# cutting pasture



## robert23239 (May 10, 2009)

I have 6 cows on 15 acres, mostly Fescue, clover and a little orchard grass. The Fescue gets a little tall and the owner like's to see it trim. So how short should I cut the pasture? Or just cut a third at a time ? I know the cows really don't like the tall fescue anyway.

Thanks


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

They may not like it when they have other stuff to choose from, but they will eat it eventually. How tall is the clover and OG? Could take a bush hog and run it just low enough to whack the tops off the fescue.


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## SvdSinner (Nov 25, 2009)

You need more cows!









But, if that isn't an option, I'd heavily recommend building some paddocks in your 15 acres, and managing them. By sub-dividing your pasture, you'll benefit both the cattle and the pasture.

Firstly, you can harvest hay off what the cow don't need for grazing without subjecting your equipment to the roughness that cow piles, hoof prints and digging (if you are lucky enough to have any that dig, like my bull does).

Secondly, the cows will eat healthier and better if they are forced to eat everything in an area before moving on to the next area. The more species of plants they eat, they better. If they have too much area to graze in, they will just pick their favorite grasses, eat them to oblivion and waste they other grasses. (Just like a kids would eat all the ice cream and cookies and ignore the vegetables, etc. if they were given their free choice of anything they wanted.)

Thirdly, your pastures will benefit greatly with rotation. Constant grazing destroys the best grasses because the cows eat them relentlessly. Resting allow the grasses to recover from being eaten, and actually build up sugar reserves. Rotationally grazed pastures actually produce more calories per plant than constantly grazed pastures, because of this.

The more paddocks or subdivisions you can make, the better. You can use temporary portable electric fencing, or permanent fence. (I use portable fencing for most paddocks. It makes it easier to get around in the tractor when I can remove unneeded fencing when I need to cut hay, reseed, whatever.) People begin seeing benefits with 2-4 paddocks, but the benefits increase with the number of paddocks up to about 28 paddocks. (28 might be rather extreme for 6 cows and 15 acres.)

For your setup, I'd suggest about 7 paddocks (if your using portable fencing, you only need 2-3 setups that you leap frog) of roughly an acre each, and saving 5ish acres for making hay for the winter. Keep them in each paddock for 2-4 days, and then advance them to the next paddock. Make sure you rotate them through fast enough that the paddocks don't head-out and go dormant while resting.


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