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With all the snow and rain this winter and spring many people are beginning to forget the drought of last summer. That drought devastated crops, pasture, and livestock. New crops will be planted, the livestock have recovered, but the grasslands bear continued evidence of the drought’s damage.
The drought affected the grasslands in two important ways. The lack of water itself severely stressed the plants. No one can control the lack of rainfall. However the most severe and lasting damage came from the resulting overgrazing of the limited plant growth. During a drought, past, present and future management all affect the severity of damage and the speed and extent of recovery of a field.
Proper use is the most important principle of grassland management, and is usually the most difficult for the farmer to accept. Historically, the failure to apply proper stocking rates has been the principle cause of the loss of productivity of grasslands. Overgrazing has ravaged our pastures and lowered their potential to a fraction of what it should be. The benefits of high-producing grasses and legumes are often reduced to a minimum by the practice of taking too much of the growth and leaving too little for protection and maintenance of the stand.
“Take half and leave half” is a phrase which expresses the principle of proper use for permanent grasslands. The half that is taken by grazing or mowing is the marketable preduct of the pasture. If more is consistently taken, the more profitable pasture plants will be reduced in vigor and numbers and will be able to produce less and less abundantly, until finally the pasture will be filled with low-order plants. Moreover, profits will be greatly reduced.
To understand this principle the farmer must clearly understand one thing. The green growth above the ground is the manufacturing plant which converts raw elements into a form which is usable by the plant in its growth, development and maintenance. This wonderful process, called photosynthesis, occurs in the leaves or blades when sunlight acts on the green coloring matter, called chlorophyll, in the presence of raw plant food elements and water obtained from the soil and the air.
If the green growth is removed by grazing or mowing, the process stops. Then the plant calls on the reserves stored in the roots to start growth again. If the top growth is removed as fast as it is formed, the plant continues to draw on the foods stored in the root system until this reserve is exhausted. Then the plant dies.
The farmer unintentionally destroys his valuable pasture plants when he overgrazes or mows too
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