From the Pastures: Tips to take home

The Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition’s 2025 Grazing Conference was held March 11-12 in Springfield and had a good attendance of all ages. Some of the highlights I came away with are: soil microbes help the water percolate through the soil and cover crops help feed the soil microbes which make them multiply. This is just one way that cover crops help with soil health.

However, too much of a good thing is not better. Be careful to not plant too many seeds per square foot, about 25 to 35 seeds per square foot is a good starting point. I need to start doing this. One speaker said that Jim Gerrish had said that for every 10 inches of rain you should get one grazing cycle. We’re in a 36-inch rainfall area, so we should get three to four grazing cycles per year — and we do, when we get rain.

Travis Meteer, University of Illinois Extension beef specialist, said cornstalks are greatly underutilized in Illinois. By grazing cornstalks right after you combine the corn you can get 60 days of grazing. Weather will degrade the cornstalks, so you need to get on them as quick as possible. This 60-day grazing will allow your stockpiled grass to grow 60 days longer.

Cows should eat about 50% of what is out there and leave the rest, so figure about 7 pounds of leaf and shuck per 1 bushel of grain. So, a 150-bushel-per-acre yield equals 2,162 pounds of leaf and husk divided by two equals 1,081 pounds to be eaten. So, one cow or five sheep will need about two acres to graze 60 days.

Cows will eat in this order: 1. Grain; 2. Leaf; and 3. Shuck. I’ve found sheep eat: 1. Grain; and 2. A little leaf — and that is it. Avoid or limit spilled corn, end rows or where the combine turns and knocks down the corn to avoid overeating of the grain. But this is a great way to cheaply feed livestock.

One sheep grazier talked about grazing under solar panels. I use to think this was a good thing, but the longer he talked about the regulations and the number of people you have to talk to before you get to the right one, I’m beginning to wonder. These people have no knowledge about livestock or grazing, so you have to educate them. That isn’t my cup of tea.

He said if you do decide to do it: 1. It could take up to 18 months before you get animals on the ground; 2. Start as a “pilot program” to work out the kinks; and 3. Start small and work from there. A big part of your job will be to keep it looking pretty for the public and the solar company.

Greg Thoren from Stockton talked about his use of eShepherd Virtual Fencing. It’s a round disc that hangs under the cow’s neck and it makes a sound as the cow gets close to the “invisible fence” and will shock the cow if it gets to close or goes over the “invisible fence.” Gallagher makes it just for cattle, but in two to three years they will have one for sheep. Its boundaries are controlled by your iPhone or iPad. It’s a cool idea, but time will tell.

I went to a pasture walk in north-central Missouri put on by the Green Hills Farm Project. I’ve been a member for over 20 years. This is a group of farmers that meets every month at a different farmer’s place to see their farm operation and learn from them. Dennis and Becky McDonald put this one on and I went to see Dennis’s many different ideas.

After a very good potluck meal, he showed us: 1. His moveable, non-electric winter watering system — what I went for; 2. His grass-fed pigs eating hay and limited non-GMO corn; and 3. His cow herd grazing stockpiled forage with a little unrolled hay on top.

An unexpected sight was he had dug up a leaking fitting in a buried water line. The hole was about 4 feet deep and it showed a good profile of the soil structure. The top 18 inches was black dirt, pretty deep for Missouri soil, and then it turned right into yellow clay. But the real surprise was the depth of the grass roots, 42 inches deep — that’s 24 inches into the yellow clay. Dennis said he’s been rotationally grazing that ground since 1985. So, this really does build soil and it works.