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Looking forward to new seasons

By
John Grimes-
April has certainly been eventful thus far for the avid sports fan. The college basketball season has wrapped up with Cinderella (Butler) coming up just short.  The professional baseball season is underway and I am looking forward to the upcoming NFL Draft to see how the Bengals can improve.  Farmers and gardeners alike are getting anxious to get started on a new growing season.  This week saw some wide fluctuations in temperatures and variable rainfall amounts depending on your location.  Hopefully weather conditions will improve soon to facilitate timely plantings.  
Managing Spring Grass Growth and Selective Grazing                                                                            For most beef cattle farmers who are managing their pastures in a rotational grazing system two of the biggest challenges are the flush of rapid growth that will occur and selective grazing. While there are no easy management answers, if we review some basic plant growth biology and grazing principles, they may suggest some management strategies. Warning: this article may disrupt some conventional thinking.
We know that as spring progresses, grass growth will speed up. Our cool season pasture grasses produce about 60% of their total dry matter production by early July. If your farm has a stocking rate that is matched to summer pasture production there is no way your cattle will be able to consume enough pasture forage to keep up with the flush of grass growth that will occur in late April through May. Coupled with this explosion in grass growth is a physiological response to the shorter nights and longer days that triggers seed head production generally starting at some point in May. So not only is there more forage than can be consumed, but now the quality is steadily declining as a seed head is produced. It is very hard to fight this biology. Fast grazing rotations where hopefully the cattle just top the grass, combined with clipping the pastures to keep seed heads off are some standard management practices that are tried. In reality, these are not great solutions because cattle are not grazing uniformly and are not just topping the grass. They are grazing some places harder than others and there will be selective grazing resulting in uneven growth. Clipping pastures to keep the seed heads off can be very time consuming, not to mention the fuel and machinery costs that are incurred.
Instead of fighting the biology of spring grass growth, work with it. If your stocking rate is matched for summer production all of the pasture paddocks are not needed during the spring and early summer period. Paddocks must be dropped out of the spring rotation, and doing so will make it easier to manage the spring flush of growth. Which paddocks should be dropped out? Obviously any paddocks that had trampling and pugging damage during the winter and early spring are good candidates. This will give them time to recover, and/or for some paddock renovation and reseeding to be done. Next, drop those paddocks where it is easiest to get a tractor over. The goal is really to use the pasture paddocks with the most slope where clipping would be difficult.
The end result might be as much as 50% of your grazing acres dropped out of the spring rotation. The next thing that should be done is to divide those remaining pastures in half if at all possible. This will change stocking density, but not stocking rate. Stocking density is defined as the number of animal units being grazed per unit of land over a short time period. The stocking rate is defined as the number of animal units that are carried on a given unit of land over a long time period, generally a year. So, when paddocks are dropped out of the rotation, there is now the opportunity to graze more animal units, more pounds of animal per acre. This will accomplish a couple of things.
First, with more animal pounds on a smaller paddock acreage, a faster rotation is necessary. This will help keep plants in a vegetative growth stage. There may still be some seedheads, but seeds are not maturing before the plant is grazed again and the grass still has good nutritive value for the cows. Second, when stocking at more pounds per acre, cattle tend to be much less selective. Paddocks are grazed more uniformly, reducing the need to clip. Pasture forage utilization is increased.
Keep practicing good grazing principles, do not graze below a 3 inch height, and do not enter a paddock with less than 8 inches of growth. Remember if you have to err on when to pull cattle out of a paddock, it is better to leave more residual growth as compared to grazing lower. When grass growth begins to slow down and you can no longer pull cattle out of a paddock with 3-4 inches of residual and move to a paddock with 8 inches of growth, it is time to begin adding some of those dropped paddocks back in to the rotation to maintain these grazing principles.
The question will come up about what to do with those paddocks that are dropped out of the spring rotation. Options include taking a hay crop from them, clip them before they are worked back into the rotation, or just let them grow. The advantage of taking a hay crop is that it might be used later as a management tool, and fed in the late summer to protect paddocks from being overgrazed, particularly if a drought situation develops. The disadvantage is that there is some significant nutrient removal associated with a hay crop.
Clipping is another expense, but does allow nutrients to be recycled back into the paddock and clipping will maintain the vegetative quality of the paddock. If the paddock is clipped try to time it so that the regrowth will be at that 8-10 inch stage when the cattle enter to graze.
Letting the paddocks grow and mature could be an option if a heavy stocking density can be maintained and more pasture divisions added. Under heavy stocking densities cattle will select the best growth and trample the stemmy material in to the soil. When combined with the uniform manure cover that accompanies a heavy stocking density, this results in a mulch layer over the soil that conserves soil moisture, provides a favorable environment for nutrient recycling, and allows good regrowth potential. If the stocking density is heavy enough there would not be any need to clip the paddock after the grazing pass. If the stocking density is light enough to allow selective grazing, then it may be necessary to clip the paddock after this grazing pass. The stocking density that would allow this system to work is probably in excess of 200,000 lbs/acre. Think fifty 1200 lbs cows in a one-quarter acre paddock and you get the idea. This requires quick paddock moves; basically strip grazing across a pasture paddock. It is not something that the typical cow/calf grazier is going to try, but it is an option.
