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To feed or not to feed?By Jody G. Holthaus Meadowlark Extension District Agent Livestock and natural resources It was a tough winter and feeding period for your cattle. Now that they're finally out to grass, you can relax, or can you? Some of our pastures are two weeks behind and the forage quantity just isn't there yet. Producers can go out and measure the forage quantity or maybe a better indicator is to observe the cattle's grazing behavior. Grazing consists of searching for forage, selecting it and grasping and taking the selected forage into the mouth. Usually a cow will wrap it's tongue around the forage and pull it into the mouth. By this method there is very little selection, in short pastures, it will take longer to bite off the shorter grass and grazing time will be extended. Goats and sheep, have smaller mouths and can be more selective on which plant that eat. When cattle are put into a new pasture, they may spend up to three days, moving around the boundaries. Their day is divided into grazing ruminating and resting. At sunrise they start grazing for 3 to 5 hours, then the second major grazing period in late afternoon that lasts about 3 hours. As the summer goes on, the heat may hinder the afternoon grazing. Early morning grazing is very seldom interrupted, cattle can not be easily distracted from grazing. If you see your cattle grazing for longer periods it could be an indication of a lack of forage. If they are grazing in large groups, it is very normal and forage is adequate, if they are all grazing individually, forage may be limited. If you don't really notice the cattle resting, and grazing for extended periods of time, chances are forage is very limited and supplemental feeding may be required. 5/12/08 Date: 5/6/08 Advertisement
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