The Spring of 2026 has been a grazer’s paradise. We have had ample rain and moderate temperatures that have allowed our pastures to thrive. They say that every year is average, and if we take this philosophy, we might expect it to get dry and hot as we progress through the summer months. While you may be enjoying the sight of your livestock grazing lush pastures now, a dry summer can lead to worry about meeting the needs of your livestock later. Having a written grazing/forage management plan can help you respond regardless of what the rest of the growing season brings.
Plan Components
Your plan begins by outlining your goals/objectives. You may be interested in improving your forage quality or soil health parameters. You may want to increase stocking rates or transition to a grass-finished product. Don’t get too fancy. Write something that has meaning to you and your operation.
Second, take stock of your resources. It is a good idea to start with a map of your property where you label all of your pastures and hay fields, the location of fences and gates, where your water resources are, where barns and shade structures are located, and highlight sensitive areas. Be detailed.
The next piece may be the hardest. For each of your paddocks and hay fields, you need to estimate your monthly, or weekly, dry matter production. Most managers that are just getting started have no way of knowing what this could be. You will need to start collecting that information so that it can be used to modify your plan in the future. There are several tools to help you estimate forage production. The easiest to keep count of are hay bales harvested from each field and converting those to pounds of forage produced. For grazers, you can start off by taking frequent forage measurements with a grazing stick. If you decide you want to be more precise you can take forage clippings and estimate dry matter using an air fryer or your oven.
Once you have an estimate of monthly forage availability you can then detail what your stocking rates should be, how frequently you want to rotate your animals, when those rotations should take place, and how much rest each paddock should receive. When estimating forage utilization I generally recommend to producers that they budget for an animal to eat 4 percent of their body weight each day. On average an animal will eat 2.5 to 3 percent of their body weight each day, and we allow them to trample 1 percent that can’t be consumed. So, a 1,000-pound cow will need about 40 pounds of dry matter each day.
Once you have gotten to this point, you can now take time to evaluate your plan against different situations that can arise. What would you do if it is a cold, dry spring and initial forage growth is slowed? What do you do if it is a warm, wet spring and forage growth is accelerated? What happens if you reach drought conditions in late August? You can pre-plan to speed up or slow down your grazing rotation. You can identify a few weeks out of the year that you may need to supplement hay during the summer to allow your grass more time to rest. Once you are happy with what you have put on paper, get a third party to review your plan. This may be your favorite Extension Educator, someone from Soil and Water, or a NRCS grazing specialist. Have a schedule to reevaluate your plan and make adjustments as you learn more about your system or when you encounter a new challenge.
Finally, you need to implement the plan. Keep track of when you move pastures. What was the estimated forage available when you turned in and what was it when you rotated out? You can get as detailed as you want. You won’t be able to plan for every possible alternative, and there will be years that there is nothing you could do differently. Having a written plan will allow you to become a better manager of your resources by reviewing your year-end results and comparing this to previous years. Those same people that you use to help evaluate your plan can also help you get started writing one. Don’t be scared to reach out.
In the next few days, all holders of an Ohio private pesticide applicator’s license will be receiving a postcard from me in the mail. The postcard provides a link to a survey we are conducting to determine what producers have done to manage on-farm emergencies. The survey will take about 10 minutes, and we would greatly appreciate you taking the time to fill it out, as it will help guide our development of farm safety materials and programs.
I am pleased to announce that we will be hosting a manure safety and precision application field day on August 4th at Sterling Heights Dairy. The program is sponsored by OSU Extension, The Wayne Soil & Water Conservation District, and The Wayne-Ashland Dairy Services Unit. It will run from 10 AM to 2 PM and cover topics on how to manage manure spills, nutrient management plans, an overview of the John Deere Harvest Lab 3000 system and how this data can be used to maximize manure nutrients. The program is free and lunch will be provided, but we ask that you provide a courtesy reservation by calling the office.
Finally, we will be mailing out the July edition of our ANR newsletter next week. If you would like to receive a copy, you can contact the OSU Extension office in Wayne County at 330-264-8722.
This article was previously published in The Daily Record.