Winter Management of Yearling Steers in a Grass‐Fed Beef Production System

Abstract

e role of winter pasture management for beef production systems requires clari cation. We designed four pasture management systems to sustain a 0.5 kg average daily gain (ADG) of spring-born steers during fall and winter. e experiment was conducted at West Virginia University, Reedsville Experimental Farm. Treatments replicated three times on 0.81 ha grazing units included: (i) naturalized grazingland with haylage (NGH), (ii) orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) cultivated pastureland, animals moved to drylot with hay (OCD), (iii) orchardgrass cultivated pastureland with haylage (OCH), and (iv) tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum, Schreb., Darbysh.) cultivated pastureland with haylage (TCH). Grasslands were stockpiled from August and N (84 kg ha -1 ) was applied to all except NGH. Grazing began in November and ended in January with a stocking density of 4.9 steers ha -1 hay or haylage were fed until April. Pelleted soybean (Glycine max L.) hulls (PSH) were fed when ADG fell below 0.5 kg. Herbage disappearance was highest in TCH (1521 kg ha -1 ). Herbage accumulation of TCH was reduced more by dry weather during stockpiling. Di erences in nutritive value between grasslands were small, as OCH and OCD had greater crude protein (CP) whereas NGH had lower CP. No di erences in ADG were found between treatments; however, in 2006-2007 and 2008-2009 with early and persistent snow cover, supplementation was required, being signi cant in 2006-2007. Yearling steers can be maintained during winter with a combination of stockpiled and conserved forages fed to achieve gains of 0.5 kg ha -1 d -1 .

Winter Grazing in a Grass-Fed System: Effect of Stocking Density and Sequential Use of Autumn-Stockpiled Grassland on Performance of Yearling Steers

“…Riesterer et al [23] proposed a schedule to use stockpiled grasslands in Wisconsin depending on species endurance. Similarly, our previously reported observations [14] suggested a sequence of use based on resistance to weathering. A thorough understanding of the pregraze pastures was needed to help explain any difference which may occur as a result of stocking density on average daily gain of yearling steers during winter.…”

“…Winter grazing in grass-fed systems is highly dependent on weather [14]. Also, during winter grazing, temperatures and snow cover can affect grazing behavior and animal performance [20][21][22].…”

“…The paddocks were grazed by 24 Bos taurus steers divided into two groups to create low 7.41 and high 12.35 steers ha −1 stocking densities (SD), each replicated three times. We created a sequential grazing scheme based on previously observed resilience of the grassland communities to winter conditions [14]. Each grassland represented one of three grazing intervals (GI) coincident with pasture type (Table 1).…”

“…This equation was derived from data collected from each of the paddocks in each grassland unit from 2004 through 2009 [14].…”

“…Mata-Padrino et al [14] noted that when grasslands comprising different locally adapted forage species were grazed simultaneously, herbage quality declined more quickly on naturalized permanent grassland, while tall fescue dominant swards maintained herbage quality the longest and orchardgrass dominant swards were intermediate. To validate this observation, we grazed the grasslands in a sequence related to tolerance to late-season weather conditions for this experiment.…”