WATKINS GLEN, NY – When you drive by Angus Glen Farms, across the way from the iconic Watkins Glen International Speedway, you’ll see round bales staged like racecars throughout selected pastures, ready for the infamous words: “Gentlemen start your bale grazing.” The ironic part was the absence of engine sounds as the cows do all the work.

The Chedzoy family have been long-time proponents of this burgeoning practice to feed cows in winter by just moving a fence. Friend, practitioner and University of Kentucky Associate Extension Professor in Agricultural Economics Greg Halich said, “Bale grazing is a winter-feeding method where bales are set out on pasture and fed in a planned, controlled manner with temporary electric fencing, somewhat like rotational grazing, typically exposing new bales to the animals every one to seven days.”

Seems simple enough; however, every farm’s context, goals and tools are different, from how many bales per acre and animal nutritional needs to weathering adverse conditions, controlling hay “waste” and impacting the land you want to improve. With a multitude of considerations to think about, it was time to see it in person.

On a picture-perfect day for out-wintering – frozen ground, 20º and six inches of snow – over 50 farmers gathered at Angus Glen to learn from the experiences of owner Brett Chedzoy and Cornell’s SCNY Dairy Extension Specialist Betsy Hicks, both part of a national NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant with the University of Kentucky Research Foundation. “Bale Grazing: A Practical, Low-Cost & Environmentally-Sound Management Strategy to Winter Beef Cattle” is a project that partners researchers and farmers from Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and New York.

Chedzoy’s candor about feeding animals was blunt. “You need a strategic plan. Watch your animals and the 10-day forecast closely. Be adaptive in your management to changing conditions and have fun.”

He strongly emphasized his “three big reasons” for bale grazing: “Nutrient management (soil health improvement, less waste cleanup and watershed protection); convenience (can lay out weeks of hay in advance when time and ground conditions allow); and animal welfare (clean, comfy animals that are out where they want to be).”

The beauty of his message is in his experience. He was an early adopter of the practice and has built his practical farming systems around labor savings, soil fertility and profitability utilizing a 500-acre pasture system equipped with wire subdivisions and strategic winter waterers for his 100-head cow/calf herd. He’s spent a lifetime building “living barns” and silvopasture areas, minimizing equipment and barns and penciling out what works for a busy family with grandchildren to visit.

The visiting contingent first viewed a herd of first-calf heifers using second cutting hay enclosed by poly hay feeders to minimize waste of the higher quality, expensive feed. Chedzoy said he has no problem using other tools, like bale feeders, to enhance site-specific bale grazing adjustments. This group was being managed differently from the main herd to accommodate the higher level of nutritional needs of the young mothers and calves.

Hicks brought her expertise in body condition scoring, matching feed quality to animal needs and managing for animal welfare during changing weather events to the conversation.

Tic-tac-toe – Bales in the snow

The clean, well-fed cows seemed unimpressed with the large group of farmers. Photo by Troy Bishopp

The next stop was amongst the locust and black walnut silvopasture, where bales were strategically placed for “fence-line” weaning later in winter. Chedzoy, who is also a regional Extension forester with Cornell, pointed out trees that had been marked for a fence post thinning later in the season.

“Many of the fences on our farm have been built from locust posts from past thinnings and are also necessary to maintain good forage growth in these silvopasture areas,” he said.

The final stop in the two-hour winter pasture walk was where the farmers, mature cow/calf pairs, bales and questions came together. Taking on the “waste” topic was very much appreciated by the large group as a gnawing issue for most farmers thinking about implementing this strategy.

Chedzoy said, “It’s something you need to come to terms with on your own farm because of soil types, topography, fertility needs, distance to water courses, animal needs, etc., etc. For us, the labor savings is key as well as the animals’ health. These animals’ hides are thick and dry and not caked mud with lungs that breathe fresh air. It’s what we value in our stewardship stemming from this practice.”

Like any good, farmer-centric conversation, other issues were well vetted by the group including ruminant and non-ruminant bale grazing strategies, dealing with mud issues, spring renovation ideas and reseeding, the fertilizer value of “wasted” hay (at $34/bale), winter watering practices, bale spacing ideas, bale grazing in warmer months, bale twine or net-wrapped questions, pre-planning animal hay needs – and finally, “What about rolling out hay vs. grazing static bales?”

At noon, friends were treated to a hearty bowl of Angus Glen chili from Maria Chedzoy’s kitchen with old-fashioned networking around the hearth for another hour – a sign of a good pasture walk!

“The goal of the pasture walk was to give farmers an intimate look at bale grazing as a tool or as part of an overall feeding strategy for livestock said,” said Chedzoy. “Peer-to-peer learning and seeing what’s happening on the ground is a great way to help farmers make informed management decisions. We’re just paying the mentoring forward from other farmers we learned from.”

Hicks added, “The benefits from seeing a new practice first-hand are immeasurable for farmers considering its implementation. In the instance of bale grazing, the Chedzoys’ offer to open their gates and share the good, the bad and every nuance in between is invaluable. While the day at Angus Glen was nearly picture perfect, farmers need the opportunity to talk about best practices for not-so perfect situations such as the unfrozen, wet winter of 2023.

“I think one of the most important parts of our winter pasture walk is the fact we tried to highlight that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy,” she continued. “There are lots of different ways to graze bales and different strategies can be employed based on conditions and management capacity … As echoed by Brett, often bale grazing in non-ideal conditions will feel like it will look worse before it gets better – but it will be better!”

Beef farmer Roger Leach and his daughter Alycia said, “It was nice to be able to meet like-minded farmers and professionals who out-winter livestock in a New York context. It was helpful to hear the pros and cons of this practice from people with boots on the ground who are utilizing bale grazing on their farms and seeing at a larger scale than our own farm.”

Farmer John Keidel commented, “I found the winter pasture walk very welcoming, informative and intelligent! A winning combination and time well spent.”

The bale grazing workshop was supported by Angus Glen Farms, the Northeast Region-National Grazing Lands Coalition, Cornell Cooperative Extension’s SCNY Dairy & Field Crops Team and the USDA-NRCS CIG Grant #NR223A750013G01. To learn more visit news.ca.uky.edu/article/usda-innovation-grant-bale-grazing-study-yielding-positive-results-kentucky.

by Troy Bishopp, NatGLC Northeast