A pasture-first focus helps McCrea Family Farms ensure it has the quantity and quality of forage needed.
McCrea Family Farms focuses on grazing land like a mama cow eyes her newborn calf. With about 4,500 acres split almost equally between pasture and row crops, plus caring for stocker cattle nearly year-round, there’s plenty to distract Andrew McCrea, his dad, M.L., and Andrew’s 16-year-old son, Luke, from pasture management. But scrambling for feed would be a bigger attention-grabber.
Andrew also is an award-winning broadcaster, author and public speaker with a busy travel and production schedule for Farm Journal’s American Countryside radio program. He says a planned approach to pasture management helps with time management.
“I think a lot of producers don’t invest in pasture weed control because it’s not as easy to pencil out like with row crops,” Andrew says. “But, especially in a stocker operation, if we don’t have the grass, we don’t have the pounds to sell.”
Throughout the year, mostly Missouri-sourced 400- to 500-pound calves arrive at the farm northeast of St. Joseph, Missouri, where they spend about five months grazing a dozen or so bluegrass and fescue pastures. As calves reach 900 pounds, the McCreas weigh and sort them into load lots and send them up the road to a southwestern Iowa sale barn.
“Many of our Angus-cross calves meet premium-program standards,” Andrew explains. “Customers know the quality they’re buying.”
Hitting those marks starts with forages.
The McCreas control ragweed and thistles through a biennial spray program. Taking care to not overstock also helps keep weeds at bay.
“Without weed control, fertilizer and sound grazing management, we wouldn’t have the amount of grass or the quality of grass that we have today,” Andrew says.
“We monitor grazing pressure and stocking rates closely,” Andrew explains. “That’s especially important during the summer, because we have mostly cool-season grasses. We make sure we don’t overgraze.”
Summer pasture monitoring includes keeping a close watch for broadleaf weeds and brush.
“We spray most of our pasture acres every other year with DuraCor herbicide,” Andrew says. “It’s important we continue scouting through the summer to catch any escapes. We can’t afford to lose grazing space and forage production.”
Even though fall can quickly become busy with harvest and putting up silage, Andrew is never too busy for his pastures.
“Cattle are a very important part of our operation,” Andrew says. “So, we’re going to dedicate time to the cattle every day. This includes time for pasture monitoring.”
Frequent fall pasture checks help the McCreas proactively adjust stocking rates or timing for better forage production.
“We’ve found that just a week or two of extra pasture rest can make a huge difference,” Andrew says.
The McCreas have relied on Range & Pasture products from Corteva Agriscience and its legacy companies for more than 30 years. Today, the McCreas count on DuraCor® herbicide for broadleaf weeds and Remedy® or Remedy® Ultra herbicide when woody plants pop up. Recently, UltiGraz℠ Pasture Weed & Feed has helped them control weeds while applying fertilizer in areas unreachable with their boom sprayer.
Watch videos and read more about McCrea Family Farms’ pasture management story at Corteva.us/GreenPastures.
Under normal field conditions, DuraCor® is nonvolatile. DuraCor has no grazing or haying restrictions for any class of livestock, including lactating dairy cows, horses (including lactating mares) and meat animals prior to slaughter. Label precautions apply to forage treated with DuraCor and to manure and urine from animals that have consumed treated forage. Consult the label for full details. DuraCor is not registered for sale or use in all states. UltiGraz℠ with fertilizer is available for use with specific herbicides in the states of AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, KS, KY, LA, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NV, OK, OR, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WV and WY. Contact your state pesticide regulatory agency to determine if a product is registered for sale or use in your state. State restrictions on the sale and use of Remedy® and Remedy® Ultra apply. Consult the label before purchase or use for full details. Always read and follow label directions.
