BD, Your point is well taken.

I was hoping to put the cows on the corn paddocks that had been grazed previously in small groups as they calved and long before now but did not get it done because of water access issues. 

My original plan called for shifting water access for the corn grazing steers and heifers in a way which allowed my processing steer/heifer group to be on the opposite side of a fence from the pasture where my two bulls have spent the winter.

I tried this for one day and realized that having a cycling heifer on the other side of a barb wire fence from two over wintering bulls was obviously NOT one of my better ideas. Regardless of how hot the electric wire in that 5 wire fence, I am pretty sure my U070 bull would have found a way to get to those heifers...

I quickly put the steers and heifers back in their previous paddock/water access and things quieted down again. But this precluded splitting the cow group into calved w corn access/not calved no corn access sub groups.

So now I am stuck with being unable to put the cows on the grazed corn until the steers/heifers going for processing hit the trailer. I agree on the danger of compaction on wet clay after the frost leaves completely, even with the old rootballs down the middles.

The lactating cows are on just hay and mineral now and may need to stay that way until starting rotational grazing around the first week of May.

Thanks for your concern. You are probably correct.

Jim at Dawn