Acid detergent fiber (ADF):  Insoluble residue following extraction of herbage with acid detergent (van Soest); cell wall constituents minus hemicellulose.

Acid detergent fiber digestibility:  The digestibility of acid detergent fiber (ADF) of a forage, as determined by the percentage decrease in ADF measured before and after in vitro or in vivo digestion.

Acid detergent lignin (ADL): Lignin in the residue determined following extraction with acid detergent.

Alfatoxin C17H10O6:   A polynuclear substance derived from molds; a known carcinogen.  It is produced by a fungus occurring on peanuts, corn, and other plants, especially seeds.

Aftermath:   Residue and/or regrowth of plants (forage) used for grazing after harvesting of a crop.

Alkaloid:  One of a class of basic organic compounds with nitrogen in their structure; a secondary product of plant metabolism. An example is perloline, produced by tall fescue.

Companion crop:  A crop such as a small grain that is sown with another crop, especially one that will emerge and develop slowly, such as a forage crop.

Continuous stocking:  A method of grazing livestock on a given unit of land where animals have unrestricted and uninterrupted access throughout the time period when grazing is allowed.

Cool-season grass:  Grass species that grow best during cool, moist periods of the year; they commonly have temperature optimums of 59 to 77 degrees F.

Crude fiber:  Course, fibrous portions of plants, such as cellulose, that are partially digestible and relatively low in nutritional value.

Dry matter intake, daily:  Amount of dry matter ingested by an animal on a daily basis.

Forage:  Edible parts of plants, other than separated grain, that can provide feed for grazing animals or that can be harvested for feeding, including browse, herbage, and mast.

Forage crop:  A crop of cultivated plants or plant parts, other than separated grain, produced to be grazed or harvested for use as feed for animals.

Forage quality:  Characteristics that make nutrients; the combination of chemical and biocharacteristics of forage that determines its potential to produce meat, milk, wool, or with feeding value and nutritive value.

Grassland:  Any plant community in which grasses and/or legumes compose the dominant vegetation. Land on which the vegetation is dominated by grasses.

Grass tetany:  Condition of cattle and sheep marked by titanic staggers, convulsions, coma, and frequently death; characterized by a low level of blood magnesium.

Graze:  The consumption of forage in situ by animals/ compare browse, forage.  Use with the animal as the subject, not the object; that is, in technical terminology, cattle graze, but people do not graze cattle.

Grazer:  Animal that grazes in situ grass as herbage.  Animals on experimental pastures which may or may not remain on specified pasture treatments for the entire grazing period or season, but which are of a kind or physiological condition not necessarily represented on all pasture treatments for the entire grazing period or season.

Grazing cycle:  The time elapses between the beginning of one grazing period and the beginning of the next grazing period in the same paddock where the forage is regularly grazed and rested.

Grazing event:  The length of time that an animal grazes without stopping.

Grazing land management:  The manipulation of the soil-plant-animal complex of grazing land in pursuit of a desired result.

Grazing management:  The manipulation of animal grazing in pursuit of a defined objective.

Haylage:  Product resulting from ensiling forage with about 45% moisture in the absence of oxygen.

Meadow:  Area covered with grasses and/or legumes, often native to the area, grown primarily for hay but with secondary grazing potential.

Mixed grazing:  Grazing by two or more species of grazing animals (e.g., sheep and cattle) on the same land unit, not necessarily the same time but within the same grazing season.

Mob grazing:  In the management of a grazing unit, grazing by a relatively large number of animals at a high stocking density for a short time period.

Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS):  A method of forage quality analysis based on spectrophotometry at wavelengths in the near infrared region.

Neutral detergent fiber:  That portion of a forage that is insoluble in neutral detergent; synonymous with cell wall constituents.

Neutral detergent fiber digestibility:   the digestibility of neutral detergent fiber determined as the difference in NDF in a forage before and after in vivo or invitro digestion.

Palatability:  Preference based on plant characteristics eliciting a choice between two or more forages or parts of the same forage, conditioned by the animal and environmental factors that stimulate a selective intake response.

Pasture:  A type of grazing management unit enclosed and separated from other areas by fencing or other barriers and devoted to the production of forage for harvest primarily by grazing.

Perennial:  A plant or group of plants that persists for several years, usually with new growth from a perennating part.

Preservative:  An additive used to protect against decay, discoloration, or spoilage.

Protein, crude:  An estimate of protein content based on a determination of total nitrogen (N) content multiplied by 6.25 because proteins average about 16% nitrogen.

Prussic acid:  A poison produced as a glucoside by several plant species, especially sorghums.

Range Land: supporting indigenous vegetation that is grazed or that has the potential to be  grazed and is managed as a natural ecosystem.  Includes grazable forestland and rangeland.

Range management:  The science of maintaining maximum forage production, generally with natural vegetation, without jeopardy to other resources or used of the land.

Rest:  To leave an area of grazing land ungrazed or unharvested for a specific time, such as a year, a growing season, or a specified period required within a particular management practice.

Ruminant:  A suborder of mammals having a complex multichambered stomach; uses forages primarily as feedstuffs.

Silage:  Forage preserved in a succulent condition by organic acids produced by partial anaerobic fermentation of sugars in the forage.

Stockpiling forage:  To allow forage to accumulate for grazing at a later period.  Forage is often stockpiled for autumn and winter grazing after or during dormancy or semi-dormancy, but stockpiling may occur at any time during the year as a part of a management plan.  Stockpiling can be described in terms of deferment or forage accumulation.

Sward:  A population of herbaceous plants characterized by a relatively short habit of growth and relatively continuous ground cover, including both above and below ground parts.

Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN):  Sum total of the digestibility of the organic components of plant material and/or seed; for example, crude protein + NFE + crude fiber + fat.

Vegetative  Non-reproductive plant parts, (leaf and stem): in contrast to reproductive plant parts (flower and seed) in developmental stages of plant growth.  The non-reproductive stage in plant development.
 

