I’ll try to add notes to this post as I update the year in review.
For now, this is what I think happened:
- We had AMAZING grass growth, particular in the late summer and early autumn, in spite of the drought.
- Rotating 21 days was probably too quick, but I saw good results the whole year long.
- Goatweed took over the field, but I don’t think it was all bad news. As I’ve said many times, if you took the goat weed away and left everything else as it is, I would have a pretty amazing field. I think the goat weed helped a lot more than it hurt.
- The cattle condition went from bone-thin in February to fat rather quickly. Most of the cows put on massive weight gains, especially the angus. The longhorn (piney woods?) seemed to do OK. The cows got thin because I did not have hay and I was feeding them minimal feed. The goal was to sustain life, not maintain weight. (All of the cows were open.)
- Harvesting the 2 1/2 year old bull was an experience. I plan on doing it again, and hopefully I’ll be better at it.