Summer Stockpiling Grazing Practices

A Sustainable Approach to Livestock Management

November 19, 2024

ARTICLE

What is summer stockpiling?

Summer stockpiling is a grazing management practice that significantly enhances total factor productivity (TFP) growth and promotes conservation in agricultural systems. This strategy allows forage to accumulate in selected pastures during the summer to provide livestock with nutritious feed in late summer and early fall when pasture growth slows down. It’s a way to save producers time and money by extending the grazing season and reducing hay costs.

Why summer stockpiling?

Fall stockpiling, also called deferred grazing or fall-saved pasture, extends the grazing season by ‘stockpiling’ growth in reserved pastures for grazing in the fall and winter. The practice has long been recommended to cattle producers, especially in the Eastern United States. However, fall stockpiling can be difficult in areas like Virginia, which tend to be dry during late summer and early fall. Dry conditions significantly limit the acreage that can reserved for fall stockpiling.

Summer stockpiling combats this issue by accumulating growth through the spring and summer. Cattle are then introduced in mid-August and can be grazed in the late summer and early fall, which allows producers to facilitate fall stockpiling on other acreage.

By deferring grazing in the summer, stockpiling ensures a reserve of high-quality forage for later use, reducing the need for supplemental feeding. Producers often rely on supplemental feed sources, such as hay, replace pasture feeding during fall and winter. Reducing reliance on supplemental feed improves farm profitability and fosters a more sustainable and resilient agricultural system.

A 2019 study by Virginia Cooperative Extension found that when successively combined with fall stockpiling, summer stockpiling provided an average extra 46 days of grazing and reduced hay feeding costs by as much as $51/cow. This study also found that summer stockpile forage quality was similar to first cutting hay, having comparable total digestible nutrients and crude protein.

Knowledge Sharing to Drive Adoption

Virginia Cooperative Extension hosted a summer stockpiling field day in Swoope, Virginia, on July 31, 2024. Representatives from Virginia Tech, the Shenandoah Valley Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Virginia Working Landscapes of Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, George Mason University, the local soil and water conservation district, USDA-NRCS, and the Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative convened to share the benefits of the practice with local producers.

Benefits of Summer Stockpiling

Productivity Growth

Summer stockpiling has the potential to substantially effect total factor productivity (TFP) growth. TFP growth refers to the efficiency with which all inputs—such as labor, land, and capital—are used to produce agricultural outputs. Summer stockpiling enhances TFP growth by optimizing available forage and minimizing reliance on external inputs like hay and feed. By extending the grazing season into late fall, farmers reduce the costs of purchasing and storing supplemental feed, which is often a significant operational expense. In turn, this lowers production costs while maintaining or even improving livestock health and productivity, leading to more efficient use of farm resources.

Stockpiling also contributes to productivity growth through improved forage management and soil health. Allowing pastures to rest during the summer encourages root development and enhances soil structure, leading to healthier, more productive pastures. The practice also mitigates the negative effects of overgrazing, which can degrade soil quality and reduce forage yields. As soil health improves, so does the land’s capacity to support higher levels of forage production, contributing to long-term agricultural productivity gains.

Conservation

In addition to its productivity benefits, summer stockpiling supports conservation efforts. By allowing pastures to rest and accumulate forage, the practice enhances soil fertility and soil water retention, which is critical for long-term land sustainability. By resting and accumulating growth through the spring, a summer stockpiled field would have health plants and healthy roots to absorb soil moisture. If a field is overgrazed or cut for hay too frequently or too low, the plants are not positioned to capture and hold soil water. Healthy soils are better able to retain water and nutrients, making them more resilient to extreme weather events, such as droughts, which are increasingly common due to climate change. Furthermore, the practice reduces the need for mechanically harvested feed, leading to decreased use of the energy-intensive processes of feed production, storage, and transportation.

Properly managed grazing systems promote plant diversity, which supports a wider range of wildlife and contributes to the overall ecological balance. By enhancing pastures’ plant varieties, stockpiling creates a more diverse and resilient ecosystem, which is critical for sustaining agricultural productivity in the face of environmental challenges.

Summer stockpiling also plays a crucial role in conserving wildlife habitats. Grassland birds, which rely on expansive, undisturbed grasslands for nesting and rearing their young, have faced significant habitat loss due to modern agricultural practices. However, by allowing fields to rest during critical breeding periods and deferring grazing until late summer, summer stockpiling creates a more suitable environment for these birds.

