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
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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!
Saturday Morning, April 1st, 2023
I show off the shop in this video. Rotation: 2023-03-30 Row: 1 Cell: 4
Friday Evening March 31st, 2023
I did some research on Bovine Dentition. This is the 4th cell of the 1st row of the 2023-03-30 rotation. I cover bovine dentition. Here is a PDF from the USDA: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media_file/2021-05/Using_Dentition-to-Age-Cattle.pdf The key facts are: If you want to check the age of your cow, you can look at the incisor teeth.
The last cell before the move
It’s Thursday morning on March 30th, 2023 and I just moved the cows to the last cell of the last row of this rotation. This is the infamous “Boneyard” where I dump the dead animals. I’ve had two cows die on my field, and several calves. This is where the bones end up. The two… Continue reading The last cell before the move