Cover Crops Add Value When Grazed

By: Meghan Filbert

It can be hard to justify the costs of cover crops when the benefits aren’t always evident in the first few years of using them. However, when those cover crops are put through a cow, value is instantly added and can often exceed the cost of establishment.

Grazing cattle, or any ruminant animal, on cover crops makes sense. Cover crops extend the fall and spring grazing season. In the fall, they provide forage when pastures have stopped growing and when you’d otherwise be feeding hay or silage. In spring, they provide a clean calving pasture and relief to perennial pastures, allowing them to grow a little longer before turning cows out.

While grazing covers, manure is deposited where it’s needed. Most significantly, grazing cover crops saves cattle farmers money.

On-farm research
An ongoing study with Practical Farmers of Iowa has been documenting the economic benefits of using cover crops as forage. “We started planting cereal rye because it was easy to calve in those fields. Now, most all of our covers are grazed as a way to justify the costs,” says Mark Schleisman of Lake City.