Pasture & Range: August 2002 Other Pasture & Range Articles

It's time, once again, to begin preparations for planting winter pasture in the fall. The optimum time to plant winter pasture for forage in the Ardmore, Oklahoma area is from Aug. 25 to Sept. 15. Earlier planting runs a greater risk of stand loss due to drought or insect damage, and later planting has a greater risk of losing production due to lost opportunity of growing days.

Get winter pasture in early, even if it means having to "dust-in" seed

For example, we estimate that for every day you delay planting beyond the optimum planting date, you will lose 30 to 50 pounds of dry matter forage/acre/day in the fall. In other words, if Sept. 10 was the optimum planting date and you waited until Oct. 1 to plant, you will have potentially lost 600 to 1,000 pounds of fall forage production. Unfortunately, we never know what the best day for planting was until after the fact. The signs I use to determine when to plant include rainfall, temperature, wind, soil moisture and weather forecasts. However, if fall forage is a concern, I use Sept. 15 as the critical date for planting winter pasture, even if this means having to "dust-in" the seed (see photo). The main reason it is so critical to plant early is that after Dec. 1, temperatures are too cool for plants to grow effectively. In fact, I always assume that by Dec. 1, we usually have received 90 percent of our expected production for the fall season and don't expect any more significant growth until sometime in late February or early March.

Another way to increase the potential for maximum fall forage production is to adequately fertilize with nitrogen at planting time. This means applying 80 to 100 pounds of actual nitrogen/acre at planting or shortly thereafter. Phosphorus is also an important consideration, since most of the soils in this region are inherently low in phosphorus as well as being slightly acidic. The best way to apply phosphorus is to band it with the seed at planting. However, if this is not an option, simply broadcast the fertilizer before or during planting.

How winter pasture should look when it's time to iniitiate grazing

Our typical planting prescription for winter pasture is:

• 100 to 120 pounds of rye (Oklon, Maton or Elbon) on sandy- to medium-textured soils, or 100 to 120 pounds of wheat (Coker 9663, Jagger, 2174, Custer or Lockett) on heavy-textured soils or soils that stay wetter than normal;
• 15 to 20 pounds of ryegrass (Marshall, TAM 90, Rio, Jackson, Ribeye);
• 80 to 100 pounds of actual nitrogen;
• P and K as recommended by soil testing;
• Plant by Sept. 15; and
• Topdress in February, according to desired level of production.

In the Ardmore area, if all goes well, you should produce enough forage to stock at a rate of 400 to 600 pounds of beef/acre from mid-November through March 1. If you choose to topdress in February with 80 to 100 pounds of actual nitrogen/acre, you should be able to stock at a rate of 800 to 1,200 pounds of beef/acre from March 1 through grazeout.

Remember, the farther you live from the Ardmore area the more likely it is these general guidelines will be different.

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