Spring. It is the time when grasses start emerging, and the trees go from grey to light green. Naturally, this is the time of year when it’s very tempting to turn the animals onto pasture, particularly if you’re running low on feed. But is it wise to do so?
Well, let me give you two answers. The conventional agrologists who have no problem with continuous grazing would say no, absolutely not. The regenerative grazers (and the new not-so-conventional agrologists like yours truly), however, would take a step back and say, “Hang on a minute, it’s not so simple as a yea or nay.”
One thing we agree on is how those baby grass plants need time to emerge before a destructive disturbance called “grazing” comes down upon them!
The First Leaf
That first bade draws from root and crown energy stores to grow. These energy stores were developed when that plant was actively growing and photosynthesizing the year prior. Ideally, if a pasture was well managed and those plants were green and growing for most of the year, there should be ample energy storage to pull from. However, if the pasture was stressed and overgrazed, there’s more of a worry as to whether that first leaf is drawing on all that storage or if there is much to draw on, to begin with.
I’ve learned that it’s wrong to assume, as a gross blanket statement, that this first leaf is pulling from all of that plant’s energy stores. Yes, it’s pulling from a lot, but perhaps not all.
You see, it’s only in overgrazed and mismanaged pastures that grazing that first leaf could harm that plant. Repeating this to all other plants in the pasture harms the entire pasture.
See? Context is important.
This first leaf will begin photosynthesis as soon as it emerges. We must all be thankful for this incredible capability. Photosynthesis is how plants get energy. Obtaining this energy means putting more energy into growth and their root and crown energy reserves. More leaves mean more energy harvested, which means more growth occurs (with environmental limitations, of course).
Conventional Cautions vs. New Thinking
The old conventionally-minded agrologist in me used to caution folks about grazing too early:
Allowing animals to graze the first emerging leaves sets the plants back far enough that they must draw from more energy reserves that may very well be mostly depleted. Roots are not likely to develop as big and robust as they should; instead, they become smaller and weaker as new leaves grow.
Shallow and weak roots predispose plants to become much more sensitive to dry conditions, making them more likely to go dormant much earlier in the year. They cannot find more water and nutrients than they can already reach with their roots, thus becoming stressed. This impacts their health, making them more prone to insect pests and disease.
Therefore, regrowth will be slowed significantly, resulting in less pasture forage available for the rest of the year and a significantly reduced amount of time available on pasture. Typically, every day early that animals are turned out to pasture, three days are sacrificed for late summer or fall grazing.
The problem with all of this is that it is a blanket statement. Context is crucial. Yes, allowing animals to graze those first leaves may hurt the plant, but that’s (wrongly) assuming that animals will spread themselves evenly out on pasture and evenly graze the entire pasture. It also assumes they will eat the whole leaf and leave nothing behind. This is wrong because animals always search out and find their favourite places to graze, and cattle, especially, eat only the top part of the leaf, leaving the rest to continue growing and photosynthesizing.
When employing regenerative grazing practices, adaptive multi-paddock grazing, or whatever name you wish to use, you are purposefully placing a herd of animals in a small place for a certain period. In the spring, especially, grasses grow fast. (Usually, and if there’s adequate moisture.) Therefore, moving them from paddock to paddock must also be fast.
Here’s what I used to suggest when I was not wise to regenerative grazing:
My advice is to go by the number of leaves on most grass plants in the pasture, not the height of the sward. Many other publications tell folks to start grazing anywhere from 6 inches to 10 inches tall. Still, they tend to ignore the different characteristics that various grass species have that don’t follow that kind of textbook advice. For example, Smooth Bromegrass (Bromus inermis) grows taller than Western Wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii). By the time that smooth brome is “ready to graze” at 8 inches tall, western wheatgrass is already putting up a seed head well past that “ready to graze” time.
Therefore, the best time to begin grazing in the spring is when plants have reached the 3 to 3.5-leaf stage.
The problem with starting them late, like leaving them until they’re six to 10 inches tall (or even at the 3rd leaf stage), is that you won’t get around that pasture fast enough before grasses go into the flowering stage (at seed head emergence).
Grazing stocker steers or young cattle means needing grasses that are still vegetative. Vegetative grasses (and other non-grass plants) are higher in quality than plants that are flowering and about to go to seed. Grazing these means seeing satisfactory weight gains, particularly if you plan to slaughter them down the road.
Maybe you are okay with letting plants go later into maturity. If you have lactating cows with calves (beef cows, not dairy), letting grasses go to flowering isn’t bad because they’re neither too rich nor too low in quality. You certainly don’t want to graze cow-calf pairs on over-mature grasses that have already gone to seed unless those pairs are close to weaning.
Regardless, the beauty of AMP grazing is that once those animals have moved on, the paddock they just grazed has plenty of time to recuperate. The danger of overgrazing is significantly less than with continuous grazing systems.
Therefore, you are still safe to graze “too early” on pastures.
But Is There Still Such a Thing as “Too Early”?
Possibly. It still is a balancing act and largely depends on your context.
Plants still are sensitive when their first leaves emerge. It’s still wise to wait until the second flag leaf emerges to start grazing. It’s equally wise to throw some feed out on pasture so that your animals do not have to rely solely on pasture as their main feed source.
Starting them in an area that saw forage stockpiled is also worth considering. When there’s more plant residue left from the previous year for animals to consume, that also puts less pressure on the selectivity of the tasty new shoots. That dead material also better protects those new shoots compared with land that has been heavily grazed.
The act of being “too early” is true if you accidentally leave your animals in for too long. Grazing these first shoots should be as light as possible. Graze them too heavily, and you risk setting that (or those) paddock[s] back further than you intended, which means the recovery period may be longer than anticipated.
The goal should be one bite per plant or taking only a third (no more than half) of the plant before moving to the next paddock. You are guaranteed to leave a LOT of green photosynthetic solar panels behind to recover quickly.
When can you return to that paddock? It depends. Factors like moisture and how much was removed determine whether you can come back in a few weeks or not until next year.
Plants severely stressed from drought last year will have a tougher, longer time to recover than those not stressed because you made sure not to graze hard and leave lots of residue behind. Grazing may need to be deferred for longer than what’s “normal.” How long? It depends. I’ve said between two and four weeks, but…
Context is critical.
An aside for you, if you’re still not sure about this whole AMP grazing thing:
If you’re short on feed and have no choice but to turn cows out to pasture, consider supplementing with grain and pellets or cubes to give the cows an additional feed source other than just the pasture plants, and it alleviates a bit of the grazing pressure. Creep-feeding calves is also recommended if pastures are short, as doing so takes the pressure off the cows to meet their calves’ needs when milk may be in short supply. Calves can be started on a creep ration as early as a few weeks of age. A sacrifice area for the animals may also be needed until pastures are ready.
The key takeaway is that there’s a fine line between being too early and too late. However, grazing fast when plants are growing fast will get you out of trouble faster than if you took your time and allowed your animals to take too much and stay too long.
So, to answer that question… it depends.
Happy grazing!