Week 4

Roughages

Pasture Forages

Text Transcript

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• In U.S.
• Significant feedstuff in animal production
• App. 36% feedstuffs
• Figure 8.11 – Percentage of land per county as pasture or rangeland in 1987 Census of Ag

  (Click on photo for larger image)



• Effectiveness of management
  • Measured via forage and animal production per unit of land
• In U.S. industries
  • Economically significant to beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, and horse industries
  • Beef cattle
    • Primarily in cow-calf and stocker operations
  • Dairy cattle
    • Limited for lactating cows
      • High nutrient requirements
      • Limited land area
    • More often for dry-cows and heifers
      • Given available land
  • Sheep
    • Significant source of feed
• Pasture: an area of land with forage grown for animal consumption via grazing
• Classification
  • Cultivated or seeded or introduced and native pasture
  • Figure 7-4 on page 132 of the text – Cultivated or introduced and native pasture regions of U.S.
  • Cultivated or seeded
    • Greater than 20” rainfall per year or irrigated
    • Examples include pastures of Midwest, South, East, and irrigated and higher rainfall areas in West
    • Figure 8.12 – Sheep grazing cultivated pasture

• Native
• Less than 20” of rainfall per year
• Native species
  • Not introduced and existed for period of time
• In general, nutritional value and yield of cultivated pastures higher than native pastures
  • Result of forage species and management
• Additional classification
• Permanent
• Used for many years
• In general, most profitable use of land
• Majority of rangelands
• Semi-permanent
• Used for number of years
• Component of crop rotation program
• Temporary and supplemental
• Used for a short period of time
• Often include annual species
• Pasture and range forages in forage system
• Advantages
• Reduced feed cost
• Reduced cost of facilities
• Potential for relatively consistent feedstuff of high nutritional value
• Improved animal health
• Productive means to use land
• Disadvantages
• Potential loss in revenue compared to alternative crops
• Potential for labor intensive animal management
• Nutritional value of forages depends on environmental and soil conditions
• Yield and nutritional value
• Factors
• Plant species
• Environmental and soil conditions
• Stage of maturity
• Grazing management
• Focus on factors specific to pasture systems
• Grazing management
• Controls timing and amount of forage grazed to prevent
• Decrease in number, yield, and nutritional value of favorable species
• Increase in number of unfavorable species
• Increase in soil erosion
• Classifications of systems
• Continuous
• Uninterrupted grazing throughout grazing season
• Compared to rotation
  • Lower stocking rate
  • Variable stocking rate throughout season
  • Larger pastures
• Times of adequate yield and nutritional value, potential for productivity as rotation
• Advantages
  • Lower fencing and watering costs
  • Lower labor costs
  • Less knowledge of forage management
• Disadvantages
  • Variable stocking rate may be issue
  • Difficult to manage forage species
  • More difficult to harvest and store excess
  • Supplementation required to compensate for deficits
• Intermittent (i.e. rotation)
• Rotation: two or more pastures grazed and rested in planned sequence
• Primary factor is time
  • Grazing and rest of forage
  • Determined by forage growth and consumption
• Promote forage nutritional value and yield over time
• In less productive periods, rotation systems are more productive
• Advantages
  • Increased yield and nutritional value of forage
  • Improved stand persistence
  • Facilitates removal of excess forage
  • Increased carrying capacity of land
  • Promotes equal defoliation
  • Reduced incidence of animal disease
• Disadvantages
  • Higher capital costs
  • Higher labor costs
  • More knowledge of forage management
• Example: intensive rotation grazing
• Additional forages as pasture forages
• Rape and kale
  • Sheep
• Beets and turnips
  • Cattle and sheep
• Cereal grains
  • Grown as forage
  • Winter pastures
• Crop residues
  • Include stover, chaff, straw, stalkage, and husklage
  • Figure 8.13 – Cattle grazing corn crop residue



• Grazed by animals with lower nutrient requirements
• Supplementation with protein and various microminerals