advice from an experienced grass farmer

We reach out to our neighbor Clint when we want good advice:

Hi, Clint,
I'm thinking about grass and want to run it by you.
So, we mostly didn't clip in June, and by July I was glad we hadn't because of the lack of rain.  There's enough species diversity out there that there were things growing all the time, despite the heat and drought.  Briars, too, which are a problem, but in the long run I'm still glad we didn't clip, or at least didn't clip late (early June would have been a good thing).  So by the end of August we still had plenty of rough, overgrown forage to carry everything through Sep/Oct.  Interestingly, the animals all did really well and look great right now.   Milk production wasn't high, but adequate.  Calves all grew well.
So, in the last week or so I've finally come off the high, weedy stuff that had been growing, some of it, since May/June, and I have a decision to make.  At least, I've already started to make it, but I want to ask what you think.
It seems to me from my experience/intuition, that the stuff that is perfect right now -- the younger grass -- won't hold as well as some of the more lignous pasture.  And I also feel that the better condition the cows are in going into the winter, and the longer they stay that way, the better they will handle whatever the grass looks like in Feb/March.  A few years ago, when we started trying to overwinter on pasture, I sort of automatically grazed 'oldest first', but the past couple of years we've tried to use the best grass before it lost quality; and this seems to me the way to go now.  
So, if it's not clear, what I'm saying is I'm inclined to graze out the tenderest, best-quality grass now, and then move onto the coarser pasture.  That pasture is pretty dense, not too woody, and well worth grazing, but tough enough to hold up to the weather.  I even think the overgrown, weedy parts sort of protect the good grass/forbs and hold them up against the wind/rain/snow and help them hold condition.  What do you think?
I've already started this, and I'm able to stock both herds pretty tight because the grass isn't falling over yet.
Thanks for everything!

Clint replied:

I would totally agree with you. I would graze the tender perfect stuff right now and save the older more mature stuff later. The older stuff will hold up to winter better but will also insulate any good stuff (clover) deep down in the sward for later, possibly making it just as good as far as quality goes. I think there is a break point at around 10-12 inches in tall fescue and orchardgrass where if its below this point we should graze it before and in the early winter. If its over that point we should probably graze the oldest forage first and go to the youngest later in the winter. Hope that makes sense, but yes I’d get the shorter stuff out of the way first.

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