Blair Brothers Grassland Management Project

2005 Report Blair Brothers Grassland Management Project
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The Blair Ranch raises Black Angus cow/calf pairs in Meade County, 12 miles north of Sturgis, SD. Their experience with grazing systems goes back two decades, beginning in 1980 with a short-duration rotation grazing system. That initial system, which used yearling heifers to keep costs down, was designed to allow the Blairs to start out small and ensure that the system worked. Now, the Blair Brothers Ranch has participated in managed-intensive grazing through the Grassland Management and Planning Project for four years.
During 2005, 350 cow/calf pairs were rotated through a managed grazing system that was divided into seven pastures on 3,292 acres of grassland. Once the pairs completed one rotation through the pastures, the time the cattle spent in each pasture was increased. The rotations are based on pasture size and growth rate of the grass, with grazing periods ranging from 3-10 days in each pasture. The Blairs AI (Artificial Insemination) in June so they do not rotate the cattle during that time.
Although the 2005 grazing season was challenged with drought conditions that included above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation, the quality and quantity of stock water has not been a primary concern for the ranch. While most pastures have stock dams, the Blairs prefer that the cattle drink well water out of watering tanks, which are filled before cattle are rotated into the pasture. The tanks provide high quality well water that is superior to the water found in the stock dams, and quality water can lead to improved weight gains. Although some tanks provide a watering center for several pastures, most pastures have only one source of water at one end of the pasture.

Because of high summer temperatures and the difficult topography of the land, which ranges from rolling hills to slopes greater than 30 degrees in some pastures, cattle can be unwilling to graze too far away from the water source. Thus, forage at the far end of the pastures is not always fully utilized. The pastures have a forage base comprised of native and introduced grasses with a mix of legumes. The cool season grasses are predominantly Kentucky bluegrass, Western Wheatgrass and Crested Wheatgrass and the warm season grasses consist of Switchgrass, Little Bluestem, and Sideoats Grama.

Throughout the summer, fecal samples were collected and tested to determine the quality of the forage consumed 36 hours prior to defecating. Samples were tested for crude protein, digestible organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus. Forage production was also monitored through samples that were clipped in each paddock prior to the livestock being moved into a pasture, and then clipped again after the livestock were moved out. By using a .96 square foot, plot that is a fair representation of an acre, five different forage clippings were collected in each pasture and weighed in grams before and after drying the grass out. The weight in grams is then multiplied by a hundred to arrive at a weight of dry matter, in pounds per acre. The height of each clipping was also recorded. The majority of the time the cattle were consuming less than half of the forage available.