BALE GRAZING

Some stockmen speed up the process of adding organic matter to their soils by doing their winter feeding on the poorest soils. This can be done by keeping the cattle on that field or pasture for winter and always moving the feeding area or bale feeders so the animals leave manure over most of the field or pasture by winter’s end. Haying and hauling the hay off takes nutrients from the land and doesn’t return them, depleting soil fertility over time, but feeding the livestock on that field puts the nutrients back.

Bale grazing (letting cattle eat big bales out in the field) is the ultimate in adding nutrients back to the soil. This feeding method involves leaving the bales in the field where they are made, or bringing bales to a field that needs more nutrients and setting the bales out ahead of time for winter-feeding. Some stockmen simply turn cattle into the whole field of big bales, and others reduce waste by using electric fence to confine the cows to just a few bales at a time, moving the fence as those bales are eaten.

There is always some “wasted” hay with big bale feeders or bale grazing; cattle won’t eat the hay they’ve pulled out onto the ground and walked on, pooped on or laid on. When you look at the big picture, however, there’s no such thing as waste; uneaten forage serves as litter and “free fertilizer,” resulting in improved soil health and increased production.

All the organic matter — the “wasted” hay and urine/manure mixed into it — also improves water-holding capacity of the soil. During drought, the greenest areas of the field are where those bales were earlier and a 30-foot circle around them where the cows were concentrating their urine/manure. This organic matter will improve production for at least 5 years. It’s a fast way to improve a pasture, but if you have a large farm or ranch, it’s a slow way to cover it all, because you generally can only cover one pasture per winter.

If you do a different field every year, and always do the worst ones, bale grazing will improve production on those fields for the next several years and add more soil carbon over the long term. Bale grazing, along with improved pasture management for increased animal impact, can soon make an obvious difference in soil health.