Tall fescue, a cool-season perennial grass, grows on approximately 1 million acres in north Georgia and more than 30 million acres in the U.S. Cattle can graze on this grass for an extended period from early spring to fall.

As feed prices have skyrocketed over the last several months, many producers are rethinking their winter feeding strategy in the southeast U.S. While weather is a big driver of our forage growing conditions, there are many forage management strategies that allow us to extend the grazing season well into the fall forage gap.

God’s given us 54 organic acres to work with on a grazing system and 110 cows to milk. Four years ago, we put up 55 bales of baleage. Last year, we stacked 400.

Using stockpiled forages (aka standing hay) can help reduce hay feeding and winter supplementation needs for cow-calf producers.

Unfortunately, drought and abnormally dry conditions continue to expand in a large portion of the south-central region as of this writing. Additionally, current projections through the end of February call for drought to continue in current areas and for drought to develop in almost all of the south-central region.