Cow Chips: Sudan Grass

During the summer we planted Sudan Grass in the Ivins field. Sudan grass is a good late summer feed crop that grows well in the area. It grows tall and thick and will grow again after being cut. Since it will not survive the winter and grow again in the spring like alfalfa, we let it grow after cutting it and use it as pasture grass for our Panguitch cows until we can take them into Arizona. We will usually stack part of the crop of Sudan grass that we harvested in the field in Ivins to feed the cows after they have eaten the live grass off. This year was no different than others, we had part of our oats crop and part of our Sudan grass crop stacked in the field with a panel fence around it when we brought the cows in from Panguitch and unloaded them.

Imagine if you will a herd of cows in a field of grass that is up past their bellies, all they have to do is graze to their hearts content and relax without a worry at all. If this is the scenario you have imagined, you have imagined wrong. Yes the cows did graze in the Sudan grass, however, because we knew beforehand that the feed would not last long enough, we also supplemented the grass with the dried, baled up version of the Sudan grass that we harvested earlier in the summer. Logic would say that the cows would not be interested in this dried version of the grass that they were eating during the day. Once again with the cows, logic would be incorrect.

Each evening after turning the cows out into the Sudan grass we would load several bales of the same stuff up in the back of dad’s pickup and take it to Ivins. When we pulled into the field the cows would leave the living Sudan grass that they were enjoying and come running, literally, to the truck to get the dried up version of the stuff. They can have all of the living Sudan grass that they can eat, and yet they come running to get the stuff that has been cut, dried, and baled. After a few days the cows would be waiting for us when we got there, we would show up at about four in the afternoon, after a couple of days at about three thirty they would start for the corner of the field where we feed them at.  It seems that the cows prefer the old version instead of the new. They like the stuff that they are used to.

This preference of the old dry Sudan grass in the bales was strong enough that the cows became impatient one day waiting for us to bring them some and broke into the stack of Sudan grass that we had stacked up in the field, remember chapter three. They found the flaw in my fence and exploited it. They were not content to stay out in the field with all of the Sudan grass, instead they wanted to be in what seemed to be a “Golden Corral” to the cows, an all you can eat hay stack, which they proceeded to make a terrible mess out of. Since I am not able to read the cow’s mind I do not know why they would break down a perfectly good fence to get to some dried up old hay when they can eat all of the grass that they want. Again, they seem to like the stuff that they are used to.

In life we also oftentimes turn to something old and familiar when there is a field of “living grass” at our feet. For some reason, we prefer the dried hay to the living grass. I really do not know why.