Fall Grazing of perennial forages

Fall grazing management can really ‘set the stage’ for next year’s perennial pastures. It is important to leave sufficient carry-over (litter) on pastures prior to the upcoming winter months. As much as it is tempting, overgrazing pastures in the fall period is not worth the loss of production in subsequent grazing seasons. Producers are generally very careful in the spring to not turn cattle out too early onto their perennial pasture to allow plants time to recover from the previous winter. However, very few producers use the same level of care when fall grazing perennial pastures. It is just as important to know when to move cattle off a perennial pasture in the fall in order to retain a decent amount of litter on the soil surface, rather than grazing all the remaining forage prior to winter. In order to improve the potential of a pasture for the next year, in some situation it might mean pulling the cattle 1 or 2 weeks earlier off a particular field to retain enough litter on the s