Managing Pastures Well – Don’t Get Sloppy!

Marcelo Wallau, UF/IFAS Forage Extension Specialist

The conditions this past year have been difficult for pasture management. We went through a long drought from late summer through the fall, followed by a cold and dry winter. Many pastures never fully recovered after the last rains in July and August, and the severe winter weather has limited the growth of cool-season forages. From a forage perspective, times are tough! But from the cattle side, prices are stronger than ever. Margins, however, remain tight due to high costs, especially as many of our producers are purchasing feed. In this scenario, the good prices don’t guarantee profitability if the production system is out of tune. That is why we cannot get sloppy!

It was with that rationale that we started our conversation a few weeks back at the 41st NW Beef Cattle Conference, in Marianna, Florida. My talk was on “managing pastures well”, which is what I wanted to follow up with a discussion in this article. All talks that day emphasized the need for fine-tuning your production system to capitalize “in times of fat cows” to make adjustments that can help your system to be more profitable and efficient in the long run. Doug has shared with our readers some of the highlights from the Beef Cattle Conference.  If you were not able to join us, you can watch my presentation on YouTube video below, or in this episode of the Cow Talks podcast.

 

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Good Pasture Management Starts With Balance

A pasture system only works when forage production exceeds forage demand.  If the balance is negative (just like a bank account) the system goes downhill. You start withdrawing from plant reserves, which reduces root growth and weakens the stand. This limits forage production in the short-term and will reduce pasture persistence in the long-term.

Most of our problems—poor stands, weeds, disease pressure, mole crickets, and the need for early hay feeding—come from two main causes:

• Overgrazing (seasonal or continuous) – seasonal means never removing the animals from the pasture or adjusting the stocking rate to match the slow pasture growth during the spring green-up. I wrote this article back in 2023 about the spring green-up and how grazing too early can reduce overall forage production and delay the peak of growth in the summer. Give that bahiagrass pasture a chance to come up, don’t start grazing too early! By “continuous overgrazing,” I refer to when the stocking rate is well above the pasture’s carrying capacity, and not even the greater forage growth in the summer can compensate for that. In other words, our overall (annual) forage demand is greater than the pasture production capacity.
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• Lack of soil fertility – the plants just don’t have the nutrients needed to perform at their best and start falling back. This creates space for scavengers (weeds) to take advantage of and encroach. A lot of pasture decline is associated with low fertilization, especially low K and low pH. Dr. Mackowiak talks about that issue in this article.
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Rotational grazing alone does not fix overstocking. This is a common misconception I often see in media outlets. Slicing the pizza into more pieces doesn’t make more pizza; you can share it with more people, but they will not be satisfied. The first step is to match the stocking rate to what your land can grow.

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Where We Got Sloppy

During the fertilizer price spike a couple of years ago, many producers cut back or stopped fertilizing pastures altogether. Some of that was necessary at the time, but skipping fertility for several years weakens pastures. We started seeing:

• Low potassium and low pH
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• Weak root systems
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• Increased susceptibility to pests and diseases, like mole cricket take-all root rot
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• Lower forage production and shorter growing season
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• Earlier need for hay, often starting in October
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This leads to double expense: you invest a little and get no forage, and then you must buy hay and feed on top of that. Over time, the pasture continues to decline and we need to renovate, adding another layer of costs.

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What Fertilization Really Does

Fertilizer does not fix drought. But healthy pastures survive drought (and other stresses) better and rebound quicker. Our research shows that medium-level fertilization in bahiagrass (100 lb N/acre split between spring and summer, with P and K based on soil test results) not only increases total yield but also extends the growing season by providing more forage in late summer and early fall. That extra month or two of growth often avoids early hay feeding. Including legumes, especially rhizoma perennial peanut, also adds N to the system and improves spring green-up. But note that this is a long-term strategy, with high initial cost, that pays off big time in the future.

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When to Renovate a Pasture

Before renovating, ask why the pasture declined in the first place. If we don’t fix the mismanagement issues, the new pasture will follow the same path. Renovation is justified when:

• Less than 50% desirable forage cover, and
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• Little chance of recovery even with rest and fertility
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Renovation presents some interesting opportunities, for a change of species or varieties, to add legumes, and to correct soil fertility. I like to build a two to three-year plan for renovation, where I include annual forages to strategically to reduce seed-banks (weeds, bahiagrass when switching varieties, bermudagrass rhizomes). Annual forages—summer or winter—can also help diversify production and increase animal performance.

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Diversifying the Forage System

Relying on a single pasture and a single forage species (usually bahiagrass) limits flexibility. A resilient system should include, along with bahiagrass, other species such as limpograss to be used for stockpiled forage in the fall, summer, and winter annuals, and legumes for high-demanding animal categories. Utilizing a variety of forages can provide growth at different times of the year. With a diverse system and a few subdivisions, you can shift animals to where grass is growing and avoid overgrazing the same pasture every spring. Also, remember that variety choice matters. Not all bahiagrass or ryegrass varieties behave the same in terms of growth curve, cold tolerance, and disease resistance.

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The Grazing Piece

Grazing too early or too low can limit forage production or even cause pasture decline over an extended period. Overgrazed pastures have small root systems, shallow water access, and low resilience. Leaving proper residual (around 4 inches for bahiagrass) improves:

• Forage accumulation
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• Animal gains
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• Stand persistence
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Reducing stocking rate when needed—especially in years with drought—is often the most efficient management decision you can make.

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Don’t Get Sloppy

High cattle prices are an opportunity to:

• Sell some cows at good prices
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• Reduce grazing pressure
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• Reinvest in land productivity
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• Correct soil fertility
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• Renovate key pastures
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• Build a more diverse forage system

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Good management now pays back for many years to come. The goal isn’t more complexity, it’s simply balancing production and demand, fixing the weak points, giving the forage base a chance to recover, and investing where there is the greatest return. Diversify your system and it will improve resilience. If you want more information or to discuss your forage system, reach out to your local UF/IFAS Extension Office. You can also follow our updates on the UF/IFAS Forages social media (UF IFAS Forages on YouTube, UF Forage Team on Facebook, and uf.forages on Instagram) and our Cow Talks podcast.