Green Eatin’

It’s no surprise that cattle like something green to eat all year round. Winter is no exception. Usually, by mid-September, some rain has started to green the pastures. Farmers begin plowing fields to prepare the ground to plant oats, wheat, or other green grass crops. With short grass in many pastures, the ground is easy to plow, disk or harrow.

Going down the road recently, I saw a cloud of dust with a tractor disking a burned-out cattle pasture. I felt sad about this, as I know that planting seeds in that field is likely to result in a loss of both time and money.

Depending on rainfall, the seed may be eaten by birds, carried to ant mounds or dry out and not germinate. But I saw the same thing done the previous year with the same results. I don’t know what the rancher was thinking, but I can imagine him saying, “By golly, it’s late September and it’s time to plant the oats.” With no green pasture for his cattle, things will only get worse when he pours chemical fertilizer on the ground right after seeding.

I am not trying to shame anyone but trying to point out that this is no way to help cattle. I have seen pastures in Fayette County that have clover and green grass coming up year after year. I have also seen a lot of pastures with mud and no grass or green foliage at all. Poor land management is hard on the land and on the animals.

My cattle eat green grass all winter long. Most of the winter grass comes up from seed that matured in the previous spring. But to get the seed to mature, I had to graze a “sacrifice pasture” while allowing the other pastures time for the seed to mature. I sincerely hope the seed from last year’s efforts will germinate again this year.

Now there are folks that plant all kinds of “green foliage” plants for cattle without damaging the land by disking. For ranchers without green grass and lots of mud, it makes sense to improve the soil and get the animals something to eat. These folks plant peas, clovers, oats and things you might not believe cattle will eat, such as radishes and turnips.

After they die, these special radishes and turnups open holes in the soil that allow water to enter and leave a nutritional residue for the perennial grass. Cattle can graze on the green tops when it’s cold and eat better than just eating hay all winter long. It’s a win-win for the animals and the soil. It could help start the soil back to health.

Some of these crops are planted with no-till planters that open the soil only enough to drop the seed and maybe a little fertilizer in the ground. Planted this way, the soil loses less water and the majority of microbes in the soil are not exposed to killing sunlight and air. Organic farmers use this method to establish cover crops.

Native pasture graziers will tell you that there are native grasses that are green all winter long. The native winter grass can supply something green for cattle to eat without adding lots of chemical fertilizers. I collect native wintergrass seed every year and plant them to supplement other non-native grasses that green the winter pastures. One day, I hope that most of my pastures will be native grasses.

Until then, I still rely on ryegrass, perennial rye grasses, rescuegrass and native and non-native clovers to green winter pastures. Since these grasses “volunteer” each year, cattle must be kept off the land until the grass is four to six inches tall. Grazing too early will kill the grass or stunt it into a hard-to-access groundcover.

Some farmers speed grass growth by applying a liquid fertilizer on winter grasses when they reach the six-leaf stage. A good organic/regenerative grazing program can help grow more grass and help grass seed mature and regenerate next year’s pastures. It sure beats planting seed every year.

David E. Will is a local rancher and consultant. Contact him at 830-629-9876 or email at dwill207@satx.rr.com.