Now’s time to plant winter pasture forages

By MINDY POEHL | Central Texas Edition

After touring the Champion Ranch in Centerville for the annual Cow Country Congress, the full crowd enjoys a hearty meal of rib-eye steaks, potatoes and tea. Following the meal, the audience learned about growing winter pasture forages.    --  Photo by Mindy Poehl

Oct. 6, 2005 - Many local beef producers gathered at The Champion Ranch in Centerville on Thursday, Sept. 29, for the annual Cow Country Congress. Hosted by Extension offices in Leon, Freestone, Anderson, Houston, Trinity, Madison and Walker counties, the crowd was large and eager as they learned about the National Animal Identification program and took a tour of Champion Ranch.

After getting a tour of the ranch and eating a meal of rib-eye steaks, Dr. Gerald W. Evers, forage management specialist, spoke about winter pasture forages.

"You should plant winter pastures in October," Evers said. "To overseed warm season grasses, mow the warm grasses short or disk lightly in autumn to reduce the competition for cool-season forages. Light disking will give you thicker seedlings."

Evers suggested mixing small grains with hearty annual ryegrasses to extend its grazing season, which is from February through May. The clover ryegrass grazing season is from February through May/June. The clover ryegrass utilization is by cows that are calving from late December through late February, and breeding from mid March to mid May, Evers explained.

"In the summer, clovers have a hard seed cover and they are the best reseeders, like white, arrowleaf, ball and rose clovers," explained Evers. "

For reseeding, you need to produce a good seed crop in spring and mow the meadow short in autumn to get the sunlight to the seeds."

Legumes are usually planted with ryegrass, and to yield an annual ryegrass clover establishment, Evers said," the soil pH should be higher than 6.0 for clovers. Apply any phosphorus and potassium to meet the clover's requirements. A light disking of 1 to 2 inches allows earlier planting." And, legumes have the highest protein and most digestibility of winter forages, said Evers.

A big mistake people often make is overseeding hay meadows. 

"Do not overseed them," Evers stated.

Evers also addressed extending the grazing season to reduce the winter feeding period. To do this, he said to take the first hay cutting by late May and not to overseed the hay meadow with the winter pasture. He further advised to take the second hay cut by July 4. 

"The meadow must be large enough to take these two cuttings," Evers said.

Evers said the price of nitrogen fertilizer has increased because it uses natural gas in the product.

"That's (the natural gas) 90 percent of the cost of nitrogen fertilizer," Evers said. "Nitrogen has increased from $0.40 to $0.60 per pound. Potash has gone from $0.17 to $0.25 per pound."