Stocker Cattle Performance Grazing Wheat Pasture Established Following a Summer Cover Crop.

Land area used for wheat pasture is typically summer fallowed either with tillage or chemically and there is little to no crop rotation. Summer fallow may not benefit soil health as it can leave the ground vulnerable to wind and water erosion, and lack of shade from a summer crop can allow soil temperatures to elevate which could increase evapotranspiration and decrease soil microbial activity. Growing a summer cover crop prior to establishment of wheat pasture could provide soil health benefits but, the effect on wheat pasture and animal grazing performance needs to be understood. To study this effect, we established a multi-species warm-season cover crop mixture into 5-2.0 ha^-1 no-till system (NTCC) and 5-2.0 ha^-1 tillage system (TillCC) paddocks. No-till chemical summer fallow (NT) and tillage summer fallow (Till) paddocks serve as control. Summer cover crop treatments were planted in late May and early June following wheat pasture termination, grown through the summer and terminated in August prior to planting wheat pasture in September. Wheat was fertilized with 60 kg N ha^-1 after wheat emergence then forage mass was measured weekly from October to April. Stocker steers (260 kg ave.wt) were turned onto wheat pasture November 29 at a stocking rate of 5 animals per paddock. Steer total gain was less on NTCC paddocks (154 kg) compared to NT (180 kg). Steer total gain was less for TillCC paddocks (188 kg) compared to Till (197 kg). Within tillage treatments, summer cover crops reduced wheat pasture production and animal performance on NTCC and TillCC paddocks compared to NT chemical or Till summer fallow paddocks.