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How To Avoid Pugging

"There are a number of options available to farmers to try to reduce pugging damage in feed pastures," says Frank Mickan, Pasture and Fodder Conservation Specialist from DPI Ellinbank.

By Department of Primary Industries - 11th August 2004 - Back to News

While pugging occurs more commonly on saturated ground, it can also occur in paddocks that are dry underneath, but have just received 50 – 75 mm of rain. When wetting up, soils can become very weak in structural integrity through pressure put on the wet soil by the animal hooves, and as a natural consequence, the herd will cause the soil to pug.

An experiment on DemoDairy in West Victoria in August 1998 measured the effect of pugging on pasture regrowth and utilisation following only 18 mm of rain on dry soil. Pasture growth from mid-August to November was reduced by about 40%. Measurements of pugging damage in Victoria and New Zealand have shown that pasture utilisation of undrained, waterlogged soil has decreased by 30 – 70% on many soil types in dairying areas.

The extent of damage will depend on soil type and severity of pugging, however many pugged paddocks are often grazed once or twice again before they start to dry out.

Rather than accepting that you have to live with this problem there are several management options that farmers can consider to avoid or reduce pugging:

• Leave animals in the paddocks, but use different grazing techniques to those normally used.
• Practice "On-off grazing".
• Install drainage (surface, sub surface or both), preferably in conjunction with "On-off grazing".

This article will discuss several grazing techniques to minimise pugging damage whilst leaving animals in the paddocks for 24 hours. Many farmers tried these methods in the very wet winters of 1995 and 1996, with reasonable success.

Cows will get a full belly of grass within a few hours of grazing, provided it has about 10 – 15 cm height (applying nitrogenous fertilisers in favourable conditions will encourage pastures to reach desirable grazing heights). The cows then spend the rest of the day avoiding the cold, wet and windy weather by walking up and down the paddock, or congregating in a corner with their backsides into the weather. If they have access to their full 24 hour allocation of pasture at the one time, their fouled night feed may result in a drop in milk production.

Offering only about two thirds of the 24 hours’ allocation for the day feed, and the remaining one third at night will allow the cows to have access to clean unfouled pasture. Any shortfall in intakes may need topping up with a supplement or a drop in milk production may result.

Moving the electric fence 2 - 3 times during the day is another option. Cows will have a clean feed each shift, pugging is greatly reduced, fewer supplements are fed, and utilisation is much improved. Extra work is involved in setting up and moving fences but many farmers believe this is more than offset by the benefits. The fences can be set up in between showers or days ahead if heavy rain is forecast.

Enlarging the area to be grazed, ie. reducing the rotation length, reduces the density of hooves in a given area and so reduces the pugging BUT, does it? In very wet windy weather, often more pasture is damaged due to the larger area that is available to be walked, but the damage is not so evident. The larger area of muddied pasture will be of lower quality on the next rotation. If this option is used, try not to shorten the rotation for too long.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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