Post by lakeportfarms on Sept 12, 2014 9:27:23 GMT -5
Here are some photos of some of our shorties a few days ago with the managed grazing still going on. Note the narrow (8-10 foot) strips that we move them to 2x per day. With a back line moved every couple of days the grass they were on just a week ago is already recovering and we'll probably be able to graze it again in a month, about the time our grass stops growing. Our other herd of non-carriers (about 60 of them) managed to break into one of our pastures through a unlocked gate (oops!) a couple of days ago. The grass and clover was soooo lush and thick in there, and there was no way I was going to be able to easily get them out until they settled down. I finally got them out last evening, by making a big scene about rolling up a line in another pasture. They thought there was something better there than what they had and came running...lol...I'm still smarter than they are. Though they hadn't made much of a dent in the forage by eating, when I surveyed the pasture it was stomped and trampled so much that I'll have to let it recover for a couple of weeks before putting them in and grazing it in strips like we usually do. It was a great example of how much more efficiently the strip grazing utilizes the forage over simply moving them from pasture to pasture in a more traditional form of rotational grazing. Though the trampling is better than overgrazing by putting organic matter back into the soil, I'd need a lot more acres to do it that way with the number of cows we have.
As you can see in one of the photos we also had to modify a standard Gallagher pigtail step in to get the line down another 5-6 inches or so in height. Our yearling shorties can duck it, and we have quite a few of them so they were doing some pre-grazing of the grass before the adult ones and the bull(s) got in there. We use the regular pig tails for the non-carrier herd without the additional clip.
Fortunately no snow like some in the Northern plains or Rockies, the Great Lakes moderate the air in the fall (though we'll only have a high of 53 today with lake effect rain showers), but the grass keeps on growing with all the rain and moisture. It's been a great year for the pastures!
As you can see in one of the photos we also had to modify a standard Gallagher pigtail step in to get the line down another 5-6 inches or so in height. Our yearling shorties can duck it, and we have quite a few of them so they were doing some pre-grazing of the grass before the adult ones and the bull(s) got in there. We use the regular pig tails for the non-carrier herd without the additional clip.
Fortunately no snow like some in the Northern plains or Rockies, the Great Lakes moderate the air in the fall (though we'll only have a high of 53 today with lake effect rain showers), but the grass keeps on growing with all the rain and moisture. It's been a great year for the pastures!
