Question on grass

morphy87

Just wondering, I am in the process of buying cattle and I am letting them off on ground that was reseeded last year and it was topped when the last cattle were took off it, it is gone a little strong I am just wondering would the cattle thrive on this or gain much weight, it is very dry land

Say my name

morphy87 wrote: »

Just wondering, I am in the process of buying cattle and I am letting them off on ground that was reseeded last year and it was topped when the last cattle were took off it, it is gone a little strong I am just wondering would the cattle thrive on this or gain much weight, it is very dry land

When was it topped?

It doesn't sound like they will put the weight on this grass.
You've a number of things going against you...

The time of year.
Grass this time of year drops off in feeding value. Because the Sun and heat is just not there to feed the grass. If you're foliar feeding then maybe the brix might come up.
It's getting colder too so it's harder for cattle to lay down extra as compared to maintenance this time of year.

Stronger grass.
Usually the feeding value drops with stronger grass.

But this is all land and soil dependent and there's land that always had the name of great fattening land.
It's just what soil was naturally there or what previous farmers in times past did to the land.

So my answer is you'll only know yourself by looking at the grass. But if you want to fatten and it's there, it sounds like extra Sun energy is required via meal on this.

Experience tells me fatteners don't usually fatten cattle outside this time of year but weanlings would be ok.

Sugarbowl

I feed weanlings on after grass for the next month and they generally do well along with a bit of meal.

Gods Gift

Have cattle on the finest of grass here but still eating a bale of hay every week.

morphy87

Say my name wrote: »

When was it topped?

It doesn't sound like they will put the weight on this grass.
You've a number of things going against you...

The time of year.
Grass this time of year drops off in feeding value. Because the Sun and heat is just not there to feed the grass. If you're foliar feeding then maybe the brix might come up.
It's getting colder too so it's harder for cattle to lay down extra as compared to maintenance this time of year.

Stronger grass.
Usually the feeding value drops with stronger grass.

But this is all land and soil dependent and there's land that always had the name of great fattening land.
It's just what soil was naturally there or what previous farmers in times past did to the land.

So my answer is you'll only know yourself by looking at the grass. But if you want to fatten and it's there, it sounds like extra Sun energy is required via meal on this.

Experience tells me fatteners don't usually fatten cattle outside this time of year but weanlings would be ok.

Topped the end of August, it’s store cattle I am letting off on it

Cavanjack

morphy87 wrote: »

Topped the end of August, it’s store cattle I am letting off on it

It’s dead on for store cattle. Weight gain will drop off this time of the year anyway no matter the quality of the grass. My aim this time of the year for stores is just to keep them out of the shed for as long as possible. They will put the weight on next April and may.

morphy87

Cavanjack wrote: »

It’s dead on for store cattle. Weight gain will drop off this time of the year anyway no matter the quality of the grass. My aim this time of the year for stores is just to keep them out of the shed for as long as possible. They will put the weight on next April and may.

Yeah keeping them out for as long as possible is the job

morphy87

When the cattle are finished grazing this if it’s not grazed down tight would it effect the quality of grass next spring or would it want to be topped again or would it die off over the winter? Usually this time of the year I would be letting off stores and I would have very little grass this is the first time I have encountered this, I am hoping to keep them out till first week of December weather permitting

Buford T. Justice XIX

morphy87 wrote: »

When the cattle are finished grazing this if it’s not grazed down tight would it effect the quality of grass next spring or would it want to be topped again or would it die off over the winter? Usually this time of the year I would be letting off stores and I would have very little grass this is the first time I have encountered this, I am hoping to keep them out till first week of December weather permitting

Only grass that gets too strong would decline in quality over the winter. We have started closing paddocks last week for grazing next spring and would expect those the have a cover of 1200+ next year when we're grazing. That would be above 2, 2.5 fists of grass in height.

Those paddocks won't be grazed till the end of February/start of March and they will be about at ideal covers at that stage and will be ideal feed for the cows with a few kgs of meal. The cows will go out into covers of about 1000, less than 2 fists of grass high, so we will get a good share of ground like that eaten off and growing again for the second rotation at the start of April.

Mooooo

morphy87 wrote: »

When the cattle are finished grazing this if it’s not grazed down tight would it effect the quality of grass next spring or would it want to be topped again or would it die off over the winter? Usually this time of the year I would be letting off stores and I would have very little grass this is the first time I have encountered this, I am hoping to keep them out till first week of December weather permitting

Use strip wires to help manage the grass. Give em enough for a day or 2 depending on weather and don't let them back on what's grazed already

morphy87

Buford T. Justice XIX wrote: »

Only grass that gets too strong would decline in quality over the winter. We have started closing paddocks last week for grazing next spring and would expect those the have a cover of 1200+ next year when we're grazing. That would be above 2, 2.5 fists of grass in height.

Those paddocks won't be grazed till the end of February/start of March and they will be about at ideal covers at that stage and will be ideal feed for the cows with a few kgs of meal. The cows will go out into covers of about 1000, less than 2 fists of grass high, so we will get a good share of ground like that eaten off and growing again for the second rotation at the start of April.

So if not grazed tight should I top do you think?

morphy87

Mooooo wrote: »

Use strip wires to help manage the grass. Give em enough for a day or 2 depending on weather and don't let them back on what's grazed already

If not possible to do this would you recommend topping when finished grazing? This will not be cut for silage in the spring only grazing again

Buford T. Justice XIX

morphy87 wrote: »

So if not grazed tight should I top do you think?

I wouldn't, tbh. It will be slightly lower in quality next spring but a good graze out then will set it up well for the year.

As Keepgrowing says, the last graze in the year and first graze in the year is for the grass to get it set up for good growth. And topping now will give better quality but a lot less grass.

The grass you grow and keep this month is the grass you'll be grazing next March, more or less.

morphy87

Buford T. Justice XIX wrote: »

I wouldn't, tbh. It will be slightly lower in quality next spring but a good graze out then will set it up well for the year.

As Keepgrowing says, the last graze in the year and first graze in the year is for the grass to get it set up for good growth. And topping now will give better quality but a lot less grass.

The grass you grow and keep this month is the grass you'll be grazing next March, more or less.

It will be the first week of April before I have cattle out,I suppose if you got frost it might clean off what’s not ate, it was reseeded last year so they might give it a good skinning hopefully