Grow grass and graze

[Rod]

Boy that sounds great. I wish I had more pasture available and I would give it a try too.

[earthwise]

Kristin – I have not seen this grazing booklet (see below), but it seems interesting and year-round grazing in Alberta Canada should have a lot of info on stockpiled forages!

I will be interested in hearing how your calves look this spring. We have over 4 feet of snow on the ground here (with snow banks 5-89 feet high). Once we succeed in gaining more pasture acreage, we plan to stockpile more forage as well with the hope of feeding stored feed maybe 2-3 months a year as opposed to 5 months. We were grazing into November, but with our limited pasture (right now) we did have to start supplementing by October.

Lisa

Year-Round Grazing Booklet Released

The Agricultural Research and Extension Council of Alberta (ARECA) has released a new publication on year-round grazing that has created broad interest across eight provinces and is scheduled for a third printing before winter. The booklet features five producers selected from areas across Alberta who agreed to share their skill and knowledge as year round graziers over a year of operations. All five were chosen based on their many years of experience adapting and integrating year round grazing systems into their own cow/calf businesses. They represent a wide range of soil types and conditions, and provide real numbers, practical tips and production alternatives.

In addition to the five producer stories, the 43-page publication provides detailed, practical information on watering systems, using snow as a water source, electric fencing and forage species for extending the grazing system. The economics of year round grazing are presented in some detail including a ranking of various grazing alternatives that sets out data on cost per cow per day, savings per day, savings per cow and savings per pound of calf. Copies of the booklet are available free of charge by contacting the Alberta Ag Info Centre at 310-FARM (toll free in Alberta) or 403-742-7901 from out of province. AgriSuccess, Farm Credit Canada, August 10, 2007

[Anonymous]

Hello Don,

I have been meaning to get in touch with you for some time. Here’s my easy chance! We are mainly a produce operation, but we do have a small flock of 15 ewes. Our products are grass fed lamb, sheepskins, and spun and naturally dyed yarn. We have been at it for some years, but our production is very disappointing. We’ve had Mike Ghia, sheep consultant, down a couple years ago and made several changes, but our hanging weights are still very light. I am thinking to call Bruce Clement for another round of consulting, but wondered if you would recommend him or someone else (yourself, perhaps?) who could help us in our grass fed, ideally organic system.
We had a consultant provided by a state program we’re participating in come out last week. His adamant advice was that we keep the lambs in the barn for their entire lives, worm them every 2 to 4 weeks, and feed them on grain and hay. Though I must say I was impressed with the sound of his 100 lb hanging weights, it is not the type of management I am interested in. However, the sheep are not a financially sustainable enterprise for us at present.
Any assistance you could lend would be greatly appreciated.

thanks much, David Fisher

[Donn Hewes]

Hi David, As my wife and I love talking about raising sheep we might be hard pressed to charge for it, but we would be glad to tell you about what we have done, and why, and what we think we have learned so far. Just for starters, our lambs start with all the disadvantages over most other lambs – because we are a dairy, our lambs spend about one month with their mothers. Then they are 100% grass-fed. We only worm individuals who show clinical signs of parasitism. We do all of this through feeding the best grass and hay that we can, and relying on body condition and over all health to support the growth of the animal. Our live weights are light by some standards, 90 to 100 lbs. but our customers are very happy with the meat and continue to return for more. If you want more info feel free to email us or post it here – we would be happy to discuss it here.

[Kristin]

Lisa –
thanks for this info. I’m ordering the grazing booklet and will post about it when it arrives.
all best,
Kristin

[Kristin]

Here’s a question for the grazing experts. We would like to replace some of the grain we feed out to the horses with good pasture if we can. What is the best type of grass or mix of grasses for horses working pretty hard, say an average of 4 hours a day, five or six days a week? Would it be good to follow our dairy cows in the legume-heavy pastures with the horses?

Thanks,
Kristin

[Donn Hewes]

Horses can be great grazers. In following lambs we have found they clean off the grasses and other stuff that the lambs left and don’t really bother the legumes and other good plants the lambs just shortened. Using tread in posts, and poly wire reels is helpful in making it fast to set up a new break for horses. Aside from a young animal or a pregnant mare, we feed almost no grain to our work animals. None in the winter, and a handful as a reward when they come in the barn each morning in the summer. With all this dry weather we have already started night grazing a few of the areas that are usually too wet to graze. Who would have thought the horses would be out before the sheep. Sheep will start to graze this week. Gotta fix some fence first. Donn

[Carl Russell]

Carl Russell;715 wrote:

At present Earthwise Farm and Forest is a lot more forest than farm. When my grandfather bought this place there were fields all around the house and barn, but being post-depression they had fallen into neglect. As he was of failing health and knew that he would not be able to rebuild the farm, he planted thirty acres to white and red pine, and norway spruce.

