By Don Schwartz
Extension Agent, AGNR, MCE, Washington County
Goats are one of the most widely adapted ruminants on the planet. From the tropics to the deserts to alpine areas or south Texas or here, goats are well adapted to a wide range of climes and forages. Renowned browsers, they can select the most tender bud or literally clear a wooded area. But when I visited ranches in Texas, the goats were grazing grass pastures with not a forb in sight. When someone comments how poorly equipped goats are to graze being world-renowned browsers, I remind them that our whitetail deer is another natural browser. However, Mama Deer has taught several generations of fawns that grazing is good. It is amazing to see how effectively these browsers can mow off a field of grass or alfalfa!
As small ruminants producing meat, milk, and offspring, goats require a higher plane of nutrition for milk production as compared to meat production. The purpose of this presentation is to assist you in selecting forage species most suitable for your specific goat production system.
Grazing systems in this region are based on cool season grasses often with a legume complement. The selection of the "best" grass must consider both the adaptability of a particular grass to a specific site and soil, the nutritional needs of the animals, and the management goals of the producer.
Orchardgrass is a perennial bunchgrass that is very well adapted to many of our soil types across the region. Its root system is extensive but not as deep as fescue. Orchardgrass will grow well on heavy soils but will not persist under flooded conditions. It responds well to fertilizer but can grow on marginal soils. Until recently, orchardgrass varieties available in this country were bred for hay production. The growth habit was upright, and heading dates were generally in early May. Over the years, this created a reputation that orchardgrass hay quality was poor when the problem was that producers were harvesting too late. Early innovators of rotational grazing found even the hay type orchardgrass varieties performed well under frequent grazings or harvests. Newer varieties are more recumbent in growth habit and have much later heading dates. These two factors now allow orchardgrass to be effectively grazed or mechanically harvested while avoiding the grass becoming too mature. Orchardgrass pastures will produce from early April to mid November. With adequate moisture, this grass will produce well during the summer months. This is why it is often seeded with alfalfa for summer hay cuttings. Orchardgrass does not stockpile for winter grazing. Specific farm requirements will help determine the orchardgrass variety to be selected and if it is to be managed only for pasture, only for hay or both.
Tall fescue has earned a reputation of being a coarse, unpalatable, and even poisonous grass in the 70 years that Kentucky-31 tall fescue has had to pollute millions of acres of grasslands in the east. Tall fescue is a hardy, long-lived perennial bunchgrass. It can adapt to almost any soil type. It is one of the first grasses to grow in the spring, and it can be stockpiled to graze all winter long. It is our only grass that is truly adapted to a 12-month grazing system. The endophyte in K-31 and other tall fescues is what makes it resistant to drought, insects, disease, flooding or management abuse. The entophyte also makes some tall fescues unpalatable and in some cases toxic. Pregnant mares are particularly sensitive although I have seen beef herds lose over 50 pounds in calf weaning weight due to fescue pasture. But today, low-endophyte or no-endophyte fescue varieties provide producers some excellent alternatives that persist well, produce well, and are still adapted to almost any soil. There is even a new "animal-friendly" endophyte infected fescue on the market that promises all of the resistance of K-31 with the palatability of the best endophyte free fescue.
Timothy is often touted as a universal grass. Although it is a perennial bunchgrass, its root system is not as extensive as that of orchardgrass. It does not persist well on droughty or infertile soils. Its growth habit does not allow close or frequent grazing. Timothy is adapted to either a strict hay harvest or a one-cut hay system followed by some late summer grazing. Some of the timothy varieties being introduced from Europe may be more suitable for withstanding grazing pressure.
Bluegrass is one of our few native forage grasses. Although it is not very productive, its persistence and sod-forming habit makes it a useful grass in some pasture mixes where soil protection or a short grass is more important than forage production. It is not a deep-rooted grass and some varieties are susceptible to disease and insects.
Smooth bromegrass is a rhizominous, cool season grass. It is best adapted to cooler climates but once established, becomes a long-lived grass under proper management. Its growth habit precludes early season grazing. It is best harvested as hay in early June then late summer re-growth can be grazed. This grass can be grazed or stockpiled into early winter. Unlike the bunchgrasses, a mature stand of smooth brome will crowd out most legumes.
Reed canary grass is a tall growing rhizominous cool season grass. Its aggressive root system makes it adapted to both droughty and flooded soils. Stand establishment is slow, but a stand that is hayed or not overgrazed will persist for many years.
