Texas Range Report
By Jason C. Hohlt, acting USDA NRCS state rangeland management specialist
The advantage cattle producers have over other industries is that our “factory” can walk around and feed itself, so, ranchers have good cause to be intimately aware of their grazing season, which begins with spring green-up.
Grass growth initiates with cool-season grasses, where present, and then transitions to warm-season grass production.
The majority of rangeland forage in Texas comprises warm-season perennial grasses. Warm-season grass growth continues through spring and into summer and typically is slowed or stopped by the summer slump in late July or August.
Fall rains initiate additional grass growth until the first frost forms in late fall. During the winter, ranchers rely on the remaining standing forage in the pasture until spring green-up takes place again.
As the grazing season winds down, the strategic planner has an opportunity to evaluate how their management plan performed for the previous 12 months. Forage deficits, surpluses, or quality issues can be identified by looking back at the grazing season. Going forward, the cattle producer can adjust stocking rates, grazing rotations, or possibly the calving season to improve the performance of the overall livestock operation.
Strategic planning at the end of the grazing season is a good time to address challenges and create opportunities on the ranch.
I hope these reports provided by USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) grazing land specialists across the state will provide food for thought for the strategic planner in all of us.
Blackland Prairie
By Matt Machacek, USDA NRCS rangeland management specialist
Many producers I work with are eager to trim their production costs. Utilizing more warm-season grass is an excellent way to reduce hay feeding, which is typically our most costly endeavor. I find that ranches that rely exclusively on stockpiled forage are typically the best managed in terms of forage health. These ranches maintain a proper number of animals to ensure there is enough grass for a full year.
Most ranches that feed hay practice what we call substitution feeding. This means the elevated number of livestock consume more forage than the ranch can provide. Hay must be provided during the winter until growth resumes in the spring.
Ranches that substitution-feed typically have lower plant vigor because the desirable plants are often grazed even when hay is present. These plants go into the winter with depleted carbohydrate reserves and are often outcompeted by less desirable plants the following year.
Here are some tips to consider when planning your stockpile:
- The most important aspect is determining the carrying capacity of your ranch and stocking with the proper number of animals. For help getting started, contact your local NRCS office for a grazing plan, or gradually trim livestock numbers until you can comfortably graze for a full year.
- Forage quality is determined by the stage of growth. Stockpiled forage that has been grazed during the growing season is of higher quality. Ungrazed stockpiled forage is higher in fiber because it matures early in the growing season and has a lower leaf-to-stem ratio. Consider grazing all your pastures during the growing season, but choose the pastures you want to stockpile and rely on them earlier in the season. Between July and August, consider pulling these pastures out of your rotation and allowing forage in them to accumulate for the winter.
- Pick areas that stockpile better. These are typically our areas that support a majority of native tall or midgrasses. Often, introduced pastures with forages like kleingrass stockpile well because of the plant’s upright structure. If possible, rotate the areas you stockpile each year so that each pasture can rest and go to seed every few years. If you have limited choices, save these best for last as they will withstand weathering better.
- While not commonly known for their ability to stockpile, other introduced forages such as bermudagrass or bahiagrass can provide a stockpile if properly managed. For better results, consider strip grazing with an electric fence. In other words, limit access so as to avoid grazing loss through trampling, urine and manure. When the forage supply is exhausted, move the fence to a new strip.
- Have realistic expectations and know that you will likely need to supplement your cattle. Monitor the cattle’s body condition score and manure droppings often. When manure starts to stack up, consider a cost-effective supplement to aid digestion. Also, consider forage or fecal testing to better understand your forage quality and better formulate a feeding plan.
Coastal Prairie Region
By Stephen Deiss, USDA NRCS rangeland management specialist
Ranchers along the coastline of our area have a very special resource available to them, though it takes planning and effort to unlock the benefits. Gulf cordgrass exists in abundance along the margin between the marsh and the prairies. By now, if we have had appropriate conditions, many acres of Gulf cordgrass have had prescribed burns applied.
The deeply-rooted cordgrass bounces back from prescribed burning very well, providing a relatively quick turnaround between the burn and grazing. Ranchers here understand that the practice of burning provides benefit, but to what extent? I was curious about this, myself, and set out to get a grasp of the grazing value over the years.
On Nov. 28, 2011, we conducted a prescribed burn on a 120-acre parcel of land in southeastern Matagorda County. The site is a Salty Prairie Ecological Site and is dominated by gulf cordgrass (Spartina spartinae).
Forage samples were taken Dec. 7 and 21, 2011; Jan. 3, 2012; and Feb. 2, 2012, by clipping the regrowth from approximately 50 plants scattered throughout the burned acreage. These samples were submitted to the Soil, Water and Forage Testing laboratory at Texas A&M University.
