Swath Grazing

[grassfarmer]

If this appalling weather continues and the combines get put away for the winter what value does a grain farmer put on a good crop of swathed oats? I'm looking over the neighbour's fence and wondering at what price it would be more attractive to sell it now than harvest in the Spring.Any suggestions?

[les]

I have had this same thing happen back in the early 80`s.What I did was swath graze some, bale some of it after freeze up and combine some of it in the spring.Swath grazing and baling it turned out to be the best choices. The ducks and geese ate most of what I left to combine and the grain was very poor quality in the spring.The bales heated of course but the cows loved it and I fed it up by the end of feb. and there was no mold yet by then.Swath grazing is maybe the way i might go this year tho if it was mine(and I have some out in swaths yet too). Lots of guys lookin for feed yet and I was thinking on asking the going rate for pasture rent.It dont sound like much but the cows can stay there a long time on good swaths so a guy gets paid fairly well for his grain.

[cswilson]

i'm in northern sask.-there are thousands of acres of canola out right now that won't get baled this fall.There is still no attempt at swath grazing it-very frustrating.I'm offering a dollar a day per cow plus i do the fencing.Guess they'd rather burn it in the spring-it's frozen zero yield potential.

[gallard]

We live in central Alberta and we swathed and combined a poor crop of canola which later re-grew with alot of blooming then came the frost. We have had the neighbors cows on the 1/4 of canola and also a 1/4 of wheat we straight cut. The cows seem to alternate between quarters when grazing. We are getting $1/day per cow and we are told by the neighbor to keep them as long as they can find something to eat.More folks need to realize that much snow and the mice etc.will leave little in the spring.

[whfarms]

I have some swaths in west central sask. that i would be willing to have someone swath graze. If interested and for more details call reg at 306-962-4688

[cswilson]

Some bizarre deals going on-a guy refused to let cows swath graze-so they baled canola tough-hauled it across fence-then bale processed it back into swaths. They sold it too the rancher for less than he offered to graze it-will wonders never cease.