This pasture mixture slashes costs, expands grazing window With
today's high input costs, beef producer Jeff Schmidt wants to
get as much bang as possible from every production buck. That's
why he seeds a blend of winter triticale and spring oats in mid-
August and gets both fall and early spring grazing. Schmidt,
operator of JR ranch, Othello, WA, says cattle that would
normally get baled hay from October through November and then in
March and early April now have access to grazing. “The less hay
I have to cut and bale, the more money there is in my pocket,”
says Schmidt. “It's just basic economics.” He says the oats in
the irrigated mix emerge quickly and are available for intensive
grazing in October, while the triticale sprouts but remains in
the understory until winter sets in. A severe winter kills most
of the oats, while the triticale goes dormant but remains
viable. When conditions are normal in Schmidt's region, the
triticale breaks dormancy at the end of February. “In milder
years, when there is less