4H Ryegrass Grazing Contest

The procedures described in this Section produced the top ten pens
of ryegrass calves in the '97/'98 Louisiana 4-H Ryegrass Grazing Contest.

On October 16 & 17, 1997, a 17.5 acre pasture and 7.5 acres of another pasture were disked three times with a medium weight disk. On October 18, they were fertilized and seeded with 480 lb/acre of 25-15-15 ($175.00 per ton or $42.00/acre), 40 lb/acre Jackson ryegrass ($45.00 per 100 lb or $18.00/acre), 10 lb/acre Marshall ryegrass ($45.00 per 100 lb or $4.50/acre), and 0.33 lb/acre Tyfon forage turnips ($4.15 per lb or $1.38/acre). The total per acre cost of the fertilizer and seed in the initial plantings for each pasture was $65.88 per acre.

A "pen" is four animals of the same sex on 2.5 acres of ryegrass. The 17.5 acre pasture was grazed 24 hours/day by the four pens of heifers and the three pens of steers. Electrified polywire was used to limit areas of access. About two acres were never grazed. The 7.5 acre pasture was grazed by the three pens of bulls 24 hours/day with access to the entire area at all times. David had two pens of bulls, two pens of steers, and one pen of heifers. Laura had one pen of bulls, one pen of steers, and three pens of heifers.

The calves were weighed on at Miller Livestock Market in DeRidder on December 13, 1997. The steers had an average weight of 289 lbs, the heifers averaged 306 lbs, and the bulls averaged 336 lbs. Their weights were very light due to drought. The initial stocking rate in the bull pasture was 537 lbs/acre. The stocking rate in the heifer/steer pasture was 478 lbs/acre.

At the weigh-on the steers, heifers, and bulls were all wormed with Eprionex pour-on, and the steers and heifers were implanted with Ralgro. All calves (except the two dairy steers) were bred and born on our farm. The top performing heifers will be kept for replacement stock and the top 3 or 4 bulls will be kept for sale as commercial herd bull prospects. All others will be sold, many of them on weigh-off day.

On February 14, 1998, the 7.5 acre bull pasture was topdressed with 300 lb/acre of ammonium nitrate ($164.80 per ton or $24.72/acre). This brought the total project cost for seed and fertilizer applied to the bull pasture to $90.60 per acre.

On February 21, 1998, the 17.5 acre steer/heifer pasture was topdressed with 225 lb/acre of ammonium nitrate ($164.80 per ton or $18.54/acre). This brought the total project cost for seed and fertilizer applied to the steer/heifer pasture to $84.42 per acre.

The winter weather was mild in temperature, but the wettest in recorded history. Overall, grass productivity was very good. The grass in the bull pasture was quite short by mid-February, but had recovered well by mid-March. The steer/heifer pasture had lots of extra grass all season. In fact, 50 sheep and a goat were added from March 12 to April 4, 1998, to help eat the excess grass. About two acres were never gazed at all. No hay was required for either group (grain is not allowed). The grazing value of the Tyfon turnips was negligible (mid-October may be too late to plant this variety). Purple top turnips would have provided much more benefit. Minerals and salt were available at all times.

Results of '97/'98 Louisiana statewide 4-H Ryegrass Grazing Contest

Here is an unofficial summary of David's and Laura's '97/'98 ryegrass grazing project as described in the previous section. There were 10 pens of 4 calves each on 2.5 acres per pen for 142 days. It included 3 pens of bulls on 7.5 acres and 7 pens of steers/heifers on 17.5 acres*.

The weights are after a 13 to 15 hour overnight shrink in the sale barn.

• The best bull gained 655 lb. (4.61 lb/day)
• The worst bull gained 440 lb. (3.10 lb/day)
• The best pen of bulls gained 2,290 lb. (4.03 lb/day, 916lb/acre)
• The worst pen of bulls gained 1,855 lb. (3.27 lb/day, 742 lb/acre)
• The average of three pens of bulls was 6,025 lb. gained, 3.54 lb/day or 803 lb/acre).

• The best steer gained 575 lb. (4.05 lb/day)
• The worst steer gained 435 lb. (3.06 lb/day)
• The best pen of steers** gained 1,995 lb. (3.51 lb/day, 798 lb/acre)
• The worst pen of steers gained 1,855 lb. (3.27 lb/day, 742 lb/acre)
• The average of three pens of steers** was 5,740 lb. gained, (3.37 lb/day, or 765 lb/acre).

• The best heifer gained 495 lb. (3.49 lb/day)
• The worst heifer gained 385 lb. (2.71 lb/day)
• The best pen of heifers gained 1,825 lb. (3.21 lb/day, 730 lb/acre)
• The worst pen of heifers gained 1,695 lb. (2.98 lb/day, 678 lb/acre)
• The average of four pens of heifers was 6,995 lb. gained, (3.08 lb/day, or 700 lb/acre).

A total of 41 calves on < 25 acres gained 19,245 lb. (3.31 lb/day or > 770 lb/acre).

I kept the best 5 heifers and the best 6 bulls. The other 30 were sold on weigh-off day. The average price for the 30 head was almost 62 cents/lb after another 6 or 7 hours of sale barn shrink. The official contest cost of gain (includes field operation costs --- plowing, disking, seeding, fertilizing, etc. as well as seed and fertilizer costs) ranged from 12 cents/lb for the best pen of bulls to 16 cents/lb for the worst pen of heifers.

I didn't realize the DeRidder market did not record the sex of each calf on the check stub. I had hoped to see which was more profitable: bulls at better gain/lower price, or steers at lower gain/higher price. Unfortunately, I could not.

The one alternate steer (11/16MA--1/4HP--1/16A) had a 337% weight increase in the 142 days (2.37 % per day). If you don't mind, I won't mention his starting weight.

Contrary to a popular misconception, the two dairy steers (one HO and one HO/BS) had below average gains of 3.15 lb/day. I know -- 5 months of data on 2 calves is meaningless.