Technique for Stockpiling Tall Fescue

The following steps have proven successful for stockpiling tall fescue forage:

1. At 60 to 90 days before the end of the fall growing season, graze or clip pastures leaving 3 to 5 inches of forage growth.
2. Immediately after grazing or clipping, apply 40 to 80 pounds of nitrogen per acre. Both the rate and timing of nitrogen fertilizer have an important impact on yield (see figure 3). Applying fertilizer earlier than 90 days before the end of the growing season will not significantly increase the yield, but quality will be significantly lower.Delaying initiation of stockpiling will result in higher quality forage, but lower yields.
3. Defer grazing stockpiled tall fescue forage until late fall or winter. Be sure to properly use forage growth in other pastures before beginning to use stockpiled forage.However, lateseason growth of warm-season species may be of low quality and thus may require supplementation.
4. If possible, stockpile 1 acre per cow. Under normal conditions this will give a 75- to 90-day feed supply if grazed properly. (A 1,000-pound cow eating 2.6% of her body weight per day in dry matter consumes 26 pounds of forage per day. An acre of fescue stockpiled for 90 days typically produces 3,000 pounds of forage. Assuming 70% efficiency during strip grazing, this translates to 2,100 pounds of usable forage, or about 80 days worth of food.)
5. Although low quality, highly perishable material such as crop residues or stockpiled warm-season forage should be used first, once the use of stockpiled fescue has begun, start with the highest quality stockpiled fescue forage, because weathering causes more value loss in highquality material than in low-quality material.