Approximately 60 cows were utilizing the burned area between Dec. 26, 2011, and March 25, 2012 (91 days). During site visits to collect forage samples after cattle were introduced, cordgrass heights appeared to have been maintained at a 3.5-inch to 4-inch height.
My findings were that burned Spartina spartinae at this site attained a peak crude protein level above 20 percent after cattle were introduced to the site approximately one month post-burn. The analysis did not include total digestible nutrients. The utilization of the regrowth maintained at a stubble height of 3.5 to 4 inches allowed for the continued fresh, tender growth, which likely accounted for high forage quality.
I conducted another study in 2016 in southeastern San Patricio County, on a ranch with primarily Salty Bottomland Ecological Sites. This ranch is also dominated by gulf cordgrass, but systematic burning on a 3-year cycle has created a greater proportion of upland vegetation, such as bluestems and bristlegrasses.
In this study, the fields were burned Feb. 12, 18, and 19. Samples were taken March 4 and April 7. These samples were also tested by Texas A&M, but this time I requested near-infrared spectrometry (NIRS), and this included much more data than the 2011 sampling.
The March sampling showed crude protein of 14.1 percent and Total Digestible Nutrients of 58.9 percent. The April sampling showed crude protein of 15.9 percent and total digestible nutrients of 59.7 percent.
I’m not prepared to say that earlier burning provides greater forage quality. I think the differences may be due to inherent site characteristics. I can confidently state that gulf cordgrass provides a unique and valuable asset for ranchers along the Texas Coast.
Concho Valley Region
By Grant Teplicek, USDA NRCS rangeland management specialist
Late winter is always the busiest time of the year for cool-season prescribed burns. With the assistance of conservation partners such as the NRCS, many Concho Valley ranchers developed prescribed burn plans and installed fire breaks during the preceding fall and winter months.
Now they are waiting for the correct weather conditions to conduct the burns successfully and meet their burn prescriptions. Ranchers should plan to defer grazing on burned pastures until the forage has sufficient growth, which will usually take at least 90 days depending on the weather.
Producers should start monitoring their pastures for troublesome spring weeds and get ready to spray them in the coming months.
Spraying weeds at the right time could mean more desirable forage production for the year. It is also time to start reseeding disturbed areas, including pastures that had mechanical brush management performed on them. Your local NRCS office can assist you with developing a seed mix for spring planting. The seeding dates for the Concho Valley area are Feb. 1 through May 15.
Now is the time to set up photo points and grazing exclosures on your ranch.
You can use a 20-foot cattle panel bent in a circle and anchored with two T-posts for an exclosure.
Set up at least 1 monitoring point on the key grazing area in each pasture. Additionally, they should contain the key forage species. If possible, make these points easily accessible so you can monitor and photograph them when you are in the pasture checking livestock or water.
Label these photos with the pastures and dates taken. These photos can be used to monitor grazing utilization and help you decide when to move livestock to a new pasture. Use these photos in conjunction with rainfall records and grazing periods for developing next year’s grazing plan.
Cross Timbers Region
By Kevin Derzapf, USDA NRCS rangeland management specialist
Recently, I was visiting with a producer and they were asking which pastures to graze first in the spring when grasses begin to green-up. This was a good question and since this producer does not feed hay, planning is key to get through each winter and begin each spring.
If they are available, pastures with cool-season grasses or cereal grains may be an obvious choice in the spring, but for many, this is not an option, or they are in short supply. In this case, you will be looking for a pasture that has not only high-quality forage but also has the quantity of forage to meet the needs of the livestock.
When pastures that have been grazed short begin to green-up, they may look good but your cow may have a hard time consuming enough forage to fill her rumen or she may expend more energy than she is consuming chasing the green.
If this is the case, you might be better served to keep livestock in a pasture with a greater quantity of available forage and keep supplementing protein until new plant growth is adequate.
Pastures with native grasses should be allowed to reach a certain height dependent on the types of grasses that you are managing for. We call these grasses “key species.” We manage these key species because we want them to increase; they are excellent and productive forages. Typically, in this part of the world, we are either managing for tallgrasses or midgrasses, which we should grow taller than 12 and 8 inches, respectively, before turning livestock in to graze.
Another consideration is how hard the pastures were grazed at the end of the last growing season going into the winter. Pastures that were grazed hard before frost in November may need some time to recover and a longer rest to allow for regrowth in the spring.
If you have cropland, hayfields, bermuda, Old World bluestem, kleingrass, or any monocultures of grass, you might consider the Farmer/Stockman system. This system targets grazing on the more resilient grasses and/or crops through the growing season to reduce pressure on the native grasses. Native pasture could be grazed lightly and/or grazed fewer times through the growing season. This can allow for improvement of the native pastures and help to grow stockpiled native grasses for the winter.
