cover crop

The cattle are grazing the cover crop now, representing a second harvest for the June 6th planted crop.  First harvest took place on July 27th when we cut and wet baled the crop.  The oats, soybeans and peas terminated with that cutting, but the sorghum-sudan, the rape/turnip hybrid, the ryegrass and the red and crimson clovers came back.  The sorghum-sudan is about knee high at this point.  The crop looks thick and lush even without the annual plants, but as always when we graze crop fields, I am impressed with how quickly the cattle can turn thickness into bare soil showing everywhere.  Permanent pastures don't do that even if the paddock is grazed hard for two consecutive days.

It looks as if the cattle will take about two  weeks to graze the field, so it would be accurate to say the 32 acres of grazing will replace perhaps a thousand dollars worth of hay to feed the fifty plus head.  Additionally, we hope to get a November grazing out of the rape after the sorghum-sudan freezes off.  This is all additional to the seventy five ton of silage bales made in July, which should make excellent winter feed for the market animals. 

Next year, I would like to try a similar seeding that would be allowed to go all the way to freezeup before grazing as a further attempt to shorten the hay feeding season.