Most cattle graziers struggle with the spring flush of growth, seedhead development, rapidly maturing grass and uneven, selective grazing. Expecting different results this year without a management change is wishful thinking. Management options are available. The bigger question is are you willing to change your management?
Source: Rory Lewandowski <mailto:lewandowski.11@osu.edu&gt; , Extension Educator, Athens County, Buckeye Hills EERA
U.S. Farmers Plan to Plant Record Soybean Acres in 2010, USDA Reports 
U.S. farmers plan to plant a record-high 78.1 million acres to soybeans in 2010, according to the Prospective Plantings <http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID…; report released recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). 
NASS expects that total area planted to principal crops nationwide will hold steady at 319.5 million acres, after declining 5.7 percent in 2009. Intended soybean acres are expected to increase 1 percent from last year’s previous record, while corn planted area is expected to increase 3 percent, to 88.8 million acres. If realized, this would be the second-largest area planted to corn since 1947, behind 2007. 
The largest soybean acreage increases are expected in Kansas, up 400,000 acres, and Iowa, up 300,000. Increases of 100,000 or more acres are also expected in Illinois, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. 
Expected corn acreage is up in many states due to reduced winter wheat acreage and growers’ expectations of improved net returns. Increases of 300,000 or more corn acres are expected in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Ohio. Iowa continues to lead the nation with 13.5 million corn acres, despite an expected drop of 200,000 acres from 2009. 
NASS estimates 2010 cotton plantings at 10.5 million acres, up 15 percent from last year. Wheat acreage is expected to decline 9 percent to 53.8 million acres, the smallest total area since 1970. The area planted to winter wheat is expected to be down 13 percent from last year. 
Prospective Plantings provides the first official, survey-based estimates of U.S. farmers’ planting intentions for 2010. NASS surveyed approximately 86,000 farm operators across the United States during the first two weeks of March. NASS will publish data on actual planted area in the Acreage report, to be released June 30 at 8:30 a.m. EDT. 
NASS also released the quarterly Grain Stocks <http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID…; report, showing corn stocks in all positions at 76.9 billion bushels as of March 1. This is the second-highest March 1 stocks level on record, after 1987. Soybeans stored in all positions on March 1 totaled 1.27 bushels, down 2 percent from a year ago, while all wheat stored totaled 1.35 billion bushels, up 30 percent from March 1, 2009. 
Prospective Plantings, Grain Stocks and all NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov <http://www.nass.usda.gov/&gt; .
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). 
Catalogs now available for Ohio Cattlemen's Association seedstock improvement bull sales                                                                         
The Ohio Cattlemen's Association is hosting two Seedstock Improvement Bull Sales scheduled for April. The sales, scheduled for Friday, April 10 at Muskingum Livestock in Zanesville and Saturday, April 17 at Union Stock Yards Company in Hillsboro, offer an affordable way to buy bulls from multiple breeds in one location and on one day. Buyers have the assurance of buying bulls with known genetics, a completed vaccination regiment and a breeding soundness exam. This year there are 35 bulls consigned to the sale at Muskingum and 33 to the sale at Union Stock Yards.
Catalogs are now available for both sales at www.ohiocattle.org <http://ohiocattle.org/SeedstockSales&gt; . The bulls in both sales range in age from one to five years and are all registered and have expected progeny differences. The bulls are placed in sale order based on a within breed evaluation star system using EPDs for birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight and milk. Many of the proven bulls available will have additional performance based information including offspring data. Breeds represented are Angus, Charolais, ChiMaine, Gelbvieh Balancers, Limousin, Maine-Anjou, SimAngus and Simmental.
For more information on the sales, visit www.ohiocattle.org <http://ohiocattle.org/&gt;  and look under the Beef Improvement section or call the OCA office at 614-873-6736 or e-mail beef@ohiobeef.org
Source: Ohio BEEF Cattle newsletter 
-John Grimes is the Ohio State University Extension Educator for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Highland County.  Ohio State University Extension embraces human diversity and is committed to ensuring that all research and related educational programs are available to clientele on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, or veteran status.  This statement is in accordance with United States Civil Rights Laws and the USDA. Keith L. Smith, Ph.D., Associate Vice President for Agricultural Administration and Director, Ohio State University Extension TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio only) or 614-292-1868. 
April has certainly been eventful thus far for the avid sports fan. The college basketball season has wrapped up with Cinderella (Butler) coming up just short.  The professional baseball season is underway and I am looking forward to the upcoming NFL Draft to see how the Bengals can improve.  Farmers and gardeners alike are getting anxious to get started on a new growing season.  This week saw some wide fluctuations in temperatures and variable rainfall amounts depending on your location.  Hopefully weather conditions will improve soon to facilitate timely plantings.  