Ryegrasses are generally divided into perennial, intermediate, and annual types. Although ryegrasses are well adapted to many important grazing areas of the world, the weather extremes experienced by this region can make stands of the perennial ryegrass rather short-lived or just simply unproductive. This is unfortunate since ryegrasses are the highest quality grasses available for grazing. Variety trials at the University of Maryland Research and Education Center in Washington County are showing some intermediate varieties to be very winter hardy, but they persist for only two years. Annual ryegrasses are best seeded as winter annuals in double-crop systems with warm season annuals or are grazed into early summer and left to reseed.
Like annual ryegrass, our small grains, summer annual grasses such as millet or sudangrass, and the brassicas are best used in a double-crop system. That can be expensive in terms of seed and reseeding costs unless a certain goat enterprise warrants that investment.
There are two seeding windows for cool season grasses in this region. They are March 15-April 15 and September 1-October 1. These dates will flex based on a specific location. The late summer window is preferred for both new seedings and for renovations since the new grass avoids spring growth competition and summer heat.
The addition of forage legumes to grazing or haying systems provides additional protein, energy, and palatability to the feed produced. Further, legumes add nitrogen to the soil for grasses to utilize and assist in filling in the grass sward to inhibit weed growth.
Alfalfa is often acclaimed as the queen of the forages, but this is usually in the context of hay or haylage systems. An alfalfa or predominantly alfalfa stand would have a similar value on a commercial dairy goat farm as it would on a dairy cow farm. The longevity of an alfalfa stand (five years or more) may make it worth the expense to establish a mixed alfalfa-grass stand. Its taproot allows summer growth even when cool-season grasses are essentially dormant. Maintaining at least 50% grass reduces the need for insect and weed control. Some alfalfa varieties are developed specifically for grazing yet hay-type alfalfas persist very well under intensive rotational grazing. Alfalfa is best adapted to well drained, but not droughty, deep soils. It performs best in a pH range of 6.5-8.0. It produces its own nitrogen, of course, but requires high levels of phosphorous and very high levels of potash to produce and to persist to its genetic potential.
Ladino-type clovers are best adapted to grazing systems in combination with cool-season bunch grasses. Its creeping growth habit finds openings in the grass sward to fill in. Since it has no upright stem, ladino clovers can be grazed intensively throughout the growing season. However, summer stress can cause dormancy as it is not a deep-rooted plant. Ladino clovers will tolerate slightly acid soils but perform best in neutral to somewhat alkaline soils with good fertility. These clovers also do well on heavier soils than alfalfa as they will not heave with winter freezing and thawing.
Red clover is well adapted to a wide range of soil types and fertility. Although often considered only a short-lived hay crop legume, red clover does well in rotational grazing systems and can be used alone or in combination with alfalfa and/or ladino clover to complement cool-season bunchgrass pastures or hay stands. Some new red clover varieties are said to persist for three to five years.
Alsike clover is an upright growing, finer-stemmed plant than red clover, and its blooms are in colors of pink and white. It is our one legume that is adapted to very heavy or even flooded soils. It will not persist under poor grazing management. It is longer lived than most red clovers and does well with a grass hay on soils that are too wet for other legumes.
Birdsfoot trefoil is our alfalfa of all the marginal soils that alfalfa will not grow on. Wet or droughty, acid or not, fertile or poor, birdsfoot trefoil adapts to many soils. It is slow to establish, but it is long-lived and very hardy. Its branching taproot prevents it from heaving in the heavy clay mountain soils. It does well in a hay system or under managed rotational grazing.
Seeding legumes is often quite easy. The small seed broadcasts readily and in March a few freezing nights effectively incorporates the seed into the top one-half inch of the soil. This is the best method of adding clovers or even alfalfa or birdsfoot trefoil to existing grass stands. Alfalfa can also be no tilled into grasses in late summer not later than four weeks before a killing frost.
Warm season grasses such as eastern gamagrass, big bluestems, and switchgrasses may have a place in our cool-season grass systems to provide additional forage during the summer months when cool season grasses slow in production. Each of these grasses requires special care in seeding and grazing management.
Today you have many more grass varieties from which to select to build your forage systems than you did even five years ago. New varieties of orchardgrass, fescue, and even red clover provide forage-producing opportunities that confound any old perceptions of these forages. And the acceleration of domestic and international grass breeding programs along with the introduction of new forage species will provide an ever-growing selection of forages with which to fulfill the specific site requirements, animal nutritive, and management needs of your farm.
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