{"id":350,"date":"2020-03-23T17:02:08","date_gmt":"2020-03-23T21:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/?p=350"},"modified":"2020-03-23T17:02:09","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T21:02:09","slug":"successful-stockpiling-takes-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/2020\/03\/successful-stockpiling-takes-planning\/","title":{"rendered":"Successful stockpiling takes planning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Calving percentage is widely recognized as the variable having the greatest impact on profitability of a cow-calf operation.\u00a0 Because expenditures for feed are so large, minimizing those costs is perhaps the next most important strategy to enhance profitability.\u00a0 Expenditures for hay or baleage and supplements usually represent the largest portion of the total feed budget.\u00a0 Most of those expenses are for winter feed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Producers in South Georgia, where pastures are predominantly warm-season perennials like bermudagrass and bahiagrass are able to use overseeded winter annuals, either small grains or annual ryegrass to \u201cdouble-crop\u201d and produce grazable forage that complements the summer production from warm-season grasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>North\nGeorgia producers who depend primarily on tall fescue for pasture production\nface less obvious alternatives to extend the grazing season during the\nwinter.&nbsp; Overseeding tall fescue pastures\nwith winter annuals is not an uncommon practice in north Georgia. The\nexpectation is that the winter annual will provide more fall and winter grazing\nthan will the tall fescue, which should lengthen the grazing season.&nbsp; Overseeding tall fescue does not have the complementarity\nthat the practice provides with warm-season grasses.&nbsp; Conditions for optimum, rapid growth are very\nsimilar for tall fescue, small grains and annual ryegrass.&nbsp; This leads to direct competition for water, nutrients\nand even sunlight when temperatures for growth are best.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An\nalternative practice to extend the duration of the grazing season is planned\nstockpiling of tall fescue.&nbsp; Stockpiling\neliminates the cost of seeding and capitalizes on the ability of tall fescue to\nproduce high quality forage that can be grazed in late fall, early winter and\neven later if pasture growth is carefully allocated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>University of Tennessee forage scientists have compared the yields resulting from overseeding tall fescue with winter annuals to stockpiling tall fescue. Wheat or annual ryegrass was drilled into in mid-September. Each seeding treatment received 0, 60 or 90 lb N\/acre. Plots were harvested in the fall and twice in the spring. The first spring harvest was completed considerably earlier than normal hay harvest. This early harvest was done to evaluate the early spring growth of the treatments, which would indicate which were best for providing early season growth to decrease the late winter hay needs. Results indicated that overseeding did not improve fall yield. Fall yield was influenced by N rate, not overseeding species. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yields were relatively low, but the highest yields\nwere obtained with the higher N rates. Fall N application influenced spring\nharvest. Data indicated that the overseeding did not improve yield, but fall N\ndid. Applying N in the fall allows tall fescue to produce more forage as well\nas store more carbohydrates in the roots and crown. This extra carbohydrate\nstorage provides more energy for the plant to begin to grow in spring.&nbsp; Best fall and early spring yield can be obtained\nthrough fall fertilization of tall fescue rather than seeding winter annuals\ninto the tall fescue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Costs required to overseed small grains or annual\nryegrass and considerably greater than stockpiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"929\" height=\"561\" src=\"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/files\/2020\/03\/stock-1.jpg\" alt=\"figure 1.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-353\" srcset=\"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/files\/2020\/03\/stock-1.jpg 929w, https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/files\/2020\/03\/stock-1-300x181.jpg 300w, https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/files\/2020\/03\/stock-1-768x464.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 929px) 100vw, 929px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Winter annual forages are recognized for the very\nhigh nutritional value they can provide when grazed or properly harvested for\nhay. Research at the University of Arkansas, conducted over 4 years indicates\nthat stockpiled tall fescue can provide very nutritious forage that exceeds\nboth the energy (TDN, total digestible nutrients) and protein requirements for\neven a lactating beef cow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/files\/2020\/03\/table-stock.