Target 10 Communicator
July 2011 Edition
Pugging - Get your cows off!
Frank Mickan, DPI Ellinbank & Leah de Vries, DPI Tatura
High rainfall events have the potential to quickly saturate the entire soil profile and cause problems for pastures. While we do need water to grow grass (along with some sunshine), too much of a good thing can be bad. It is essential that you manage wet paddocks carefully this winter.
For some people managing wet paddocks may be a distant memory, and for younger farmers it may be a first. Unfortunately for some farmers in our region it is something they had to deal with in summer.
Wet conditions this winter could see pugged pastures, wrecked laneways, lame cows, increased levels of mastitis, cows calving in mud, less than ideal body condition at joining, stressed farmers and high levels of supplementary feeding. It is important not to underestimate the impacts that this could have on your business, yourself and your family.
In the May edition we featured an article which discussed the importance of preventing damage to the soil structure in wet conditions in order to protect the pasture base. Pugging is the term used for when cows tear up the soil structure in a paddock, making a mess and damaging the pasture. As pasture is the cheapest source of feed for most farmers it is vital to minimise the damage that cows can do to pastures by pugging up the paddocks.
As soon as pugging starts to occur, get the cows off the paddock.
“The minute cows start to pug a paddock, get ‘em off!” says Frank Mickan, Pasture and Fodder Conservation Specialist with the Dairy Services Branch in Ellinbank. “There is no point in leaving them in any longer as intakes won’t increase much, the pugging will worsen, and pasture production and quality will suffer. There will be even less pasture next rotation and if still wet, highly likely, the problem is drastically compounded!” ( Figure 1).
Figure 1: Pugging Damage
Pugging has the potential to cause serious damage to pasture:
- 20-80 per cent reduction in pasture growth (depending on the severity of the pugging);
- 20-40 per cent reduction in pasture utilisation;
- 39-54 per cent reduction in ryegrass tiller density.
These are sizeable reductions in pasture intake which will result in drastic milk production losses or increased cost of supplementary feeding. Pastures are relatively the cheapest source of feed for most farmers and you need to minimise damage to pastures during very wet conditions.
So how can you alter your grazing to minimise pugging damage and ensure that there is adequate pasture regrowth for the next rotation?
There are several management options that dairy farmers can use to minimise pugging damage:
- Leave animals on the paddocks but use different grazing management techniques.
- Try ‘on-off grazing’.
Grazing Management Techniques
Many farmers have tried the following grazing techniques in very wet winters with reasonable success. These techniques are:
1. Offer 2/3 day feed and 1/3 night feeds.
Offering only about two thirds of the 24 hour 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. Any shortfall in intakes may need topping up with a high quality supplement.
2. Offer several day breaks.
Moving the electric fence 1 - 2 times during the day’s allocation is another worthwhile option, albeit extra work. Cows will have a fresh break each shift, pugging is somewhat reduced, less supplements are needed and pasture utilization will be much improved over scenario one above.
3. Fill cows before they enter the paddock.
Many farmers believe that by filling the cows with feed (concentrates and good quality fodder) at the dairy before sending them to the paddock will result in them doing less walking (causing less damage) to get their fill. You must monitor residuals carefully. Are you better off to put hungry cows on the pasture and then moving them to an ‘off’ site?
4. Enlarging the area to be grazed.
Enlarging the area to be grazed, that is reducing the rotation length, reduces the density of hooves in a given area and so reduces the pugging damage BUT, does it? Often in very wet, windy weather, more pasture is damaged due to the larger area that is available to be walked over, but the damage is not so evident. The larger area of muddied pasture will be of lower quality on the next rotation. If this tactic is used, try not to shorten the rotation for too long as this will impact on the amount of pasture available next rotation.
On-Off Grazing
A very sound alternative grazing approach to minimising pugging damage is to ‘on-off graze’, that is remove cows from the pasture after a short period of grazing.
“On-off grazing has been used to great effect by many farmers dealing with very wet conditions to reduce pugging damage,” says Frank Mickan. On well fertilised pastures, near the 2 to 3 leaf stage of growth, cows can be expected to consume about 70 per cent of their expected intake (for a 12 hour period) within 2 hours, and 77 – 88 per cent if left on the pasture for 4 hours. After 4 hours, pugging is drastically increased for very little increase in pasture intake. It is therefore better to remove the cows from the paddock early and save the pastures for another rotation. However, the cows will need to be topped up with a high quality supplement to avoid loss of milk production.
The bottom line is, the minute pugging starts to occur, get the cows off the paddock! Now, you need to worry about where to put them when they are ‘off’ the paddock. Some of you may be lucky and already have a suitable area (see Figure 2). If you don’t however, it is not hard to be innovative in setting up a site for the ‘off’ period.
Such places may be old quarries, unused silage pits, tree lots (watch for ringbarking), sawdust pads, laneways, unused roads, sand banks, hard standing areas, concrete feeding areas, cow yards, a covered area specifically constructed for standing off animals etc... Each site has its own pros and cons.
You can use a sacrifice paddock as a last resort because of the damage to the pastures, soil structure and the danger of soil and nutrient run off into waterways. If possible, choose a paddock that will not pug easily or one ear marked for renovation next year after a summer crop. Consider strip- or block-grazing the cows, so that each day they will have some fresh pasture along with their supplement. If suitable machinery is available, feed any supplement just under the fence on the new break to avoid the feed being trampled into the mud. Do this before allowing the cows access to the new section.
Managing grazing in wet conditions can be very difficult. The aim for many farmers is often to try to get through the wet conditions without too much stress on the cows and with as little damage to the farm as possible. It is important to protect your pasture base as best you can during wet conditions. This will be a matter of choosing the management option that will have the least long-term consequences for your pasture base and your grazing rotation.
Figure 2: A more permanent stand off area, with a formed surface track that allows the tractor to feed out along the fence lines. The cows can be fed here, and are allowed a loafing area with water troughs.
