And they are out on pasture!

[lakeportfarms]

It has been a while!  We let them out yesterday onto the grass, in an area that was used as a sacrifice area over the winter months.  This way the grass isn't so great yet and they'll get used to it.  Combined with using the managed strip grazing all has been going well.  When they saw Sheril and I putting in the step ins and rolling out the polywire they sure made a lot of noise.  Seems they hadn't forgotten what that means!







Finally I won't have to deal with these problems for a while!

[Fran]

Yayyyyyy! Love that last picture...

[dexterfarm]

I only beet you by a week. Mine went out last weekend. I already have hay that is ready to cut but we are getting rain every day or 2. I just hope is not like last year. We could not get the hay cut because of the rain and then when it did stop we didn't get much more the rest of the summer.

I have never seen one try to put their head in a panel like that. Good thing it didnt tip it over.

[carragheendexters]

Oh Hans, they get themselves in such predicaments don't they? Lucky you were about to rescue her.
Your pastures are looking good considering the hard winter that you had, you must have very forgiving land and good soil fertility.
What happens to the grasses that are left under the snow in winter? do they just lay dorment and then regrow in spring? or do you have to do some reseeding? How many months do you have grazing for now until the pasture stops growing again?

It doesn't matter how much dry feed/hay they get, they just hang out for lush, green pasture. They love the real thing and bloom on it.

I love to see photos of everyone else pastures and how they do their grazing. We all do things so differently.

[wildberryfarm]

Wow that was your sacrifice area? It made a nice recovery!

That last pic...oh dear.

Diana

[lakeportfarms]

Well, Diana, it was one of them...not the bad one. That would be the garden, which doesn't have a blade of grass showing and I sink into the "mix" up to my shins if I walk in it.. Hopefully it will dry out in a few days and I can get in there with the tractor and the rototiller, we made some nice progress this past weekend with the warm temperatures and sunshine! I hope Mark did well with yours!

Louise, we are very careful about not overgrazing the nice pastures, and I'd rather feed hay than get them on too early. We were pushing it a bit this weekend as the soil was pretty wet, but the grass and clover has exploded with growth in the past few days. It also seems to be developing seed heads earlier and with shorter grass than normal, possibly due to the cold winter and spring. Even if they grind up the ground a bit, it usually recovers quite nicely by the time we have them back on it. We usually have a grazing season from the middle of May until middle of October. We move them 2-3 times per day in strips, and the back line is moved every couple of days. We aim for a 30 day rotation early in the season, stretching out to 45-50 days during the mid-summer slump.

In the winter with the ground frozen and snow on the ground, I usually try to feed them in the areas that we have the worst soil conditions. This adds organic matter, and by moving the feeder frequently it also spreads both manure and re-seeds a lot of the areas with clover and grass out of the hay. This winter it was very difficult, since the feeders were almost always frozen solid in the snow and ice and I risked damaging them by moving them. We also went to hay saver feeders so the waste hay was very low compared to the common round bale feeder rings.

Since we've gotten most of our pastures set up with hi-tensile wire now, we've changed how we managed the temporary lines for the grazing, eliminating some pieces that we used to attach the temporary lines, which speeds up the moves considerably. One of these days I'll have to take a video of nearly 80 Dexters mooing at me as I walk out there to roll up a line of step ins. They are pretty noisy until all you hear is a bunch of munching of grass!

[wildberryfarm]

What would you estimate your grazing season to be if you didn't divide the pasture into strips and move them? Such a cool system. Obviously the grass loves it.

My garden is not looking gardeny at all yet...I'm glad yours isn't either, makes me feel better, ha! 7 months of Dexter poo in a fence is what it looks like. Hpefully this week Mark will get in there with the tiller, he's just desperate to get it done. I'll be expexting a very full pantry come harvest time, it will be like a little payback for such a long winter.

[wvdexters]

Woo-Hoo!!!!!!

Happy Cows - Happy People

[carragheendexters]

Yes Hans, I think not overgrazing is the real trick. We try where possible to graze down to no lower than 4-6 inches with plenty of pasture still left. It regenerates so much better. Even in summer when the grass is dead we always leave several inches of dead feed.

All that organic material feeds the bacteria and fungi in the soil which makes for healthy soil. Healthy soil makes for healthy pasture. But then I'm sure you know all this, that is why you are doing things this way. That is a great way of naturally reseeding your pastures. Here in Australia some people seed out clover in a similar way, they put clover seed in feed for cattle, and wherever they poop the ground gets some clover seed. Saves on labour and cost, and so much more natural.

You do get quite a few months of grazing in then, even with your cold winters. Your system sounds very similar to ours even with the different climates, just the opposite way around. Summer is the time when we have pasture shortages.

Would love to see a video, take one when you get the time.

[ssrdex]

Looking good Hans, I'm sure they're as glad to be on grass as you are to have them there! Hope you & your cattle enjoy a nice, long, warm summer. Post that video soon!

[lakeportfarms]

Diana, If we didn't do the managed grazing we would either need to cut the numbers in half, or we'd run out of forage probably mid-July or so. A couple of years ago when we had the "drought" (I say this with all respect to those who really have drought conditions) we had heard that most everybody was feeding hay. We were able to continue with stockpiled grass for over a month, and only pulled the herd off and started feeding hay for about 3 weeks until the fall rains kicked in. Because we hadn't grazed the grass into dirt by then but actually left it pretty long, it snapped back rather quickly and we were able to put them back on the pasture until mid October. If I had grazed it short I doubt it would have recovered enough to put them back on.

We were also very fortunate that I purchased all our hay requirements with the first cutting, just before the weather turned hot and dry. The feeding for three weeks used a lot of my hay, and I used every last bale during the winter, feeding the last one May 14th and putting the cows out May 15th the following spring! If I hadn't done the managed grazing, I would have run short with weeks to go in the winter, and import hay from one of the southern states at $100/round bale.

Joel, I'd rather not have too warm, thanks   Today was nice, we had a wind off the lake and it was about 55 degrees for a high, perfect working weather for me.  On Memorial Day in the UP, there were record or near record high temperatures in the 80's, but ice on the Great Lakes!

www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/05/27/great_lakes_ice_remains_despite_near_record_high_temperatures.html

[zephyrhillsusan]

Lovely! I'm so glad for you and them! And I love the last photo!

[wildberryfarm]

3 months of hay or half your herd...I was wondering how well this system pays you for your labor, moving the fences. That is a pretty fat paycheck! For fun you could calculate it out and then every time you move a line say to yourself, "I just made x dollars."

So is the last pic a steer?

[lakeportfarms]

Yes Diana, that's how we view it, plus the pasture really benefits from the frequent moves. That way the best grass doesn't get eaten over and over again, which eventually pave the way for the more invasive grasses and weeds to take over. One day this summer you should plan a beach day and come over to see how it works, or if you are interested in doing something let me know and we'll help you get underway. Or I can come help set you up in exchange for a bottle or two of that milk in your fridge!

The last picture is a yearling heifer, Faith or Patience, I'm not sure which, ask Sheril, ha,ha... Probably Patience though given the mischief she gets into. While they were in the spring pen, we must have had a little hay just outside the corral panel sitting on the ground. I guess it was just a little too tempting for her. I heard a banging and opened the big overhead door in back to find her like that, with all the cows in her pen out in the driveway area!

[lakeportfarms]

So, they have had plenty of grass so they're not as vocal as they sometimes are, but here was the move of the larger of the three groups this morning.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-MDLllqbAM