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/files\/2020\/03\/table-stock.png 1024w, https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/files\/2020\/03\/table-stock-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/files\/2020\/03\/table-stock-768x480.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Stockpiling\nhas also reduced the toxicity of endophyte-infected tall fescue. One study\nfound that toxin levels in infected fescue decreased during the winter grazing\nperiod. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Small grain\nor annual ryegrass seed is widely available and can be purchased and overseed\non short notice in the fall.&nbsp; Greater\nanticipation and planning is necessary to utilize the superior strategy of\nstockpiling tall fescue.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider the\nfollowing steps to plan and implement successful stockpiling:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Plan\nwhich areas will be stockpiled and which will be available for fall grazing\nwhile stockpiled growth accumulates. A knowledge of pasture carrying capacity\nand anticipated grazing demand will facilitate planning.<\/li><li>Use\nweather records to determine the most probable end of the fall growing\nseason.&nbsp; Allow at least 60 days for tall\nfescue to accumulate stockpiled growth before the end of the season. Ninety\ndays of growth will result in a greater reserve of stockpiled forage.<\/li><li>Graze\nor clip pasture(s) or hayfield to be stockpiled to 3-5 \u201c height.<\/li><li>Apply\nnitrogen fertilizer.&nbsp; Lower rates will\nprovide the greatest response per unit of nitrogen, but research has found a\npositive yield response to rates as high as 80 lb\/acre. 3. Defer grazing\nstockpiled tall fescue forage until late fall or winter. Be sure to properly\nuse forage growth in other pastures before beginning to use stockpiled forage.\nHowever, late- season growth of warm-season species may be of low quality and\nthus may require supplementation.<\/li><li>As\narea allows, plan on 1 acre per cow \u2013 this should provide grazing for about 75\nor more days.<\/li><li>Stockpiled\nforage will provide nutritious feed and should be allocated to animals with\nhigher demand (e.g. lactating cows, growing bred heifers).&nbsp; For spring calving herds, planning to graze\nlower quality forage like warm-season grass aftermath of crop residues will\npreserve the stockpiled forage for use following calving.&nbsp; Although tall fescue resists weathering\nbetter than some forages, forage quality will decline through the spring.&nbsp; Stockpiled forage should be grazed before\nadequate spring pasture growth becomes available.<\/li><li>Plan\nto allocate stockpiled forage efficiently.&nbsp;\nMeasure the quantity available and use electric fence to provide amounts\nof pasture area that will be thoroughly grazed in a short period.&nbsp; Careful grazers will allocate and move\nelectric fence daily.&nbsp; Since regrowth\nwill be very limited, there may not be any need for a back-fence to prevent\ngrazing of regrowth.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>More\ninformation is available in UGA Extension Circular 920 \u201cStockpiling Tall Fescue\nfor Fall and Winter Grazing\u201d&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/extension.uga.edu\/publications\/detail.html?number=C920&amp;title=Stockpiling%20Tall%20Fescue%20for%20Fall%20and%20Winter%20Grazing\">https:\/\/extension.uga.edu\/publications\/detail.html?number=C920&amp;title=Stockpiling%20Tall%20Fescue%20for%20Fall%20and%20Winter%20Grazing<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #191e23;font-family: 'Noto Serif'\">Calving percentage is widely recognized as the variable having the greatest impact on profitability of a cow-calf operation.\u00a0 Because expenditures for feed are so large, minimizing those costs is perhaps the next most important strategy to enhance profitability.\u00a0 Expenditures for hay or baleage and supplements usually represent the largest portion of the total feed budget.\u00a0 Most of those expenses are for winter feed. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128,4,65],"tags":[108,80,112],"class_list":["post-350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stockpiling","category-tall-fescue","category-winter-feeding","tag-stockpiling-forage","tag-tall-fescue","tag-winter-feeding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":355,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions\/355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/forageteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}