any ideas for converting to rotational grazing?

My earlier questions in August/September about trimming the fescue for stockpiling has been answered. It has came back strong, didnt grow out so much taller but it is very thick. After the canopy was cut back a lot of clover has also popped up. Here is about a
270 degree panoramic view thanks to iphone5 with me standing in the lane.

Last year I strip grazed my stockpiled fescue. I thought I had good results utililizing the grass because the cows had a new strip every day and whatever they could forage from the previous days grazing. Of course, they ate all the grass to the ground. In the spring it did seem like it took a little longer to come back which was no problem because I had plenty of grass elsewhere. The question I have is, am I hurting my grass stand letting the cattle eat the grass to ground in the winter? Thanks for any opinions.

I encountered a problem moving from rotating pasture every week or two to daily moves. I now have a problem with Johnsongrass. Before the cows ate it to the ground and controlled it. Now, they may not be back to same ground in 2 or 3 months, the Johnsongrass is everywhere! It's not problem until this time of year when we are having light frost and the grass can be a danger to the cows. From my understanding after a killing frost, the danger is gone. I now have the cows where I see no Johnsongrass and I am feeding some hay. Has anyone else encountered this problem and what did you do? Thanks for any advise.

I have some of the same situation. I read an article the other day that said you should wait 2 weeks after light scattered frosts untill you graze JG but it only needs 4 days after a killing or hard frost. We have only had a couple of light frosts here so far.
The grass may choke it out eventually then it may not, it may take getting one of those weed wipers with roundup to get it all

IMO yes you are hurting it, but according to the experts not as bad as in the summer.
I did the same thing you did last year on some stockpiled fescue, it seemed forever coming back in the spring. What happens i think is that the fescue will try to regrow during the warmer days of winter and when it does if the cattle have access to it they will just keep coming back and biting the new growth off therefore depleting the root reserves. Just don't allow any backgrazing and don't let them graze the paddock they are in down to the ground before moving them. you want to keep enough leaf area for photosythesis to occur.
This year I have my pasture fenced where I can move them off to new paddocks without them backgrazing.

We had a lot of Johnsongrass in the field pictured above and I clipped it all in early seed stage and that took care of it. I'm sure it will be back next year but no worries at this point.

I wouldn't put cattle onto frosted or frozen johnson grass or any other sorghum until I was absolutely sure there wasn't any chance of it sending up new shoots.

This is what 665,000 Lbs per acre looks like.



The calves have crossed the wire in the background. The space is 60' x 60'.

Is there enough to feed that many cattle on a paddock that size?

The way I see it, you have about 55,000 lbs. of cattle, and they would need about 2-3% of their body weight in forage to feed them each day which figures out to about 1100-1600 lbs of grass. 3600 sq.ft. is about 1/12 of an acre, which means if I baled that pasture I would need to get somewhere around 12-20 round bales per acre (I've never actually seen a hayfield that productive). If you moved them 4 times a day that would still be about 3-5 bales per acre, which is still much more than I think would come off of that pasture.

So, how often are you moving your cattle?

I figured out one time that you need about a 10'x30' area per adult bovine if it's nice lush growth,per day. I'm usually doubling ,tripling and right now x way more, depending on regrowth.
So 60x60 would be enough for 12.

Your calculations and mine are nearly identical.

__________________
Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!

that is a very helpful way of estimating stocking rate that even a dunce like me can put into action. thanks

Well, it went down to 27 degrees last nite, so I should be safe in a few days. I may try the wipers next year. They make a spray for Johnsongrass but it's pretty expensive. Will wait until next year and see how bad it's going to be.

Yeah, I can prevent the backgrazing during the winter. But everything I read in the university studies on stockpiling recommends strip grazing. Just thought I would the people on this site. I will try rotating this year instead of backgrazing and see if I can tell a difference.

I clipped my fields at the end of August but the JG came back and headed out by October. The fields I clipped later, I have young JG 8 or 9 inches tall. Guess it depends on your area.

I think the fescue is so thick now that's why I didn't get any regrowth. That or it was a little later in seed out and it just didn't come back. I will have a better idea next year on what works at my place.

That spot was low on grass and had a few weeds I wanted trampled. So I unrolled some hay there before putting them in, then doubled the area (where I had some more hay) after 1.5 hrs.

I found out a long time ago that what the universities say is not Gospel. I talked to the regional grazing guy from the ext' office for the state and he appeared really reticent to give the recommendations I expected to hear. Upon pressing him, he obviously knew a lot more than he had first let on, so perhaps they don't recommend stuff because if it's "too hard" farmers won't try it?

Broadcasted Fria Ryegrass on about 4 acres of ground a few weeks ago. The area was covered with clover earlier this year and just about killed the grass. Anyway, really am impressed with the stand, it is anywhere between 4 and 8 inches. Does anyone here interseed ryegrass in their fescue? If so, how many pounds an acre? Thought I may sow it on my poorest fescue stand next September and feed it the following February. It appears that it would be a good return on the investment.

Stripgrazing as I understand it is where you cut off a portion of the field each day, more each day untill its all gone. It works ok as long as you have new grass to give the cows each day, but then when you run out of stockpiled grass if you are like me I would then let them have the run of the field.
The soil conservation/university people like to promote rotational grazing, but their approach to it is somewhat archaic IMO. The ideas promoted on this site/thread are far advanced to theirs IMO.

Yea I have some Ryegrass interseeded with some fescue...15 to 20 lbs/ac.
Here is something else I am really liking too:
Home of Persist Orchard Grass