Pasture Report
ariable stocking rate? What’s that? That term gets bandied about a bit in graziers circles. Basically it means using various methods of matching your stock numbers to the grass growth rate which fluctuates depending on the season. One way is to make hay with the surplus grass and stock the barn pantry with the extra forage for the winter feeding period. Another way is to bring in more animals to match the spring flush and remove them when the growth slump occurs. For us, it just makes sense to vary our stocking rate by harvesting our meat animals before the grass starts to wane, in addition to making hay for winter feeding.
Our pastures are prime this time of year, perfect for fattening beeves.
This photo of the sea of hay doesn’t do the field justice. At first glance it looks like just grass with some false dandelion.
Rather than a salad bar, the pastures are more like a bouquet of grasses and herbs.
This time of year with the beef for meat already harvested, I can begin “landscaping” with the cows. I have done a little clipping this year, mostly areas that need some blackberry abatement, but the grazers are my tool of choice. They can get right up to a fence much easier than you can with tractor. In the photo above we are going to cut the field on the left for hay, the cows are to the right and I needed the fenceline cleared so I could run my power to my daily paddock fences from the semi-permanent hotwire that runs along this permanent fence.
We’re right at 65 days rest for the pasture now, so that means some growth on the wires too. I could either spend hours pulling grass and clipping berry vines, or I could spend 15 minutes fencing the cows there, come back the next day and do a spot check on their work. I chose the cow method. It’s nice having that end of the hayfield open anyway. It gets a little more air to the first round which always dries slowly anyway, and I got my fence line cleared for free.
They did an excellent job. Note, when I expect them to eat this close to the permanent fence I do not have that wire hot, otherwise they stay away from it for fear of getting shocked. In all my electric fencing endeavors, I try to have only the minimum amount of fence electrified as possible, since I am using a 12 volt battery to run my fence. It also makes it easier to check if there is a problem.
Sylvia and Lana.
It’s a little early to start landscaping with the cows since they’re still early in lactation and I want to observe the cows condition. So I won’t get too crazy with slim, rectangular paddocks, preferring to stick to more square-shaped paddocks as the terrain allows. Above the 14-year-old cow on the left is as slick as a whistle, while her 3-year-old pasture mate on the right has not shed all her winter coat. If I want to stick to Greg Judy’s and Ian Mitchell-Innes’s rules of culling anyone who doesn’t lose their winter coat by June 1st, I would have to cull this young cow. I’m not culling her, but I do take the blame for her condition. I got greedy and bred her to calve at two instead of three. She did fine, until I discovered she wasn’t very quick on the weaning part of lactation. She would have benefited from forced weaning from us. We’re not set-up for that, so I will watch her this winter to see if she gets run down again. There may be a change in plans…
This the third season of tall grass mob-stocking for us, and I have seen a vast improvement in our forage, both quality and quantity. Good areas respond quicker than poor areas, but any improvement on any part of the pasture is welcome. This spring, orchard grass sprang up on a hillside that had always been infested with oxeye daisy and could barely squeak out Jap clover. Seeing clumps of orchard grass and timothy growing on that north slope was pretty exciting. Yeah, I get a big bang out of watching grass grow 
Ah yes, the lovely trampling. I wish I could take back all the years of grazing where I thought leaving litter (carbon) was “wasting” the grass. Now I know I was wasting the grass by taking too much.
I’ll finish with Jane – I guess cud chewing is her Independence Day celebration. No tummy ache, just grazing, cudding and milk making.
Food Renegade
Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op
Jane is just plain gorgeous!
You have your own cannon?
That is interesting about the tall grass mob grazing. I’ve heard a tiny bit on the subject and in some ways it seems so counterintuitive, but in other ways it makes a lot of sense. Can you point out any sources to find out more about it?
SSF, DH is pretty into the cannon, it’s a half scale reproduction. I get cows, he gets to make noise, (occasionally
.)
Tall grass mob stocking is what Holistic Resource Management has been teaching for a long time, but it has taken a while for it to take hold…
Greg Judy in Missouri writes the most about it, his book Comeback Farms is pretty good.
Here is an article about Greg Judy’s operation:
http://www.angusbeefbulletin.com/ArticlePDF/MobGrazing%2003_10%20ABB.pdf
And here is one from Acres written by Salatin:
http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprints/May08_Salatin.pdf
Greg Judy does some outstanding stuff. I found some articles years ago where he was talking about multiple daily moves and up to 500,000 pounds per acre! That’s just crazy talk. I think you have to read No-risk Ranching before you read Comeback Farms
I’m currently reading Walt Davis’ How to Not Go Broke Ranching and can’t recommend it highly enough. Chapters of it have been featured in recent Acres issues if you’re interested.
HFS, No-Risk is good, but tends to put people off if they don’t want to get into cattle in a big way. Still good, just not as useful I think for homesteading folks. Cody Holmes stuff is good too!
You’re right. He references No-Risk constantly in Comeback Farms always comparing what he did to what he does now. So much of what he did in No-Risk, even if for a larger operation, makes so much sense to me but it’s really just the first step away from conventional herd management. Comeback is shockingly different from anything I have seen or done. The transition was important for me.
Good points!
