When people find out Leo Hollinger preconditions and/or stockers 6,000 head of cattle/year on 350 acres, it's easy to imagine either an overgrazed, muddy mess or a dust bowl, depending on the season. Nope. Would you believe he even gets two cuttings of hay off the bulk of those acres?

“We have less than 10 acres at any time that doesn't have a sod, and that is right at the feed bunks,” says the Camden, AL cattleman.

Yes, he does feed byproducts rather than depend on grazing gains for the cattle he preconditions. And no, all the cattle aren't on the 350 acres all the time. But that's still an awful lot of hooves and mouths between the fences at some point during the year.

While he has a total of 21 pens on that portion of his operation, the system he favors is made up of 100 acres of Bermuda and Bahia grass sod divided into three triangles of 25-35 acres. The top of each triangle is two to five acres and is lined with feed bunks. The bottom part is 20-30 acres and does double duty as a hay field.

Year-round strategy

The cycle on the sod triangles starts in June with Hollinger's custom preconditioning operation. Depending on pen size, he stocks from 70-200 head/pen. “There are a lot of nutrients being put on those pens,” he remarks.

The calves in the custom-preconditioning program are from 30-40 different cow-calf operations in Alabama's Black Belt Region, most from within a 100-mile radius. “That type of soil isn't very conducive to weaning calves because of the mud,” Hollinger says.

Obviously, the soil and the management at Hollinger's operation are conducive to weaning calves. He puts anywhere from 2¼-3 lbs./day of gain on them with byproduct feeds. The calves that are around after he gets his last cutting of hay also go in the larger paddocks for grazing.

After they've been on his place for 45 days or so, he markets them in 50,000-lb. truckload lots straight off his farm with help from the staff at Linden Stockyards.

In October, he'll let them graze the paddocks down, then sod-seeds Marshall ryegrass and crimson clover in the triangles. “Ryegrass heals up the pens. It puts a sod back on them,” he reports. As for the clover, he's happy to let it make nitrogen rather than having to buy it.

He normally no-tills in 15-20 lbs. of ryegrass/acre and 20 lbs. of clover. “If we go over 20 lbs. of ryegrass seed, the clover doesn't do well,” he says.

At times, there are still cattle in the pens when he drills in the ryegrass and clover. “I don't recommend it, but I really can't tell it hurts it,” he says.

In the meantime, he's buying cattle of his own, usually around 1,500 head of 300- to 500-lb. stocker cattle, mostly farm fresh but also some from the stockyard. Those he pays someone else to precondition, and then they go to a rented farm. “We want to assure our customers we won't expose their cattle to diseases,” he says.

By January, the custom-preconditioned cattle are almost all gone, and the ryegrass and clover are ready for grazing. He starts moving his own calves from rented farms to the triangles.

By March, he'll have the ryegrass and clover stocked at around three calves/acre and graze through May. “We try to have enough inventory to manage the spring flush of ryegrass, and try not to harvest any ryegrass hay. Those are our cheapest gains.”

He'll normally spread one ton of chicken litter/acre on the forage, too. “The litter is not acid forming. It's a slow-release nitrogen that's higher in phosphorus and potassium, and works good with clover.”

He says the pH on the 100 acres runs from 6.2 to 7.5.

University of Georgia Extension forage specialist Dennis Hancock says the litter is a good choice for fertilizer but cautions, “Long-term, he might want to track the phosphorus content of his soil since he's bringing in nutrients with the litter and byproducts.”

For now, it's part of an economical equation for grazing. Hollinger says his out-of-pocket expenses for the ryegrass and litter are around $60/acre.