Winter Stocking-Summer Finishing Systems Using Rye, Kentucky-31 Tall Fescue and Coastal Bermudagrass Pastures

Abstract

Studies were conducted to compare wintering of steers on Kentucky-31 tall fescue with (1) wintering on rye seeded in tall fescue sod or in Coastal bermudagrass sod and (2) wintering on rye in a double cropping sequence after soybeans. The subsequent effects of the winter treatments on performance and carcass characteristics when these steers were finished with limited grain on either tall fescue or Coastal bermudagrass pasture were also determined. In each of three 140-day wintering trials, 56 steers were stocked at a rate of .24 ha/steer from early January through late May on (1) tall fescue (F), (2) rye seeded in dormant Coastal bermudagrass sod (BR), (3) rye conventionally seeded after soybeans for 105 days followed by 35 days on tall fescue (R) or (4) rye seeded in tall fescue sod (FR). Steers grazing BR gained more (P<.05) than those grazing R, and both the BR and R treatments resulted in greater (P<.05) steer gains than did either the F or FR treatment. Average winter gains per steer with BR, R, F and FR were 95.9, 70.6, 53.1 and 58.5 kg, respectively. After each wintering trial, seven steers from each winter treatment were limit-fed the same quantity of grain on either tall fescue (SF) or Coastal bermudagrass (B) pastures for 140 days. There were no winter × summer treatment interactions (P>.05). Steers grazing B consistently gained more (P<.05) than those grazing SF, with average summer gains of 68.6 and 45.5 kg/head, or 565 and 374 kg/ha, respectively. Total winter/summer gains of 155.4 kg by steers grazing BR/B exceeded (P<.05) gains on all other winter/summer treatment combinations except R/B. The lowest (P<.05) winter/summer treatment gains were obtained by steers grazing the FR/SF and F/SF (104.5 and 103.0 kg, respectively). Except for carcass weight, there were no differences (P>.05) in carcass characteristics associated with either winter or summer treatments. Steers that had grazed Coastal bermudagrass in the summer tended to have higher (P<.13) carcass grades than those that had grazed tall fescue.