Thanks for the resources, I will try to lay my hands on them. I promise not to be overwhelmed by No Risk
, I like to know a full story. And I’m relieved about the cow picture – I was thinking the same as Kristin.
SSF, that’s what happens when I do my own editing!
In the picture of the 2 beef cows, do you not mean that the cow on the left is the 14 year old and the one on the right has not slicked off? Because the left cow sure looks slick all over (nice & plump too) and the right cow looks a bit shaggy around the barrel. Please, again, not picking on your lovely cows, just wanting to understand what looks good and left looks better than right to me.
And could you get a picture of a pasture grazed 1 week, 2 weeks, and 3 weeks back? I’m trying to tell my husband and my father that leaving the litter (and not mowing after the cows) is better. Of course, I’m either grazing 3 milk cows OR 20 sheep and a couple steers. I don’t get the same trampling effect you do with 20 cows. Still, this is new land to us and I do want to improve it.
How much of the new orchard grass you are seeing on that poorer slope is from letting the grasses get long and seed out vs. older seed bank seeds sprouting with the extra organic matter? How about clover growth? Does the white clover get shaded out over time with the taller grazing?
And have you read anything about mowing after grazing vs. leaving the litter as trampled? I’ve not found anything that I can recall (and I’ve read Greg Judy and others). And yes, I prefer from a cost/time standpoint to not mow. But I am wondering about pros & cons.
On the fence line clean up, I’m currently doing the same with my sheep & steers….they are cleaning out some large hedgerows left by the former owner’s bulldozing of stumps into piles a decade ago. It is so much easier than using a chainsaw and scythe!
Thanks again for sharing all this.
Kristin, thanks for catching my oops, the old one is on the left. Yep the other one has the shaggy barrel thing, Jane is down to just a few hairs. It’s my belief, theory, …, that if they get run down, and the minerals aren’t quite right they are more prone to parasites. Lana is coming out of it, but she should be slicked out, goodness I have an old cow missing some teeth and she slicked out immediately so lots of factors at play.
I’ll work on some photos, if I can get to the other pasture I can get some of what they left a few weeks ago. It’s made a huge difference here, but I don’t get the same effect with just a few cows.
There was no orchard grass on that hillside, it’s from seed present in the seed bank that finally got enough food via the carbon and manure. I’ve seen it before too where we butchered in the pasture and the next year the spot from the blood and the paunch miraculously grows a whole new set of different grasses and plants. The white clover seems to be a constant, as does the red, and we’re actually seeing more red clover because it can’t tolerate being nipped off continually like the white.
Greg Judy talks extensively about not mowing, just bending the plant over with trampling. He’s worried about compaction from tires killing earth worms…, I’m not that out there yet, I have mowed some behind Jane and Willy this year, because it’s hard to contain them in a small enough area without leaving some tails. I would say if you don’t get the trampling with the smaller numbers I would mow, because you need to get the carbon on the ground and to shock the plant into regrowing by bending, grazing or mowing. When I do mow I leave the hog mower high, the bottom three inches is where the plant stores it’s energy, if you go shorter than that you may kill the plant or severely set it back.
Thanks for all the answers, Nita. Glad it wasn’t just me with the cows! One of my two steers, the yearling, is finally almost all shiny but there’s still a little fuzz on his barrel. It was access to some wooded areas that turned him around. They get so much from the trees & shrubs, as you’ve noted before. White oak & privet are the preferred species.
Thanks for the seed info. I’ve got orchard grass in places. We’re hotter than you so it grows mostly in shadier areas. I’m tempted to lime and sow some clovers in areas where they are mostly absent but should probably just be patient. The area was continuously grazed for a decade, then fallow for near a year before we bought it. I think it looks 100% better but, then again, I’m biased.
Hog mower? Try lawn tractor. We always mow at the highest setting but that’s just 4 to 4-1/2 inches. It works. I don’t want to buy a tractor!
“Yeah, I get a big bang out of watching grass grow
”" Haha – I like that! That’s why we call our farm Morningbreath Farm and Home for the Easily Amused. Did you seed the area where the orchard grass is now growing, or did it just show up on its own?
Anne, so true! The new grasses just appeared.
That’s funny Anne – I’m pretty easily amused too : )
I need a grass management do-over this year. Our weather has been pretty sucky. Drought, hauling lots of water, crispy grass. I’m considering just grazing my hayfield and buying in hay….
Your beef cows are handsome girls… I hate culling that easily when in my heart of hearts I know I didn’t give them my best. Or maybe that’s just my excuse for procrastinating : )
I have a few steer hanging onto baby coats this year which I believe indicates my minerals must need balancing.
One thing about raising livestock, you’ll never know it all : )
AMF, I know what you mean, culling is the hardest part. I have so few cows, I would be down to none if I followed all the culling rules
Like us, they all have something that could be improved. It’s pretty easy to cull when you have 100′s of cows. A small herd, not so much.
I agree heartily with your last sentence – they keep up hopping.
MoH,
If you are still checking this thread. Does the 14 year old on the left have a spring calf on her? What frame size do you think she is? She looks great for any age. I wish I had a field full of mamas that looked like her and were solid performers. Ahh, visions to work toward.
Mark, yep she’s got her late May calf on her. She’s a medium size Hereford, descended from my sister’s old 4-H cow from the 60′s. She’s a sweet old girl!