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The Start of Grazing Season
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How tall should the grass be before you start grazing in the spring? The majority of publications you may have read will suggest starting to graze your pasture when the grass is, depending on the grass species, about six to eight inches tall. That is true for set-stock grazing operations, meaning you do not intend…
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Will Dry Weather Create Forage Shortages This Winter?
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Farmers can take action now to adequately prepare for the winter months. We have seen quite dry conditions in much of our region and much of the state this past spring and into early summer. There has been some recent rain. However, it has been sporadic in nature. Some locations have seen a fair amount…
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Alfalfa-Grass Forage Trials Improve Choices for Farmers & Cows
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The addition of alfalfa to dairy forage can support healthy milk production. However, because alfalfa relies on temperature to grow rather than day length like grass, it can be challenging to know what varieties to plant in our region that will translate into the perfect mix of forage for New York dairy cows. The Northern…
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Add Diversity to Your Pastures with Multispecies Grazing
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Much has been written on diversity of crops, forages, and soil biology but the diversity of grazing species is just as important. “The presence of multiple species of large herbivores is the typical condition of grassland and savanna ecosystems,” says John Walker, a range ecologist who wrote on the subject more than two decades ago…
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Quality of Winter Forage for Grass-fed Sheep
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Feeding hay in the winter is in many parts a reality in the Northeast. You will hear often these days that the best way to deal with hay in a grass-fed operation is to rid yourself of hay feeding and graze stockpiled forage instead. In my view it is true that extending the grazing season is a good and desirable goal…
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Quality of Winter Forage for Grass-fed Sheep
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Feeding hay in the winter is in many parts a reality in the Northeast. You will hear often these days that the best way to deal with hay in a grass-fed operation is to rid yourself of hay feeding and graze stockpiled forage instead. In my view it is true that extending the grazing season is a good and desirable goal…
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Want to Improve Quality of Dairy Forage? Add Meadow Fescue to Crop Mix
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The spring harvest of alfalfa-grass mixes may account for up to half of the total forage yield of those crops for dairy farmers. The results of alfalfa-grass research funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program may suggest a new option for dairy farmers looking to enhance forage production. The report is posted…
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The Importance of Residual Forage
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I learned my shepherding skills in Germany, tending sheep on public land, often part of landscape care. The grass always had to be grazed short. It had to be “cleaned up”. It was a requirement by those who wrote out the leases who were primarily concerned with a certain look or protected or endangered plants…
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