DEFERRED GRAZING 97 



pasture. More animals may be grazed where forced pasture 

 feeding is practiced in the forepart of the season than the pas- 

 ture will support throughout the entire grazing period. Ac- 

 cordingly, before the grass is closely cropped — say by July i — 

 the " fatted calf " has arrived at the packing house. The 

 pasture may then be allowed to rest for two or three weeks, after 

 which it may be grazed closely, but not destructively, by a new 

 bunch of stocker cattle. 



If it is not possible to dispose of part or all of the stock a few 

 weeks after the grazing season begins, and so to give some rest to 

 at least a portion of the pasture, one can not be too cautious 

 in judging the number of stock the pasture will support without 

 injury to the vegetation. 



It has been pointed out elsewhere that a young pasture 

 plant needs its green herbage in the spring of the year with 

 which to accumulate food and strength in order to develop 

 normally. Provided the welfare of the plant early in the spring 

 is not overlooked, the plant will not be weakened by moderate 

 grazing later. If, however, the grazing is fairly heavy year 

 after year, the vegetation will require at least a short rest during 

 the growing season. The need of rest will make itself apparent 

 in several ways, as in a delay in the beginning of growth in 

 the spring, lessened foliage production, decrease in stature of 

 the plant, delay in the time of seed maturity, and in a failure 

 to produce a large and fertile seed crop. 



Deferred Grazing. — When the more highly relished and 

 desirable nonsodforming pasture plants are not functioning 

 normally, they should be given the required rest. From in- 

 vestigations reported in Chapter IV, it is learned that this can 

 be accomplished without the discontinuance of grazing or 

 without even decreasing the number of stock that this type of 

 pasture will normally support throughout the season. Because 

 of the value of the deferred-grazing plan, a simple example is 

 restated here. The plan corresponds to that reported for use 

 on western grazing lands where bunchgrasses prevail and is 

 recommended only for lands that support vegetation of similar 

 growth habits. 



