The Importance of a Planned Grazing Season

By Klaas Martens, Klaas and Mary-Howell Martens Farm, Penn Yan, NY.

With variable weather patterns across the country, it is essential to adapt grazing management practices to accommodate such fluctuations. Last year exemplified this challenge, beginning with excessive rainfall and ending with severe drought in many parts of the northeast. These conditions illustrated the adverse effects of both extremes: initially, saturated pastures resulted in hoof damage, root disruption, and soil compaction; subsequently, dry soils hindered grass recovery and regrowth. Ideally, surplus water stored in the plants root system and excess forage could have been preserved for later use.

While it is possible to retain some resources, doing so requires strategic planning and may necessitate modifications to current pasture management approaches. Pasture can be both the cheapest and the highest quality feed that dairy cows get. We need to think of pasture as our highest value and high profit crop. To take advantage of its full potential, we must manage it like a high value crop. The challenge is that we need to use our cows to manage the pastures instead of letting the pastures manage the cows. The big question is how do we do this?

Grazing High

Many grazing specialists emphasize the importance of 'grazing high', but this concept should be more than a catch phrase—it needs to be translated into practical strategies for farmers aiming to manage pastures more profitably. Understanding what 'grazing high' truly means and applying it effectively is essential. Most of us have attended pasture walks where we have heard, 'As it grows above, so it grows below,' meaning that the root system mirrors the height of the top growth. This explains why pastures grazed down to the ground barely grows during hot, dry summers, making it tough to produce milk on such feed. When pasture growth stalls in midsummer, we quickly deplete our winter feed supplies—a scenario we've all witnessed and experienced. Each extra bite cows take beyond the optimal grazing height can reduce pasture availability later in the season.

When pastures are maintained at a healthy height, their deeper roots help soil retain more water early on and release it as needed later. Effective grazing management is required to harvest pastures in ways that deliver both quality and yield. There is no instant fix or magic solution for turning poor pastures into high-yielding ones; rather, successful results come from many small factors working together for profitable outcomes.

It is important to anticipate any overgrazing and take corrective action before the pastures are damaged. To manage pasture harvest with cows, their daily intake should be monitored and supplemented with extra grazing land or other forages before overgrazing. If pastures are overgrazed, that is in effect using winter forage by default, resulting in lower pasture yields and increased feed needs. Providing stored feed before overgrazing occurs is more economical but requires proactive planning rather than reacting to poor pasture conditions.

Use resources that are free first

I like to say do the things that are free first. Those are mostly good grazing management. Then do the things that are cheap to do next. Save the more expensive inputs for when you have extra money to invest and avoid the expensive products that the salesman promises will blow the lid off your tank unless you have some money that is burning your pockets and you really want to get rid of it.

A soil test and some targeted fertilizer applications can be a worthwhile investment in many cases. I wouldn’t buy fertilizer expecting huge yield increases right away. Minerals in feed are expensive and growing grass that is rich in the minerals that cattle need will save money on expensive supplements. The minerals that come in a bag are not as well assimilated by animals and can be an expensive source of fertilizer.

Each country in New York has a Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD). Consulting with your county SWCD about improved soil conservation practices can pay back some real dividends. There are often cost sharing funds available to help construct projects that will improve water quality and protect the soil. Diversion ditches, ponds, grazing plans, manure storages, windbreaks, artificial drainage, cover crops, and fencing are all projects that conservation districts can help plan and will provide substantial funding for. Keeping soil and water on the farm can really pay back in improved yields and cleaner water.

Options for extending the grazing season with a planned grazing program

There are many options both for extending the grazing season and for protecting and optimizing permanent pasture. Having some extra grazing crops available along with well managed permanent pastures, makes it much easier and economical to manage pastures profitably. Planning ahead to have additional grazing when you know the pastures will have reduced production can really pay off both in the forage from these extra paddocks and from allowing you to manage the harvest of the main pastures better.

When planning to produce extra forage for the middle and later parts of the growing season, it makes sense to produce a little more than the cows are expected to need. For example, after the oats and peas are gone, that land can be planted to a mixture that could include sudan grass, cow peas, soybeans, millet, etc or other hot dry weather loving species for supplemental late summer grazing, or a cool weather mix with brassicas like forage rape, triticale, oats, turnips, Austrian winter peas, triticale, etc. There are many choices to pick from. Local experience and your preferences should determine which species to use in a mix.

The fertility needs of the different forage and cover crops need to be considered in your choices for a grazing program. Some species can do well with low soil fertility, for example, buckwheat, Japanese millet, sorghum, oats, rye, cow peas, and Austrian winter peas can tolerate lower soil fertility. Forage rape, turnips, kale, ryegrass, triticale, and pearl millet demand higher fertility to do well.

