Iowa's cow herd

A month ago or so I listened to WHO radio as farm show host Andy Peterson interviewed one of the candidates for governor.  Wanting to show he was a friend of agriculture, the candidate raved about the potential for massive growth potential of the cow-calf industry in the state.  He said we way underutilized our land, if we only used it more efficiently we could turn Iowa into one of the leading cow states in the country.  He went on to say that the best way to utilize our farm ground was to put turnips or rye in after the harvest of the corn or beans and graze the cattle on them all winter.  Winter feed costs would be drastically reduced.  I thought of at least a few problems with his proposal.  In central Iowa at least, it is difficult to harvest the grain early enough to allow the turnips or rye enough time to grow adequately for sufficient grazing.  If you grow seed corn or very early maturing soybeans, the cover crop could allow some grazing, but not a very high percentage of the farmers in our area do that.  The snow fall can also limit grazing to some extent.  The biggest problem in our area is that there are absolutely no fences.  You can drive for miles and not find a fence.  Realistically, I can't think of anyone in our area who harvests seed corn, plants a cover crop, and wants to build a mile of fence to run cows.  Most of the farmers in our area no longer have livestock simply because they prefer driving a tractor as opposed to the day to day management of a livestock enterprise.  Andy asked to candidate where the cows would go in the summer at the end of the interview.  He replied that the farmer could build a hoop building and basically dry lot the cows.  Now there's a novel idea.  Graze the cows all winter and put them in a shed for the summer. 

I have been doing something similar the last few years, but it's not exactly easy and mother nature obviously has to cooperate. Grazing cereal rye well into May or even the 1st of June has allowed me to increase stocking density on pasture until I can get them back to corn stubble. If it doesn't rain, you get in pinch fast and need to be ready to feed cows. My father and I both originally agreed that I would see a yield hit on the beans following the rye due to the later planting date, but for whatever reason it has not been happening. The rye makes the cows very very loose and access to dry hay as well as high mag mineral are needed. The piles of crap can also make your bean crop appear a little uneven as some get a very large amount of nutrients. The downside, other than stringing temporary wire all over everything, is you have to be able to move cattle in and out fast as once the rye gets going you need to increase the stocking density as well as your rotational speed just as fast as it takes off. A three turn rotation with replacement heifers has been working very very well, but fresh pairs work almost as well.

Flying rye or a brassica mix into standing corn is very hit or miss here. So much so I have yet to try it and am still watching the results from guys just doing it for cover. Some years it works and some years you get absolutely nothing. I can't afford to pay a plane and get nothing.

I was working towards a recip herd under roof that never sees actual pasture using rye and corn stubble as partial grazing, but IVF hasn't been cooperating well enough for me to take the plunge and sourcing corn stubble bales in my area isn't as easy as Iowa. There are some barns in the Tennessee and Kentucky area using kiln died sawdust as bedding that gets tilled every other day with what appear to be very good results. Guess a guy has to be thinking way out of the box in order to make things work in areas where land values prevent going back to grass.

None of the above is something the majority of crop farmers I know have any interest in doing. Yank a subsidy or two and you might get one of their second sons to do it, but I doubt it.

oakview said:

A month ago or so I listened to WHO radio as farm show host Andy Peterson interviewed one of the candidates for governor.  Wanting to show he was a friend of agriculture, the candidate raved about the potential for massive growth potential of the cow-calf industry in the state.  He said we way underutilized our land, if we only used it more efficiently we could turn Iowa into one of the leading cow states in the country.  He went on to say that the best way to utilize our farm ground was to put turnips or rye in after the harvest of the corn or beans and graze the cattle on them all winter.  Winter feed costs would be drastically reduced.  I thought of at least a few problems with his proposal.  In central Iowa at least, it is difficult to harvest the grain early enough to allow the turnips or rye enough time to grow adequately for sufficient grazing.  If you grow seed corn or very early maturing soybeans, the cover crop could allow some grazing, but not a very high percentage of the farmers in our area do that.  The snow fall can also limit grazing to some extent.  The biggest problem in our area is that there are absolutely no fences.  You can drive for miles and not find a fence.  Realistically, I can't think of anyone in our area who harvests seed corn, plants a cover crop, and wants to build a mile of fence to run cows.  Most of the farmers in our area no longer have livestock simply because they prefer driving a tractor as opposed to the day to day management of a livestock enterprise.  Andy asked to candidate where the cows would go in the summer at the end of the interview.  He replied that the farmer could build a hoop building and basically dry lot the cows.  Now there's a novel idea.  Graze the cows all winter and put them in a shed for the summer.

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With grain prices being what they are I have been putting 20% of my crop land acres into full season high carbon cover crops.  I am also in the pheasant hunting business so we  hunt those acres then we graze them after hunting is done.  The cows do great on it they spread their own manure and add biology to the soil.  We have documented a .25% increase in organic matter in one year.  It is a win win situation for me.  We are going to experiment with interseeding cover crops into corn when it is about knee high to see what we can do with that. 

in South Dakota, we have followed wheat or oats or barley with fall cover crops; if we have enough moisture it will work fine; if we are short on moisture the following spring, we will take it in the shorts with next year's crop.  It's hit and miss.