By Paul Beck, Oklahoma State University Extension

It has been a tough wheat pasture year for most of the wheat producing areas in the Southern Great Plains. With rains in August, many were optimistic about the prospects for another good year for grazing calves on wheat. Other than a few areas that caught some rain, most missed any precipitation for right at 60-days. The Oklahoma Mesonet shows that most of the area has received 8 to 10 inches of precipitation since the end of October. That has led to many phone calls and conversations asking when wheat pasture will be ready for grazing.

A good rule of thumb for stocking wheat pasture is 4 to 5 pounds of forage dry matter per pound of steer bodyweight at turnout on pasture. This would be a total of 2,500 pounds of forage for a 500-pound calf. At a stocking rate of 2 acres per steer, 1,200 to 1,300 pounds of forage growth per acre is needed. If you estimate 200 pounds of forage per inch of forage height at the main mass of tillers (not the tallest tiller) in a good thick stand of wheat pasture, the wheat should be 6 to 7 inches deep on average across the field.

Wheat and other small grains produce about 3.3 pounds of forage dry matter per growing degree day. This concept is based on the critical temperature for growth for each forage species and is calculated by: Growing Degree Day = Average Daily Temperature – Critical Temperature. For wheat, I use a critical temperature of 42°F, while for rye and triticale the critical temperature for growth is 38°F. The slightly lower critical temperature for rye and triticale seems like very little difference but can have a large impact on growth potential as we get into cooler conditions.

In the picture above, the left side is of a stand of triticale and ryegrass in a crop field in Central Oklahoma on November 12. It has just emerged following the recent rains. The picture on the right is at the same spot on November 22^nd. The stand is progressing rapidly with the great growing weather, so by the end of the month we should have 850 to 900 pounds of forage growth. Based on projected temperatures for the next month with average daily temperatures of around 44°F, we should expect 15 to 20 pounds of additional forage growth per day, reaching 1,200 pounds of forage accumulation by December 20.

Below is another picture of a wheat field in Southern Oklahoma taken on November 10th, with a good bit of growth and tillering. This field has already accumulated about 200 - 300 pounds of forage per acre. By the end of the month, another 900 pounds of forage growth per acre is expected. So, for this field turnout will only be about 30 days later than our normal expected turnout date of November 1.

Don’t turn cattle out on wheat pasture too early. Waiting just a few days for the stand to adequately develop will make a huge difference in the longevity of the stand and the performance of the calves on pasture.