K-State Research and Extension

With the current economic conditions of the agriculture industry, it is vital that producers explore all possibilities to meet the nutritional needs of their herd. Grazing crop residue in late fall and winter is one such opportunity. Continue reading “Grazing Crop Residues” →

With the continued use of ponds and streams as a main water source during the grazing season, it is increasingly important to know the water quality our livestock is consuming. So what is blue-green algae? Continue reading “Blue-Green Algae” →

Many producers across the district are trying oat pasture to graze this spring.  The potential seems outstanding, but it is important to graze correctly in order to avoid those first year disappointments.

Oat pastures have increased in popularity in recent years.  They can reduce problems from drought and provide fast, early grazing.  Oat pastures can be very productive and last through early summer. Here are a few grazing recommendations that will help you succeed:

Oats grows rapidly; once it gets five or six inches tall, it quickly can shoot up to a foot tall in almost no time.  As nice as this sounds, if initial oat growth gets that tall it may not stool out, tiller, and regrow after grazing very well. With this in mind, it is important to start grazing early and to graze hard enough to keep your oats vegetative and leafy, thereby stimulating it to constantly form new tillers.

So how early is early?  That’s hard to say, but if your livestock start to graze when oats get six to eight inches tall and they remove just half the growth it should recover rapidly and tiller well.  You probably will need to give your oats a couple weeks to regrow after this first grazing, what we refer to many times as a “rest period”, before grazing again.

After this first grazing stimulates tillering, keep oat regrowth between six and sixteen inches tall using either continuous or rotational stocking.  Begin with a light stocking rate, about one animal every two acres.  Then adjust animal number as oat growth changes.  Don’t worry if a few plants head out.  But if many plants get tall and approach the boot stage, either stock heavily for one last hard graze-out or consider cutting for hay.

Best of luck with grazing oats this season!

For more information about livestock and forage topics contact the Midway District Extension office or call (785)483-3157 or (785)472-4442. Dusti Lynne Betts serves as the Midway Extension District Livestock Production Agent. All Kansas Extension education programs and materials are available to all individuals without discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or handicap.

Water distribution is one of the most critical components of grazing management, and with the ever growing uncertainty of annual rainfall we, as producers need to work on more ways to be proactive in providing water throughout our pastures.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION- just as they say on HGTV; cattle cannot resist traveling far from water. They graze very little when more than half mile away from water in rough country, or a mile away in flat county. When cattle do travel far from water, they spend less time grazing and more time burning off pounds by walking; they graze distant areas incompletely, thus accounting for uneven distribution and grazing patterns. Continue reading “Location, Location, Location- H2O” →

West Virgina Extension Veterinarian’s put together a list of the reasons for vaccination failures. The DVM’s stated that one of the most difficult things for producers to understand is how a cow can develop a disease she has been vaccinated for. While no vaccines work 100% of the time, some vaccines prevent disease better than others. Many factors can affect how vaccines will work. The following is a list of some of the most common reasons vaccinations fail to provide protective immunity.

Continue reading ““Doc, you sold me the vaccine and my cow still got sick!”” →