Balancing Cattle Nutrition with Cool Season Grasses

by Daniel Allgyer, Amish farmer

In the last newsletter, we explained that we graze our cows so that they consume both older brown grass and fresh green grass at the same time. We do this because we want to give our herd the balanced diet which they need for good production. We believe that this is a difficult, albeit very important, part of being successful at grazing cows.

Michelle, from Africa, explains that maintaining this balance can be compared to an engine which needs a balance of gas, oil, and air. If one of the three is lacking, the engine will not run correctly.

Cows need a balance of energy, protein, and fiber.

A conventional farm will balance whatever is lacking in the forage with corn (for energy) and soybeans (for protein). Then, they will put in a little bit of straw, if needed (for fiber). A grazier will need to maintain this balance with whatever is growing, and since we can't just add grain to balance out the ratio, we need to do it with forage alone.

The limiting factor for most graziers is energy.

Lush, green grass is very high in protein, which creates a challenge for the grazier seeking to use it to make up the balance of energy and fiber. The energy in grass is the highest at the tip of the blade, from the top three inches down; the further down on the grass the cow grazes, the lower the energy content. I believe the protein stays about the same all the way down. So, the further down the cows eats on that grass, the more their protein consumption becomes out of balance with their energy consumption. This is why, whenever possible, we do our best to graze only the top three inches.

Note that this article is referencing cool season grasses only. I have not grazed much warm season grasses, but it is my understanding that they need to be managed differently.

In the spring, cool season grass will grow the most. In about three weeks, that grass will grow from a little blade of grass to a big grass plant complete with seed head. The best time to graze it is just before the grass head goes to seed.

At this point, the grasses will have available to them a nearly perfect protein, energy, and fiber balance. Cows will put on a lot of weight and/or give a lot of milk at this time of year. However, in an average spring, this balanced ratio will only last for about a week, and then the grass will shoot out a seed head, and, in a short period of time, will loose a lot of energy and protein. The grass will then be made of more fiber than protein or energy.

In early spring, after the grass starts to grow, farmers typically do not like to feed hay. However, this time period is when the grass is very high in protein, has little energy, and no fiber.

Grazing cows on this grass is like running an engine on oil, with little gas, and no air. This is a very imbalanced diet for cows.

If the herd is grazing early grass, they need to be supplemented with old dry hay or brown grass left from the prior year - both of which provide fiber. This feed mix will slow down the rumen on the cows, allowing for better feed conversion.

The best thing to do is wait to feed until the grass is large enough to provide a decent balance.

If grazing early, some form of fiber needs to be provided, or you, the grazier, are setting yourself up for a disaster, much like running an engine without air.

The big challenge for all springtime graziers is that the grass only has a perfect balance for about a week or two. After that, it will go to seed head and become too high in fiber for ideal production.

With this in mind, we don't want to wait too long to start grazing, or the grass will get old. However, if we start grazing too soon, the protein will be way out of balance.

We usually feed a little hay the first week or two, to balance out the fiber intake. This does help with the balance, but we still find it very challenging in the early spring to balance out the high protein grass intake.

The best time to graze in the spring is just before seed heads emerge, but since we can't graze our entire farm in one week, we just do the best we can. Some grass will get grazed a little earlier than is optimal, and some will be grazed when it is in seed head and is a bit older… but that's ok. The grass at different times in this period is still decent feed, and this is the best we can provide in the spring.

After the grass seed heads have been grazed or trampled, the grass will reach its’ highest energy and protein. This occurs about thirty days after the grass has last been grazed.

This is the time period at which we were taught to graze the grass again, because that is when the grass produces the most milk or gains for our herd.

We have since found a better balance to be to wait to graze till 40 or 50 days past the last grazing. After 30 days, I have found that the protein in the grass will begin to decline. The energy in the grass will also decline - but not as rapidly as the protein.

So, if we wait 10 days longer than the typical recommended 30 days, the energy and protein in the grass will be more balanced, and will also contain more fiber. The grass then becomes a very balanced feed. Yes, the protein and energy is lower than it would have been at 30 days, but overall it is a more well-balanced feed. This is key!

Sometimes less is more.

It’s true that, in this scenario, that the cattle may not give as much milk, or gain as much weight as they would with 30 day rotations; however, we have found that the quality of the product will be much better, and the overall health of the animal much greater.

So let’s think about that engine again. Instead of running the engine at a high speed so high that the engine can barely get enough gas and air, we slow down that engine’s speed a bit. Now, on this slower speed, the engine can get a balance of everything it needs. It won't put out as much power, but it will last twice as long.

Grazing cattle this way means that often it takes our cattle from 24 to 30 months to finish. We find the flavor of this beef to be superior. Foot rot, pinkeye, conception rate, and all the other common cattle problems also diminish as the stress on the animal lessesn. Dairy cows will give less milk, though cream content will be higher, and the milk will taste better and have a longer shelf-life.

This is only one part of the story of why our methods work so well. The biggest reason why we graze this way has to do with the balance it provides to our soils. What this method of grazing does for the soils is the best part of this story!

In the next newsletter, I will endeavor to explain why and how feeding soil microbes a balance of the correct kind of carbon works well.

As usual, these are some of the methods we have found to work best on our farm. They are not the only way, nor are they best for each farmer or farm. Each person will need to figure out what works for themselves. We would love to hear from others who have had success!