A Better Way to Feed Hay Bale grazing offers options for cutting costs and chores. by Kindra Gordon

t may sound peculiar, but This led them to learn about or nets. After that, the rest is more even than after bale Neil Dennis of Wawota, holistic management and to take managing consumption. grazing, Dennis explains. The I Saskatchewan, Canada, several classes that have shifted Additionally, bale grazing disadvantage is that you have to Top starts putting out bales for winter their focus on soil and forage generates up to three times more start a tractor every day to roll out Ten feeding in the fall — long before management. Dennis says he now nitrogen than the site would gain the bales. the snow and winter weather sets has the philosophy that, “The from cleaning out a feedlot. Here’s how Dennis massage in. He may position 600 bales in a only way to heal the land is with “All the nitrogen is captured grazed: He treated a 10-acre pasture, each about 20 feet apart. animal impact.” Dennis explains, on the feed site and available for crested wheat paddock over a Bale Months later, when winter “Healthier sod equals healthier next year’s growth,” he points period of 10 days using 800 Grazing arrives and cattle need to be fed plants, equals healthier animals; out. “That’s a huge deposition of yearlings. The paddock had been supplemental hay, Dennis will and healthier animals and plants nutrients a producer can manage.” grazed once the year before, then move the cattle into the pasture for food, equals healthier people.” stockpiled for spring grazing. and allow the herd access to a Whether he is utilizing mob Be willing to experiment The massage treatment began Mob section of the bales that are fenced grazing in the summer or bale Dennis acknowledges that much with Dennis calculating the feed off with electric tape or polywire grazing in the winter, Dennis of what he has learned about requirements and then rolling Grazing fence. After two to three days, says his goal is to impact the grazing management has come out brome-alfalfa bales on one when they’ve cleaned up the area, soil and then allow for ample through trial and error, and he acre. The hay was placed in strips, he’ll move the herd to a new fenced recovery for the land. “When I encourages other cattle producers leaving a bale width between each Planned off area with bales and so on. leave a paddock, I want every to do the same. He suggests, “Try strip. When that hay was cleaned Dennis points out that this is square inch to have a footprint. something new on 10 acres and up, he went back and rolled bales Grazing a much easier method of feeding Then I allow adequate recovery see what happens.” into the alternating strips. hay than starting the cold tractor time for that area.” For instance, with bale grazing “This way, you get more Manage each morning — and it saves on He also notes that on his ranch you might just try it on a small tramping and better spread fuel costs and time. he only receives an average of pasture with a few bales for a of urine and manure because Drought But the primary reason Dennis 12-13 inches of rainfall, but he week or a month. Then watch and they go back and forth over and many other beef producers believes “It’s not how much rain see how the land recovers next the treated areas to get to the are advocates of this process of you get; it’s how much you hold in summer and spring. water,” he explains. “When bale grazing is because of what the soil.” Or, Dennis suggests “massage you’re done, you want it to look it can do for soil health and the Through their year-round grazing” to renovate pastures is like indoor-outdoor carpet with future productivity of the pasture. grazing management, the also a good experiment. He says, lots of manure tramped in. The Namely, nutrients from manure Dennises have transformed “A deep massage isn’t as good [for forage has to be in contact with and urine are distributed across unproductive pastures into the soil] as bale grazing, but it’s the ground so the soil micro- the pasture and the hoof action pastures with increased carrying the next best thing.” organisms can break it down.” helps impact the soil — it’s a capacity — as much as 300%. Massage grazing entails rolling He doesn’t recommend using means to fertilize next year’s grass out a bale on an acre at a time straw bales because the animals crop naturally. Research results in the spring and having a large would leave too much litter cover Bart Lardner, Western group graze that area that is behind. His preference is hay Focus on the forage Beef Development Centre fenced around it. The next day bales made from any mix of Dennis tells that he grew up on research scientist at Lanigan, the fence is moved over and a new forages mature enough to have a family livestock operation that Saskatchewan, has been bale is rolled out. some seed in the heads. The did things conventionally: “We conducting bale-grazing trials and The advantages of massage seeds shell out or pass through looked after the animals and not believes the process has merit. grazing over bale grazing are the digestive tract, ultimately the land.” But difficult financial He estimates expenses at 10-20% that you can cover more land increasing the diversity of species times during the 80s and 90s less than feeding in feedlots. in a shorter period of time, and in the stand. forced Dennis and his wife to look He notes that it takes time massage grazing spreads the It’s best to carry out this to alternatives to help their farm’s to organize the bales for benefit of the manure and litter treatment first thing in the sustainability and profitability and restricted feeding and it takes cover more uniformly across the spring so that the paddock will their quality of life. time to remove bale strings paddock, making the regrowth have lots of time to recover and ulture c gri hewan Ministry of A c askat Photos Courtesy of S Bales are in place and ready to be “grazed.” Cows are allowed access to a new group of bales when they clean up an area.

