# Grazing hay fields in fall



## Riverside Cattle

Who grazes their hay fields after their last cutting? I have grazed on and off depending on the year and can't tell much of a difference. We usually only get one cutting a year for grass fields and two on alfalfa fields. If we get any late summer rains fields come back some but not enough to hay again. I have let the cattle graze the fields to clean them up some, I try to get them off in time to let them grow back before the last frost.

With hay prices as high as they are I have cut back my cattle numbers considerably and don't need the grazing. I am wondering if I will see much improvement in letting that grass just be. I think I would need to brushhog any place that got too tall but for the most part just let it be. Any ideas?

-rsc


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## BCFENCE

When it gets as dry as it is right now i will let them graze right after i bale the hay.It lets the cows clean up the fence rows, but take them off after a week or so, and you no that depends on if it rains or not i just leave them on.


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## greengirl

My Aunty used to do this all the time in the Autumn but now they are too old and with no one to take over they had to sell the farm off two years ago. That was sad.


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## mulberrygrovefamilyfarm

I noticed that when I allowed the cows to graze grass after a killing frost I ran into trouble in the spring with really slow green up because the cows took too much of the grass off, unlike alfalfa where I have grazed that down to dirt after a killing frost and didn't have any issue.


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## prairie

We need to remember that a "killing frost" for all plants is not the same. Cool season grasses will continue to grow well after a killing frost for warm season plants. In my area cool season grasses may still be active into November, while my alfalfa may have experienced a killing frost as early as late September.

Once grasses go dormant for the winter, there is little harm to the plant in grazing the dead growth. Remember though, that grasses do store some of their reserves in the lower stems. Leaving at least a 2" residual on cool season grasses after grazing should be OK. Warm season grasses probably need at least a 3-4" residual. Once completely dormant, alfalfa can be grazed to the ground with little harm.

I only take three cuttings of alfalfa or alfalfa/grass mixed hay. The fourth cutting is harvested by my cattle in November and December. I graze the alfalfa fields first, and the alfalfa/grass fields last.


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## hayray

I graze some fields in the fall but I wait until mid October and also have a pretty low stocking density when I do it to control hoof traffic as we can get pretty wet here in the fall.


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## Production Acres

Depends mostly on what kind of hay you are baling. If you are just baling cattle hay, no problems whatsoever, but if you want to bale horse hay or small bales of hay for any other critter, your rake is very prone to pick up chunks of manure - especially "cow Patties" and put that in the hay. We use a lot of manure on our hay fields, and you have to be very careful to allow the manures to compost enough to spread thinnly and evenly such that you don't rake that back into the hay.


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## chh

I let my bermuda come back out after the second cutting and let the cattle graze it. I also have fescue coming up as it cools off and I generally don't have to feed much hay until the last of December or the first week of January. I try to have the cattle off the fields before it get too wet, so they don't make the fields too rough. It was pretty dry this winter and the main field I had them on is the most protected from the cold north winds, so I didn't pull them out of there until the first week of March. I harrowed out the fields so that the manure would be broken up and have a chance to breakdown before we start to bale.


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## nwfarmer

We can't have our fields grazed. We don't know what the animals have been eating prior to being put on the fields. We can't risk weeds in the fields. Our own horses eat our ground bales so don't need to graze. We sell to some pretty fussy horse people. Plus in WY we need to get a weed release before we can sell hay. We just can't risk some cow crapping out thistle seed in our fields. We also have gated pipe that we leave in the field. It would cost more to remove the pipe than we would gain from a grazing contract.


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## hay wilson in TX

I can understand your thinking.

There are any number of valid reasons to graze a hay field.

Cleaning out the fence line is one. 
In spring control of the Alfalfa Weevil is another. 
In California they mob graze with sheep in alfalfa to control weeds.

These and more are all valid and reasonable.

Still I do not like to make hay where cattle or any heavy grazer has spent any time. Here the hooves make for a rough ride on the equipment. These fields will stay rough until plowed out. 
If the Dung Beetles are not present the cow piles persist & get in the hay. *It makes for a sorry product.*


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## mulberrygrovefamilyfarm

Here is more detail of my story regarding fall grazing grass. I was working with the USDA grass guy who came up from Des Moines. We had been working on a program to expand the native grasses in my pasture in certain areas and also optimizing the grazing period on others. He said that I should continue to do managed intensive grazing on the pasture, pulling out of the areas to bring out the natives by June 15 and not going back into the natives area until next spring. OK so far. *And in the fall you can graze the grass down once the grass has been knocked out by frost.* So this I did. Then in the spring I noticed that my pasture was looking pretty shabby in the spring. Other non-pasture areas which have much of the same grass as my pasture looked great. My pasture was about 4 inches behind and falling behind everyday. So I called the USDA grass guy and asked him to come up for a visit. He came up and we looked at the grass and I asked what gives. Yeah he says, we noticed that the grass pastures really struggle back if you graze it hard in the fall. We have changed our advice and we suggest you leave a lot up top in the fall, but it's no problem for alfalfa... My pasture is still slow to come up in the spring ever since. I have done the alfalfa fall feeding and that has worked fine so I guess I am part of the academic information for what not to do that is passed on to others.


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## nwfarmer

I had a similar problem here. The FSA office, part of USDA I think, said I could save money by just spraying 2-4D around the edge of my field instead of using a mixture of 2-4D and roundup. that way the natural grasses could compete and I would have less weeds. What happened is I had outcropping of foxtail grass around the edges of my fields that is now really giving me a problem. My fields looked fine before I took his suggestion. I think they sit behind desks and read books. I don't think they ever farmed for a living.


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## UpNorth

I find it interesting a number the posts have been in favor of grazing alfalfa done to nothing in the fall/winter. If some one tried that up here in WI or northern MN they could lose their field pretty quick or at least take a big hit on first crop the following year. Some dairymen take constantly take off a cutting in October because they're short on feed and get burned the following spring while others are able to get away with taking a late cutting. The big difference between the farms is that some us have a few days the get up to 40 F, melt the snow cover, and put an ice sheet over the alfalfa and kill the crowns. Also the some parts of the state have been without much snow cover until January and that kills the crowns as well if there's no foliage above the alfalfa espeacial when the temps drop below 0 F.

As far as the grass goes, snow mold happens when a grass field over 6 in tall gets laid down under a bunch of snow and well molds.

So if the guy in Idaho who started this thread runs into conditions similar to these in WI. I would say don't graze the alfalfa fields and go ahead and graze the grass down to below 6 in. Also consider the other potential drawbacks to grazing that the others have mentioned-manure in the hay, bumpy fields, etc.


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## hayray

I know in my region of the country extension advises it is ok to cut after October 15th. I am not sure what is the recommendation about cutting height but I have heard mention about possible crown damage as was mentioned from grazing or cutting too short. We are suppossed to have our last grazing or cutting on legume fields done by September 1st. The mid October date is really only for those dairy guys that can chop or do baleage or grazing. I have had a real hard time getting any baling done in October so sometimes if we have had a real good crop I will turn cattle in some areas in October. Although after a few frost there is no leaf left on the alfalfa.


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## nwfarmer

The hooves on my corrugations also causes problems. The corrugations are bad enough to drive over. We have picked up hay customers because they found manure in their hay from another farmer


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