#84 Which is Better, Feeding Hay or Stockpile?

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Welcome to this blog episode, I am Jim Elizondo from Real Wealth Ranching and before we start, I want to remind you that the Total Grazing Academy is open for enrollment. But, you need to take action, we are offering a free guide on “How to Ensure You Have Enough Grass in a Drought” when you enroll today before 8 pm Central time. There are only a few hours left to get this guide and everyone who has enrolled already will get it. 

Today’s topic is: Which is better, feeding hay or stockpile? Some people call stockpile standing hay. It doesn’t matter what we call it, stockpile or standing hay is grass left to grow and accumulate without grazing for a long time.

In the Total Grazing Academy, we have 4 online courses, these are self-paced courses where you get life access to them. In the first one, which we call pillars, the Total Grazing Program we guide you through 6 modules so that you can set up the minimal fencing infrastructure that will allow flexibility for when your grass production increases and you need more livestock to consume it all. 

Most people feed hay, even though the price of hay wildly increases in price in a drought. 

What is standing hay?

It is grass that is left to grow, ungrazed, for a long time so that it accumulates in your paddocks, to be used when needed. 

Today, I want to show you the benefits of feeding your livestock through winter or the dry season on standing hay:

1. Money; it is much cheaper to feed a cow standing hay than feeding them hay. To the tune of 200 to 300 dollars savings per cow per year.
2. When you allow your excess grass to accumulate as standing hay, you also create spongy soil by the action of the strong roots you are creating.
3. These strong roots improve your soil by growing deeper and fatter.
4. After grazing the standing hay off, the crowns and roots still full of energy reserves are ready for vigorous regrowth once the green season starts.
5. It is in the área where your standing hay is growing, ungrazed, that the seedlings of your best species will establish without them being pulled out when they are young and tender by your livestock. 

There are other reasons to stockpile or leave excess grass growth as standing hay in área. Wildlife will concentrate in the área as people and livestock do not go there for a long time, and your native species' forages will get the chance to establish themselves there.

 If this interests you and sounds reasonable, I would like to invite you to enroll in the Total Grazing Academy which is open for enrollment now and closes this Thursday at 8 p.m. Central time.

We are offering a guide to ensure you have enough grass in a drought when you enroll today. There are only a few hours left to get this guide and everyone who has enrolled will get theirs.

If you want to regenerate your land the fastest while you maximize your productivity at a low cost it is time to act.

I would like to tell you what the total grazing academy is:

It is a self-paced program with 4 online courses, each one with its own modules and lessons. The Total Grazing Program so that your land and productivity increase by allowing your best grasses to grow strong and deep roots, create a standing hay reserve in área, for the dry season of winter, and all this with a high to very high stocking rate. The Adapted Genetics and Selection Guidelines course to have thriving livestock to improve the land on which they graze by selecting according to nature which selects for higher production per unit of land área. The Nutrition course to understand a little about how the rumen functions to maintain your livestock healthy throughout the year and the Optimal Calving Season course so that you can increase your stocking rate and reduce your costs by following nature’s rhythm.

And what is needed to create a large reserve, in area, of standing hay? 

First, we need to talk about when we start to create a standing hay reserve. It is in the fast-growth green season of course! And it serves 2-4 different purposes, the main or more important one is that by doing this we ensure we maintain good leafy and young grass in front of our livestock in the green season, no more trying to cover your whole farm with your herd or flock when the grass is growing fast! Have you heard of people telling you to try to keep all your grass grazed in the green season? They say; well you must at least have your livestock bite the tops off and trample it as much as possible because that is not wasted forage.

Well, it certainly is wasted if we do not stockpile it to serve as standing hay later on. Plus, if you are on cool-season grasses, your livestock will scour from the lack of fiber at the top of the plant! The top third of the plant always has less fiber than the middle or the bottom third, and ruminants require a minimum of fiber to chew their cud, and when they do not consume enough fiber, like when grazing only the tops of cool season grasses, they will scour. And believe me, an animal that has diarrhea does not feel healthy and is not efficient in converting your grass to beef, milk, or mutton.

The theory that trampled grass grows humus or slow cycling carbon, comes from a lack of knowledge. We now know that humus or slow-cycling carbon in soil is created by fat root microorganisms that are fed by fatty root exudates. Plus, too much litter shades the growing points and seedlings of your forages and your plant spacings will start to get wider. The contrary to what we need! We need closer interplant spacings to get a better solar panel.

Okay, so we want to have healthy livestock in good body condition, we want them to be efficient at converting grass, we want to have a large area of standing hay for the dry or winter season and we want to have the best leafy pastures for our livestock in the green season while we make sure their roots grow strong and deep by avoiding grazing them before they are fully recovered, and we know that the recovery period will change with the time of year and the growing conditions. How to manage all these variables and be successful? I am going to tell you and it is easy! Much easier than you thought.

Make it possible by enrolling in the Total Grazing Academy and unleash your land’s potential with the 4 online courses, make it simple by participating in the 8 weeks of group coaching, make it happen by getting guidance on our private forum when implementing, and make it last by continuing your momentum and growth in the fat wallet ranchers group. There has never been a better time than now to start:)

Go to www.rwranching.com/enroll now!

Recap and conclusions:

1. Using standing hay instead of feeding hay saves you around $300 per cow per year.
2.  It is in the area that you are growing the high volume of standing hay where most of your soil improvement will happen.
3. Allowing a long rest period in that área will give your best forage species seedlings the time they need to establish and produce seed.
4. The area that your livestock can keep up with in the green season will provide high-quality leafy grass to them and you will make sure that it is not grazed before it has fully recovered.
5. This will allow, at least, double the grass productivity than other programs where they use selective or low harvest efficiency grazing.

Thank you very much for listening, do not forget to go to www.rwranching.com/enroll as the window will be closing soon to enroll in the Total Grazing Academy and it can change not only your land but also your life, it is that good.

May God bless you all and see you at the Total Grazing Academy!