Strip Grazing Brawlin Style

[carragheendexters]

Hi Everyone,

I thought I'd post a few photos of what our pasture looks like over here in Aust in summer and how we manage the forage on the ground for maximum sustainability and minimum supplementary feeding of the cattle.

We all have our crosses to bear and challenges to manage with the keeping of Dexters, and each are unique to where you live. This is what we deal with.

                                                             

This is what the pasture looks like before grazing,                                                           and this is what it looks like after grazing.

Our cattle are kept in overnight in a small "night paddock" which is all dirt. In the morning they are fed complete pellets made from lucerne (alfalfa), straw, grains, and vitamins and minerals. It is a locally produced pellet for local conditions when there isn't a lot of forage on the ground, they are about 20% fibre and 13% protein and feed value 12mJ. The cows get about 1 kg each (just over 2 lbs). They are then let out on the paddock for grazing, they get a 3metre(10ft) strip each day, the width of the paddock. This gives them long stem fibre to keep their rumens healthy, and is quite good feed even though dry, it's a bit like having pasture hay but still on the paddock.

Then in the evening they come back to the night paddock for more pellets to keep them going for the night, about the same amount as the morning, and they then go and lay down to sleep and cud for the night.

We find this a cost effective way of keeping the cattle, much cheaper than feeding hay, and no wastage at all. They are only costing us about $50 per week in the cost of the pellets for all of our cattle. The bulls and calves being weaned are kept separate to the cows, and fed separately.

Here is a photo of some of them out grazing, as you can see it keeps them in good condition and they seem to enjoy the dry feed

regards Louise

[carragheendexters]

I thought I'd add another photo of my front "lawn" which I took back in November, since this photo we have been trying so hard to get a bit of green in the grass as protection for the house in case of grass fires.

Our houseyard is quite large, over an acre, including a small orchard area, so lots of watering to be done. We never seem to manage to keep on top of it.

We are very fortunate that water is never an issue for us,  we have plenty of it and never have to buy it in. We have a fast flow bore with an electrical pump that is automatically set which pumps the bore water up to a  5,000 gallon header tank up on the hill which gravity feeds back to all of the water troughs, we have concrete troughs in all of our paddocks, and lots of bore water taps around the house for the garden. We are on town water for the house, with no restrictions, we just have to pay for the water we use and we also have a 100,000litre (22,000 gallon) rainwater tank off the house for backup use.

We are currently in the middle of a week of "heatwave" conditions, temps are 100-110 for the week, with daytime humidity getting down to 10%, at night at least it cools down where we live to a comfortable level where we can turn the cooling off in the early hours of the morning, Night time humidity reaches a massive 20% .

You have to drink so much, you sweat so much, and it just dries straight off. The moisture is sapped out of you.

I get up at dawn, try and get all the chores done by mid morning when it is getting quite hot by then, and stay inside till after 7 at night, and then a quick run around to get everything done before dark at 9.

Roll on Monday when the temps are meant to get back to normal, back to low 90's thank goodness.

regards louise

[zephyrhillsusan]

Wow, those are really extreme conditions! Kind of the opposite of Hans. I really admire those of you who raise cattle in such difficult conditions.

My brother-in-law is a cattle rancher in the Davis Mountains of West Texas. They have even less grass than you do and LOTS more rocks! I've often thought he ought to try Dexters, but I'm sure they'd never consider it. They have Red Brangus crossed with Herefords because they supposedly throw small babies and put on weight fast. I'm sure they'd be shocked at the low butchering weights for Dexters, but I think they'd do a lot better on the kind of forage they have there.

Hang in there till it cools off. I wish we could send you the freezing wind we've got right now!

[carragheendexters]

Hi Susan,

I'll gladly take your freezing wind right now, it is 18.45 in the evening and it is still 105 F out there. I'm trying to psyche myself up to leaving the airconned house and go out and feed animals, already have a headache from quickly getting the dogs out to toilet, they are back in their airconned room till dark, when they get to have a proper run.

I think we here are probably a lot like Texas in climate, not much rain, and hot. Last year we had only 14 inches of rain, our average is supposed to be 24 inches.

We budgeted our feed, otherwise the cattle would have eaten it all in the first few weeks, and our place would be a total dust bowl by now with nothing but dirt in the paddocks

You BIL cattle probably do very well where they are, the bit of Brahman for the heat, and the Angus for muscle, plus the Hereford for good milk and good do-ability. No doubt they make him money, which is what it is all about in cattle farming. Yes, I can't imagine him giving Dexters a go. They just aren't big enough for commercial farming, the kill costs are the same whether large or small, and that has to be taken into account when working out profit.

regards Louise

PS just thinking, you know the heat never really seems to bother the cattle, even the black ones. In the middle of the day, they were out there in the paddock grazing away, had a bit of a rest under the trees in the afternoon, and are back out there now grazing. The sheep on the other hand have been under the trees all day, and have just come out to graze.

[Fran]

You have some beautiful cattle there! Wish I could send you some of our rain. I'm trying very hard not to complain about all the rain we keep getting because I know how fast that faucet can be turned off.

[lakeportfarms]

Those are interesting photos Louise. Your cattle look in great condition and they are obviously doing well with your management of their feed and forage. It's certainly a lot different than what we experience here!

When you strip graze is that it for the summer? And how do you manage the pastures and your cattle when the grass is actively growing? When we strip graze here for the few months we have grass growing, we can put up a back line to prevent the cows from re-grazing what they've eaten a few days earlier, and then rotate the cows through again 2 and sometimes 3 more times on that same pasture before the grass goes dormant in our winter. This initially required a lane back to water, but we then incorporated a means to move the water and mineral along with them to keep them in small areas, preserving the lane for grazing. I'm sure if we had fewer animals/acre we'd be able to extend our grazing season by a month or maybe two, but that's about it since the snow usually buries the grass too much for them to access once we really get into winter. Right now we have a little under a foot on the ground, but that's due to a number of warm days, some cold rain when it became saturated with water and now it's frozen hard. I can walk on top of the snow, but the cows will poke through with their hooves. But they don't like to walk in the areas that are not compacted. When it all melts and the ground starts to thaw, we have them in a sacrifice area until the ground firms up and the grass starts to get enough growth to start up pasture management again, usually mid to late May.

It would be a neat thread(s) here for others to chip in with photos of their conditions during their various seasons so we could all get an idea of the conditions you deal with during particular times of the year. Perhaps divide the threads into winter, summer, fall and spring and make them sticky. How about it Olga?