Research Accomplishment Reports 2007

Master Grazer Educational Programs

D. M. Amaral-Phillips
Department of Animal and Food Sciences

 

Project Description

The Master Grazer Educational program was conducted in 9 locations across the state of Kentucky.  Each of these Master Grazer Educational programs consisted of 6 educational meetings per location.  The areas hosting a Master Grazer Educational Program represented 46 counties in 2007.  Approximately 250 Kentucky producers in 2007 participated in this program.  An additional 7000 producer contacts concerning some phase of the Master Grazer Educational Program have been made by county extension personnel.

Producer Planned Changes:  At the conclusion of these educational programs, participants were asked to identify those areas they planned to change or implement on their individual operations.  The five areas identified most often specifically related to grazing were (a) decrease the amount of hay fed by extending the grazing season, (b) design a water system to provide water in each grazing paddock, (c) increase use of temporary electric fence to increase number of paddocks, (d) renovate pastures with legumes, and (e) improve management practices of animals grazing i.e. feed better mineral, control parasites.

Demonstration Farms:  Twenty-two Master Grazing Demonstration farms are in various stages of implementing a rotational grazing program and they are located throughout the state of Kentucky.  These demonstration farms have been utilized by Extension Service, NRCS, and other groups to showcase the value of implementing improved grazing systems.  Specially, these farms will demonstrate the effective incorporation of temporary electric fencing, improvement of water availability and forage quality, quantity and utilization.  These farms have incorporated and grazed additional forages, developed more grazing paddocks using temporary fencing, and increased access to water in each grazing paddock.  These changes have decreased their reliance on stored feeds and improved animal performance.  For example, most of the demonstration farms have shown a 50% decrease in the amount of stored feed fed this past winter even in some cases with increases in herd sizes.  Impact on these demonstration farms and other producers in Kentucky are likely to be even greater in future years as producers better understand how to manage and implement these systems. 

Impact

Kentucky's forage base is underutilized especially as it relates to the 7 million acres of pasture or lands grazed by livestock.  More efficient utilization of this valuable resource can improve the economics of Kentucky livestock agricultural industries.  The comparison has been made that Kentucky farmers are only utilizing about one-third of the forages they are producing.  In addition, much of what animals consume is lower in quality than needed to support realistic performance expectations.

According to the 2005-2006 Kentucky Agricultural Statistics, Kentucky has over 2.51 million head of grazing ruminants consisting of beef and dairy cattle, goats and sheep.   The beef and dairy industries represented over $779 million dollars of cash receipts in 2005.  Improvements in grazing practices will increase the net profitability of Kentucky farms.  Improving forage utilization on grazed lands will increase animal carrying capacity and result in the potential for the pasture land base to support more revenue generating animals.  Increasing the utilization rate by 15% (currently estimated at 35%) could potentially allow Kentucky's pastures to carry an additional 500,000 cattle and result in $290 million more gross revenue from the sale of cattle and milk.