Bale Grazing Success Story

The USDA Census reports that Anderson County has 458 Forage Operations on 20,764 acres producing 37,060 tons of dry equivalent. Combining county forage operations with the 380 Cow-calf operations with 15,880 head and 340 Beef Cattle Operations with 8,263 head, one can discern that efficient forage utilization is key to the success of cattle operators. Efforts put forth by the Extension Agent with the guidance of Extension Specialists in forage production and economics provided the opportunity to participate in a revolutionary production practice known to most as “Bale Grazing.”

Conducting monthly individual producer meetings in addition to community educational field days were planned and executed by the Extension agent and Extension Specialists. The individual meetings that were conducted included examination for proper feed rates, herd rotation, fencing and bale placement, pre and post-feeding soil analysis, and bale GPS coordinates. The community educational field day included presentations on bale grazing protocol based on individualized scenarios, forage analysis, cattle conditioning, and environmental externalities.

In previous years, two cow-calf producers participated, with one other producer joining the program before winter feeding. After winter feeding was completed, the three producers were asked questions about their experience using the bale grazing production practice. As a result, all three producers decreased their number of hay feeding days by an average of 20 days. Using simple estimations of 6 round bales per cow through the winter, or 1 round bale per month, at a rate of $30 per bale, the producers saved around $20 per head on feeding.  There was a decrease in costs associated with equipment usage. Additionally, producers increased the organic matter in their pastures at a much higher rate than standard production practices. The organic matter metric is hard to be monetized with the initial impacts, but there is evidence to support that their pastures will continue to grow during drought years due to how much moisture organic matter can hold.  

Anderson County is continuing to work with University Extension Specialists to offer more training around bale grazing utilizing the experiences of the producers that participated this past year. There are other topographical limitations producers have requested be addressed in future programming so the county can increase participation.