Ryegrass Wrap-Up

Sunday evening, I cut the last of our 2026 ryegrass crop. We will bale and wrap this in the coming days for use as feed for our cattle throughout the year. Our early crop was light due to a lack of rain, but the quality was very good. The last portion you see in the picture, cut and in the rows, was heavy, but the quality will not be as good. When we did finally get some rain, it delayed the cutting of this section. As the grass gets older, it enters the reproductive stage by shooting up a seed head. This older grass has more lignin, which gives the plant structure and rigidity. This is great for the plant's ability to stand and hold up this seed head. However, it turns out lignin is not very digestible for cattle. Younger, more tender grass makes better quality hay with more digestible protein. So, how do we handle this? To make good management choices for our cattle, we need to keep up with which hay is of what quality. We know that the most nutritionally demanding thing we ask any mammal to do is to lactate. Therefore, we earmark the best forage for the dairy cows. Once there is enough high-quality forage designated for the dairy cows, we allocate the next-best forage to our beef cattle for post-calving. They, too, will be lactating, just not as intensely as the dairy herd. All additional forage will be fed over winter to young stock, dry cows, and pre-partum beef cattle. That is why it's important that I take notes and label the forage as it is stored tomorrow. The old lie that we sometimes tell ourselves, "I'll surely remember that," just doesn't cut it.