Managing Pasture in Adverse Conditions
There are multiple months every year when cut and carry is not possible – either due to soil moisture levels being too high to access the pasture with heavy machinery, or because extreme dry conditions mean there is literally no grass to cut. During these periods, farms generally balance out the available pasture with other feeds such as silage. It is important to ensure you have enough feed in total so feed budgeting is important.
Learning how to manage pasture quality is particularly important when there are times you can't get onto the pasture but you don't want to end up with poor quality pasture when you can get back onto it.
Many goat farmers will have some drystock (beef) as part of their system to help 'clean-up' paddocks and these animals can be used as part of the over-all pasture quality management when you can graze these animals instead of taking the cut and carry gear on the farm.
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Dry Weather Strategies:
When extreme dry conditions exist, the farm can end up in a situation where grass growth is limited, resulting in very low pasture covers. Irrespective of the nutrient quality of this grass (which typically would be low anyway), it simply takes too many rounds of the paddock to get sufficient grass in the wagon for the daily need of the goats. This makes the job time consuming, increases fuel consumption and machinery wear and tear, and further compacts the soil. In terms of feeding the goats, the typical scenario is to switch to a fully silage based system. What grass is 'left' in the paddock will eventually need to be cut and fed to the goats as a fibre component of their diet in late lactation or the dry period and/or turned into supplement. This will enable better quality regrowth as soil moisture levels begin to increase.
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Wet Weather Strategies:
Wet weather creates the issue of the ground becoming too soft for the heavy cut and carry machinery. Your pasture may be nutritionally ideal but getting it out of the paddock into the goat barn may leave your paddocks ripped up.
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If you have paddocks that are prone to flooding or holding moisture, plan ahead as much as possible by trying to cut from the paddock/s before heavy rainfall is forecast or anticipated. Where you have alternative entry points to paddocks, use them (i.e.. avoid gateway damage from passing over the same area continuously).
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A further option to help minimise pasture damage during wet periods is to cut from multiple paddocks simultaneously (i.e. Paddock A on day 1, Paddock B on day 2, Paddock C on day 3, back to Paddock 1 on day 4 etc)
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