Managing volatile input costs for forage and feed inputs requires some thought and a sharp pencil,” said Ted Fry, Regional Agronomy Specialist for MU Extension serving the South Central Region of Missouri. Fry suggested remember four points when taking inputs into consideration.
1. Your soil needs nutrients replaced.
Removing hay continuously from a field without replacing plant nutrients back into the soil is like going into long-term debt on your credit card. Potassium (K) is sometimes “mined” from the bank of soil nutrients when forage is continually removed from a given field without adequately replacing it.
2. Consider buying hay to save on fertilizer.
Buying hay from someone else’s property might have a bonus in that you are cycling the nutrients contained in that hay back on to your land. Consider the cost of the hay for feeding value and think about the nutrient you are gaining also. At current commercial fertilizer prices a ton of hay may contain as much as $50 worth of plant nutrients. Cattle return as much as 85 percent of those nutrients back to the pasture as urine and manure. The trick is to manage the feeding and manure distribution to get it spread out well. Rolling out bales on areas that you know need nutrients, or more organic matter can help, as well as rotating locations where hay is fed. Rotational grazing in combination with these tactics can further improve the distribution of those nutrients.
3. Know what your soil needs.
Money spent on something that you don’t need is wasted money when you are growing forage for cattle. Get a soil test, take care of your lime, and match your fertilizer applications to what you need. A link on Ozarks Farm & Neighbor's website will link you to a soil guide, or call your local Extension office for more information about soil testing.
4. Lower your feed costs.
Research has shown that what generally separates profitable producers from unprofitable ones is their cost of production, in particular feed costs. The easiest way to lower your costs is to graze more days. Every day the cattle can harvest their own quality meal, instead of being fed a hay bale or fed grain, is one more day the producer can make money. Managed rotational grazing and stockpiling forage grass can extend your grazing season, lessen your workload, reduce the amount of endophyte toxins, and can reduce your hay and supplemental feed expense. Some producers are even feeding hay earlier in the fall/winter season in order to preserve some stockpiled fescue for later winter grazing. True, the protein content drops a bit, but digestibility likely increases and the endophyte toxins decline significantly by January or February," said Fry.
