Balancing Pasture Hoof Compaction
When pastures have any problem, the most cost effective way for a rancher to improve the pasture is to use his herd to solve the issues.
What is one of the ways your herd can solve issues?
Hoof action.
Hoof action on pastures can have many benefits, but if not controlled can also harm pasture forage production. Cattle walking around your pasture can help loosen up the top soil allowing better water penetration and easier germination of seed for the forage to grow faster. Rotational grazing allows each pasture to receive the compaction without harming the pasture forage. Rotational practices can also help reduce loss of acreage from cows compacting areas too much such as shade, water access, and gates.
When continuous grazing is the practice, it causes too much stress on the pasture and can lead to excessive treading, aka cow paths or livestock lanes.
Hoofs can help pastures that do not have the flooding effect by creating hoof tracks or "pockets" for the water to penetrate through the soil to the root of the pasture forage. Water penetration is imperative for forage growth and for maintenance of optimum growth of that forage, but it is good practice to keep livestock off over-watered areas of pastures. Pasture that have a tendency to flood should be left bare during big rains to help avoid these cow paths and damage to forage and health risks to cattle.
The most common damage to cattle that occurs when access to flooded pasture occurs is foot rot. According to the Oklahoma State University (OSU) Cooperative Extension Service, “Foot rot occurs in all ages of cattle, with increased case incidence during wet, humid conditions. When case incidence increases in hot and dry conditions, attention must be directed to loafing areas, which are often crowded and extremely wet from urine and feces deposited in small shaded areas. The first signs of foot rot, following an incubation period of 5-7 days, are lameness, acute swelling of inter-digital tissues, and swelling evenly distributed around the hairline of both hooves. Eventually, the inter-digital skin cracks open, revealing a foul-smelling, necrotic, core-like material.” These risks can be avoided by creating a full vaccination program along with rotational grazing that allows your herd to be rotated to pastures of high elevation before any expectation of large rains.
Hoof action can benefit a pasture in many ways, but when not maintained with a rotation program And correct stocking rates, it can also cause a specific paddock to become a sacrifice area on your acreage. This means that little to no forage is able to grow and feed must be bought to provide food for the livestock when they stay in this sacrifice area.
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