Managing spring grass growth and selective grazing              

For most beef cattle farmers who are managing their pastures in a rotational grazing system two of the biggest challenges are the flush of rapid growth that will occur and selective grazing. While there are no easy management answers, if we review some basic plant growth biology and grazing principles, they may suggest some management strategies. Warning: this article may disrupt some conventional thinking.

We know that as spring progresses, grass growth will speed up. Our cool season pasture grasses produce about 60 percent of their total dry matter production by early July. If your farm has a stocking rate that is matched to summer pasture production there is no way your cattle will be able to consume enough pasture forage to keep up with the flush of grass growth that will occur in late April through May. Coupled with this explosion in grass growth is a physiological response to the shorter nights and longer days that triggers seed head production generally starting at some point in May. So not only is there more forage than can be consumed, but now the quality is steadily declining as a seed head is produced. It is very hard to fight this biology. Fast grazing rotations where hopefully the cattle just top the grass, combined with clipping the pastures to keep seed heads off are some standard management practices that are tried. In reality, these are not great solutions because cattle are not grazing uniformly and are not just topping the grass. They are grazing some places harder than others and there will be selective grazing resulting in uneven growth. Clipping pastures to keep the seed heads off can be very time consuming, not to mention the fuel and machinery costs that are incurred.

Instead of fighting the biology of spring grass growth, work with it. If your stocking rate is matched for summer production all of the pasture paddocks are not needed during the spring and early summer period. Paddocks must be dropped out of the spring rotation, and doing so will make it easier to manage the spring flush of growth. Which paddocks should be dropped out? Obviously any paddocks that had trampling and pugging damage during the winter and early spring are good candidates. This will give them time to recover, and/or for some paddock renovation and reseeding to be done. Next, drop those paddocks where it is easiest to get a tractor over. The goal is really to use the pasture paddocks with the most slope where clipping would be difficult.

The end result might be as much as 50 percent of your grazing acres dropped out of the spring rotation. The next thing that should be done is to divide those remaining pastures in half if at all possible. This will change stocking density, but not stocking rate. Stocking density is defined as the number of animal units being grazed per unit of land over a short time period. The stocking rate is defined as the number of animal units that are carried on a given unit of land over a long time period, generally a year. So, when paddocks are dropped out of the rotation, there is now the opportunity to graze more animal units, more pounds of animal per acre. This will accomplish a couple of things.

First, with more animal pounds on a smaller paddock acreage, a faster rotation is necessary. This will help keep plants in a vegetative growth stage. There may still be some seedheads, but seeds are not maturing before the plant is grazed again and the grass still has good nutritive value for the cows. Second, when stocking at more pounds per acre, cattle tend to be much less selective. Paddocks are grazed more uniformly, reducing the need to clip. Pasture forage utilization is increased.

Keep practicing good grazing principles, do not graze below a 3 inch height, and do not enter a paddock with less than 8 inches of growth. Remember if you have to err on when to pull cattle out of a paddock, it is better to leave more residual growth as compared to grazing lower. When grass growth begins to slow down and you can no longer pull cattle out of a paddock with 3-4 inches of residual and move to a paddock with 8 inches of growth, it is time to begin adding some of those dropped paddocks back in to the rotation to maintain these grazing principles.

The question will come up about what to do with those paddocks that are dropped out of the spring rotation. Options include taking a hay crop from them, clip them before they are worked back into the rotation, or just let them grow. The advantage of taking a hay crop is that it might be used later as a management tool, and fed in the late summer to protect paddocks from being overgrazed, particularly if a drought situation develops. The disadvantage is that there is some significant nutrient removal associated with a hay crop.

Clipping is another expense, but does allow nutrients to be recycled back into the paddock and clipping will maintain the vegetative quality of the paddock. If the paddock is clipped try to time it so that the regrowth will be at that 8-10 inch stage when the cattle enter to graze.