20 / January 2011 www.hereford.org The crested wheat pasture Bale grazing benefits massaged in May was left to rest for 123 days and grazed again • Self-feeding of animals on Aug. 24. In previous years, • Reduction in chore time the crested wheat paddock had yielded 20 to 25 animal days per • Reduced wear and tear on acre (ADA) — that is, one acre tractor, which is reduced to had the capacity to carry 20 or one period 25 animals for one day. After the deep massage treatment in the • Lower operating costs spring of 2007, the second pass in • Less manure to manage in late August produced 111 ADA. the corral, meaning lower In 2008 the paddock haul-out costs produced 123 ADA grazing on the first pass in August. The • Reduced greenhouse gas increase in plant diversity was emissions from manure piles/ already apparent — 40-plus packs and diesel burning forage species were identified • Less wear and tear on in the paddock that had corral fencing predominately been crested wheat the year before. This • Improved land fertility benefit came from the new seed introduced from the bales as • Better distribution of manure well as the hoof action of the nutrients, which increase future animals, which disturbed the top forage production layer of soil enough to promote germination of seeds lying regrow that same season, Dennis deeper below the surface. explains. The plants shut down Dennis notes that a deep for about 21 days after being massage using a lower stock density grazed, so short. regrowth has would work — just not as quickly. to come from the root reserves He concludes that there’s no because there are no leaves left magic number that defines high for photosynthesis to occur. If stock density grazing whether you get rain, it could be ready to the animals are grazing bales graze again in 80 or 90 days — if or pastures. He emphasizes that not, it could be a year. it is a matter of trial and error, This photo shows the manure and leftover material following bale grazing at a density His general rule of thumb is to grazing the plants and impacting of 25 bales per acre (40-foot centers). At this rate, the overall average nutrient deposition avoid grazing the pasture again the area and then allowing from urine and manure is considered environmentally safe and economically optimal. until the forages are budding or ample time for the plants to starting to set seed. At this stage regrow and recover before being of maturity, the root reserves will grazed again. HW have been replenished and the stems will have firmed up enough Editor’s Note: Neil Dennis spoke at that the cattle will tend to eat the Nebraska Grazing Conference this the tops of the plants, leaving six past August. The 11th annual Nebraska inches or so behind to trap snow Grazing Conference will be Aug. 9-10, during the winter. 2011, in Kearney, Neb.

Bale grazing basics Bale grazing proponents note that the system will only work with feed testing and good planning. Here are some guidelines: • Put bales out in fall, when weather is still nice and there is no snow to plow through. • Bales should be placed 15-20 feet apart in rows that are at Intensive bale grazing on a selected site. Electric fencing controls livestock access to the bales. least 20 feet apart to allow adequate space for electric fence between the rows. (The outside row of bales can be used to hold up the fence.) • Consider bale placement for distribution of manure. For example, Dennis especially likes to bale graze in areas with low soil fertility. The strategic placement of bales in To determine how many bales to allow access to, you’ll need to test the hay to know • those areas encourages more cattle activity and additional nutrients/manure. Or you the quality, and you’ll also need to factor in bale weight and cow size and nutritional may bale graze one pasture one winter and a different one the next. need. As a rule of thumb, Dennis estimates that a two-day supply of hay is about one bale per 20 cows. Some trial and error is needed to determine how many bales • Because some of the areas Dennis grazes offer little wind protection, he does utilize to allow access to. And, depending on hay quality, you may need to include a mix of some portable windbreaks in pastures that don’t have natural shelter. alfalfa grass hay and straw bales and/or sometimes supplement with protein. • You may need to cut the bale strings as you allow cattle access to the bales. Plastic • Based on hay quality and number of animals you will be bale feeding, you may want bale strings can be removed by hand. Sisal twine tends to be preferred because the to consider separating cattle into different groups — cows, bred heifers and yearlings strings disintegrate into the soil eventually. or calves — to minimize competition between older cows and younger cattle and to • Dennis notes that bale grazing may lead to dead spots where the bales have been target nutrition to the group that needs it most. placed if a thick layer of forage is left uneaten. But he says that these dead spots are • Portable electric fence is an essential tool for controlling the cattle movement and usually only temporary. A year or two later a dead spot often ends up growing taller access to bales. He recommends moving the fence every couple days to keep the than the rest of the grass in the pasture. cattle actively eating the hay in front of them in order to reduce waste. He typically • If he plans to be gone for more than two days, Dennis says he just gives the cattle starts a long narrow row with the water source at one end and then moves the access to more bales and no one has to do chores for him. HW fence out from there to include a new row of bales, while still allowing cattle access to the water. Dennis notes that cattle won’t clean up all the hay, but 80% usage is a good target. www.hereford.org January 2011 / 21