Pastures

[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...