Moving the Girls to Fresh Pastures

Our pastures are drying up here on the Palouse. Which is nothing new, this is about the time every year when we pull our bulls out of their breeding groups and start moving the ladies to our lower river ground to finish off the grazing season.

We irrigate the low ground of our valley, depending on the field we will get one or two cuttings of grass hay off of it then irrigate for most of the summer to get some regrowth during the hot months. Then around this time of the year we will pull out the irrigation equipment and let the ladies in to eat their way on home. After they have finished up all the regrowth we move them back to the barnyard to start feeding hay for fall.

When the cows are moved off the pastures we will keep irrigating for a month or two before the first frost. This allows some time for the grass to regrow once more before winter sets in.

Allowing the grass to grow back a minimum of 4-6 inches before winter is essential for the plant to have enough energy stores to stay healthy for the winter months. If the grass is cut too short the majority of its nutrients are in the root system only, once the plant goes into a catabolic state over the winter, relying on its internal energy stores, it will break down the roots to stay alive. Grass that is surviving off the energy left in its roots leaves it with a weaker root system and starts the next growing season at a deficit in that it needs to establish a portion of its root system before it can get growing for the season!