Wanting to swath graze

[Muttley]

I am thinking about doing some swath grazing next fall. What do some of you suggest as in what to sow and when to cut. I also have thought about planting corn and leaving it to stand for them to eat?
I really would like to set it up so as not to have to feed bales to the new year.

[kato]

We did the corn thing, and were really happy with it. We are going to do it again, but with a more drought tolerant variety this time. We didn't swath it, just cross fenced and let them in. They ate every scrap, including pulling it up by the roots. Twenty acres of very short droughted out Canamaize lasted 180 cows for a couple of weeks. It should have lasted longer, though.

As a side note, the local deer were pretty fat and sassy by fall too.

[SleepingCowboy]

We tried it last year with a round-up ready corn with good results, the only thing we might try different this year is to swath it instead of leaving it stand I think it would be a bit easier for the girls to find after a heavy snow, as ours didn't stay standing too well and with a bit of snow and then rain it got pretty crusty for them.