With warm weather and sunny days, pastures across Butler County are really taking off, but are they ready to graze?

They look green. There’s fresh growth. But to know if they are ready to handle livestock, you have to count leaves.

According to grazing guru Jim Gerrish, determining forage availability based on height alone is a long-term mistake which can lead to overgrazing and a season-long decrease in productivity. To understand this, it’s best to understand that grass grows in three phases, according to Gerrish.

Phase one is where there is little to no growth due to limited leaf material. A typical horse pasture is an excellent example of phase one growth.

Phase two shows an increase in growth where you have two to four leaves available to photosynthesize sunlight and build root reserves. In a traditional rotational grazing system, animals are removed from a paddock during phase two because additional grazing will negatively impact the plants’ carbohydrate reserves and slow growth.

Phase three is quick, active growth with typically five or more leaves on the plant.

Grazing at and above this point allows for quick regrowth since several leaves are still present to photosynthesize, and carbohydrate root reserves are not impacted.

A grazing study recently conducted in Idaho found that grazing animals in a pasture for one week and then removing them did nothing to change that year’s pasture production. However, grazing the pasture down to phase one or a low two showed a 50 percent reduction in the pasture’s annual production.

Essentially, overgrazing or grazing too early even in the beginning of the year can have repercussions for the entire grazing season.

Maximizing pasture production also requires forward thinking. Recently I was talking with an adaptive grazier who is well above the five-leaf stage but is still holding off grazing aggressively for a few more weeks. Anticipation of a hot dry summer is the reason he’s delaying grazing right now, and that’s the key to long-term success and extended grazing time. You have to be looking 40 to 60 days from now and projecting what a worst-case scenario could be.

For example, if we are having a warm, dry spring and you graze a pasture on May 1, you won’t be back in that paddock until the middle to the end of June. Overgraze the paddock on May 1 and you likely won’t be back until mid-July — and what will the weather be like then?

However, adaptive grazing management based on environmental conditions allows you to push through those drier times.

By allowing the plant to reach a five-leaf stage and grazing the top-third May 1 will allow fast regrowth and get you back into that paddock the first of June. Grazing half and leaving half provides enough forage for the livestock but leaves a taller pasture grass. That not only retains more soil moisture, the trampled grass provides nutrients to stimulate additional growth.

That same paddock will be available for grazing the first of July, giving you an extra graze when compared to the more conventional method.

Spending a little time looking at your pasture now will pay dividends later in the summer.

To learn more about some of these management strategies, contact our office for more information.

Andy Gaver is a conservationist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Butler County.