Graziers learn about techniques during Simmental farm tour

SHELBYVILLE, Ill. — A rotational grazing system at Rincker Simmentals is designed to provide forage for the cow herd during the majority of the year.

“We aim for more days of grazing and my goal is to graze the cow herd for all but three months of the year,” said Curt Rincker, who owns Rincker Simmentals with his wife, Pam, and children, Cari and Brent.

“We plan to graze the herd up through Jan. 1 and we use triticale, rye and brassicas to get to 290 days of grazing,” said Rincker during a farm tour that was part of the Heart of America Grazing Conference hosted by the Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition, the Illinois Forage and Grassland Council, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Resources Conservation Service and University of Illinois Extension.

The Rincker herd includes 125 cows.

“I showed Angus cattle in 4-H, and in 1972, my dad came home from AI school and we started to AI with Simmental,” the cattleman said.

“Along the way I met Ed Ballard and I began thinking about how to make a grazing operation do more for us,” he said. “We took our original 105 acres and made 10 paddocks with the cattle on them for three days and then 27 days off which gave the forage plenty of rest.”

Clipping the pastures is also part of the management for the pasture areas.

“I clip them down to 6 or 7 inches,” Rincker said.

“Clipping is really important and the growth for orchardgrass is above the ground, but the growth for fescue is below ground,” added Ed Ballard, former coordinator of the Dudley Smith Farm.

“If you mow orchardgrass below 4 inches tall, you are destroying the energy built up in the plant and it is not going to survive,” he said. “I like 6 to 8 inches better, to keep orchard grass in your stand.”

“These pastures are from 6 to 7 acres each and they sustain a group of 50 cows for about three days,” Rincker said.

During the tour, the group looked at a hayfield that was established 12 years ago with orchardgrass and alfalfa.

“Now I add 5 to 7 pounds of red clover and I think it is a really nice blend with no endophyte in this feed source,” Rincker said.

Seeding the clover, he said, is easy to do and it can be accomplished in either the spring or fall.

“In the spring, we do a frost seed toward the last frost and we get a pretty good catch,” he noted. “In the fall, I broadcast the red clover around Sept. 15 to get it established before the winter sets in.”

Rincker is now less aggressive with the number of hay cuttings he harvests each summer.

“We take three or less cuttings — we do not do a four-cutting system anymore,” he said.

“This is cutting No. 2 now, we will do one more cutting this summer and we try not to make any hay cuts after Sept. 1,” he explained. “We will come back and graze this after it freezes in November to get another week or so of grazing to extend the season.”

The two paddocks in the back of the field are set aside for stockpiling forages.

“The trees on the north side make a natural windbreak,” Rincker said. “And the cows will eat down through a foot of snow to get to the stockpiled feed.”

At the winter feed station, the cattle can come and go to get their winter forages and the cows will calve in the nearby barns.

“The first 35 cow-calf pairs will come here on day two or three, once the cow and calf have bonded and the calf is doing fine,” Rincker said.

A corral system with a crowding gate is located just outside of the feed station.

“This structure has worked very well for us, and if I did this building again, I would insulate it,” Rincker said. “This is a winter feed station, but it is also a summer shade because shade is pretty valuable.”

Rincker Simmentals’ bulls are developed at the farm’s bull center.

“We bring in the sawdust for the floor and at first it was only going to be during the summertime, but we liked it so well in terms of keeping the cattle clean, we use it year around now,” the cattleman said.

The bulls are weaned at 5 to 6 months of age and the cattleman feeds the Accuration program to his bulls.

“We weigh our bulls every month and they are gaining about 3 pounds per day,” Rincker said. “They snack about six to seven times a day.”

Two sales are held at the Rincker Sale Facility each year in the spring and fall. Those interested in adding Simmental genetics to their herds have the opportunity to purchase not only bulls and heifers, but also embryos, semen and cow-calf pairs.