Harvest Surplus Grazing for Hay and Silage  

If you are grazing your alfalfa rotationally, there will be times when you have more grazing than you need. When the weather gets hot and rains come more slowly you may need all of the acreage. If you have surplus, cut it for hay or silage it is wonderful feed to help carry your cattle through a drought or next winter. 

If the crop is growing rapidly, you may want to graze the fields more frequently. Later on in the summer, you may need to alter your cycle pattern depending on heat and moisture. 

But for goodness sake, don’t let any of this top quality feed to go to waste. Cut and bale it when you know you don’t need it for grazing ‘this time around’.

During the summer months, it is even more important that the cattle be confined to small areas when grazing. Otherwise, they will not clean the fields and meat or milk production drops. I see many farmers who have had years experience at grazing combine a couple of grazing areas in the summertime to better access water and shade. Even though carrying capacity is reduced the benefits derived from accessible water and shade they find is worth the switch.

What about mowing after grazing? For at least three to four decades I have heard this question argued should we or shouldn’t we? I have to say yes, I think you should mow if there is a build-up of rejected, stemy forage after grazing. I have yet to see cattle or sheep return to an area and eat forage they have already refused to eat until new growth exceeds the remnants of the old growth. By the way, when you mow the rejected grazing, mow it close. Cattle don’t relish 3 to 5 inch mature stems constantly sticking their in their face and noses as they graze.

So in the big management picture, why not extend the use of your grazing system by harvesting surplus growth for storage. Grazing is the cheapest way to harvest forages and provide the highest nutrition possible. But weather does change and production does bounce around and sooner or later supplementation is likely to be necessary. So harvest those surplus-grazing areas that are growing beyond current animal needs and make some hay ‘for a rainy or a dry or cold day.