FALL STOCKPILING OF FORAGE ON PASTURE
Here is a basic strategy to follow when getting started in fall stockpiling
of forages in an intensive rotational grazing (IRG) system.

Stockpiling is accumulating forage on pasture for deferred grazing, and for staggering regrowth of pasture the following spring. You will need enough pasture acres for effective stockpiling. A starting point is approximately two acres of pasture per animal, as opposed to approximately one acre per animal without stockpiling. Plan to feed stockpiled forage to animals with lower nutrient requirements (e.g. dry cows, heifers).

Start by splitting pasture management into thirds. With one third of your pasture don't graze from about August 15th until the first killing frost. Then graze this area after fall growth stops (usually near the end of October). Leave three-fourths to one ton of forage per acre. This stockpiled material can be grazed next spring as soon as the snow melts while the ground remains frozen.

Let another one third rest beginning about September 1. Pastures with legumes are good candidates for this treatment. Lightly graze this area after the first killing frost if necessary so that no more than three-fourths ton of forage dry matter remains per acre. This stockpiled forage should be grazed while the ground is still frozen in the spring.

Pick another third of your pastures to graze during September. These should be grassier pastures that you want to frost seed. In addition to providing feed while the other pastures are resting, heavy grazing in the fall will reduce the vigor of the grasses to help frost seeded legume to get started.

-	The earliest forage that can be grazed in the spring is from stockpiled paddocks rested beginning the previous August.

-	Next to be ready will be new growth from paddocks rested at the beginning of the previous September.

-	The next paddocks to be ready to graze will be new growth from those rested at the beginning of the previous August (these are the same paddocks that provided the first stockpiled grazing earlier in the spring).

-	The last paddocks to be ready to graze, as they will begin new growth last, are paddocks that were grazed heavily the previous fall.

This strategy will lengthen the grazing season and make it easier to follow a rotational grazing schedule the following spring because each treatment will be ready for its first harvest at a different time.

Compiled by John Cockrell, Tam Kriegl and Kart Hakansan,
Lafayette and Sauk County UW-Extension Agricultural Agents, and UW-Extension Water Quality Educator - 8/95.