There is currently a major move in the dairy and beef industries towards controlled pasture management, various types of rotational grazing. Some of the ISKCON farms have tried to implement rotational or intensive grazing to a greater or lesser degree, following guidelines laid out by farmers and research. So far, however, there has not seemed to be a large degree of success for several reasons, the usual manpower and financial shortages weighing heavily, but also the regular turnover of staff.

Our ISKCON farms have been experiencing the benefits of pasturing since the beginning, as opposed to feedlot or stall farming. We have thus had little in the way of foot problems, only minor hoof trimming, generally good animal health, reduced stress on the animals, and less parasite problems than are present in an intensive enclosed situation. We have not, however, developed our pastures to their potential for increased yield and improved animal health. The next step, controlled pasture management, must be taken, but in a way that is realistic considering the present situations at our ISKCON farms. The setup rules for establishing controlled pasture management are broad. I would suggest considering the following points in establishing rotational grazing techniques at our farms:1. How much feed do your animals need?
Most ruminants will graze until they eat 2.5 to 3% of their body weight. Add another .5% for a milking cow. This means that a 1000 pound ox or dry cow will need 25 to 30 pounds a day, a milk cow of the same weight about 35 pounds. Our animals are generally larger, sometimes due to breed, but usually due to the fact that we let them live out their lives and get to full weight. So the larger size of our cows, in general, must be considered.

2. The question usually asked of professional farmers is: How much forage dry matter can your pastures produce? I prefer to ask: How much land do we need to produce enough forage for our cows?
I bring up this point because many of our farms and communities are in the process of master planning. Enough land must be allotted for pastures. Sometimes we know what our fields will produce, sometimes not, due to varying conditions. There are ways to estimate field production. I don t feel that our figures have been very scientific. Your local agricultural extension agent will know what is the local requirement for land per animal. Let him know the breed and sizes. By the practices of controlled pasture management, the amount of land he suggests may be reduced. However, I strongly suggest that in our master plans we allot the full recommended amount of land for the cows. There may be staff turnover or other situations that temporarily curtail the rotational program so that the full allotment of land will be required.

3. What is the rotation period, paddock size, and number of paddocks required?
Commercial dairy farms often rotate 1 or 2 times a day. Fields generally need 20 to 40 days of recovery time, depending on weather and season. Leaving the animals on a field more than one week will reduce plant vigor as regrowth is grazed too quickly for plant recovery. The ISKCON farms are not doing this for money, as other farmers are. We are doing it for the happiness and well-being of the cows. We don t have to show the world the best rotational grazing system, we have to show
contented cows and oxen that work. We have to work within our manpower limits, even if there is a little forage waste on a longer (week) rotation, or even if we can t develop rotational grazing immediately, and our pastures don t perform to potential for some time. There are also scientific methods for determining size of lots according to field production, number and size of the animals, their metabolic needs, etc. I feel that this is all too much for us at present. I don t like to permanent fence anything less that 2 acres for ease of working it. Two acres is the usual amount recommended for one animal for fresh forage, and can be used as a paddock for an animal (such as a bull) that may require separate care. Electric fence can be used to subdivide if necessary.

An experienced person can look at a pasture and judge how it is producing, when it needs a rest (usually after a week of grazing), when it is ready to be regrazed, how large the paddocks need to be to provide adequate forage dry matter for the number of animals on it. This should be sufficient if we are not interested in commercial enterprise. If that situation arises, then we can calculate more exactly.
We must also consider the following when we set up a pasture system:

SHADE. If pastures or paddocks can be formed with natural shade, that is best. There are also several plans for shade structures and even moveable shade structures that work.

WATER SUPPLY. This is the most important, and often most difficult part of setting up pasture systems. If there are natural water sources, that is the easiest, and paddocks can be set up considering these sources. If water needs to be set up, an underground line with hookup points in the paddocks is a very good system. The hookups can be either capped off or hooked up to a water trough as needed. This is a one-time expense. Having one water trough as a central point in the middle of several adjoining paddocks is not very good, as the ground will get very muddy and foot problems can result.

GRASSES. I am a strong supporter of using the grasses that are native to a certain area for several reasons. There are many types of improved grasses, and also many new ones being introduced from New Zealand. Johnson grass was introduced to the U.S. from England many years ago as a new supergrass, but it turned into a nuisance. There was a saying in Europe in the days of old, "Whoever lets his Johnson grass go to seed is the enemy of the king." But somehow we are now overrun with this grass that chokes out other grasses and will kill a cow if it is eaten wilted by frost or drought. So I like to proceed with lots of caution on the new introductions that may, after much time and expense, be troublesome or not even survive in local conditions. Many of the grasses developed for rotational grazing systems will only be successful under those conditions. If, for some reason, our efforts to develop and maintain rotational grazing are stifled, there is a risk that the grasses may be grazed to the root and destroyed, as with Matua, or make the animal sick or kill it, as with the low-fiber chicories. I would prefer to proceed with caution on the new grasses for these reasons—until there is much more research, and our own situation in ISKCON stabilizes.

FENCING AND HERD DIVISION.
There are many types of permanent fencing. My least favorite type is barbed
wire. It is dangerous and sags after a few years. For the same cost, a good 6 strand high-tensile fence can be installed. Electric fencing is good for temporary pasture and division of existing pasture into paddocks. I prefer to separate oxen and females of the herd so that when a cow is in heat, she is not bothered or crippled by the oxen mounting her. I also like to have some level pastures with easy water access for older animals that may have a hard time getting around.
There are many ideas and resources for those who would like to institute controlled pasture management. Those devotees who begin on a small scale, I feel, will have greater success that those of us who are responsible for the existing herds on ISKCON farms. The following are good sources in the U.S. of information on seed, fencing, water, shade and other important details about rotational grazing.
 

