April is a good time to walk hay fields and pastures to assess stand density and plant vigor. This is especially true for alfalfa and red clover stands. As forage stands greenup, walk your fields and estimate the number of live plants per square foot. Counts in several spots can be made with a 2 x 2 ft square. If the planting is in rows, measure off a known area and make plant counts in the rows. Second year stands should have 8 to 12 plants per square foot, and third year or older stands should have 5 to 6 plants per square foot.

Visually estimating ground cover of desirable forage plants is also useful for assessing stands. This should be done when there is about six inches of growth. Stands with more than 80% ground cover should produce excellent yields, 60-80% ground cover should produce normal yields, 40 to 60% ground cover will likely yield in the 60% range of normal, and 20 to 40% ground cover will yield less than half the normal potential. Weeds will be a problem in thinner stands, so overseeding with grass and clover or destroying the stand and rotating out to another crop should be considered.

Dig up alfalfa plants and split the crown and taproot lengthwise to evaluate general root health, which may indicate stand vigor and future life span. Very healthy plants have creamy, firm internal root and crown tissue. Some crown rot (discoloration of inner tissue) will be present in older stands. Healthy stands have fewer than 30% of the plants with significant rot in the upper taproot and crown region. Stands showing more than 50% of the plants with significant rot across the entire diameter of the taproot or crown are likely to go downhill during this growing season.

While it is important to evaluate forage stands in early spring, research here in Ohio and Missouri has shown that more alfalfa plants die during the growing season (between spring and fall) than during the winter. Of course, there are some winters when catastrophic heaving causes complete stand loss. But most years, alfalfa stand density changes more during the growing season than during the winter. Winter injury and other stresses during the growing season can accumulate and weaken plants, causing them to die at some point during the growing season. So as you walk your fields this spring, make a mental note to walk them again in the fall.

[Top] Endophyte Testing- Dave Barker, OSU Dept of Hort & Crop Science

The most important information to managing endophyte is… What level of endophyte do you have? As a rule-of-thumb for stockers, you can expect to lose 0.1 lb of potential gain for each 10% of endophyte infection. Endophyte is usually tested in fresh tillers collected from the field, but can also be measured in seed (e.g. prior to planting) and in hay. Prices vary between labs and the type of test used. Historically endophyte was identified with a microscope, but now is often identified with an antibody method in the lab.

Practical recommendations for field sampling

Sampling is a relatively simple procedure:

1. Identify the area you are aiming to test. Most times you will be sampling an individual field, but part of a field, the whole field or part of a farm could be sampled.
2. Plan a route that covers the sampling area uniformly.
3. Sample in late summer or fall. Avoid sampling in spring and winter since that can have inconsistent results.
4. Collect 20-50 tillers of tall fescue (you might need some practice with plant ID!!!)
5. Tillers can be pulled by hand or cut, but samples should be low enough that some remnant roots are present. The ideal area for testing is the pseudostem, 2.5 cm (1") above the junction between roots and shoots.
6. Avoid selecting extra-large or extra small tillers; aim for average tillers for the field.
7. Sample only vegetative tillers; avoid plants with emerging heads ('boot') or mature seed-heads.
8. Avoid plants with soil or fecal contamination.
9. Ensure that any plant is only sampled once.
10. Remove surplus leaves and dead material, put the tillers into a zip-lock plastic bag and keep cool (use a cooler with ice if necessary). Immediately label the bag, with your name, field and date to prevent any confusion
11. Pack the tillers with blue-ice and send by overnight courier to the testing laboratory.

Who does endophyte testing?

Contact the lab prior to sending any samples to confirm the turn-around time and ensure that addresses, prices and analyses have not changed.

[Top] Spring Flush - Are You Ready?- Patty Dyer, Natural Resources Conservation Service

As the spring flush is spreading northward across our area it is a challenging time to manage our forages. As the Easter bunny came and went, our visions turn to the perfect pasture management system. We have seen the brown grass of winter turn green and shoot skyward almost over night while we are still wading through the mud of winter and early spring to complete our daily chores. Our challenge now is how to utilize this rapidly growing forage and insure that we will have the quality and quantity we need to get us through the grazing season.

Experienced grazers often state that this is one of the most difficult times of the year to properly manage our forages. We just have too much, too fast and it is changing hourly when the sun shines.

Let me suggest that this is the time to step back and evaluate what your year round goal is. If you are trying to cut feed costs and extend the grazing season, then it is time to plan now for what you will graze now, what you will graze throughout the summer and where you would like to accumulate any excess growth that you can this summer for late fall and winter grazing. Grazing larger areas now, fairly quickly will allow the animals to move through the system quickly and top graze large areas. As the growth slows down, consider splitting the fields so that each field has a longer rest period before it is grazed again.

Typically we are looking at as little as 18 days rest in the spring and early summer, but need to slow our rotation down to allow 30 to 38 days rest in the late summer. This may be accomplished by adding in extra fields such as hay fields during the summer. After a quick early grazing the excess growth in several fields may need to be clipped or made into hay to keep the growth at an ideal stage for the quality and quantity your livestock need later in the season.

If you have not already started grazing this spring, then consider that it takes the animal's digestive system several days to adjust to a new diet. If we start them out with basically a full stomach of their current feed and gradually give them access to more and more fresh forage, then we can make that transition fairly smoothly with little disruption to their growth and performance. This may mean turning the animals out on fields that have some new growth for a few hours at a time and gradually increase their time on fresh forage. It is important to give them access to their winter feed for several days as they gradually make the switch to the lush spring forage.

Sometimes we find that the new growth is so wet and lush that it more or less goes right through the animals and doesn't remain in the system long enough for the animal to meet its nutritional needs. By having some lower quality hay available, the rate of passage through the digestive system is slowed down and both sources of feed are more efficiently utilized.

Take time now to decide what your ultimate grazing schedule will be. Are you looking for a system that will allow you to move the livestock once or twice a week or are you working towards a system that will involve moving the animals once or twice a day? Each operation is different and weather conditions will dictate frequent changes in the schedule to meet forage consumption needs for the livestock and rest period needs for the livestock.

As the forage growth slows down many people tend to give the animals access to larger areas of the field, which means they get back to the same area sooner. This leads to lower production because the plants actually need a longer recovery period. So you really need to make the areas smaller with longer rest periods between grazing and add supplemental feed as necessary to meet the feed requirements.

Think first about where the available forages are, then address the challenge of how to best utilize them. Temporary fence and portable water can really broaden your options.

The number one thing is to start the process and learn as you go. The weather, changing seasons, etc. make each year different, and give us never ending learning opportunities.

[Top] Forages for Horses Programs & Research in Partnership With the University of Findlay Equestrian Center- Gary W. Wilson, Hancock County Extension Agent