Late August to early September is the ideal time to consider stockpiling forages as a method to extend the grazing season.  Stockpiling is a process where you select fields that can be excluded from the early fall grazing rotation, where you allow the forage to grow and then graze in late fall to early winter.   Stockpiling has proven to be most successful with stands of fescue and/or orchard grass but can carry some economic and production risks.  You will need to consider your management goals and weigh the associated risks, to determine if it is a strategy you can employ.

Stockpiled forages will not have the same quality to grazing livestock as fresh pasture grasses.  This forage is allowed to reach full maturity, which maximizes yield but sacrifices quality.  Ohio State University research has shown that stockpiled forages can provide 150 to 300 pounds of dry matter per acre.  This forage can have a Total Digestible Nutrient value of greater than 50%, but quality can decline the longer you delay grazing.  This makes the practice most suitable for mature livestock and those in late stages of gestation.  Younger livestock, or those nursing mothers, would need to be supplemented to meet their needs.

You can begin the process by identifying fields that are well-drained and can handle being grazed later in the season.  These are also areas where you can avoid grazing throughout the remainder of fall grazing window.  Once those fields have been identified, it is recommended that you make an application of 50 units of nitrogen, at least 6 weeks prior to the first killing frost.  Once the application is made, you will ignore this area until you are ready to graze later in the year.  This is also where some of the risk comes in.  If we experience a dry fall, you may not achieve enough growth to pay back the expense of the nitrogen application.  Cliff Little, retired OSU Extension Educator, wrote an article for the last OSU Beef Team Newsletter (beef.osu.edu) discussing the value of stockpiled forages.  He indicates that the breakeven for stockpiled forage is when urea is priced at $400 or less per ton and hay dry matter is valued at $60 per ton or higher.

Once your remaining forages have entered the fall dormancy period, it will be time to begin grazing the stockpiled acres.  It is recommended that you use a strip grazing technique to best utilize the plant material available.  This simply involves allowing your animals access to small portions of the field, allowing them to consume the forage in this area, before rotating them to another section.  As an example, if you have 25 cows weighing 1,500 lbs., they need access to 60 lbs. of Dry Matter each day, or 1,500 lbs. of dry matter per day for the group.  If you estimate you have 1,500 lbs. of dry matter per acre, then you need to give the group 1 acre of stockpiled pasture each day.  When calculating the dry matter needs of an individual animal, I estimate that they will utilize 4% of their body weight each day (1,500 X 0.04 = 60 lbs./animal/day).

Wayne County Fair time and fall farm programs

We are rapidly approaching the 2025 Wayne County Fair.  I look forward to seeing the results of our youths’ hard work as they exhibit their projects.  Just after the fair, we get to head south for the Farm Science Review.  This year it is from Sept 16^th to the 18^th.  I will be spending most of my time there in the OSU Ag Safety and Livestock areas, so stop by and say hello as you make your way around the grounds.  Pre-show tickets are $10 and can be purchased at go.osu.edu/fsr2025 or at Extension Office..

For county programs, we will be hosting the 2025 Ag Lender Seminar on October 21^st.  The program is for the local banking community to update them on factors affecting agriculture for the next year.  We will cover topics such as: grain market outlook, impact of the “One Beautiful Bill” on agriculture, and policy impacts on agriculture trade.  Also beginning on October 21^st, we will have the first of four sessions for the Small Farm Business College.  The program will be held each Tuesday night with the last session on November 11^th.  It is designed for those small farm producers that are just getting started and need help managing their small farm business.  We will have more information available soon on both programs.  As always, if you want to stay up to date on the programs we offer, or have any livestock or forage management questions, please feel free to contact me at the OSU Extension office – Wayne County at 330-264-8722 or email me at yost.77@osu.edu.

This article was previously published in The Daily Record.