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SOIL HEALTH IN PRACTICE - REAL SOLUTIONS FROM REAL FARMERS

Winter Stockpile Grazing The second management step is to ration off grazing to only
one or two days worth of feed at a time to limit trampling.
Everyone who manages pastured livestock knows that feed Using portable fencing reels with polywire and step in fence
in the form of bags, buckets, or bales is far more expen- posts is a very cheap and time efficient way to increase the
sive than grazing. This has traditionally made winter, when percentage of plant material that gets into the animals versus
nothing grows, the most expensive time of year to maintain being trampled. Some trampling is acceptable, and in fact
animals, however, there are alternatives to expensive me- allowing animals to strip the leaves and trample the stems
chanically harvested feed. for soil armor may be a way to let the animals get the most
The best way is to use some form of stockpiled forage such nutritious parts of the plant while the soil gets the long-lived
as uncut nonheading forage sorghums that are allowed to protection it needs. It is obviously hard to move a polywire in
grow throughout the summer and stand through fall and tall standing sorghum. Some have found that using an ATV
winter. Frost-killed sorghum is low in protein but can pro- to pull a mineral feeder sitting in a tractor tire to be an easy
vide adequate energy for a nonlactating cow or ewe, and way to knock down a path for the next fenceline.
the per acre yields can be quite impressive. Sorghum is also
quite economical to plant and grow and is very efficient
at converting moisture into dry matter. It is not unusual Photos by Brett Peshek
for sorghum to produce 2 tons of dry matter per acre per
month of growth. There are a few important management
tips for utilizing sorghum for standing winter feed.
First, select a sorghum that does not produce grain which
can cause acidosis. Male sterile hybrids, like our BMR400,
do not produce viable pollen, so unless they are in close
proximity to another fertile sorghum variety, will not pro- Even though this field looks like dead and low quality forage, it is actually very
duce grain. They continue photosynthesizing after heading, high in nutrition. Above: This cow is getting a big energy boost from eating a black
however, but with no grain to fill, the sugars simply build oil sunflower head and consuming the 40% oil content seeds from this summer
up in the rest of the plant, which makes for a very sweet planted winter stockpile mix. Below: Not to be outdone, this girl is getting her pro-
tein snack from finding a winter killed cowpea plant in the winter stockpile jungle.
and palatable plant with high energy content. Photoperiod
sensitives types, like Sweet Forever BMR, begin to head out
when the length of day is less than 12:20 (mid-September)
and are almost always killed by frost before making viable
grain. Photoperiods are the most moisture efficient of the
sorghums and are well suited to arid areas for stockpiling.
Planting a long maturity sorghum late, like our 120 day Silo
Pro, is the preferred method when the sorghum planting is
delayed (after wheat harvest), so that the sorghum simply
does not have time to mature before frost in most areas.
Many varieties, like our Sweet Six BMR drystalk hybrid, or
dwarf BMR sorghum-sudan work well in the “cut once and The third important management aspect is to ensure that
let the regrowth stand through winter scenario”. The first your animals are getting sufficient protein. One way is to
growth can be baled, or it can be simply swathed and left simply supplement what the animals need, but the cheaper
late in the season for swath grazing. One advantage of the way is to grow the protein right along with the sorghum.
cut once method is that the ground is now open to drill a Guar is a summer annual legume that produces high pro-
winter annual mix, such as oats and rye, into the stubble tein beans that, unlike other legumes, remains in the pods
to come up along with the sorghum regrowth and provide well into winter. Sunflowers also produce high protein seeds
additional grazing that is high in protein. Swath grazing is that can supplement the low protein sorghum. Having an
also increasing in popularity, as the cost of baling is elimi- adjacent field of high protein wheat or green cool-season
nated, and the quality is often better than sorghum allowed cover crop can also be used as a protein supplement but the
to freeze out. grazing intake must be managed.

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