The New Farm
The Magazine of the Rodale Institute
Box 14
Einmaus PA 18099-0014

Oldfields Seed
P.O. Box 190
Mt. Sterling KY 40353

Stockman Grass Farmer
(lots of beef stuff, but some good info)
P.O. Box 9607
Jackson MS 39286

Kentucky Graziers
1929 South Main Street
Paris KY 40361

Donovan Enterprises (shade) 2951 SE Doniinica Terr.
Stuart FL 34997

Kencove Farm Fence
111 Kendall Lane
Blairsville PA 15717

 

 

Hare Krishna Farmers Plant Eclectic Pastures in Pennsylvania
by Roger Wentling
(reprinted from the Stockman Grass Farmer, August 1990 )

Every now and then I come across a farm family with a unique approach to making the maximum net profit from grass and grazing. Ralph and Sita Laurino or Port Royal, PA are such an example. They are the farm managers of Iskcon Farm.

Iskcon is a Hare Krishna farm. The Hare Krishna believe that cows are sacred and should not be killed for human consumption. The farm has 130 Brown Swiss cows and oxen that are used today solely as work animals.

However in 1986 the farm had the highest butterfat average in Pennsylvania when it was being managed as a communal dairy.

In the drought year of 1988, Ralph told me that is was only through intensive grazing management that he and his wife were able to keep the farm going.

With intensive grazing management, he said their pasture yield had gone up four times and the quality was better as well.

This year they started grazing 42 cows and 12 oxen on April 9th. By the first of May all 130 cows were grazing. Their primary grazing is 70 acres of bluegrass and white clover stocked with 80 cows.

Another 50 cows rotationally graze woodlands and Ralph uses them on the intensively grazed pastures when the grass growth gets ahead of the cows on the bluegrass and white clover.

This year he is also planning to graze standing corn in November. These corn paddocks will have previously been interseeded with broadcast winter cereal rye and yellow sweet clover.

They figure to get six grazings of alfalfa/timothy this year from an eight acre former hayfield. They make alfalfa/timothy hay, pure alfalfa hay, and alfalfa/ryegrass hay. All corn silage
production has been discontinued as too expensive.

Confident that intensive rotational grazing has given new life to the farm, Ralph and Sita have committed their limited resources to new seedings of forage plants that are probably among the most sophisticated in the Northeastern United States.

Ralph said he read British dairyman Newman Turner s book, "Fertility Pasture and Cover Crops" and decided to try some of Turner s eclectic pasture mixes of deep rooted herbs and legumes.

Turner s theory was that different plants concentrated different trace elements from the soil and by planting a temporary pasture (ley) of these plants and strip-grazing them off or cutting them for silage and then letting the cows eat their way through the silage stack the soil s fertility could be increased and the animals health and production improved.

It must have worked because Turner had the highest producing herd of Jerseys in Britain in the 1960 s.
Ralph said he purchased his main herbal pasture mix from Bountiful Gardens/Ecology Action, 5798 Ridgewood Road, Willits CA 95490, who imports the seeds from Great Britain.
The fertility pasture mixture consists of ryegrass, chicory, yarrow, burnet, sheep s parsley, red and white clover.

Ralph has planted this at a rate of 20 pounds of seed per acres on a 5.3 acre paddock.

He also has planted a 7.5 acre paddock with an alfalfa based mix that consists of alfalfa, red clover, timothy, tall fescue, chicory, and white clover. It is also seeded at 20 pounds per acre along with 5 to 6 pounds of white clover. Wana is not as upright as common orchardgrass and creeps low to the ground which makes it an excellent
companion for white clover.

On another 6 acre paddock he has planted six acres of bird's-foot trefoil and reed canary grass at 7 pounds per acre of each.
All of the seedlings were made into ground that had been plowed, disced and harrowed. The grain drill used had grass boxes and the ground was cultipacked after seeding.

This will be Ralph s third year of grazing standing corn while it is in the milk stage. Standing corn is a good insurance policy against summer heat and drought in areas with predominately cool-season pastures.
Ralph said the cows vary the technique they use to graze the corn. Some will eat the ear of corn first, others will strip the leaves and start munching the plant from the top down.
This year he is also planning to graze standing corn in November. These corn paddocks will have previously been interseeded with broadcast winter cereal rye and yellow sweet clover.

He also has 10 acres in an oats/Rangi rape double crop. The cows provide the manure for compost and the tillage power for the farm s acres.
The two primary [commercial] crops on the farm are German Status and Staw Flowers. These are sold as dried flowers. The net form these unusual crops is around $5000 per acre.

A unique machine on the farm is an oxen-powered sawmill. The oxen walk in a circle and with the use of a big gear from the back of a cement truck and other smaller gears to provide torque they are able to run the saw. Ralph said some Amish in Kentucky showed them how to set up this type of mill.

The saw mill produced 100 cords of salable firewood last year for the farm.

With this same gear arrangement, Ralph plans to add a wood chipper to the end of the power train to provide a low cost carbon source for the compost manure.

Ralph is thinking of using the deep treading method used by Joel Stalatin in Virginia and describe by him in previous issues of SGF.

Sita is in charge of making compost and the spraying of Bio-Dynamic preparations on the crops. Bio-Dynamics is a new, and controversial, approach to agronomy and one that I ll explain in more detail in a subsequent issue.

The bottom line of ISKCON Farm for me is that cows and grass, even when they provide nothing but yoke power and manure, are allowing people who care about the planet to stay on the land.

The above article is reprinted by permission of the editors of the Stockman Grass Farmer, who requested us to inform our readers that a free sample issue of SGF can be obtained by writing SFG at P.O. Box 9607, Jackson MS 39286-9607 USA. While this is a general periodical containing some information for beef cattle or hogs which is of little interest to devotees, it also contains much information of value for dairy and sheep farmers.

