[Mark Tupman]

That’s a great point Kate and I’ve done much deliberating on that matter :-/

What I’ve come to is that, yes, we can use grazing to prolong vegetative growth of annual species to some degree but it all happens pretty quickly in spring and we can only apply this strategy for a limited period of time.

The bottom line is that we want our plants to be fully recovered by the time they start going to flower, if we are going to make hay or graze them! Up to this stage, fully recovered plants can still put on another decent flush of growth. We don’t want our plants to be setting seed when they haven’t fully recovered as this is somewhat akin to grazing unrecovered plants – reserves are exhausted, and regrowth and forage quality is poor. If we feel like the paddocks we are grazing in the green season are getting close to this point, it’s time to move on onto the stockpiled/sabbath paddocks. More on that another time.

If we follow the principles of not overgrazing through the season, we can definitely prolong the vegetative growth of our pastures and we will be rewarded with much richer and faster regrowth. In spring, a stressed (unrecovered) plant is a bolting plant 🙁

[Mark Tupman]

I think cocksfoot and prairie grass would be a good perennial species to try and get going on pastures here.

The tricky thing is establishing them.

The main obstacle, besides our infertile, sandy soils and dry summers :-/ is that common grazing practices have to be changed. Most perennials need a longer period of time for establishment before grazing and cannot be re-grazed as often, especially in the beginning. They need to make a full recovery, that is to the point where the lower leaves are shaded out and start to yellow off, before re-grazing

The other thing is we have to get our mob density high enough to finish an area within three days because if they are left there any longer they will go for the new shoots on the best plants over finishing off the other stuff. Most perennial species don’t last long with this sort of treatment.

Changing our grazing practices is not necessarily a sacrifice, to the contrary, better utilisation and longer recovery time actually make for better production per hectare and do wonders for the soil. This does however involve regular moves!

[Mark Tupman]

Plantain in established in pasture before snd after the sheep were let at it. The yellowing of lowest leaves indicated it was fully recovered and ready for another graze 🙂

[Mark Tupman]

Good question Kate! I wish there was an easy answer :-/
Adequate recovery is not as important for annual species because, let’s face it, they are only around for a short time anyway.
We do however want to get as much good forage out of them as we can in a season and hopefully build some soil too, through good root development and exudation.
For starters we want to try and give them enough time for establishment. This makes sense because early in the season they remain palatable and vegetative and to a point, larger/more leaves and roots make for more photosynthesis and nutrient acquisition. They also need well developed roots to avoid uprooting at the first graze.
We can only get one decent graze out of annual forbs with apical growing points, i.e. vetch, so recovery periods don’t apply. To get the most out of these species, you’d let them grow all the way to flowering then graze them completely.
Annual/biennial forbs with lower growing points, i.e. brassicas, serradella etc… do regrow and benefit from recovery. In this case, shading and yellowing of lower leaves, (as long as it’s not a nitrogen deficiency) is a good indicator that it’s time to graze.
Annual grasses like ryegrass take a bit of explaining. Firstly, they also benefit from having adequate time to establish.
Once the older leaves start bending down and touching the ground they are good to go. Ideally tillers should be around 25cm-30 high. The tricky stage comes later in the season when they go into stem elongation. At this stage, the apical meristem (growth point) starts to grow out (see photo) and become vulnerable to removal from grazing. If this vegetative meristem is removed, no more leaves can be generated from this tiller. During this stage of growth, you will see that the development of new crown buds and initiation of new tillers from the crown, slows right down. We need to take care not to graze the apical meristems off in this vulnerable elongation stage otherwise there will be a prolonged period without any regrowth.
When the plants start going into reproduction, (the boot stage when we usually make hay), a second cycle of basal buds starts which will provide us with some vigorous regrowth.
In summation, we need to allow annual ryegrass enough time for establishment, graze and re-graze it during the vegetative state when the older leaves start to bend down and touch the ground, avoid grazing the apical meristems during the elongation stage and then, then when it goes into the boot stage, either make hay, graze it once the new tillers are established or or leave it for stockpile.