The state of the pasture.

Just a quick grass post.  I took these pictures several days ago and thought I may as well post them so you could see how the grass is doing.  Increasing the rest period/recovery period time is the best way to grow great grass.  It seems easy now to have enough grass to take us through the grazing season.  When we started out though – it was hard to see what would lie ahead as we moved through the pastures.

This is just after paddock shift.  Several species of grass and forbs have went to seed, but most of the sward is green.  Anything that doesn’t get eaten will get trampled and combined with manure and urine to fertilize the paddock.  As of today, my rest period has increased to 84 days.

This is where the cows were the day before.  You can see the difference.  The more manure coverage the better, and the more trampled forage (carbon) the better.  This is food for next years pasture.  I know it looks bad but remember it is one day that the cow herd was here, not all grazing season.  In a continuous grazing situation where the livestock has continual access year-round to the same pasture, the grass gets eaten shorter and shorter, cow pies are harder to avoid, and pretty soon you are feeding hay because the grass has been nipped to the nubs and can’t get out of the ground.

If you do run out of grass this time of year, (and we have) try feeding your hay in each paddock.  Move the cattle each day, but feed too.  You will still be getting the benefit of the herd impact – manure, urine, hoof action -  in addition to adding a little carbon from the hay they may waste that gets soiled.  I didn’t say it would be as convenient as just throwing the hay out on the ground in the barnyard, I am just suggesting this to folks who want to improve their pastures a little each year.  Think of it this way, would you rather pack hay or manure?  Hay smells good and is easy to carry or haul, manure, well, you know.  That’s why most manure stays were it lands, I just like the cow to place it where I want it.

This picture is important too, to show why portable fence works so much better than a fixed fence even if you are rotating your pastures.  If you look closely you can see that the cows graze near the fence but they will never poop there.  They hold their tails out when fertilizing your pasture for you, so you can see why they are reluctant to help you improve that piece of real estate.  This strip will be apparent by the grass growth or lack of it, the next time I build fence here, so I have to make sure that I move the fence line just a few feet next spring so this unfertilized band of pasture gets the full impact of the disturbance/rest cycle.

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