 

 

  THOUGHTS ON INTENSIVE GRAZING
An Interview with Tom Settlemire

In this interview, HKRL talks with Torn Settlemire, an associate professor of biology and chemistry at Bowdoin College in Maine, which is in the upper northeast corner of the U.S. In addition to his teaching duties, Torn and his family  maintain a farm in Brunswick. He has been using intensive grazing principles for about 20 years, and is considered a local expert on  the subject. Since the practice of rotational grazing was established by the original cowherd boys, Krishna and Balarama, in Vrindavana, we thought devotees would like to hear about Tom’s experiences  and tips on the subject to help them bring their own grazing programs  more in line with Krishna’s
 
HKRL: Rotational grazing or pasture management —what do you call it?
Tom Settlemire: Some call it “rational grazing,” or “intensive pasture management.” “Management intensive grazing” — MIG — is another term. I've always been attracted to the concept of “intensive” grazing, the whole intensive pasture concept.
HKRL: When did you start with intensive grazing?
TS: We started in the early 70's. We heard a presentation from a fellow who had just come back from New Zealand in ‘73 or ‘74. We didn't get into it very aggressively at first, but slowly, we became more organized about it. But I guess we've probably been pretty serious about it for more than 20 years, since at least ‘75 or ‘76.
HKRL: So, you have sheep, how many?
TS: It varies from time to time. There are about 140 right now. We've had as many as 400. Our use of the pasture has been fairly intense in terms of what we've had to accomplish with it. All of the open space on the farm is setup for this kind of pasture management system.
HKRL: How many acres do you have?
TS: Our whole farm is 65 acres, but there's only 20 acres that's set up for the rotational system.
HKRL: Really? — And you could maintain 400 sheep on 20 acres?
TS: At one point, we maintained 80 lambs on 2 acres.
HKRL: That sounds pretty good. I think for cows, without a rotational system, you usually need about one acre for each animal.
TS: One thing that really helps is that all of our fields are pH-ed at a level that is appropriate, and we keep track of their nutrient levels pretty seriously.
We're coming close to maximizing the capabilities that we have under our system. Our approach has been, we take a small amount of acres and try to deal with it aggressively. We find that's better than taking a large number of acres and not being so particular about pH and things like that.
HKRL: Although some of our devotees have been farming for years, in this article, we will be talking to a lot of people who are just coming out of the city to work on one of our ISKCON farms — so when you say you “deal aggressively” with a pasture, what does that mean? How do you do a pH test?
TS: I depend on the University of Maine soil lab. We collect the soil samples, and I think it's important to know how to do those correctly. You have to make sure you take enough samples from an area to be sure you are getting a reasonable idea of what that field is like.
HKRL: So maybe you take — perhaps 6 different shovelfuls here and there?
TS: — Well, we actually bought a soil sampling device that takes a core — about as big as a 50 cent piece [3 cm across] and goes down into the ground a few inches. Then you get rid of the top where the grass and plants are. So we're taking — minus the top 1 1/2 inches — down to about 8 inches [20 cm]. We use that for our soil analysis sample. On a four acre piece, we would take at least a dozen soil samples, across the field in an “X” pattern. Then you mix them all up in a container that you know is not going to contaminate your sample. You actually send a rather small amount of that composite off to be analyzed.
HKRL: Where could farmers get a soil sampling kit?
TS: Actually, from any one of your county extension service agents in the States — they will give you the boxes and all the information on how to take a sample. Outside the U.S., I'd say that most farm supply companies have soil testing kits you can purchase.
HKRL: So once you get your pH analysis...
TS: —Actually it's not only pH, we're also looking at potassium (K), phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca), and in some cases some of the other minor nutrients. That's about it. You also get some other information that relates to pH, such as ion-binding capacities. That will tell you how well that soil can take care of some of the nutrients you've got, such as fertilizer. But, I think the most important thing to do first is to do something to correct the  pH. We've done a lot of things for that. We've used major amounts of wood ash — and of course you can use straight lime, ground up limestone. The
thing is, if you don't get your pH right, the nutrients aren't going to stay in the ground, they're going to leach out. There are other things you can do. Just spreading manure on the land tends to add alkaline qualities to the soil, as well. So that's another way to correct acid pH.
HKRL: But then don't you have the risk of bringing in pathogens or worms?
TS: I don't think so. It depends on how you are managing the manure. There are several ways of dealing with that aspect. One is to actually
compost the manure before you put it on. We actually do some of that. Right now we're looking at a compost program for a farm. Part of our problem is we can't always spread the manure when we would like to. For example, we would very much like to put manure on between different cuttings of hay. But if we do it uncomposted, we get manure mixed in with our second crop of hay. We find if we compost it, we have a product which
is quite well decomposed. Then we're able to spread it between the first and second crops of hay. Then the manure can add organic material. We did it this year and it worked very well.
HKRL: When you composted the manure, did you add more bulk such as straw, or was it just straight manure?
TS: It was just whatever was coming straight out of the barn. But with our sheep, there is a lot of bedding  -- a lot of hay and a lot of straw. It's mostly that with some manure in it. It composted pretty well. We haven't turned it as religiously as we should to keep it aerated and promote the decomposition more.
HKRL: How long are your animals in the barn?
TS: Only in the winter, otherwise they are on pasture. Up here, there is a time of year when it's so cold you do have to have barn shelter for them, but even then we don't confine the animals to the barn. We feed hay outside to make the animals exercise. So, manure and anything like that, does tend to increase the pH of your soil. This is one thing you can do, without using purchased lime. For awhile, we could get ash products that were really quite useful.
HKRL: Is there a risk with ash products of suppressing the nitrogen?
TS: The biggest problem you have is that you overdo the potassium. When you overdo potassium, you tie up the use of magnesium. For grazing animals, that can be pretty serious. In the spring especially, they can get something called “grass tetany” which is from a deficiency of magnesium in the grass. It brings on a   neurological dysfunction. It's also called “circling disease” in sheep. They go around and around in little circles. This does have a basis in nutritional deficiency. Most of it is associated with not enough magnesium. So, one of the complicating features with ashes, is that if you have too much potassium, it makes the magnesium unavailable to the animals.
HKRL: Could you say something about nitrogen content? That's important for growing leaves isn't it?
TS: Nitrogen seems to pretty much have its own cycle. It's a product that you cannot store in the soil nearly as much as you can potassium and calcium and phosphorus because it goes through so many chemical changes. It can go from nitrates to nitrites. It's an advantage if you have active legumes [like
clover or alfalfa] that can fix gaseous nitrogen from the air into the soil. Because of that, the considerations are different than for some of the salt particles that need to be retained in the soil for the plants to grow.
HKRL: That brings us to the topic of which plants to use in an intensive management system.
TS: I think the first lesson for someone who is just starting is simply to take what you have and try to do the most with it, without immediately trying to bring in many new varieties. Unless the soil is really bad, you're almost better off just correcting the pH and then getting some nutrients from organic sources or whatever you need on that soil, and see what happens, initially. That's the lowest cost way to do it. It means you don't have to plant new varieties. It's very costly to till fields and reseed them. That's very costly and many times for a grazing program it's difficult to justify that cost economically. Since we've started with this system, we have one four acre piece that we've never tilled, but we paid attention to pH. We've just let grow whatever grows there —Kentucky bluegrass (which is common to this area), timothy [a grass], wild white clover. These plants will produce reasonably well in the climate that we have. The tonnage of growth on these is not quite as much as the other places, where  we have reseeded, but it's very good. Where we have introduced new plant, we've used orchard grass and two varieties of New Zealand white clover — “Pita” and “Huia.” The reason we were attracted to those white clovers is that they have many of the standard virtues of white clover in that they grow under a lot of different conditions, including in wet areas, and also they grow much taller than our wild white clovers. They can grow tall enough to be part of the hay crop. They have fine stems so they dry quickly and provide a lot of leaf for nutrients. The other important thing is that they are very aggressive, very active nitrogen fixers. New Zealand white clover can fix 40 times as much nitrogen as our native white clover What we were after when we put together that combination was to try to find a grass and a legume that would match together that would produce as much material as we could on these pieces of ground. It's been pretty successful.
