Pasture and Swath Grazing

[grassfarmer]

The guy I knew that tried it once found it was very hard to get the early season grazing density/timing right - took too much off and it never really came back.
I've never swath grazed but spent plenty time thinking about it. The problem seems to be seeding date so that it isn't too mature too early in the fall which most people seem to get, then it suffers rain damage in September, mould then the cows don't clean it up to well.

I have a friend who I consider the expert on swath grazing - winters hundreds of cows this way every year in a high snowfall environment. The key to his success is seeding date - seeds July 1st, swaths October 1st and suffers no weathering issues (other than swathing in snow sometimes lol) Feed analysis shows his swaths are higher quality than I can achieve with cereal silage. With the higher quality the cows will dig for it and clean it up no matter how much snow (even last winter). I think he gets around 250 days/acre and puts down 50lbs N.
The real key to his success is moisture - the land he uses is too wet to seed in May but there is still enough moisture to get a big crop every year seeded on July first. Once I understood his conditions I knew I couldn't do it on my place because of the moisture issue so I quit thinking about swath grazing. It's a heck of a system if you can do it well.

[perfecho]

Have had fantastic results seeding as late as July 15th, but poor results seeding July 1st. Like you said, usually moisture related....and sometimes if it turns out to be a cooler summer, a lot of growth is lost. Settling on around June 15th these days.
Have seen totally decimated crops caused by hail in early July come back and be harvested....so was thinking the grazing should work as well.
One thing I am doing now, is leaving the first paddock in swaths and baling the other paddocks, but not putting twine on the bales. Then if it snows too much or I want to swath little earlier, I am not risking the crop as much. It is pretty easy to either take the bales into the first paddock after it is cleaned up or if one is not as lazy as I, you can move your electric wire to give enough bales for 3 or 4 days.
I used tumble wheels for the swath grazing and use bale feeders when I bring the stringless bales over....feel they waste less. Any forage I leave behind due to no strings, gets eaten up when that paddock is empty of bales and I let the cows into it.

[perfecho]

But by the results your friend is getting, I have a lot to learn......

[grassfarmer]

The baling up is something I'd considered too - definitely a way to preserve quality and reduce weather risk. And using ring feeders to limit the waste I like also. I don't think some people's systems are properly thought through with regard to cost effectiveness - all too often the easiest system is picked. I know of one guy bale grazing at the moment with purchased $80 bales - costing $2.66 a day for the hay only.

[DGoodrich]

If the cows aren't doing well on a feed - any feed - it's not necessarily the varieties in the feed, but the nutrients. If your soil isn't healthy and/or you don't fertilize to compensate for what's lacking in the soil, the forage crop will be lacking as well. The mixture can be whatever you want it to be, doesn't mean it's nutritious. Think of buying produce at the store - in a bag of carrots one might taste sweet and the rest could be like eating cardboard.

[perfecho]

Thanks Darcy, something to ponder.....