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West Central Illinois | From the post earlier in the week here's my grazing data of 1 field that was converted to cool season grasses back in spring of 2023, technically it was a 3rd year stand this year but it was mostly replanted in Spring of 2024 due to 2023 being a historic drought here as I planted late April of 2023 not much rain on it after that until late July when the derecho came so I believe it still has a lot of maturing to do in 2026 yet. Planted 100% fescue with 6 lb. of red clover initially. That ground is due for another shot of frost seeded clover this year as I split all my pastures into doing 1/3 of them every year for a 3 yr cycle. No fertilizer of any kind since it was cropped in 2022 coming out of corn. I haven't unrolled but a couple bales on this field as well until this winter as I wanted to let the sod establish. I mainly have southpoll influenced genetics along with other run of the mill sale barn cows that have proven they can work on toughing it out on just grass and raising a calf. This is actually the poorest field of those that I converted to grass that year but the way i've been grazing the others combined with other paddocks the data isn't as clean for a comparison like this field.
Again, lots of ways to skin a cat but this makes the most sense for the resources I do and don't have plus intensive grazing really just clicks with how my brain is wired and I'm not a huge fan of sitting on a tractor much i'd rather be rolling up polywire and step in posts on the 4 wheeler with a cold beverage. Hope this helps with the concept of management intensive grazing being a viable system that I believe can compete with rowcrop on marginal acres if a guy likes to work.
"10 acre patch" - split into 3 paddocks
8.51 tillable
101 PI - heavy clay soil
10.65 total including wooded fencerows
Total grazing days 2025 - 57 days (16 of which were after killing frost for stockpiled fescue grazing)
County was in D1 or D2 drought from mid August through January, below avg. rainfall season overall
Avg. of 41 animal units (1,000 lb per unit) spring calving cows - avg. consumption assumed at 2.75% bodyweight
Total forage production per acre - 3.05 tons per acre
What this means is if you took an entire crop farm and converted it to grass with water infrastructure and a little bit of interior fence/temporary fence is with 1200 lb cows
What that means is if you took an entire farm that laid like this with 3.05 tons per acre of forage production and 1200 lb cows, you could graze a stocking rate of around 1.57 acres per cow assuming a 290 day grazing season. Let's say on this type of marginal ground you could rent it for $200/acre on the high side going rate around here. Cost per cow x the 8.51 tillable (we'll assume borders and waterway are free and assuming the last steering wheel jockey didn't nuke the waterways and farm through huge ditches).
Your total cost to graze a 1200 lb cow for a 290 day grazing season would be roughly $0.86/day which seems very reasonable to me especially considering only a 75 day hay feeding season. Given it's not going to be for everybody and it's not something you can start immediately as with cool season grasses that first year's rough as you'll have bad production if you don't count the foxtail and cockleburs that will come up, but we still rotationally grazed that stuff to get animal impact and manure onto the land. Given this won't be feasible on all rented acres as this requires a water source or well nearby to utilize for the rotational grazing. But it may be an option for some. Let's keep it civil I'm just trying to help those who love green grass and cows doing what they love
Edited by Lb94 2/6/2026 16:40
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Converted Crop Ground to Grass