HKRL: And the protein content in this...
TS: Oh it can vary quite a lot, it depends on the stage..
HKRL: Should you cut it just before it flowers?
TS: Well, you've got to be careful with orchard grass, because it will begin to shoot a stem before it shows any kind of flower...
HKRL: I was thinking of the clovers...
TS: These clovers, because they are white clovers, stay pretty fine stemmed all the time. They're not like a red clover where the stem gets thicker and thicker. But it's very important to time the cutting or grazing of the orchard grass because it grows a lot of material rather quickly. It's a lot of leaf, and then it starts to shoot stem. It has a big, bulky stem, which is not very digestible. So it's important to use the grass before the stem formation begins.
The nice thing about orchard grass is if you do that, its regrowth is really quick as long as it has the nutrients it needs. We've had the orchard grass/white clover mix in these paddocks for at least eight years, and the mix seems to work very well. I'm sure there are others that are just as good, but this particular one we've liked because it uses a nitrogen-fixing plant to give nitrogen to a grass that grows very aggressively
and has a pretty big energy demand. They work together pretty well.  We've been surprised because we thought the orchard grass might crowd out the white clover, but it hasn’t. Both of them have been able to maintain themselves. We've used all these places both for pasture and for hay. For example, in the spring we'll start to graze one of them and use the others for a crop of hay. Then, as we get into the summer and the weather gets a little drier, and the regrowth is not as fast, we may use a couple of the fields for pasture and take second crop off of a couple of other places.
HKRL: So you'll use two fields for rotational grazing, but each one of these fields is divided into smaller
paddocks...
TS: Each one of our fields is roughly 4 acres, and fairly long and narrow. They are 165 foot wide. We use temporary fencing to subdivide to make the small paddocks. There are four of these fields, with three internal fences. We've got two water lines that run the full length of these fields, so wherever the animals are, there's water — they don't have to go back to any one place. That's really important. One of the things we found out early on — and this is one of the mistakes we made — is that you need to have water in the paddock where the animals are grazing, because what happens is that they will eat and fill up, and then they'll waltz back to where the water is, get a drink and then lie down and drop all their manure back there. So, what you're doing is taking a lot of nutrients out of the pasture where you're grazing them and depositing it far away. If you have water in the pasture where you're grazing them, they will continue to put their manure back on where they are. You're recycling nutrients, and with ruminants it's really a lot of nutrients. So if the water is available where they're grazing, you're recycling a lot of nutrients right back into the system. That was a crucial part of what we felt had to he established. All of our fields have water access to them, It's a very simple system. It's just a black plastic line that lies in the fence row, underneath the fence — it's not buried. Every so many feet we've placed a plastic spigot so we can fill a water tank at that location. For the wintertime, we take them right off and let the line drain. We've used this for ten years. It's been a great system. So, water management is crucial. Another thing that's important, that a lot of people don't do enough of, and we didn't either in the beginning is to move animals frequently enough from one paddock to the next. Of course, it depends on what's on the paddock. For lambs, we try to make a paddock the size so that in 3 days they will need another paddock.
HKRL: So when you say you have a long 4 acre field with permanent fencing around the perimeter, and you divide each four acre field with the temporary fencing — then the size of the paddock and the number of paddocks within each field varies according to how many animals you have.
TS: Yes, that's exactly right — how many animals and what age. Also, how dry it is — generally you'll need to make bigger paddocks as the summer progresses.
HKRL: With dairy cows for example, I think you would send your top milkers in first, let them chew the tops of the grass, and then send the dry cows in to clean up the lower nutrient part that's left.
TS: With sheep it's similar. During the grazing season the first one's on a paddock would be ewes that are nursing lambs, or after weaning, the lambs themselves. They'll take the best quality.
HKRL: So you have one group as a lead group, and follow with the next on the same paddock?
TS: No, actually, we use different fields. We would mostly put the lambs in a totally separate field and not be following them with the others. But I think we might use a process like that if we had some really rough land. At this stage, though, all our land has been used so much that it's mostly equal. We have a couple places up by the barn that are half-acre lots, that are not managed so intensively, where we keep some of the rams in the summer.
As far as time spent in one paddock, for our ewes, once they have weaned their lambs, we might not want to spend as much time moving them. So instead of giving them a paddock that will last 3 days, we might make it a little bigger so it will last 5 days, since they don't have the same high nutrient
requirements as when they are nursing. We keep an eye on them and watch how they are doing. We're also asking them to do some extra work to clean up a fence row or clean up some of the rougher areas next to the woods. We push them a little harder. We wouldn't want the lambs to be doing this because it's not quite as nutrient rich. But, with the lambs, we want them to have full access to the best quality pasture, because we are trying
to minimize their grain input and trying to maximize producing lamb and wool by just using grass.
HKRL: What kind of sheep do you use for wool?
TS: We use rambouillet. We contract someone else to spin their wool into skeins and we wholesale it. Its a gorgeous fleece.
HKRL: I think they had a problem with our farm in Pennsylvania. When they first got the sheep, they got the kind with very coarse wool. It's good to make a rug, but you probably wouldn't want to make a sweater out of it.
TS: No, the Rambouillet wool is not like that. It's very fine diameter. The only problem that I've heard, is that you have to be a pretty advanced hand spinner, if you're going to spin it by hand. That's what I've heard, but I'm not expert about it. Merino or Rambouillet wool is not as long a fiber as a Romney or a Corriedale, but it's much smaller in diameter, so it makes a very high quality product if you can deal with it.
HKRL: Any comments on the fencing itself? It seems like there's a ton of fencing companies.
TS: I worked as an advisor for one of the companies for a number of years, just doing research on fencing systems and the kinds of equipment that was needed, working with testing equipment and so forth. Clearly the New Zealanders pushed the envelope as much as anybody. But one of the nice things about it is there are a lot of products out there to choose from. You have to know what you want to do. There are products that are used for making permanent fences around perimeters, and then there are several products (“portable fencing”) that make it quite easy to make smaller places or paddocks. Some of those are single strand wires and some of them are netting fences. We've used them all.
HKRL: So the way to get started is to contact an agricultural extension agent or someone like that.
TS: Yes, I think that's the way to go. A lot of these companies will actually run workshops. We were involved in doing that for a long time. Even though they are run by a company, workshops can be very educational. It's a good way to learn.
HKRL: What about a farmer in a country that's not so developed? How could he find out more about fencing and grazing? Any recommendations? For example, ISKCON has farm communities in Czech Republic and Ukraine...
TS: As far as I know, there are some of the New Zealand companies over there. Gallagher, I know, has agents in some of the countries of CIS, the former Soviet Union. I know they are throughout Europe and into Africa and other areas. There are also some good books that have been written on fencing and intensive grazing. For sheep there is The Sheep Raisers Manual by Bill Kruesi. There are also several books that have come out of
