Make Better Use of the Grass You Already Have

I am Jim Elizondo and this is Fat Cows, Fat Wallet.

Today’s topic is, “Make better use of the grass you already have”.

One of my mottos is to always work with what you already have. If we are always thinking about when I have better grass, when I improve my cattle genetics, when my land is improved and so on, when I have more rain, when I have a better year, less work, and the list goes on and on. If we are waiting for the perfect moment, it will for sure, never come.

So today we are going to talk about using what you have. Make better use of the grass that you have right now, at this moment.

Now, you have been listening to me for a while and you know that I always, always say that what determines profitability is the number of productive animals you can carry at a low cost per year.

What I also mention is that a long time ago, myriads of animal species in nature used to graze it all and now, we use electric fences and high animal density with our cattle to achieve the same.

This is what the land needs to improve the fastest, it needs this higher animal impact and a complete graze most of the time.

So, it is not only needed for your profitability but also for your land AND for your cattle’s health.

Ever wondered what would happen if you utilized more of the grass that you already have?

I know it may seem scary to harvest more of what you are already growing but it is the best way to improve your land while maximizing your profitability.

Many teach that you need grass to grow grass and state that leaving lots of residual after grazing is the way to go, but there are many unintended consequences with that approach, which I will address later but first let us consider the possibilities and potential we could achieve.

I want to ask you to consider your answers to these questions:

If you harvested a higher percentage of forage per grazing:

Would your herd take longer to rotate around your property? Imagine this, your herd takes a higher percentage than the usual 10-30% so it takes them longer to consume this, therefore, you rotate slower around your property.

Would a longer rest period, allowed by this, improve your pasture productivity? So, if you rotate slower, then you are letting each paddock rest more. The slower you rotate, the longer the rest period you will have.

Would a higher pasture productivity allow you to increase your stocking rate? Stocking rate, the number of productive animals you can carry per year at a low cost determines profitability! So, if you are harvesting or using more of your grass than before, this means that you can have more productive animals in your ranch.

Would your grass be able to grow stronger and fatter roots with the longer rest allowed by a more complete grazing? Remember, overgrazing is when you re-graze the same plant before it has had a chance to have its energy reserves fully charged. It is not due to the severity of the grazing. The energy reserves are in the roots and crowns and a longer rest period allows for stronger and fatter roots.

What would happen to interplant spacing? By interplant spacing I mean the space between the plants. Imagine a thick covered sward vs a thin sward. By taking off the shade of excessive residual and tall stems, sunlight can reach the growing points and seedlings, which are close to the ground. When we do top grazing or tall grazing which is selective grazing, we can end up of killing these growing points due to the excess shade of the residue. This leaves more open or bare spaces between the plants. So, if you have noticed thinning in your paddocks, this is the cause.

Now, would your grass be more resilient to dry conditions with the stronger and fatter roots this longer rest period gives? This is a very important question. Think about it, I will say it again, would your grass be more resilient to dry conditions with the stronger and fatter roots this longer rest period gives? You would be increasing your organic matter, increasing humus which retains water. The energy in your grass roots will be very high. This is so important during a drought, to have strong and fat roots that your grass can depend on to continue to grow and produce leaves.

Would you be able to stockpile standing hay in area and substantially lower your hay and supplement costs? If you are having a high utilization of your forage, making better use of the grass that you already have, you can leave an area of your property to be stockpiled or to be left as standing hay. No more poor-quality standing hay. No more using residue as your standing hay. I mean, would you buy that kind of hay from someone else? What was previously rejected by the cattle? Imagine having good quality standing hay in your own property.

And finally, how about mind peace? By allowing a longer rest period before returning to re graze a certain paddock you allow more time for rain to fall and create even more forage.  This has a great impact on the sustainability of your farm/ranch!!

Peace of mind. Do not underestimate having peace of mind. When you have it, you will make better decisions for your business, you will have a happier wife and like they say, “happy wife, happy life!” This even improves your own health!

Harvest efficiency needs to be maximized to achieve the best results, but we can implement this in stages and learn as we advance.

In the past I would get many students looking for a recipe, looking for a cookie cutter method that they could use in their farm or ranch and have results.

I have told them; a recipe is only a recipe for disaster! And I know many did not want to hear that.

So, what do you need to learn? You need to learn the principles. You need to learn how nature works.

We don’t use chemicals of any kind. I am very much against that. Let nature work for you.

Now, let’s get to the fun part. How can you start?

I suggest starting with step number one which is to do a daily move if on warm season grasses and even a every other day or every third day move if you are in cooler or higher environment.

The main goal is to harvest more of what you already have available to allow a longer rest period to your whole land. This is step number one and as you master it you can progress to fine tune the next steps which will allow you to create a much more resilient farm or ranch which will be a pleasure to manage!

Just by doing this simple step, a more complete grazing, you will avoid overgrazing, which is best defined as re-grazing a plant before it has fully recovered. Avoiding overgrazing is fundamental for higher grass productivity, and soil improvement!

We need to change our way of thinking, when we allow our cattle to do selective grazing, they select the most palatable species and then we move them to a new paddock to repeat the process.

The problem any type of selective grazing is that to avoid overgrazing and a shift in species composition to undesirables you need to have a low stocking rate in relation to the potential that can be achieved by doing the Total grazing program which includes a complete grazing most of the time, selective grazing in a few instances, and deferring pastures as standing hay to lower you hay and supplement costs.

Then, we need to consider the leaf to stem ratio we are creating by our grazing.

What comes up in regrowth first. Leaves or stems? It is leaves, so if your cattle remove the stems along with the leaves you will create a leafier regrowth. Remember: green leaves produce energy through photosynthesis while stems consume energy by respiring.

Do standing stems left behind after a selective grazing inhibit new leaf growth? You bet! They need to be removed to get a much leafier regrowth.

So, here’s your next step, a step that is not scary but is going to move you forward. I want you to go and sign up for my free masterclass. That’s it. Just sign up for my free Masterclass, “3 Little-Known Grazing Mistakes Most Ranchers/Farmers Make and What To Do Instead”.

You can do that by heading to www.rwranching.com/masterclass

And we will talk about the most-common mistakes I see people making with grazing so that you can avoid them. I want you to sidestep these mistakes because believe me, you’ll have a few of your own just don’t want to make these fundamental ones! So, meet me on my masterclass, go to www.rwranching.com/masterclass to sign up, it’s free. It’s going to be the best decision and next step you can make right now. I cannot wait to see you there!

Thank you so much for joining me. I’ll see you next week!