Green keepers

[grassfarmer]

Cowman, I agree on the meadow brome it's a great grass for this part of the country. I would question the guy grazing straight meadow brome though. To get that kind of output with no legumes will entail a lot of expensive fertiliser I'm sure. Nature abhors monocultures and this is not a longterm plan. Mother nature will fight back by trying to introduce diversity and complexity to the pasture which could mean "weeds" or other grass species that pre-existed on the pasture. A pure crop of any type will not remain pure without resorting to expensive and destructive chemical sprays.

[cowman]

Well grassfarmer I'm not real up on his setup(only visited it once) and it seemed to me the darned fescue was moving in pretty agressively! He fertilizes to a soil sample and says the requirements are dropping every year.

[cowman]

Also grassfarmer I was not real impressed with his watering system. An alley way down to a boggy area where he had a solar pump and tank. It was quite a mess to say the least!
We are not super pleased with our own system as we had some problems with the float valve on the plastic tanks. Cows are always rubbing it off and making a mess. Sort of a cheap junky float valve in my opinion! I think a metal tank and sturdier valve might be better.

[grassfarmer]

What type of valve and tank do you use cowman?

[cowman]

Now I'm not real sure of the name of the valve but will check it out. Just a cheap plastic thing we picked up at UFA...seems to me it was about $20. Tank is a 500 gal. black poly and valve screws on to the side. Added a couple of extra set screws.

[grassfarmer]

Holy crap that's a big trough cowman, does one trough water 4 fields(ie at the corner)Assuming you use 1 inch line off your regular water supply I would have used a lot smaller trough. We use 40 gallon Tuff brand troughs mounted on a wooden sledge(can't weld)with a hudson valve. We find that works fine for 120 pairs especially if they are in a 2 acre paddock - cows come and go all day drinking rather than trailing to water as a bunch Hudson valves are very trouble free and cow proof. Only problem we have had is when a mouse got in the pipeline over winter and the fur blocked the filter. A screw on valve at $20 sounds more like these kind that you run off a low pressure garden hose.

[grassfarmer]

Oops!! there was a typo there - we use a 140 gallon tank.
One day a year I hate my pasture pipeline - the day I turn it on. Spent the afternoon today repairing leaks in one section of buried pipe. Every spring we get this trouble which I think stems from one roll of bad pipe. We usually get about 4 bursts a year. It must burst on freeze up because once you get the system up to pressure and no leaks it runs fine all season. I would never shallow bury pipe again -far prefer it on the surface.