It’s great to have a grazing plan to know where livestock will go next and approximately how long the pasture will last. This can also help you have the livestock in the vicinity of the pens when they need to be worked.
Even with the best-laid plans, we need to be monitoring the condition of the pastures and looking at the heights of our key grass species to help us decide when to move livestock to the next pasture.
We have to find the balance between managing for livestock production and forage quality and production. Not managing both sides of this equation will cost us dollars.
For help developing a year-round grazing plan, consult an NRCS conservation planning specialist in your county; they can be located at tx.nrcs.usda.gov. The NRCS staff can help you with a forage inventory and plant identification.
You can also visit www.plants.usda.gov for help identifying plants on your property.
Edwards Region
By Kason Haby, USDA NRCS rangeland management specialist
Springtime is just around the corner, and there are several things to be monitoring this time of year. Here are a few:
- Scout for weeds in pastures and spray with approved chemicals according to label while weeds are young. Proper identification is critical because many forbs are good for grazing.
- Continue monitoring the body condition of your livestock and continue a supplemental feeding program until ample new forage growth has accumulated. Stockpiled forage from last year is at its lowest quality now. Even after grasses begin to green-up, cattle may lose a little weight due to a phenomenon called “chasing green.” They will expend more energy than they can consume, looking for the green forage coming up.
- Move your grazing exclosures for monitoring grazing use to a new location. Moving exclosures annually allows you to compare the current year’s growth only. If you don’t have grazing exclosures, now is a great time to build them. The document “How to Use Exclusion Cages to Better Manage Cattle Stocking Rates” by Rob Cook with the Noble Research Institute is a helpful guide for getting started.
- If you are planning on spraying mesquite with a foliar application this year, watch for bud break and record the date. Local NRCS, AgriLife or chemical representatives can use this information to help recommend the best time to spray.
We are also conducting cool-season prescribed burns. Post-burn grazing management is critical to ensure appropriate recovery of forage grasses. Defer burned pastures until perennial grasses have fully recovered. This could take up to a full growing season, depending on rainfall. Grazing too soon can damage root systems. Flash grazing after the burn and before grasses green up for a 1- to 2-day period can help control prickly pear. Another method to help control prickly pear after the burn is a broadcast chemical application using half the normal rate of picloram when new pads are 3 inches tall. Refer to AgriLife publication ERM-1466 “Chemical Weed and Brush Control Suggestions for Rangeland” for more information.
For assistance on your ranch within the Edwards Region contact your local NRCS office.
High Plains Region
By Clint Rollins, USDA NRCS rangeland management specialist
The majority of the Texas Panhandle saw 15-plus inches of rainfall from mid-August through mid-October of 2017. This wet fall set the stage for a potentially serious annual broomweed problem next spring and summer. Heavy competition from annual broomweed can dramatically reduce grass forage production.
Early detection and timely treatment of small annual broomweed seedlings is key to successful control of this weed. For effective chemical control of annual broomweed, the plants should be less than 4 inches tall with good moisture. The treatment works best if applied during the spring to early summer while the plants are actively growing and before they mature.
There are several effective herbicides on the market; contact your local NRCS or Texas A&M AgriLife Extension specialists for recommendations.
Northeast Texas Region
By John Stone, USDA NRCS rangeland management specialist
In July and August of 2017, it seemed we had good rains spaced out almost every week. This led to having a lot of forage still growing during what is normally the summer slump; however, it came with a catch. We saw large amounts of new weeds that grew late in the summer even when weed control was completed early in the season.
September and October ended up turning out hot and dry for most of us and some pastures got a little shorter than producers intended. This heavy late weed load, accompanied by shorter pastures with not enough ground cover going into the winter, could lead to a big weed problem going into the next growing season.
Now that we are in winter and spring is right around the corner, it is time to start planning for your pest management program. Scouting for pests should always be happening; however, one of the most critical times will be during the spring green-up.
Look for weeds germinating as soon as it starts warming up. You should be looking at how high the weed load is and starting to make decisions on if, when, and what kind of pest management needs to be completed on each pasture.
If you were scouting this past fall and saw heavy weed loads and shorter than normal grass, a pre-emergent herbicide might be something you can plan to apply before the weeds even germinate.
If you are not sure what the weed load is going to be, start walking those pastures as soon as it starts warming up. If you are seeing weeds at a threshold that needs treatment, you will want to plan a post-emergent herbicide.
Plan on spraying the weeds when they are still young, before they have a chance to make their seed and while they are still relatively easy to kill.
