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Winter Management of Yearling Steers in a Grass‐Fed Beef Production System
Author(s) -
MataPadrino Domingo,
Felton Eugene,
Bryan William B.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj13.0568
Subject(s) - dactylis glomerata , grazing , pasture , hay , agronomy , biology , forage , stocking , zoology , poaceae
The role of winter pasture management for beef production systems requires clarification. We designed four pasture management systems to sustain a 0.5 kg average daily gain (ADG) of spring‐born steers during fall and winter. The 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. Differences in nutritive value between grasslands were small, as OCH and OCD had greater crude protein (CP) whereas NGH had lower CP. No differences in ADG were found between treatments; however, in 2006–2007 and 2008–2009 with early and persistent snow cover, supplementation was required, being significant 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 .