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:
Wednesday Evening, April 5th, 2023
68 F with a breeze from the north that is cold and dry. I’m told that yearling ewes typically only have 1 lamb, while older ewes will have 2. The dogs chase a chicken back to the coop but they are too aggressive so I have to stop them. I bring them back to the… Continue reading Wednesday Evening, April 5th, 2023
Wednesday Morning April 5th, 2023
We had a thunderstorm blow through in the morning that gave us around 1/2″ of rain. The cows are jumping and dancing and pushing each other. The grass here looks pretty much like it looks 850′ down, 2 rows from here. The goal is to keep the cows from grazing it down to the ground… Continue reading Wednesday Morning April 5th, 2023
Tuesday Evening, April 4th, 2023
Rotation: 2023-03-30 Row 2 Cell 4 The cows and sheep were laying down chewing their cud. The cows and bulls like to crowd together at the wire. I though I saw a young calf cross the wire but she is back. There’s a bunch of blue flowers that suddenly appeared. The dog tackles me while… Continue reading Tuesday Evening, April 4th, 2023
Tuesday Morning, April 4th, 2023
The bulls are still separated from the cows. I wanted to move them but it was too much work to do by myself, maybe impossible. The grass is looking really good. The cows left a lot of tall grass behind, just nibbling at some of the tips and leaving the rest behind. There is something… Continue reading Tuesday Morning, April 4th, 2023
Monday Evening, April 3rd, 2023
Today was hot but we got the move done. Rotation: 2023-03-03 Row 2 Cell 2