Calibrate your sprayer and have your herbicide and surfactant ready to go so you don’t get behind when it is time to start spraying according to weed height.
You’ll find “How to Calibrate Your Sprayer” here.
Remember that herbicides kill most legumes, so be cautious if you have them in your pasture and want to keep them. You can spray those pastures later, after the legumes have completed their life cycle for the year, or choose a different type of pest management, such as mowing.
Rolling Plains Region
By Matthew Coffman, USDA NRCS rangeland management specialist
Winter is an excellent time to evaluate your grazing management. For some, this may serve as a reality check. If we have allowed for adequate forage residue in our grazing management, we should still see our desirable forage plants like sideoats grama, blue grama, and plains bristlegrass, with a minimum 4-inch stubble height.
Follow your cows grazing some morning and throw down your baseball cap. If it’s taller than your remaining forage, it may be a harder road to spring green-up, and require more supplemental feeding to get your cows into a desirable condition for timely rebreeding.
If we are following the “take half, leave half” rule of thumb, then our 4-foot by 4-foot cattle panel grazing enclosures should give a good estimate of how close we’ve come to that target.
A common problem I come across is prolonged calving seasons. To head that issue off at the pass, culling cows that aborted or lost a calf will save grass for the productive herd.
This is also a time to do some last-minute preparations for any planned prescribed burns in the winter and spring. Plowing or blading old firebreaks one more time to clean up any vegetation that might have grown in last summer will get the area ready.
Depending on the fall and winter moisture you’ve received, it’s also a good time to be scouting for cool-season weeds to determine the need for some weed control in the spring. Pastures with more Texas wintergrass, filaree, and rescuegrass can be relied on to rest other pastures before spring, as well.
South Texas Region
By Jose Martinez, USDA NRCS rangeland management specialist
The spring-growth phase in South Texas pastures is the most productive phase of the year and will be a determining factor in the overall success of a ranching operation. That is why your range management practices in late winter are critical to preparing perennial pastures to have their highest growth rate of the year.
I recommend starting in March with at least 700 pounds of dry forage per acre on your native grasses and at least 1,200 pounds of dry forage on your introduced grasses.
We have posted a pdf on the tscra.org website that explains how to estimate the pounds of forage in a pasture.
We need to have good standing forage and healthy root systems in the ground to have the land ready for a precipitation event.
February also happens to be the month with the most prescribed burns conducted in South Texas. That means that instead of suppressing brush or promoting winter weeds, the main objective of most of our producers is to produce grass forage, and 2018 is looking good for a cool-season burn.
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of monitoring your forage availability; it doesn’t matter if you are in Dimmit and Webb counties with a stocking rate of 100 acres per animal unit or if you are in Hidalgo and Cameron with a stocking rate of 5 acres per animal, your land has a carrying capacity that fluctuates every year. This can also be influenced by weather conditions and the state of the natural resources by the actions of the land manager. The continuous monitoring of the available forage, the flexibility of the land manager to stock and destock, and a good drought plan are the best tools to prevent overgrazing.
Trans-Pecos Region
By Scott Bryan, USDA NRCS rangeland management specialist
The late winter and early spring in the Trans Pecos is typically a dry time of the year. Although this is considered the dormant season for forage grasses, it’s important to continue monitoring plant residue and the amount of forage available to the livestock. Leaving adequate stubble height (6 to 8 inches for warm-season mid-grasses) will ensure plant health and promote rapid growth once the growing season begins.
Valuable annual cool-season forbs, such as filarees, bladderpods, and plantains, appear with fall and winter moisture. These plants provide nutritious forage to all types of livestock and are an excellent complement to cured-out native grasses. However, a wet fall and winter can also promote the growth of toxic forbs such as locoweed, bitterweed, threadleaf groundsel, Riddell’s groundsel, woolly paperflower, and garbancillo.
The best management strategy for dealing with toxic plants such as these is proper identification and avoidance. Be on the lookout for these toxic plants and be prepared to adjust grazing rotations to avoid pastures with heavy infestations.
This is also an active time of year for prescribed burning, which can be an effective range management tool when properly applied. The land manager’s objectives will dictate the burn prescription which will specify the weather conditions needed to execute the fire. Most of the prescribed burns conducted in the Trans-Pecos this time of year are planned to improve forage production and quality in native grasses such as tobosa and alkali sacaton.
To give the plants the best chance of recovery after a burn, it is crucial to ensure adequate soil moisture prior to the burn. If there is enough moisture in the soil to make a ball, there’s sufficient soil moisture to burn. Burning should be avoided during or immediately before predicted hot, dry, and windy conditions.
“Texas Range Report” is excerpted from the February 2018 issue of The Cattleman magazine. Join today to start your subscription.