Often the largest category of costs in a cattle operation is what economists consider fixed costs. These are usually big things such as tractors or land. In most cases, land is the largest cost item in a farm operation.
On the other side of this equation are what we refer to as variable costs. These change as production increases or decreases. In traditional economics, they would be items such as feed or vaccines — as we produce more calves our ear tag cost goes up accordingly.
I would suggest that this is exactly the wrong way to think about these cost categories, and understanding this is one of the key reasons why better grazing management can pay dividends.
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If my ear tag cost is $5 per cow and I have 100 cows, the cost is $500 per year. If I increase to 1,000 cows, then my cost is $5,000. It is a fixed cost per cow or unit of production. No matter whether I increase or decrease my cow herd, I will pay $5 per cow.
On the other hand, if I feed 100 cows with a $25,000 tractor, then I have a cost of $250 per cow. If I can feed 1,000 cows with the same tractor, my cost is now $25 per cow. Admittedly my labour, repairs and depreciation may increase as I use the tractor more, but my cost per unit of production is not fixed. It decreases as I scale the cow herd.
Grazing dividends
This is one way improved grazing management pays dividends. If our land can carry 100 cows, then our cost per cow is higher than if we can help that land produce enough forage for 200 cows. We will have some capital investment in things like fences and water and potentially some labour costs, but in we will cut our land cost per cow in half. If enhanced grazing management can double our forage production, then we essentially have doubled our land base for the infrastructure cost of enabling that management.
Even without increasing the cow herd size, enhanced grazing management can pay dividends by extending the grazing season. Reducing the need to use expensive fixed assets such as cattle-feeding equipment can extend their lifespan and reduce operating costs. In many cases, the cost per day to graze is cheaper than the cost of feeding. Extended grazing requires forage, which enhanced grazing management is designed to grow. What would the impact on your operation be of stretching the grazing season by one day, one week or one month? How is this even possible?
The key to grazing management doesn’t lie in grazing plants, although that is part of it. The real secret lies in resting plants. A growing plant uses sunlight and water to capture carbon dioxide from the air and create sugars that are sent to the roots. These sugars are used to build the roots and feed the soil biota that bring the plant other nutrients with which to build proteins and other structures. When a plant is grazed, the plant will pull on its root reserves to restart growth. Grazing can stimulate this growth/regrowth cycle and can prevent the plant from senescing or becoming ripe and brown.
Green leaves drive the process of using sunlight to capture carbon and manufacture sugars. Once leaves lose their green chlorophyll, the process is essentially stopped. Conversely, if we don’t remove the cow after she has nipped off the leaves the first time, then the new and juicy regrowth becomes a prime attractant for the cow to return and nip again. Eventually, this cycle decreases leaf area and root mass needed to stimulate plant regrowth.
Grazing management is really about grazing leaves to feed the cow, leaving an appropriate amount of leaf area to capture sunlight for photosynthesis and then resting the plant so that the leaves can regrow and feed the roots and soil complex. The plant’s rest period is the most crucial part of this equation.
How much rest is needed?
But how much rest? Like most things in ranching, there is a two-word answer: “It depends.” Plants grow at different speeds, depending on a variety of factors. As growth slows, recovery takes longer. Factors such as drought, heat or shorter day length will all increase recovery time, as will removing more leaves (grazing shorter). For plants that are grazing-tolerant in good moisture conditions, recovery may be as short as three weeks during the long days of June. Other plants in more brittle environments may take a year or longer to recover from a grazing event.
If you let them, the plants will tell you about their rest requirements. A hayfield is a good example. We may cut a grass/alfalfa field at a certain percentage bloom (say 80 per cent). We would never come back in with our haybine the following week to cut it again. We would let those plants recover before we took our second cut, the timing of which would vary based on the stage of the hay stand.
The same applies to a pasture situation. If we think of our cow as a haybine, we will pay attention to the stage that forage is at. As plants mature, the volume of forage will increase and the digestibility will tend to decline. If we are grazing yearlings and trying to obtain gains, we may focus on grazing with a slightly shorter recovery period. Mature or dry cows may be able to perform well on riper levels of forage.
With a grazing mindset, having the ability to remove cows from a grazed area is as important as the ability to contain them on the area you wish to graze. Training your “grazing eye” will happen with experience. There are a lot of good online resources for grazing management and most producers will have mentors available in their neighbourhood.
An investment in your grazing management and providing vacation benefits for your forages has the potential for significant returns to the ranch.