So, as of now we move our cattle and horses around to fields in the neighborhood. Beside the moving time, this is not the most efficient way to manage animals, nor pasture.

The plantations are 60 years old now, and I have been improving them over the last twenty years to where there is a large concentration of high quality trees throughout. We have just started the planning process to return the entire area back to agricultural use.

We intend to clearcut sections 5-10 acres at a time. We will then follow with a livestock rotation including pigs, poultry, cattle and horses, to create pasture and hay land, that will be one large centrally located area on our own farm.

This will have to be another pasture-cam project. Carl

I started the project this winter, harvesting about 3 acres of white pine sawlogs. We windrowed the trees when we cut them down, making places where there are piles of brush, and some places that are more open.

I attached the first of the progression of photos.

Carl

[Joshua Kingsley]

Looks good Carl. Will you let the tops decompose? If not how will you handle them in the future?

I was thinking of clearing a small lot on our farm that is all pole stock or at least thinning it and utilizing the firewood but what to do with the tops? Chip them which means burning fuel or let them break down… We do use wood chips from a local tree service as bedding in our loafing barn for our dairy herd so the chips would be composted and used on farm.

[Carl Russell]

I intend to let as much rot back into the soil as possible. Probably will have to handle some of the bigger wood, but I have pastured animals around fallen trees for years, and they eventually break down nicely, same with the stumps, I don’t want to disturb the soil.

I will be making pasture paddocks for the pigs this summer, fanning them out from the enclosure they’re in right now, so they will make a pretty good start, then probably winter over some cattle on the ground where footing is good, accumulating manure, mulch, and seed. Pigs may have another go at it next year too. Usually get pretty good grass growing in 2-3 years.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

Brontosaurus moved on to the site last week.

Carl

[Carl Russell]

After three hours of work.

Next move when he is all done is to move the pigs on for the summer. They will root in small paddocks, and by the 1/2 acre I will drag with chain harrows and plant pasture seed mix. Over winter livestock there next year and see how it goes from there.

Carl

[Matthew]

Carl I really like that idea of the mower vs chiping or burning, stumping, and dozing. Do you worry about the stumps leaving sink holes in the future? I know they take a real long time to rot. I have dug up hardwood stumps 15 years old and were totaly intact. I thought of clearing land by cutting my stumps low and treating the stump with herbiside but didn’t want to see a animal break a leg in a hole years down the road. Stumps are a pain in the but you end up with a hole three times the size of the stump and bring up the crappy sub soil to the top. Do you plan on putting lime on the soil I would think old forest soil would be very acidic. I have a lot of land I want to make into pasture, it sure is a lot of work to go from forest to fenced pasture. Nice job with the mower the hourly rate must be cheeper than a exavator and dozzer together with paying to move two machines.

[Carl Russell]

We expect the stumps to rot fairly quickly as the cutting head makes a rough, almost shredded, surface that will such up water pretty well. I also have 10-15 year old stumps, but they were cut off above ground level, these are ground to soil level. We will have livestock on there right from the get-go, so I expect compaction will prevent the sink-hole affect.

yes we expect to lime the soil, but we will wait a few years to see how the woody debris breaks down first.

The hourly rate is $200/hr, and as far as I am concerned it is by far the least expensive way to go. Although there will be some lag time while the woody debris breaks down, consuming nutrients, I hypothesize that there will be more organic material, more soil life, and less erosion which I think should more than offset the alternative.

Carl

[Livewater Farm]

CARL IN LUE OF LIME YOU MIGHT CONSIDER WOOD ASH 2 TONS WOOD ASH = 1TON LIME PLUS YOU GET ALL THE OTHER GOOD STUFF NEEDED TO GROW GRASS WHICH IS READILY AVAILABLE WITHOUT THE 6MONTHTO YEAR WAIT FOR LIME TO WORK 100 TON LOADS ABOUT 25$ PER TON DELIVERED LIFE BED TRAILERS FROM
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT INC ASHLAND NH. AMAZING RESULT
Bill

[Author]

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