Letting the paddocks grow and mature could be an option if a heavy stocking density can be maintained and more pasture divisions added. Under heavy stocking densities cattle will select the best growth and trample the stemmy material in to the soil. When combined with the uniform manure cover that accompanies a heavy stocking density, this results in a mulch layer over the soil that conserves soil moisture, provides a favorable environment for nutrient recycling, and allows good regrowth potential. If the stocking density is heavy enough there would not be any need to clip the paddock after the grazing pass. If the stocking density is light enough to allow selective grazing, then it may be necessary to clip the paddock after this grazing pass. The stocking density that would allow this system to work is probably in excess of 200,000 lbs/acre. Think fifty 1200 lbs cows in a one-quarter acre paddock and you get the idea. This requires quick paddock moves; basically strip grazing across a pasture paddock. It is not something that the typical cow/calf grazier is going to try, but it is an option.

Most cattle graziers struggle with the spring flush of growth, seedhead development, rapidly maturing grass and uneven, selective grazing. Expecting different results this year without a management change is wishful thinking. Management options are available. The bigger question is are you willing to change your management?

Source: Rory Lewandowski <mailto:lewandowski.11@osu.edu&gt; , Extension Educator, Athens County, Buckeye Hills EERA

U.S. farmers plan to plant record soybean acres in 2010, USDA reports 
 
U.S. farmers plan to plant a record-high 78.1 million acres to soybeans in 2010, according to the Prospective Plantings <http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID…; report released recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). 

NASS expects that total area planted to principal crops nationwide will hold steady at 319.5 million acres, after declining 5.7 percent in 2009. Intended soybean acres are expected to increase 1 percent from last year’s previous record, while corn planted area is expected to increase 3 percent, to 88.8 million acres. If realized, this would be the second-largest area planted to corn since 1947, behind 2007. 

The largest soybean acreage increases are expected in Kansas, up 400,000 acres, and Iowa, up 300,000. Increases of 100,000 or more acres are also expected in Illinois, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. 

Expected corn acreage is up in many states due to reduced winter wheat acreage and growers’ expectations of improved net returns. Increases of 300,000 or more corn acres are expected in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Ohio. Iowa continues to lead the nation with 13.5 million corn acres, despite an expected drop of 200,000 acres from 2009. 

NASS estimates 2010 cotton plantings at 10.5 million acres, up 15 percent from last year. Wheat acreage is expected to decline 9 percent to 53.8 million acres, the smallest total area since 1970. The area planted to winter wheat is expected to be down 13 percent from last year. 

Prospective Plantings provides the first official, survey-based estimates of U.S. farmers’ planting intentions for 2010. NASS surveyed approximately 86,000 farm operators across the United States during the first two weeks of March. NASS will publish data on actual planted area in the Acreage report, to be released June 30 at 8:30 a.m. EDT. 

NASS also released the quarterly Grain Stocks <http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID…; report, showing corn stocks in all positions at 76.9 billion bushels as of March 1. This is the second-highest March 1 stocks level on record, after 1987. Soybeans stored in all positions on March 1 totaled 1.27 bushels, down 2 percent from a year ago, while all wheat stored totaled 1.35 billion bushels, up 30 percent from March 1, 2009. 

Prospective Plantings, Grain Stocks and all NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov <http://www.nass.usda.gov/&gt; .

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). 

Catalogs now available for Ohio Cattlemen's Association seedstock improvement bull sales                                                                         
The Ohio Cattlemen's Association is hosting two Seedstock Improvement Bull Sales scheduled for April. The sales, scheduled for Friday, April 10 at Muskingum Livestock in Zanesville and Saturday, April 17 at Union Stock Yards Company in Hillsboro, offer an affordable way to buy bulls from multiple breeds in one location and on one day. Buyers have the assurance of buying bulls with known genetics, a completed vaccination regiment and a breeding soundness exam. This year there are 35 bulls consigned to the sale at Muskingum and 33 to the sale at Union Stock Yards.

Catalogs are now available for both sales at www.ohiocattle.org <http://ohiocattle.org/SeedstockSales&gt; . The bulls in both sales range in age from one to five years and are all registered and have expected progeny differences. The bulls are placed in sale order based on a within breed evaluation star system using EPDs for birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight and milk. Many of the proven bulls available will have additional performance based information including offspring data. Breeds represented are Angus, Charolais, ChiMaine, Gelbvieh Balancers, Limousin, Maine-Anjou, SimAngus and Simmental.

For more information on the sales, visit www.ohiocattle.org <http://ohiocattle.org/&gt;  and look under the Beef Improvement section or call the OCA office at 614-873-6736 or e-mail beef@ohiobeef.org

Source: Ohio BEEF Cattle newsletter 

-John Grimes is the Ohio State University Extension Educator for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Highland County.  Ohio State University Extension embraces human diversity and is committed to ensuring that all research and related educational programs are available to clientele on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, or veteran status.  This statement is in accordance with United States Civil Rights Laws and the USDA. Keith L. Smith, Ph.D., Associate Vice President for Agricultural Administration and Director, Ohio State University Extension TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio only) or 614-292-1868. 
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