I was intrigued by some yellow flies crawling on a fresh cow patty. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them before. Thanks to a blog post, I think I found out what they are: Yellow Dung Flies or scathophaga stercoraria. The flies reproduce on fresh cow patties and lay their eggs. They don’t bother the… Continue reading Yellow Dung Fly
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Double wire is not enough
The dogs and the sheep are crossing the wire. It turns out that 4 wires worked, but 2 wires are not enough. I think the problem is there is too much of a gap between the middle wire and the ground. The dogs are able to crouch and get through easily. The solution for the… Continue reading Double wire is not enough
Good grass growth already
In one part of my field, the northeast corner near the pen where I keep my chickens, the grass is already a dense, thick green with some stalks over a foot tall, and it’s only February 14th. I don’t know why exactly this particular area is doing so well, but I can’t help but think… Continue reading Good grass growth already
Early Spring 2024 Rotation Plans
Given the warm weather, and the lack of a forecast for cold weather anytime soon, it looks like we are in spring. The grass agrees. I am seeing good grass growth all around my field. In the stockpile (the northern 1/3 of my field) the grass is growing quite rapidly. Now that we have some… Continue reading Early Spring 2024 Rotation Plans
Playing Hide-and-Seek with the Calves
Newborn calves are hidden in the brush by their mamas. This is a way to protect them from predators. Unfortunately, this means that when you move the cows, you may be leaving behind calves. The mamas will go back to try and get them, so make sure they can access the previous area. If you… Continue reading Playing Hide-and-Seek with the Calves
2023 Year in Review
I’ll try to add notes to this post as I update the year in review. For now, this is what I think happened:
2024 Plans and Goals
2024 is going to be, hopefully, our biggest year yet. Stocking Rate Cattle Sheep Poultry Grazing Patterns The big changeup this year is the use of stockpiles. Stockpiles are 1/3 of the land set aside for a season to provide plenty of forage from the transition from one season to the next. Rotations of the… Continue reading 2024 Plans and Goals
3 New Calves
We had 3 new calves recently. I had hoped to have the calves born in March by keeping the bulls off until June, but my neighbor’s bull jumped the fence in mid April and so here we are. The sires are all my neighbor’s Beefmaster, who was 3 years old at the time. The weather… Continue reading 3 New Calves
A diagram of grazing practices
https://usaregenalliance.org/regenerative-grazing They have a picture at the bottom of the page that shows what happens to the roots when you graze the grass. From this, we learn this principle: My principles (as of November of 2023) are the following:
Saturday Evening, April 1st, 2023
Rotation: Rotation 2023-03-30 Row: 1 Cell: 5 I should be getting lambs any day now!