New Zealand that I've found very helpful. One is called Low Cost Dairy Management. And I think it's interesting if one is really serious about it to look at the original book Grass Productivity that was written by Andre Voisin, who was a biochemist who got the idea about this whole process. It's a very logical idea when you take the time to sit down and contemplate it. That book is widely available, and it's not a bad place to start. Another basic starting book is Greener Pastures on Your Side of the Fence by Bill Murphy.
HKRL: Have you ever read any of the books by Alan Nation [editor of The Stockman Grass Farmer]?
TS: I haven't read any of his books, just the magazine-type articles. Certainly the title, Intensive Grazing Management, looks attractive. I'm sure there are other publications that have come out that I'm not familiar with.
HKRL: So these are some of the basics, to start with.
TS: Yes. And, I think the other thing that is really useful, and it's a common technique in New Zealand, especially in the dairy industry, is that they would get a group of people together, 5 or 6 people that were all trying to do intensive grazing that were dairy farmers, and they would try to meet at somebody's house once a month—to support each other and to talk about which ideas are working and what's not working. New Zealand has really fostered that. In fact, many of the farms that are not operated by the owner, but operated by a manager — they will insist that their managers take part in one of these programs, because they've had so much benefit from them. Once in awhile, they are loosely connected to the university or agricultural extension service. They might request a resource person from there to come in and meet with them periodically.
HKRL: Actually, I know that when they started to set up a rotational grazing program at our Gita-nagari farm in Pennsylvania, they got a lot of ideas from the university extension agent.
TS: In our sheep programs — we don't do it as aggressively — but at least once or twice a year in our local regional meetings, we have at least a discussion of this topic every year to find out what people have been doing, what doesn't work, what does work, what are the new grasses that people have tried?
HKRL: Another thing I wanted to address was equipment. You talk about haying — do you own your own equipment, or do you rent it?
TS: Yes, we used to make a lot of hay. My boys used to make hay and sell it. We now work jointly with another young person who is just getting his start. He owns a tractor and actually puts more labor into the process. But we have all the balers and mowers and rakes and hay wagons. So we provide most of the equipment and he provides most of the labor. I think there is advantage, especially on the smaller scale, in trying to see if you can work with someone else. But, if you are going to do it, I think it's very important to have the understanding quite clear as to who's going to do what, so there are no misunderstandings midway through the thing. It may not have ‘to be in writing — but maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea either — but to say who's going to be responsible for what. Who's going to be responsible for maintenance of machinery, and who's going to furnish most of the labor...
HKRL: This arrangement you have with the young person, does he rent part of it, or do you rent part of it?
TS: No money changes hands at all. The idea is that we work together to do it. He has a tractor and we have a tractor, and we have all the rest of the equipment. He puts more labor into it than I do, to be honest about it. I'm  allowing my equipment to be used, in effect, in exchange for his extra labor. I also help a lot in the management. We all work together in getting the total project done, and it works out really well, because labor is a real short
commodity for me. I've been very pleased in working with him, but I think it's because we both have a pretty clear understanding about who will contribute what to the whole process. We do cut a little hay that we will sell just to cover our out-of-pocket expenses — fuel and baling twine, to pay for the extra labor we'll have to hire at certain points.
HKRL: For our readers, I wonder if you could make some comparisons in this whole process — before and after — in terms of labor, grain cost, animal health, etc.
TS: The major driving force has been to try and use as much of our own resources as possible — in place of purchased grain. It made a difference of about twofold in terms of the net profit per animal — even taking into account initial costs, like fencing. It was very significant. We still feed our lambs some grain and we give them minerals—sheep need a loose mineral salt mix, not salt blocks, because they can't get enough off a block.
HKRL: How does the labor compare?
TS: Well, one thing you've got to do with rotational grazing, is you've got to be interested in looking at your grass—in being aware of when that piece of pasture is at its peak. Like if you are pasturing a field, one of these four acre fields. You march down a field, say its divided into 200 foot sections, that when that first piece is up to the height that it should be pastured again, that you're back on there with animals. You have to have an initial interest in this. If you do, it becomes fascinating. I find it becoming more and more interesting as we go along — to see all the dynamics going on within these pastures—because one of the things that happens is that each field gets better every year. For example, you'll find that the manure disappears faster. The whole dynamics of the microbial life below the soil itself is enhanced, the activity of the earthworms and all of the bacterial life. All of that becomes more and more attuned to the way the pasture is being developed. This is particularly evident with manure, you will see it disappear very quickly — it has to do with the richness and health of the microbial life that's there. In the beginning, things happen more slowly, hut as your program develops, you'll see the changes happening faster.
HKRL: Do you find the animal health improved?
TS: It is, certainly. It's a way to help with parasite control and other problems. They are naturally adapted to being grazers, so when you have a program that utilizes this aspect of their nature, it's healthier for them. I know dairy cattle people saying that getting the cows out in pasture and getting their legs off concrete brings a major improvement in the cows' health.
HKRL: Are you able to get them out earlier in the spring and keep them out longer in the fall?
TS: Oh, yes. The pastures do respond that way with management. There are also some crops that we have used as season extenders— tyfon, which is a cross between Chinese cabbage and turnips. We'll use that in a field that we do want to reseed. In mid summer, we'll make sure the pH is where we want it to be and we'll seed it to tyfon. They grow very aggressively, and the leaf holds its quality, even after freezing. We've even grazed tyfon up until mid-January.  We have experimented with planting in the fall a crop called triticale, which is a cross between rye and wheat. We let it get started in the fall, and it grows very quickly with very little heat in the spring. You can graze that before the end of April. [In Maine it can snow up through mid-April.]
There is a cost with these season-extenders because you have to plow. You have to consider: is it cheaper to store feed or is it cheaper to do it that way? The way we'll use tyfon is that we'll plow a field that needs to be reseeded, and we'll plant tyfon in late July or early August, and then graze in late fall and winter, and in the spring we go in and disk-harrow it and we have a lovely seed bed to put in our spring seeding. That's been a good way to get a nice seed bed for the next year. But we haven't lost much of the production year. We can still get a hay crop the first year if things go well. The way I look at our operation is that our major crop is grass, and we are selecting some animals to harvest that grass. So we're really grassland farmers. Grass is our product, and we're looking at animals to harvest it. I really didn't think about it like that until I was in Great Britain and I went to some meetings where they said, “That's the way you have to think about it.”
HKRL: You talk about being more in-tune with the pastures. In one way, it seems like there is an emotional reward, too, from it...
TS: I guess it's that way with anything that has to do with agriculture. But I think it's really fun to watch these fields — it's interesting for me to see them become more productive every year, and in effect that's what happens. If you are building things, and they really do become better able to do what you want them to do every year. It's actually fun. The bottom line is, you don't have to do anything fancy to start. You can take what you've got and improve it, just by management. You have to master the concept of putting animals on to a small enough area so that they'll eat what they are going to eat in a couple of days. And then the key thing is to get them off of that plot, so that grass will regrow—and keep them off it until it has grown sufficiently. If you let the animals back on that area too soon, new shoots will start to grow, but they will destroy the root strength because they don't have time to have enough growth. So, it's really a lot of work to think about how you manage all those things — but it's pretty exciting what you can
do.
 

