# Do cattle like eating behind a bush hog...?



## ATPFARM (Dec 31, 2012)

Do cattle care whether you bush hog in front of the herd or behind them if you are rotational grazing onto new pasture...?

Will they graze just as well the fresh cut or should I just wait each time and bush hog behind them?


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

No problem 2 days before and then move the cattle. Just don't want the cut hay to mold and then eaten. Cows are curious and will check out anything new to them. Not good if cut short and it mixes manure with the grass, but then they just don't eat there....James


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## Gabriel (Dec 2, 2008)

Mow after they eat. If you mow before, you'll be forcing them to pick through stuff they don't like or is even dangerous for them to eat. Unless you have great pastures, which begs the question of why you're mowing...


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## genebo (Sep 12, 2004)

I'm pretty sure they don't like to eat behind a manure spreader.


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

I have mowed after they thinned out the bulk and while they were still in the paddock. They still had the squirts. For some reason, I felt that they were "feeling their oats" because they sprinted back and forth constantly beside the tractor. I would leave them in the paddock after clipping for a few days. I would set my mower as high as I could go and I could mow at a pretty low engine rpm.


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

Why do you think it would be beneficial to mow ahead?


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

Mow after the cows are out of the field. You don't have cows running around the machinery, they won't eat the stuff the brush hog throws out. 

Mowing after cows have grazed field means cattle got the benefit of grass available in that field. Mowing after will cut down the inedible weeds, even off the grazed plants so they will return evenly while "resting" before being grazed again in the rotation. Lets the tender sprouting leaves get going, which cattle prefer to eat in a field.

Unless field had not been grazed or mowed before this season, so plants and weeds are tall, dried out, there is no benefit to mowing ahead of grazing the cattle on the field.

Great pastures are kept productive with regular mowing, to prevent plants setting seed and going dormant for the season. Keeping grass length shorter (5-6 inches) when mowed, but not scalped, produces excellent roots on the plant, so it will easily withstand some drought times, hoof traffic of the herd, heat of sun and shades the dirt to prevent root burn and erosion of the dirt in hard rains. 

Mowing regularly if you have the rain, is the BEST way to have excellent pasture, producing edible plants constantly, for your herd to graze on.


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## ATPFARM (Dec 31, 2012)

Thank you for the responses,.... Very appreciative of your insights....
I have a couple pastures that I just purchased and had not been grazed, mowed or touched this year and was way grown.... I felt like it needed hogging before I turned cattle in it... regular hogging is the plan for sure... but these fields I was uncertain of.
Thanks:clap:


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