Summer Grasses Need Nutrients, Too
Has your pasture been fed lately? Most farmers and ranchers feed their pasture in the spring and fall. That’s really too bad because pastures like to “eat” daily. Cattle eat daily. Why not pastures?
Grass gets its food and energy from the sunlight and air molecules. It needs water from the atmosphere and soil microbes. Soil microbes and roots supply the plant with minerals. There is no need to feed the grass if it has all those things available in abundance. Yet when those things are not as available when the plant needs them, it helps to supply a little supplement.
If a grass, weed, clover or other pasture plant is to perform to its best ability, it needs to have a steady supply of nutrients. Just like your cattle cannot reach their genetic potential without superior nutrition, grasses cannot perform well without superior nutrition. This includes grasses that cattle feed on and grasses that are grown for hay or silage.
We cannot control the weather, but we can help provide the nutrients plants and soil microorganisms need. Many ranchers think they do this by applying a chemical fertilizer to the soil once or twice a year. That’s old school thinking.
Many of our pasture fertilization lessons come from lawn research sponsored by chemical lawn fertilizer manufacturers. Their research showed that stimulating the lawn grasses with a high nitrogen fertilizer grew more grass. Well, that happens in the spring and fall without the nitrogen fertilizer. Unless there is a drought or a rancher has a highly compacted soil, grass will grow faster in the spring and fall than in the summer.
Later, golf course researchers learned that feeding golf course grasses more often provided a better playing surface. Golf course grasses are usually mowed daily. Cattle graze grasses daily. Regrowth of the grass leaf is dependent on the constant feeding of the plant and moisture. But unlike golf courses, ranchers cannot afford to constantly feed the soil-or can they?
I wrote my Master Thesis on “Nitrogen Fixation in Grasses” back in the mid-1970s. Through my research I learned that certain bacteria, fungi and algae provide nitrogen for the plant. This nutrition didn’t come from a chemical source, Instead, it is a natural source of nitrogen that slowly feeds the plant and allows it to grow at a steady rate. These microbes can be supplied to the soil, but many are already there. They just need an organic source to aid their multiplication.
Later I came to understand that nitrogen provided by the cow (urine and manure) was better utilized by the soil microbes when planted below ground level by dung beetles. This is almost free fertilization. It’s an amazing cycle: from cow to manure to dung beetles to soil microorganisms, to grass and then back into the cow, full of nutrition.
But you can’t take advantage of this free nitrogen fertilization unless you stop using chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides and chemical treatments on the animals and the soil. Because the key link - the dung beetle - dies when the cattle or the soil are chemically treated.
Ranchers can also use organic fertilizers for summer fertilization. Unlike chemical fertilizers, which will burn the plant and kill the soil microbes, organic fertilizers will sit on the soil surface and wait for rain or a heavy dew to release their benefits to the surrounding plant roots. Organic fertilizers are more cost effective than chemical fertilizers and have lasting effects.
Of course, the ultimate soil feeding comes when a rancher applies compost to the land. It generally takes less than half a cubic yard per acre to feed the soil. You can apply more to get even greater results, but the cost of hauling the compost is sometimes greater than the cost of the material. Nevertheless, it is the ultimate in soil pasture fertilization. The benefits last for years.
In addition to feeding the soil, compost greatly increases the water holding capacity. This pays off in drought years. Many “experts” say you should never apply compost in the summer. That is simply not true. Like most organic fertilizers, it can be applied at any time of the year.
When you take into consideration all the benefits of compost and organic fertilizations, it only makes sense to dump the chemical routine. When you fertilize organically, the soil, the plant and the animal can reach its genetic potential. For ranchers, this means more pounds of beef on the same land with the same animals and with fewer health and disease problems.
The same holds true for people who fertilize their lawns with organic fertilizers. Greener grass with fewer pest and disease problems. Now why would anyone go back to chemical applications?
David E. Will is a local rancher and consultant. He can be reached at (830) 629-9876.