Suggested Guidelines

• Cut the forage crop, whether annual or perennial, in the fall when nights are cooler. Usually, this will mean in late August or September depending on individual climatic conditions.
• Plant annual forages, barley and oats, late in the spring or early summer so they will be in the early dough stages in September for windrowing.
• Perennial forages should be grazed evenly and fairly heavy in the early spring so the regrowth is at a higher quality vegetative state in the fall for windrowing. It is advisable not to use the same field of perennial forage every year.
• Windrows should be no more than 4 feet wide. High, dense windrows are preferable. Most producers have swathers with 12- to 14-foot headers. At least two of these windrows should be raked together. It may be necessary to rake more than 2 windrows together in hay that is producing less than 1.5 tons per acre. Raking windrows together will increase their density, which will help keep the majority of the forage off the ground even under heavy snow loads. Hay that comes in contact with the ground will decay more quickly and be harder for the livestock to consume. Tall windrows also have the tops exposed making them more accessible to livestock. The exposed areas act as solar collectors, which melts snow off a larger portion of the windrows. Windrows, however, can be made too big, which encourages animals to bed on them and waste more forage.
• Raking windrows together should be done while the hay is still moist, before it is allowed to dry out. Raking right behind the swather or mower is best. It also helps build a tighter compact windrow that is less susceptible to wind damage.
• Cross fencing with electric fence should be done to control the time and amounts of forage animals have available. Electric fence should be placed at right angles to the windrows and when the fence is moved the butt end of the open windrow should be left in the newly fenced area. This leaves some hay exposed giving the cattle a starting point where they will continue to graze up the windrow.
• In order to minimize waste, the fence should be moved every day allowing only enough grazing area for one day’s feed supply. If that is not possible, the fence should be moved at least every 2 to 3 days. If more time is allowed cattle tend to over eat at the beginning of a grazing period and be overly hungry before the fence is moved. In a Nebraska study where fences were moved only every 10 to 14 days, waste was as high as 26%. In other studies where cattle were limited to one day’s feed and then the fences moved, waste has been lower than 5%.

< Back to Swath/Windrow Grazing

Last Modified: 04/29/2005