Sacrificing the sacrifice area

As we made the move to rotational grazing from continuous grazing, we realized that our practice of taking the feed to the cows every day in the field needed to change.  We wintered our cows outside and fed in a clean area of pasture every day.  We used a lot of fuel, cut some decent size ruts in the driveways and generally fed a lot of hay.  The upside of this was the convenience of not cleaning the barn, the cows stayed perfectly clean, we spread good seed on poorer ground,  and mostly the convenience was just in not having to think about the chore at all.

We knew we needed to rest the pastures, but were unsure of how to achieve this.  The norm for feeding cattle inside around here is a concrete floor that is easily cleaned out daily or whenever the farmer gets around to it.  We didn’t want concrete or any barn cleaning chores that required daily equipment.  Enter Joel Salatin with his deep bedded feeding shed for wintering his cattle.   It basically works by bedding the cattle daily in a covered shed or barn and as the bedding gets deeper, the head-gate where the cattle eat, is raised to accommodate the bedding build-up.   A small area outside the barn is cordoned off, and this is called a sacrifice area, and it gets sacrificed.  Read ruined for growing grass.  But this keeps the animals off the land during the wet season, and in all farming endeavors you have trade-offs.  Most of the land is protected and a small amount is ruined.

We have one shed with a movable head-gate and one with a fixed head-gate.  In my lottery dreams I have my dream barn designed after 8 years of feeding this way.  Being short on money and skeptical we adapted Joel’s design to our existing barns.  Some things we like about this feeding system  and some things we don’t.   It is multi-purpose and removable and that is what we liked, making it temporary to see if the idea worked for us.  The part we don’t like is having a poor location for the barn.  But we had to work with the cards we had.

Due to poor planning on my part this winter we did not have all our bedding here when the December snow storms hit.  We had some stockpiled grazing, and our straw guy only had x- amount of straw, and the plan was to move the cows in during January when we normally (according to my weather records) get our nastiest weather.  Well, so much for plans and records – we moved the cows in and promptly ran out of bedding, and the cows got dirty from laying in the shed without adequate bedding.  Now this is the part I rant about, dirty cows – not enough bedding etc.  Well, you guessed it, I’m guilty as charged.  If the snow hadn’t been over the fence posts I would have let the cows come and go from the pasture to the barn until we could have gotten more  straw, and they may have decided to sleep in the woods instead of in the barn.  But, I couldn’t give them the choice, with the snow so deep they could just walk over the fences.  So now they are stuck with their dirty coats until spring when they shed their winter coats. 

We have plenty of straw now, but in an effort to help them clean up, I have given them access to one pasture.  Their pattern has been spend the day in the barn and spend the night outside.  I have decided to sacrifice the spring growth on this particular pasture in order to make the cows happier.  And I realize I am happier about them being cleaner than I am about the potential for that growth.

It has been hard for us to cut back to a hobby size herd.  Our goal is to find the magic number of cattle that we can carry year-round and grow their feed.  I’m am not sure we are there yet,with our minuscule, motley crew of a herd.   Selling grassfed beef requires we have cows, calves, yearlings, and coming twos.   I like having a herd of mixed ages and seeing how the families act.  I can see good mothering traits and other qualities I am looking for. 

But I am digressing here, the point of this post was to show the beginnings of our yearly manure composting practices. 

A compost thermometer is a handy tool for the farm and garden.  It was cool and clear this morning, just below freezing. 

This bedding pack is about 20 inches deep.  Note thermometer inserted in the bedding. 

This is the temperature, 112°F.  With new material added daily, there is no offensive odor, just the sweet smelling beginnings of compost.

Daily after the fresh bedding is spread, the feeders are filled and the cows come in to eat their fill.  They settle right down and begin eating. 

 

Trace is looking for his favorite treat – sun cured garter snake 🙂  Hi snake breath!

 

The head-gates are attached to a 40′ log that can be raised and lowered with come-alongs.  It actually works pretty slick. 

This is Della’s hay, I wish all our hay looked like this.  We had many rain storms last summer making for a lower quality hay in some of our fields.  The cows get a little bad with their good every day, insuring that they aren’t eating too much low quality hay.  Even so, we have a few of our older cows that are looking a little rough this winter.  I hate to cull the old girls and sometimes I let them stay too long.  Our cows have to eat row run like we do.  If we have a bad year for hay, they have to muddle through it just like us on our less than perfect vegetables.

An interesting note on our hay this year is that our cows prefer our compost fertilized, rained on hay, to hay that we made on a neighbors field that received no compost or fertilizer or rain.  To look at it, the hay from the neighbors looks more palatable, but I don’t have to eat it, so I defer to the cows choice. 

At noon, we check on the cows to flip in the hay that they have tossed over the edge.  Usually we find some lying down and ruminating, and others are still leisurely eating.  The feeding shed is ugly and poor-boy built, but it is peaceful – I sure like the calming effect the cattle have on me when they are as full as ticks and resting. 

 

The hens are deep bedded too.  They are enjoying their snow treat. 

Thank you girls!