According to the Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative (VGBI), summer stockpiling aligns with efforts to protect grassland bird species, such as the Eastern Meadowlark, which depend on undisturbed grasslands for successful breeding. By rotating livestock out of select pastures in early spring and allowing forage to accumulate, farmers provide these birds with the time and space necessary for nesting. This practice enhances not only bird populations but also overall biodiversity, supporting other wildlife species like insects, small mammals, and amphibians.

Ultimately, summer stockpiling improves the efficiency of resource use, enhances soil and environmental health, and contributes to the long-term economic viability of farming operations. This multi-benefit practice promotes more sustainable grazing and higher forage productivity, but also fosters conservation by protecting vital bird habitats, ensuring that grassland ecosystems remain balanced and resilient. The practice demonstrates how sustainable grazing strategies can drive both productivity growth and conservation, making it a key tool for farmers seeking to balance the demands of agricultural production with environmental stewardship. By adopting this approach, farmers can improve their operational efficiency, contribute to environmental sustainability, and enhance their economic resilience.

Considerations for Producers

Location

Summer stockpiling often works best in pasture locations that have fence and water infrastructure but have historically been made for hay. However, the need for this hay can be reduced by simply stockpiling the field and grazing the field in the summer.

Species Selection

The success of summer stockpiling largely depends on selecting the right forage species. Summer stockpiling is almost exclusively used with cool season grass pastures. Warm season grasses can serve as an alternative to summer stockpiling to bridge the summer forage gap. Pastures with an abundance of cool-season grasses, such as tall fescue, orchard grass, and Kentucky bluegrass, would be candidates for summer stockpiling. Pastures dominated by tall fescue may be better suited to fall stockpiling as fescue tends to maintain its nutritional value longer into the winter. Producers should select a candidate summer stockpiling field that has good soil fertility and low annual and perennial weed pressure. Summer stockpiling allows many weed species the opportunity to go to seed. Therefore, producers should select a field with relatively few weeds to stockpile.

An alternative to summer stockpiling cool season grasses are native warm season grasses. These perennial bunch grasses include Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem, Indiangrass, Switchgrass and Eastern Gammagrass. These grasses also benefit grassland bird habitat due to their rapid growth in the summer months. Warm-season grasses, while productive in the summer, may lose their quality faster, requiring more precise management. These grasses also have the disadvantage of being difficult and costly to establish, often taking a year before they can be grazed without harming the stand. Producers should choose species that grow well in their region and fit the specific nutritional needs of their livestock.

Grazing Practices

Stockpiling works best when integrated with rotational grazing practices. By rotating livestock among paddocks and giving pastures rest periods, producers can maximize forage growth and quality. This system also ensures that stockpiled forage is reserved for later in the season while other paddocks are being grazed. Effective fencing and infrastructure for livestock movement are key components of successful rotational grazing.

Adopting stockpiling often requires more labor compared to continuous grazing systems. Livestock need to be moved more frequently between paddocks, and pastures must be regularly monitored to assess forage condition and prevent overgrazing. Implementing rotational grazing may also require investments in fencing and water infrastructure to properly manage livestock movement across fields.

Interested producers should also consider enrolling in incentive programs offered for adopting summer stockpiling practices. Programs that provide financial and technical assistance include:

NRCS Conservation Practice 511 – Forage and Harvest Management: provides a stipend for producers to delay first cutting hay in the spring to enhance grassland bird habitat and nesting opportunities.

NRCS Conservation Practice 528 – Prescribed Grazing: as part of a rotational grazing system, does include summer stockpiling on 1 or more pastures as a qualifying practice. As there are some details for pasture layout and size that may qualify, as well as additional details, please contact the Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative and/or your local NRCS office for specific information and questions about enrollment possibilities.

For Virginia producers – The Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative has compiled a list of incentive programs for producers who are considering delayed forage harvest/delayed hay making and summer stockpiling for improving grassland bird habitats.

The Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative also has an in-house financial incentive program for producers considering summer stockpiling for the first time. Though the VGBI incentive program does not provide year-over-year financial assistance to producers who have previously enrolled and are adopting summer stockpiling, it does serve to provide an initial incentive/risk reduction to try summer stockpiling. The financial support for this one-time assistance may provide producers the financial security to buy hay if needed, in scenarios where producers are giving up some hay production potential to summer stockpile.

Enrollment for this program is open until November 30, 2024: Financial Incentives Program – Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative (vagrasslandbirds.org)

The Mountains to Bay Grazing Alliance and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation also provide funding support for improving rotational grazing and livestock watering infrastructure. Please contact Alston Horn (Ahorn@cbf.org) for more info.