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
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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
Starting another rotation
It’s Thursday evening on March 30th 2023, and that means it’s time to start a new rotation. This rotation will be rows of 425′ by 1000′. We will move the cows from west to east 7 times, twice a day, so 1 week will take 2 rows. The field is 2560′ long so we will… Continue reading Starting another rotation
Drought Removal Likely
In the next month (October 2022) it looks like the drought condition will be removed from Hopkins County. We had a significant rain on our land, 5″, last Monday, about 10 days ago. Since then we’ve had a little rain here and there. Yesterday I recorded 1/4″ which is nice. The forecast is rain pretty… Continue reading Drought Removal Likely
Friday August 26, 2022
There is starting to be more grass in the field, but it’s still not quite what we need. A good rain should help the grass mature nicely. I found a strange yellow flower in the field that I have yet to identify. If you know what it is, let me know. I took the kids… Continue reading Friday August 26, 2022