Money in mud, not if you pug

Good winter rains have filled the soil profile bringing the risk of pugging. Pugging can reduce pasture growth by 20 to 40 per cent and reduce pasture utilisation by 40-60 per cent.

Pasture production in the following spring and summer may also be impacted by 20-80 per cent, depending on the severity of pugging damage. Animal health issues can also arise.

Very wet soils have reduced strength or structural integrity making them more easily damaged by cow hooves and machinery.

When soils are pugged compacting occurs, reducing the rate of water infiltration.

The severity will depend on soil type, degree of waterlogging and, most importantly, grazing management.

The greater the severity and extent of pugging damage, the greater the set back and cost of pasture restoration.

There are two main strategies that can be employed to minimise the physical and economic impacts of pugging damage modifying grazing techniques, or, “on-off grazing” Modified grazing techniques A grazing rotation where cows graze at the two to three leaf stage and leave a post grazing residual of four to six cm, will help reduce damage and maximise growth for the following rotation.

Maintaining a minimum grazing height of 10cm but preferably 15cm, which, when wet, is critical in reducing pugging damage.

The height allows the cows to take big bites of pastures reducing their need to walk. Offer 2/3 day feed and 1/3 night feeds. Offering only about two thirds of the 24hour allocation for the day feed and the remaining one third at night will allow the cows to have access to clean, un-fouled pasture for the night feed.

Offer the entire 24-hour allocation together. all

This allows the cows to spread out over the paddock for the entire 24-hour feed with some cows heading to the back while the rest hang around the front half of the paddock.

At the night feed, more of the herd make their way to the rear of the paddock but not all, so pugging damage is minimised overall.

Fill cows before they enter the paddock. Some farmers ensure the cows have a good feed in the shed, on a feed pad or from a feeder in the laneway before they enter the paddock.

With a full belly, the cows will be more settled and graze later in the morning but with much less walking resulting in less pugging damage.

Monitor residuals carefully as with this technique residuals may be left too high (six to 10cm), which will need addressing later.

Allocate a larger grazing area. Allocating a larger area to be grazed effectively speeds up the rotation but does reduce the density of hooves in a given area so it reduces pugging damage.

In very wet, windy weather, the larger area may become damaged since there is more available to be walked over and the damage may not be immediately evident.

Try not to shorten the rotation for too long as the amount of pasture available for the next round will be substantially lower.

Use free draining paddocks first. Some farmers are fortunate to have some soils which are less prone to pugging such as sandy rises.

These can be grazed in wet conditions, taking pressure off the pugging-prone paddocks.

Graze vulnerable paddocks before they become too wet. Use the weather forecast to predict rain events and graze vulnerable paddocks close to the top of the rotation early, as you may not be able to get on to them when they are normally ready to graze.

This may mean grazing just before two leaves but better than pugging a paddock. On-off grazing This involves the removal of cows from the paddock after a short period of grazing and holding them in an “off” area.

Cows usually graze pastures for two to four hours and are then moved before severe pugging damage starts.

On well-fertilised pastures at the two to three leaf stage, cows consume about 70 per cent of their expected intakes over 12 hours with two hours on pasture and 77 to 88 per cent over four hours.

After four hours, pugging increases drastically for very little increase in intakes. However, the animals will need to be topped up with a high-quality supplement to avoid loss of milk production.

There needs to be somewhere for the animals to go in the “off” period.

Farmers may be lucky and have a suitable area or can be very innovative in setting up a site for the “off” cows.

Such places may be unused silage pits, tree lots (watch for ringbarking and avoid edible parts of conifers), sawdust pads, laneways, unused roads, sand banks, hard standing areas, concrete feeding areas, cow yards, etc. Each site has its own pros and cons. If you get the chance, discuss the various options with farmers who have tried these suggestions or who have other ideas not discussed here.

Talk is cheap, pugging is not!