Benefits of Mowing the Pasture

No matter what species of grasses are in your pasture, they will benefit from mowing.

Dan Undersander is an extension forage specialist at the University of Wisconsin. He says there are two main reasons to mow your pasture. One is to control weeds.

"We would try to mow just a little bit ahead of flowering of the weeds because we don't want the weeds to produce more seed. For example, we can certainly reduce thistle, we need to know whether it's the perennial or biennial types, but we can reduce each by mowing them just at when the buds are forming before they flower," says Undersander.

Undersander says when you let weeds get a bit of height and then mow them, you're reducing the root reserves. This gradually causes the weeds to thin out or even die out in the pasture. The second reason for mowing is for the benefit of livestock. Grass needs to be cut as it's producing seed heads.

"What we are concerned about is that when those grasses head out, they produce stems," says Undersander. "As they dry, if there's a lot of stems, then the cattle may not want to put their nose down in there and get poked. And that may reduce their consumption of the next regrowth of that pasture."

Undersander says cool season grasses in the northern part of the country grow a stalk and head out once per year. Whether or not it's mowed, the grass grows only leaves for the rest of the year. Warm season grasses in the South head out repeatedly during the summer.

It's important to mow at the proper height. Many grass species store their energy reserves in the bottom few inches of the plant, so mowing too low limits their ability to regrow.