Kick the hay habit A practical guide to year-around grazing
Book - 2010
With today's grazing management systems, the cost of making hay far exceeds its value to grazing businesses. Studies have shown that winter feed costs are the largest single factor limiting the profitability for most livestock operations. In virtually every area of the USA, year-around grazing - without hay - it possible. yet many graziers are still making hay. This enlightening guide to eliminating hay will show you just how much it really costs to produce a ton of hay; how to use nature as your guide for low-cost winter grazing; how to conduct a pasture inventory; how to select the optimal breeding and birthing seasons; how to custom design your own winter forage system; and how to make the transition from hay feeding to grazing, and... much more.--COVER.
- Subjects
- Published
-
Ridgeland, Miss. :
Green Park Press
©2010.
- Language
- English
- Main Author
- Physical Description
- 218 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
- Bibliography
- Includes index.
- ISBN
- 9780972159746
- The culture of hay
- The high cost of making hay
- What did animals do before there was hay?
- The power of year-around grazing
- Know your forage opportunities and challenges
- Conducting a pasture inventory
- Choosing the optimal breeding and birthing seasons
- Achieving a variable stocking rate
- Designing your winter forage systems
- Understanding animal needs and forage quality
- Making the transition from hay feeding to grazing
- Using crop residues to extend the grazing season
- Stockpiling cool-season perennial pastures
- Stockpiling warm-season perennial pastures
- Winter grazing on the tall grass prairie
- Winter grazing native range
- Growing winter annual pastures
- Using brassicas and other forbs
- Stockpiling summer annual grasses and legumes
- Keeping winter grazing simple
- Budgeting winter forage
- Winter stock water
- Fence systems for winter grazing
- Swath grazing
- Supplementing stockpiled pasture
- What do you do when it doesn't rain?
- Dealing with snow, ice, wind, cold, mud and whatever else Mother Nature throws at you
- Coping with peer pressure and ridicule.