, and if we get enough snow to bury bales, I'm not leaving the house anyway.

As for wildlife compensation, we never bothered in AB because we took care of it ourselves. Now that we're in southern BC there's more of an issue. Large herds of elk come out of the high country when it turns cold and they're hard to persuade to go elsewhere. There is no compensation and ranchers here spend a lot of money fencing their feedstacks off.

[CowgirlJamie]

Thanks guys! I’ve enjoyed reading the comments on this tread. It gives me something to think about. I didn’t even realize some of the obvious challenges with this type of system, especially with the pests, aka deer.

[comtex]

Winter of 2013/2014 was one of the toughest winter I remember, we swath grazed right up until March, the snow was hard , deep and crusty. By moving the wire daily and pulling a small swath sample from the snow the cows were able to find the feed they needed. As the herd came to eat, they trample the snow and were able to find the swath under the snow.
Cows came through winter in reasonable condition despite the elements they faced.

[perfecho]

Wow...swath grazing the 13/14 winter is an accomplishment! Hats off!

[grassfarmer]

Comtex, what part of the province and how much snow did you get?

[comtex]

3 hours straight east of Lloydminster

[comtex]

3 hours straight east of Lloydminster

[comtex]

Oops
Snow was deep, in the sheltered areas 24 to 30 inches