It may be dead of winter now, but we all know how soon green grass will be here.

Pretty grass in this time frame is often referred to as lush due to color and fast growth. But cattle health and performance is commonly worse than in January. I have written previously that pretty grass is often dangerous and deadly. Seldom is this more true than in the early spring. I have seen cattle wear themselves out picking short water logged grass while ignoring hay that they have eaten all winter.

The lush spring grass I am speaking of grows very fast and is 80-90% water. The energy content is always low and the protein content is actually near nonexistent: Instead, non-protein nitrogen (NPN) can be and often is extremely high. This is especially true if any form of nitrogen -- especially chemical nitrogen -- has been applied to the pasture in the past several weeks or months. Waking pastures up early with as little as 10 units of ammonium nitrate can make a bad situation worse.

Phosphorus and magnesium and calcium content of the grass is low. Potash (potassium) may be high, and makes matters worse as high potassium tends to block phosphorus, magnesium and calcium absorption. Sheeting manure is a good proof that everything is upset.

We aim for our cattle to be gaining weight, condition and vigor. If this is not happening we need to make some changes. Dry matter is the major key, much of which needs to be in the form of long-stem dry matter. This quickly brings us to the importance of planning back last June and July.

The healthiest, easiest, cheapest and most rewarding springs I have ever experienced were when my cattle were strip grazing in lush grass that was growing into old growth from last summer and fall. These cattle start improving in condition and making gains in performance six to eight weeks before cattle on short, washy forage.

Remember the right decision was actually made during the middle of last year’s growing season. If you fail to hold recovered, ungrazed pastures for spring grazing you will wish you had, especially if you are dealing with fast growing cool-season plants.

Let’s assume that we just got through identifying our error and it is mid-March and the cattle are loose as a bunch of geese and have stopped eating hay (oops!).

What are our options?

What are the do-nots?

To summarize lush green grass management, the most important concept may be to remove our mining mentality and hold six weeks of last year’s warm-season growth for spring grazing. Nothing but good things result as we can usually stop hay feeding early, watch the cattle start gaining condition, and allow our other pastures to kick into gear.

I have always loved and enjoyed pretty days of sunshine as the world comes alive in the spring. With the old, ugly growth of last year to graze, life has just gotten better.