Frost Seeding
by Vyapaka dasa

Frost seeding is a process where seed is broadcast onto the fields before the growing season begins and generally while there is snow on the ground (in Canada, at least. Check with local farmers or your Dept of Agriculture to see if this method is suitable for your own climate). The seed shown in the photo below is red clover which is one of the more competitive legumes. This was the third time that I have frost seeded and my experience has been good. Considerations for frost seeding would include the condition of the field in regards to trash and weed coverage.

The clover is being broadcast into a fall rye crop. Rye is a strong competitor since it produces exudates from its roots which inhibits the germination of other seeds. Though I have never done this in rye before, several experienced farmers have reported that they have had good success frost seeding into rye.

The purpose of this is to establish a crop in the understory of the rye which will be ready to grow immediately upon harvest of the rye. This will reduce the opportunity of weeds to get established. Red clover is being grown in order to produce nitrogen since the farm is organic and I have no on-farm source of manure.

The red clover will be allowed to grow with a crop of seed will be combined to help pay for the seed and to build my own seed inventory. Organic certification standards prohibit the use of non-certificed organic seed starting in 2003. So the benefit of this crop will be in the nitrogen it produces and secondly the certified organic seed.

Since we were seeding 30 acres, I had a neighbour come over with his 4 wheel ATV which had an electric seeder attached. We do own a manual spreader but due to time constrictions we chose to go the mechanical route. If a smaller parcel of land is to be seeded, the manual spreader works well. You will have to experiment on how to apply the correct quantity of seed and it is advisable if you cross the field once in each direction. This will ensure greater coverage. Just make sure you cut down the amount of seed being broadcast in half so to apply only one half the seed in each direction.
 

