Extension Communications
3614 Administrative Services Building
Ames, Iowa 50011-3614
(515) 294-9915
1/15/01
- Contacts:
Jim Russell, Department of Animal Science, (515) 294-4631, jrussell@iastate.edu - Wendy Miller, Iowa Beef Center, (515) 294-9124, wmiller@iastate.edu
Stockpiled Grazing Means Big Savings to Beef Producers
AMES, Iowa -- The largest single cost Iowa cow/calf producers incur is purchasing feed for winter months. In fact, Iowa cattle farms feed more hay than anywhere else in the United States.
That's a good sign if you raise hay. It's a bad one if you're a cattle producer.
The costs of feeding cattle from stored feed reserves can range from 75 cents to $1.25 per cow each day. A producer feeding 500 head can accrue $18,750 in monthly feed costs alone.
In an effort to find new systems to help producers reduce hay feeding costs, Iowa State University spearheaded research into integrated summer and winter grazing systems. "By grazing cattle year-round, cow/calf producers can substantially improve their profit margins," said Jim Russell, ISU Beef Cow-Calf Nutritionist and Leader of the Leopold Center's Animal Management Issue Team. "However, producers have historically approached year-round grazing with some skepticism, so we decided to study several aspects of grazing in order to put some of the concerns to rest."
Funded by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, the three-year study is using a combination of stockpiled perennial forage and cornstalk grazing. While most producers allow their animals to graze cornstalks to some extent, the idea of stockpiled grazing is still somewhat foreign to Iowa producers
Essentially, producers who stockpile graze their cattle divide their pastures into segments. Parts of those segments are grazed during the traditional summer months, while the others are reserved, usually beginning in late August. Once the forage supplies in summer-grazed pastures are exhausted, the producer uses the stockpiled forage to carry the cattle through the winter. By mid-spring, the summer pastures are regenerated, and the cycle begins again.
"One key to cow/calf profitability is better use of cornstalk acres. However, some cow/calf producers don't have adequate cornstalk acreage to graze cattle year-round; that's where stockpiled grazing comes in," Russell said. "Additionally, by dividing pastures into sections and only allowing access to a few sections at a time, producers can potentially maintain the nutritional value of the forage and raise cattle performance as well.
"In our study, we allotted each cow 1.25 acres of cornstalks and 2.5 acres of stockpiled forage over the course of the winter," Russell said. "We experienced an 87 percent reduction in the amount of hay fed to these cattle as opposed to dry-lotting them. That's a huge difference, and could mean substantial savings to producers."
Producers who would like to learn more about stockpiled grazing strategies are invited to attend meetings offered by ISU Extension. The first meeting will be held Monday, Feb. 12 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the McNay Research Farm in Chariton.
The second meeting will be from 1 to 3 p.m. Monday, Feb. 19 at the Guthrie Center Farm Bureau Office, 203 N. 4th Street, Guthrie Center. Optional field visits will be offered at both meetings. For more information, contact Joe Sellers, Extension livestock field specialist at (515) 774-2016 or Carl Neifert, Extension livestock field specialist at (515) 462-1001.
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