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Farm operations in the Cotuea and Central region of ND
are mixed with both grain farming and cow-calf operations. Cows are needed
to utilize the rough non farmable land. Consolidation in the industry is
pressuring cattle operations to increase herd size to dilute overhead
expense and increase the farm revenues to meet their living needs with
decreasing farm margins. To some extent conflicts and challenges associated
with management and labor requirements, push another trend to specialization
either as farmers or cattle producers. Interest in further
consolidation/expansion/specialization is limited for many by the
availability of grazing land and the opportunity to carry more numbers.
One opportunity appears to be a greater integration
with farming and leveraging the carrying capacity of summer pastures with
grazing on farmland and greater use of alternative and opportunity feeds.
Many possibilities exist, but one approach might be to
maximize the summer use of permanent native pastures by delaying turn out
until June 1st and then rotating with a twice over 3 or 4 paddock
management plan till early October. For a June to Oct. period, with range in
good condition, such grazing management might allow a stocking rate of 1 to
1.5 acres per cow or 4 to 6 acres for 4 months.
One of the best options for earlier turn out is a
complimentary tame grass pasture such as crested wheat, seeded on marginal
farm land in close proximity to the operations headquarters and annually
fertilized or inter seeded with alfalfa. For maximum carrying capacity such
pasture should utilized with an early May turn out and grazed in allocated
blocks. However a portion of this acreage might be needed for an April
calving location on which cows receive supplemental feed. For best early
season productivity this pasture would be only used for the 1 to 2 month
spring period and rested the remainder of the year till next spring.
A number of alternatives exist for grazing the cowherd
in the fall and early winter including the use of cropping residues and
stockpiled annual forages. For late calving cowherds desiring to wean calves
at a traditional 7 month of age, it is necessary that forage quality in the
October- November period is adequate to maintain cow condition and calf
grains. Swath grazing forage planted on farmland in early summer and
windrowed in September as German Millet provides adequate nutrition with a
carrying capacity of about 80 grazing days per acre. When forage quality is
not of as great concern as after weaning, corn stover, chaff piles, and
mature grass on waste areas provide a very useable feed resource. Creep
feeding with reasonable priced feeds as wheat midd pellets can also be very
cost effective in situations where weaning might be delayed until late
November or early December and calves marketed off the cow.
The period of December through April in the northern
plains/ farming region usually requires feeding cows harvested feed as hay,
silage, or crop residues. The challenge is to do so at least expense while
meeting the cow’s nutritional needs which increase over this period and can
be influenced by cow type and date of calving. Late cut CRP hay can be a
cost effective forage in spite of its low quality when a high quality forage
can be produced in a farming rotation and is available as alfalfa, corn
silage a cereal hay. Depending on location and feeding methods, crop
processing by products, harvested stover, straw, grain screenings and
damaged crops salvaged as feed can be effective wintering feeds.
Increasing herd size through leveraging a
summer pasture base with forage production and crop aftermath use on
farmland is only part of the equation. More cows increases facility,
equipment, and labor needs. Watering, wind protection, and fencing are
issues on land locations not previously used for grazing and feeding
livestock. Access to non-cattle producer lands with crop aftermath resources
needs to be negociated for by those with cattle. With a desire and a
willingness to do things in less traditional ways, opportunities exist to
grow the region’s cowherd.
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