Whether it be the return of the warm rays of sun to banish away the winter chill or the sudden reappearance of green grass, springtime often brings a smile to a cattle rancher’s face. As the year’s crop of calves begin to hit the ground, ranchers have another thing to look forward during the spring: the grazing season.
Dr. Randy Perry, department chair and beef unit enterprise manager at Fresno State University, said the spring months can be a prime grazing season for ranchers.
“We’re really grass farmers as much as we are cattle farmers,” he said. “In seasonal grazing, we’re going to have areas where grass grows in the spring and summer or in the fall and winter, and we’ll graze it during that growing season.”
Perry said California and other Western states are unique in the fact that there are two main grazing seasons. This creates an advantage for cattle ranchers in the West and can help them save a tremendous amount of money, he added.
Grazing is essential to a rancher’s success, Perry said. He said having a good grazing system and grazing management practices can lead to economic success.
“Two-thirds of the cost in the cow-calf segment is feed cost. In general, we can’t really make beef production work economically if we haul feed to them for any longer than we have to,” he said. “The benefit of grazing is the cows are out there harvesting the feed themselves.”
“We’re really grass farmers as much as we are cattle farmers.”
In the Western part of the country, Perry said ranchers look forward to the “spring flush,” a time when the grass shoots upwards as the first of the spring season hits. He said this influx of forage provides the livestock with enough nutrition to maintain a healthy weight and hold their own in the production cycle—without the addition of any feed supplement.
If cattle are grazing on a high-quality forage in the spring, Perry said ranchers will only have to invest in mineral supplement for their animals to thrive. Perry said any type of pasture mix or native grass will serve as quality forage for cattle. A good, hearty grass in the spring will provide more than enough nutritionally for a cow, he said.
This statement is the key reason why spring grazing is so important to ranchers, Perry said. The ability to graze cattle allows ranchers to save money on feed and hit higher levels of both profit and success.
Perry said grazing also has different levels of impact based on the type of cattle operation. Seedstock operations have a higher income per cow compared to commercial operations, and therefore, he said, are not always as reliant upon the spring grazing season.
While success may be the goal for all cattle operations, Perry said even this proven method of spring grazing comes with some challenges.
The first hurdle is one all agriculturalists are familiar with: Mother Nature. This year especially, Perry said the Western states have seen a dry year.
“If things don’t change soon, then our grazing season is going to be pretty darn short,” he said. The grazing season is an ideal time for calves to put on pounds before weaning and stockers to gain some finish. With a shorter grazing season, ranchers could see a negative impact on these numbers, Perry added.
Though Mother Nature cannot be controlled by the producer, there are a few other factors ranchers can control to help affect the length of the grazing season. The Annual Rangeland Handbook for Gazing Management by Melvin George, Bill Frost and Niel McDougald of University California-Davis said frequency and duration plays a major role on the duration of a grazing season, as well as how often and how long it as grazed and how long it is allowed to rest.
Cattlemen have control over the intensity of a grazing season. The handbook encourages ranchers to calculate stock density and stocking rate of land they graze cattle on to ensure a successful spring grazing season.
“Two-thirds of the cost in the cow-calf segment is feed cost.”
“Stock density is the number of animals per acre at any point in time. Stocking rate is defined as the number of animals grazing an area of land for a specified period of time,” the handbook defines.
To help grow grass and cultivate success, Perry has a few words of wisdom for ranchers. Perry said that while he finds breeders looking toward innovation in the areas of genomics and livestock health, their knowledge of grazing management is often lacking.
“You can’t underemphasize the importance of grazing management,” he warns. “People are not very aggressive in trying management strategies, but I think they have a potential to make economic gains. Management can have a huge impact on your bottom line.”
Perry suggests ranchers look towards rotation grazing or a system where they combine both animal impact with rest periods. He said this simple step can help increase the productivity of any grassland.
The Davis handbook identifies fall, winter and spring as common grazing seasons throughout the year for the Western part of the country and states grassland should be rested from May to October.
Fertilization is another procedure Perry said he thinks is underutilized. While he said it is not often seen put into practice, fertilizing grass and rangeland can also result in a better crop of forage for cattle in the spring. — Megan Silveira, WLJ correspondent
