What are you going to feed your stocker cattle?

Environmental conditions have handed a mixed bag to stocker cattle producers this year.

Stocker cattle need adequate forage to get them to the next level in the production cycle as feeder cattle or replacement heifers, and there are numerous paths a producer can embark on.

Researching it

James Rogers, Noble Research Institute pasture and range associate professor, Ardmore, Oklahoma, is running a number of projects researching what might work for stocker operations, including cover crops and quick-developing crops.

The first is a stocker cattle grazing study where researchers are incorporating a summer cover crop into a winter wheat pasture system. Both the cover crops and wheat are grazed with stocker cattle.

“The project is set up examining combinations of tillage treatments (conventional versus no-till) and summer cover crop treatments (present or absent) on 5-acre paddocks that are replicated five times,” Rogers said.

Noble also has three small plot studies that show various combinations of summer cover crops and the effects on subsequent small grain forage production due to cover crop termination date, cover crop seeding rate and planting green or no termination of the cover crop.

“Our focus is to determine the effects of summer cover crops on subsequent forage production of small grain pasture that will be used for stocker cattle grazing,” Rogers said. “We also are measuring the soil health effects of summer cover crops on soil moisture, soil bulk density, water infiltration, forage yield, soil microbial activity and soil nutrient content.”

Rogers also looks at the dollars and cents of adding cover crops the grazing system over the two years they’ve collected data, with a third year in progress.

“We are having difficulty obtaining enough grazing days for the summer stocker cattle to pay for the cost of the cover crop,” he said. “They have helped to offset cover crop costs but not covered them.”

In the research program they’ve averaged around 40 to 50 days of cover crop grazing but need 60 to 90 days.

“The last couple years, we have experienced rains through May which delays planting, and then a dry June which delays cover crop development,” he said. “We have been turning in cattle on the cover crops in July, then taking them off in early September to get ready for winter pasture establishment.”

Rogers said establishment of the no-till cover crops has been two to three weeks ahead of the tillage cover crops, and resulted in more grazing days with no-till.

“This year has been the exception as both no-till and tillage were not planted until June,” Rogers said.

Having options with stocker cattle is important, especially in periods of drought and dry weather, like many parts of the region are experiencing. One summer cover crop option, Rogers said, is pearl millet.

“Cattle seem to perform well, and in our experience, it appears to develop well despite dry conditions,” Rogers said. He says the cattle prefer to graze the millet when it is in a mixture with broadleaf covers.

The millet also doesn’t have a potential for prussic acid poisoning in dry conditions like other forages do. Millet can accumulate nitrate, but when cover crops are not fertilized this does not seem to be an issue. Planting millet late in the season, with hopes of getting some grazing in by frost is a gamble and might not be worth it.

“Unfortunately, there are not a lot of options when it gets really dry and you are running out of forage,” Rogers said. “You can sell cattle or buy feed.”

He mentioned planting a quick-developing crop, such as oats, ahead of wheat could be a “last ditch forage” possibility for stocker cattle.

“It gets tricky balancing oat and wheat acres, but it is an option,” he said. “Another option is to try and get a little nitrogen fertilizer out on bermuda grass.”

Bermuda grass can still be productive in August, September and into October, provided it gets a little rain. Late season, nitrogen-fertilized bermuda grass can provide some quality grazing, Rogers said.

“Worst case scenario is you can’t get cattle on wheat until after the first of the year,” he said. “You can feed them in a dry lot, reduce your stocking rate based on available forage or put them on a warm-season forage and supplement.”

Another option is crop residues such as corn, but supplementation will be needed.

Having cover crops in the rotation does have its pluses. Rogers has noticed improvements in the soil health. There’s notably less erosion and movement of soil throughout the summer and soil temps are cooler.

“We have also noted increased soil microbial diversity with the summer cover crops,” Rogers said. “In general, our no-till treatments tend to have higher soil moisture compared to tillage. This effect is especially noted during the summer months when soils are drier.”

On the negative side of things though, winter pasture forage production following a summer cover crop has been consistently lower across no-till and tillage treatments compared to summer fallow in the Noble research projects.

“Total forage biomass with the inclusion of cover crops is greater than summer fallow,” he said. “Our challenge is to determine the best means to utilize this production economically.”

Practical application

Lance Feikert of Bucklin, Kansas, No-Till on the Plains board president, is one of those producers looking to improve his soils, and he believes planting cover crops can help the soil and provide forage for his cattle at the same time.

As far as trying new things in his fields, he’s described himself as an optimistic pessimist. He knows cover crops will work to improve his soil, but he also knows as soon as the cover crop seed goes into the ground it’ll stop raining.

“My intentions this year—I’m going to use it for a stockpile so I can keep some cattle down here and use this for a fall grazer,” Feikert said. “I’m going to save back some heifers and then run them on here and see what we can do.”

This particular field and adjacent pasture was “poorly managed” and didn’t have very good soil to begin with. The first spring he had possession of the land, Feikert planted a cover crop and let it grow to “get some life into it.”

“Then that fall, I planted wheat,” Feikert said. “We had a 40- to 45-bushel wheat crop on this stuff. We had some timely rains that worked out pretty good last year.”

The field stayed clean, and he decided to plant some sorghum on the cropland. He managed to get a 65-bushel crop off the field. But it still wasn’t where he wanted it to be, and decided another round of cover crops could help improve the soil.

His summer fallow is planted to a cover crop where, later, he was going to plant wheat. A July 27 hailstorm changed his intentions a little bit. The forage was taller than the 4-wheeler when Feikert recently drove through it. Now it’s about half the height it was.

“I’m thinking what my goal is now, is I’m going to get my cattle and try to move them over and run this through,” he said. “Get some hoof action. Get them to push that stuff in. We’ve got moisture and I’m hoping three to four weeks from now I’ve got some new growth coming up and that’s going to be maybe that’s something that’s going to work out.”

It all depends on what the moisture does.

“I’ve got the volunteer. The seed’s going to be out there,” he said. “I want to see what’s going to happen.”

Feikert can already tell a difference in the way the soil feels both in his hands and under foot. He said when you walk over the ground where the cover crop is, it feels different. He’s confident if he gets an inch of rain, it’s going to soak in where the cover crop is and not run off.

He’s been keeping cattle on one side of the field with cover crops on it, and moving a hot wire fence over 10 or 15 feet to let the cattle get the forage consumed “real quick.”

“My plan is to run the cattle across here and see if I can get regrowth, and then go back in wheat,” he said. “My goal was this fall, graze it.”

So far the cattle are using the extra forage and cleaning up the forage easily. It will probably take the cattle a month to go through the cover crop, but Feikert likes what he’s seeing so far, especially since he lucked out with the rain and hopes to have fall forage for his cattle and better soils later on.

“I’m an advocate of doing cover crops, but sometimes the hardest part is doing it,” Feikert said. “Having to think between my two ears. I know it’s going to work if I do it, I just don’t think it’s going to rain.”

Kylene Scott can be reached at [email protected] or 620-227-1804.