Effect of stocking rate and corn gluten feed supplementation on the performance of young beef cows grazing winter stockpiled tall fescue-red clover pasture

A winter grazing experiment was conducted to evaluate the BW and body condition scores (BCS) of bred two-year old cows grazing stockpiled forage at two stocking rates and two levels of supplementation during winter. Two 12.2-ha blocks containing \u27Fawn\u27 endophyte-free tall fescue-red clover were each divided into four pastures of 2.53 or 3.54 ha. Hay was harvested from the pastures in June and August of 2003 and 2004 and N was applied at 44.8 kg N ha⁻¹ at the initiation of stockpiling in August. On October 22, 2003, and October 20, 2004, twenty-four Angus-Simmental and Angus two-year old cows were allotted by BW and BCS to strip-graze for 147 d at 1.19 or 0.84 cow ha⁻¹ and eight similar two-year old cows were allotted to two dry lots and fed tall fescue-red clover hay. Corn gluten feed was fed to maintain mean BCS of 5 or 4.33 (9-point scale) for cows in the high and low supplementation levels, respectively, or when weather prevented grazing. Mean concentrations of CP in yr 1 and 2 and IVDMD in yr 2 were greater (P \u3c0.10) in hay than stockpiled forage over the season. At the end of grazing, cows fed hay in the dry lots had greater (P \u3c0.05) BCS in yr 1 and greater (P \u3c0.10) BW in yr 2 than grazing cows. Grazing cows in the high supplementation treatment had greater (P \u3c0.10) BW (yr 1) than cows grazing at the low supplementation level. Cows in the dry lot were fed 2565 and 2158 kg DM hay cow⁻¹. Amounts of corn gluten feed supplemented to cows in yr 1 and 2 were 46.3 and 60.8 kg cow⁻¹ and did not differ between cows fed hay or grazing stockpiled forage in either year. Estimated production costs were greater for cows in the dry lots due amounts of hay fed