Ideas for a seasonal, planned grazing program:

• Starting in the winter: Corn fodder, either yours or your neighbor’s, that has been harvested for grain can be grazed whenever the ground is dry or frozen. Dry cows and heifers pick up dropped ears and eat the husks, cobs, and leaves of the corn. Such grazing needs to be planned ahead to make sure fences are in place. It is good for animal health and reduces the amount of manure that needs to be spread as well as the amount of bedding that is needed by spreading it while the livestock is grazing.
• Early spring: last years' small grains that were under seeded with clover, Italian ryegrass, oats, or triticale can make excellent early spring grazing before pastures are far enough along to graze them safely. Also, hayfields that are scheduled to be plowed, can be grazed early before pastures become ready.
• Late spring: the problem in late spring/early summer is often having enough animals to harvest pastures as fast as they need to be. With effective use of cover crops and hayfields, it is easier to match stocking density to pasture production.
• Mid to late summer: Spring seeded oats/field peas and other cover crop mixtures can fill in as cool season grasses slow down, and grazing intensity needs to be reduced with rising temperatures and drier weather. Having more oats and pea forage than the cows need is not a problem if the surplus can be chopped or wrapped. Just 10 acres of a heavy crop of oats and peas that are ready in July can make a dramatic difference in a dry summer especially if that land gets replanted to a cool weather mix to use latter in the year.
• Late summer/early fall: Sorghum, Sudan grass, millets, cow peas, soybeans, forage brassicas, buckwheat, etc., all produce well during hot dry weather when cool season grasses are at their slowest. These crops can continue to be grazed well into the fall.
• Late fall: Triticale, oats, peas, forage rape, turnips, ryegrass, kale, etc. are all very frost tolerant and can be grazed into the winter. Marrowstem kale can be grazed even in relatively deep snow although it is rich and cattle need to have some higher fiber forages with that ration.

Calculating the cost of forages

In calculating the cost of forage, farmers often disregard the cost of harvesting and storing feed. One reason pasture is more economical than stored feeds is because the cost of harvesting and storage are avoided. Even the lush red clover cover crops that we cut and chop ahead of plowing them to plant corn are expensive compared with grazing them. Our estimated cost per ton of feeding chopped and stored medium red clover cover crops is about $150 per ton of dry matter compared with under $75/ per ton of dry matter from grazed cover crops and pastures. When we grow alfalfa for use as haylage the cost goes to over $200 per ton of dry matter. Cutting, chopping, hauling, and storing haylage is expensive. Cows do it for free. With that in mind, we need to maximize other production of our permanent pastures before turning to chopped or baled feed.

In round numbers, a typical dairy cow eats about 6 tons of dry matter as forage and 2 tons of energy and protein concentrates per year. The combination of forage and concentrate will vary with each operation. In balancing a ration, removing a pound of grain doesn’t necessarily increase forage intake by an equal amount. There is only so much room in a cow’s digestive tract and the speed with which feed passes through it makes a big difference in total intake. Higher quality and more digestible forages result in higher total dry matter intake and more milk with less supplemental feed.

If we think of our pastures as a high value crop, then we need to measure the yield and calculate the cost of production. Soil tests are essential and will be a deciding factor in applying fertilizer to a crop that is profitable. How many farmers know how much forage their pastures produce? How can we measure it? While we can’t easily measure pasture yield exactly to the pound, we can get a close estimate. Since a cow eats an average of about six tons of forage dry matter per year, that comes to a half a ton per month. Cows eat more when they are giving a lot of milk and a little less when they are dry but the total is consistent. The size of the cows can also move this figure up or down a little as does the quality of the forage. An all grass-fed herd will eat about 7 tons of total dry matter per year if it is all from forage. Another way to figure this is the percent of body weight that is the cow’s average intake. A 1,400 pound cow that consumes 2.5% of her body weight per day as forage, eats 35 pounds of dry matter per day. If the moisture content of that feed is 13% then she eats about 40 pounds of feed per day. That balanced ration could be met with 32.5 pounds of forage plus 7.5 pounds of grain. 32.5 pounds of forage multiplied by an average month of 30.41 days equals 988 pound per month. Really close to our half a ton ‘round number.’ A reasonably close estimate of our pasture’s estimated yield can be determined by subtracting how much we feed in the barn from an estimated daily total intake based on body weight, stage of lactation, and forage quality. On well managed, exceptionally rich soil (which few of us have), yields as high as 4 tons of dry matter per acre are possible in the northeast, although most pastures fall short of that. A 4 ton per acre forage crop at the current price of good hay $250-300/ton equals over $1,000 per acre! The operating cost of growing this crop is generally only the land plus the cost of maintaining fences plus something for management.

Unfortunately, few farmers get the full potential profits from their pastures.

Klaas is a third-generation farmer in New York. Klaas grew up on a dairy farm and had a dairy until dissolving a partnership with his brothers. Mary-Howell and Klaas later bought the small organic dairy farm that is currently being leased to Aric Loomis. Klaas still manages the pastures where the young stock and dry cows are grazed. This year, about one acre of the pasture has low density elevated solar panels that were constructed to provide shade for relief from the sun during the hot weather. The solar panels will serve as ‘solar trees’. University research shows that cows that graze under elevated solar panels have lower body temperatures in the hottest part of the day and will graze for longer periods during the day. We will record temperatures, yields, and grazing behavior and share the information with farmers.

Posted: to Organic Production on Tue, Mar 3, 2026
Updated: Sat, Mar 7, 2026