Pastures

[farmaholic]

I know there is nothing I can do to make it rain. But I find the mindset of pasture management needs to change around here. Short-sighted gain for long term pasture damage....how long does it take to recover from "constant abuse".

Some of you guys need to put the petty political differences aside and respect each other. We may not always agree with each other's ideology but surely we can respect each other otherwise.

It's obvious the man is doing something right.... if I wanted a model to emmulate raising cattle on good pasture....grassfarmer's would be hard to beat.

Give him a pat on the back instead of taking a jab at him.

[Blaithin]

I've been working for the last few years to rotationally graze my small acreage more intensively and help get it back to good production from being just a vacant plot. I've slowly been building up my herd, always cautious of hitting too many animals and causing damage.

This year I had a few things against me and I'm absolutely gutted that it's probably going to mean next years grass is fubared now.

The first thing is it quit raining in July. Not as bad as some areas of course, but bad enough the grass stopped.

Second thing is my parental figure has a few head here as well. The old school philosophy of graze it to the dirt and then just feed hay came through loud and clear this year. As did the mentality of "sell calves when they're bigger to make more money" which lead to a handful of weaned calves being carried along when they should have been down the road. There was no foresight to the future, just vague "Well deal with it when it happens"

I admit, I'm quite overwhelmed with the thought of next year already. Without some serious precipitation this winter it is going to be tough anyway and I don't think I have any leeway now. Some neighbours are in similar boats looking at their current pastures, many of which still have cattle on them. But some are looking alright and managing well. Years like this really makes those putting in a bit more effort stand out more!

[sofa.king]

Aw c'mon farma it's Sunday afternoon I'm bored and just want to have a little fun and throw a couple jabs at graskfarmer3.

[farmaholic]

You can't let grassfarmer get under your skin.....in his previous life he was from the Hypoderma Bovis species, so its just his nature.

[Braveheart]

I see a well managed pasture from Grassy. Nice mobbing, great ground cover, lots of rest, also good mix of species, love legumes in pastures.

Blaithin, your family member just cost you next years' pasture. That person needs to be put out to pasture.

BTW, I'd bet on Grassfarmer in a spelling match with SF3.

[grassfarmer]

Blaithin, I'm sure it must make it tougher not having sole control over your grazing operation. One thing to remember when you say it quit raining in July and the grass stopped growing - in your area you could typically expect 70% of your annual growth to have occurred by July 5th. If the grass doesn't get ahead of you in June to the point you're wondering how you'll ever use it all you are likely overstocked relative to your production base.
I know some people that set stock pairs and expect the pasture to produce as much in August/September - in fact produce more as the calves are bigger in Fall - as it did in June. Drought or no drought there is no way that will work. You've got to grow the maximum grass in the spring blaze and then carefully allocate it throughout the rest of the grazing season.

[Klause]

What blends are those, grassfarmer?


That looks a lot like our pasture land did. We had lots of 40-50 acres pastures, cows were split into 3 heard of 30-40 head, and they were moved every week or two. Not quite an intensive as your system but we had grass taller than the cows often times and usually ran out of summer before we ran out of pasture (we didn't graze them in winter, too much snow that far north in MB and Charolais can't be left to their own during calving)


It's interesting, because when you travel to the SW where my in-laws farm where it's semi-arid, and the grass species change, it's a very different world... and I don't think intensive grazing like that would work there... simply because there isn't enough moisture to grow that much vegetation.

Different places, different approaches.

[grassfarmer]

Klause, First is an old smooth brome/alfalfa/fescue stand, second one we seeded - predominantly alfalfa plus hybrid brome, meadow brome and orchard grass. Never seen a place where orchard grass does so well. We grazed as late as early February in our high snowfall area of AB but you need cows with the ability to do that and a later spring calving period.

Sure it would look different in a drier climate but the same principles still apply and indeed it is even more important in a brittle environment. I remember one story of Savory's work in Africa where he was advising a ranch during an extreme drought - all the neighbours had de-stocked out of grass, but he mobbed his cattle into one large herd and moved them frequently, giving them a very small piece of land each time. This gave enough rest on the other acres that they were able to make it through and the animal impact incurred rehabilitated the land they grazed at high stock density.

[helmsdale]

Got a guy around here who's cows are eating whats left of the buck brush. Grass is chewed nearly to the roots. They should have been off more than a month ago. Theyll likely be there till october...