    Red Clover seed being frost seeded   4 wheel ATV with electric seeder attached Red Clover seed in the hopper ready to be broadcast    The small specks on the snow is the red clover seed

 

Feed Information for Dairy Cattle

This article can be found at: <http://www.canadianhay.com> Editor's note:     Techniques to increase milk production have become very involved and elaborate. Farmers milking cows reap profits by providing the maximum quantity of nutrients to the cow in order to increase milk production. We certainly can learn from these able farmers but be aware that our emphasis is not on the commercial exploitation of  the cow.  Hopefully, we have all learned a lesson from the chaotic example of a so-called Krsna conscious project attempting a commercial dairy enterprise.
    There are strong arguments against modern dairy practice which focuses so strongly on milk production in both feed dynamics and genetics.  Our Krsna conscious perspective will be impaired if we look on the cows as only production units. Commercial dairy operations have ample replacement heifers laying in wait and I have read that the average life of a milking cow is now no more than three years or less. Though we have much to learn from them, if we stay true to our focus on long term cow protection, it won't be long before we step out of the shadow of the commercial dairy farmer.
    Indeed, this is what made this article stand out for me. The emphasis of a return to a higher percentage of grass in the diet is something that we should note. It was also interesting to see that milk fat content rises in tandem with the percentage of hay in the diet. I was under the misunderstanding that the opposite was true, though I have also read that a diet with little grain leaves a grassy taste to the milk, which in reality may not be bad but rather only a taste preference. The bottom line is that the feed program for our animals must maintain both milk production and animal health. In this regards, some of the local organic dairy producers in this area feed little corn but rather substitute barley which lessens TDN but is less harsh on the animal's system and thereby reduces vet bills. As any businessman will tell you -- it ain't what you gross but what you net that really matters. However, for the Krsna concious farmer the reduced vet bills are just a beneficial side effect of having a healthy and contented animal producing essential foodstuffs for the benefit of Their Lordships.  Vd

The value of high quality forages in dairy cow diets
The effects of amount and source of forage on milk production are well established. Although ruminants, such as feedlot steers, can survive and be productive for short periods when fed diets low in fibre, the long-term health and productivity of dairy cows depends on the consumption of
forage to stimulate normal rumen function and maintain milk fat percentage. It is now well established that optimal rations are formulated for dairy cows by keeping the forage to concentrate ratio between 40:60 and 60:40 (1). Since forage plays such a large role in the productivity and health of the high producing dairy cow it is important to closely consider the type of forage being fed.

Forage is important to the ruminant because it represents the natural food designed for the particular needs of a ruminant animal. When a dairy cow diet is less than 40% forage, stress is the result. Lack of effective fiber in the diet contributes to more than just reduced milk fat levels and reduced overall milk output. Other serious problems such as depressed feed intake levels, borderline acidosis, lameness and displaced abomasums can also result. (2)

As effective fiber is reduced in the diet a series of changes will occur. Less effective fiber in the diet results in less chewing by the animal. Because animals secrete more saliva when chewing than when resting, less chewing results in less salivary buffering secretion into the rumen. Decreased salivary buffer secretion results in reduced decreased ruminal pH. As pH drops the rumen microbial populations change.

The end products of fermentation shift from acetate to propionate and the acetate to propionate ratio (A:P) is reduced. Reduction in the A:P ratio is associated with milk fat depression and shunting of nutrients into fattening. The dairy cow has now switched from producing milk to laying down fat on her body. (2)

Research has also shown that when the forage in the ration was finely chopped or ground without increasing the overall level of fiber in the diet, the results were lower ruminal pH and milk fat depression (3). Therefore, it is important to consider the source and physical form of the fiber when formulating rations for high producing dairy cows.

If forage is to be effective, it must have the following criteria

• The forage must be palatable, the higher the level of intake the higher the output. In order to be palatable the forage must be free of mould or dust and have a fresh, sweet smell. There is a direct relationship between the smell of a forage and intake.

• The forage must be digestible, that is the maximum amount of the forage cells must be contributing to the overall nutritional needs of the cow while still causing the cow to maintain effective chewing time. If the forage is low in digestibility it remains in the rumen too long and depresses overall feed intake.

• The forage must be consistent. Dairy producers know that dairy rations are carefully balanced to maximize output while maintaining a low cost. Variations in the nutritional components of forage may easily upset those delicate balancesÑcausing rumen microbial populations to change and milk production to decline.

Forages Play an Important Role
Dairy cows are ruminant animals designed to consume forage and convert it into milk or meat. Forages play an important role in dairy cow diet and must be selected according to the level of forage being considered in the diet. The selection of forages is one of the most important decisions a dairy farmer will make in the overall management of the herd. Forage and Fiber Proportions Typical effects of varying forage and fiber proportions in rations on the physiological responses                          of dairy cows  
                                                                                 % of Long Grass Hay in the Diet
Variable                                                   100               80               60               40               20              0
NDF%                                                      70               59               48               36               25             14
physically effective NDF%                         70               57                44               32              18               6
Chewing time,minutes/day                       1,080          1,040             970             820             520           320
Saliva secretion, L/day                              200             196              189             174             143           123
Salivary bicarbonate, kg/day                      2.5              2.4               2.3              2.2              1.8            1.5
Ruminal pH                                               6.8              6.7                6.5              6.2             5.8             5.0
Ruminal VFA,mM                                     85               95               105              115             125           135
Ruminal acetate, molar %                          70               66                 61               55                48             40
Ruminal propionate,molar %                     15               18                 22               27                33              40
A:P (acetate propionate) ratio                   4.7              3.7                2.8              2.0              1.4             1.0
Milk fat, %                                               3.7              3.6                3.5              3.4               3.0            1.0

Mertens, D.R., 11th Annual Florida Ruminant Nutrition Symposium, Jan. 13-14, 2000

© Copyright 2002 Canadian Hay Association.
 

 

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