Can’t Grow Grass Through a Cattle Pat - Part 3
Can’t Grow Grass Through a Cattle Pat
With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.
Alright, that’s not a do-or-die rule, but having too much manure on the ground can prevent grass growth. It’s a concept called “pat smother” and, if you’ve been catching this week’s programs, you know what can help: dung beetles!
Hayes Goosey, Montana State University…
“It can take a pat and, instead of persisting 3-4 years on a range, it can have that broke down in twelve months or less.”
Multiply that by the reality of what is produced and there is a lot of movement…
“You look at a cow, she’s probably putting out, you know I’d say a conservative has to be five pats a day, maybe ten. So if they’re putting out 5 pats a day, that’s 10 square feet.”
More cows, more manure.
“So the quicker we can get that broke up and get the grasses growing again, the quicker those pat areas will return to production.”
Bringing it back to what we’ve learned so far, those pats are recycled into the soil, dispersing the nutrients in that nutrient-rich product and allowing soils to soak up more moisture.
Where do these dung beetles come from? We’ll chat about it tomorrow and bring in a discussion about elephants in your Southeast Regional Ag News.
