any ideas for converting to rotational grazing?

Looking4ewes - here are a couple of pictures taken during last winter of my woods area. I snapped the first picture then turned 180 degrees and snapped the second picture huge difference.

Side of fence cattle could not get to:


Side of the fence cattle could get to:

Looking4ewes in a drought type situation, generally you have the option of buying feed or selling stock or a combination of those. The best approach is a combination of buying feed and selling stock. First reduce your herd size by culling all possible animals. Older ewes or ones that aren't producing as well. Young animals destined for slaughter. Wild animals. Ones that have been causing problems. You need to reduce the numbers of animals to minimize the amount of feed you will have to purchase. Next you need to purchase feed for what is left. Try to get it before the prices start to get high if possible. Buy enough to last at least a few month, maybe as much as it takes to get to spring. If the drought persists, you may need to sell more animals to make the feed you purchased last. Normally those who sell stock end up ahead of those who try to purchase feed and maintain the current herd size. If your drought area isn't too large, you may be able to travel a short distance and find some hay and grain without too much trouble at a reasonable price. Try to keep the animals confined and don't let them run over the whole place just because it looks like nothing is growing. That is the worst thing you can do. The grass will recover much faster once you get rain if the livestock has not trampled it into dust.

Last year we had a dry period for 5 months with little more than an inch of rain over that time. This spring, the ground recovered well if it was not overgrazed during the drought. During the drought, I confined the cows and fed hay on the poorest parts of the dry land. I have 10 cows and fed a bale every 3-4 days. The cows had an area of only about 20 feet by 20 feet. I put all the bales out in rows and then moved them from bale to bale (known as bale grazing). Today that is the best pasture I have. It was poor pasture up until this year.

I butchered a 16 month old steer as I was grazing the last grass I had and he tasted great and was very tender. I can't guarantee the same results, but it worked well for us. He was a little small. I know I wouldn't wait if you are going to just feed hay and no grain. You could probably finish him on grain and get a nice finish. It depends on how you want to finish him and what your goals are.

Good luck! You can't make the grass grow without rain. Just have to wait. I hope you get a nice 3 day soaker here soon.

I would not butcher that steer right now if you are interested in quality and flavor. you always want to butcher on the gain. that guy is in no way on the gain right now. being on the loss will cause stress which can cause off flavors and lack for tenderness. If you want to finish on grass I would recomend high sugar grasses and limited legumes. It seems contrary as protein will help with gains, but legumes can cause off flavors. Alfalfa seems to be an exception form what I have read.
If you do need to butcher right away, put him in a feed lot with quality grain and minerals and quality hay. make sure his diet is well balanced and his rumen stays full to prevent stress. also offer shade and cool water again to limit stress. Stress is your enemy when finishing. Also finishing is more of an art than a science. that is why the quality of beef can vary so much. You wont get it perfect the first time, but just pay attention and learn as much as you can.

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Sold the farm no more critters
I have a postage stamp lot now
I aim to make it the most organic productive 1/3 acre in southwest Missouri
With a 20 acre plot to be added in 3 years or so

Also if there is any grown up pasture in your area ask about a temporary lease. It will be a pain to move your herd over there, but your pastures will appreciate the break. If they are burned up now and your soil is not overly healthy dont expect a great fall return. Cut it short and spread litter and lime if it is indicated by your soil test and you may get a good come back. be mindful of weeds though. fertilization will surely require some clipping management. a season of forage rest would be best if you can swing it.

__________________
Sold the farm no more critters
I have a postage stamp lot now
I aim to make it the most organic productive 1/3 acre in southwest Missouri
With a 20 acre plot to be added in 3 years or so

Thanks for all the feedback. It started raining ydy and kept it up all night. Impressive pics regarding the woodlot. I'll try stringing some wire and see what happens. Selling breeding stock is not an option, as it would cost me double to replace the herd with today's prices. I have 3/4 of my projected winter feed needs already put up. I just need to get them through the next month or so.

As for the steer, he is not going to break me if I keep him for awhile. I can put him in the woodlot for the time being.

Many thanks to you all!

Looking4ewes

Realizing your location I know that your grass will cease to grow before mine. However, with the rain and the cattle off the pasture you should get some growth yet this season. Put the cattle on a small area that you can sacrifice and feed some of the Winter feed now. If you will do that and let the pasture recover you should IMO have more grass to stockpile for the early part of Winter. In so doing you should not have to feed hay as early thus offsetting the Winter feed that you give the animal now.

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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!

Hey, Agman. With your Ritchie waterers do you have the freeze protection on them? I'm just not sure I'll need it here. And if you do, what exactly is involved? The "heater"? The vertical pipe?
Thanks!

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Godsgapeach

“There are two ways to get enough: one is to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.”

–GK Chesterton

godsgapeach

No I do not have the heater option. I do have a homemade ground heat tube which is nothing more than about 2.5 feet of the corrugated plastic culvert material positioned vertically in a hole with the supply water line in the center of the hole. I have a concrete slab over the heat tube and the waterer is sitting on the slab and secured to the slab with anchor bolts. Drill completely through the slab for the anchor bolts. If the anchor bolts require replacing in the future all you need to do is take a punch and drive the anchor bolt into the ground and then replace same. I also do not have the float balls in my waterers in order to give the herd better access. Last Winter I put a single ball in to minimize heat loss from the water. Worst case thus far has been a thin coating of ice on the exposed access water hole without the ball. I would recommend using Pex to transition from the main line to the drinker valve. Freezing will not burst the Pex.

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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!

Got it! The Ritchie distributor recommended just a 10-inch piece of pvc to surround the water line. He said based on where I am, that should be just fine.

Thanks!

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Godsgapeach

“There are two ways to get enough: one is to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.”

–GK Chesterton

godsgapeach

I failed to mention that the waterer has an opening in the base for the supply line to feed up through to the control valve. The concrete slab needs an opening to mate with this supply line opening. Then the slab with the mounted waterer needs to be located/centered over the earth tube. The supply line does need to be centered and not touching the earth except at the bottom of the earth tube. The earth tube heat will now have a path into the valve area. Caulk the waterer base to the concrete slab. This joint is the most critical part of the installation to avoid freezing.

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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!

I never cease to be amazed at the staying power ky31 fescue possesses and its ability to rebound. At the end of June I had a visitor to the farm and we were in an extremely dry condition. Really we were on the edge of a drought. Needless to admit, and if you somewhat know me, I was embarrassed at the condition of the paddocks. The area in this pic I had clipped a few days before the visitor came. Surprisingly, in July we got some needed rain and here at the end of the month is the results just 30 days later. If a person doubts the benefits of rotational grazing all they need to convince themselves is to have observed this. Remember fescue is a cool season grass and the temps have been and remain far above where it performs its best.

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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!

agmantoo
That is actually lovely pasture. I would be so ashamed of a picture of mine.
I have held the horses off the pasture pretty much all summer. Finally hired a farmer to mow it down (remember my serecia problem) I think it got cut just prior to bloom. Tractor is still dead so haven't been able to do anything else.
I've got my soil sample taken..waiting for results. I could not get down very far into the earth..it was hardpacked and dry..rocky and very hard. Even jumping on the shovel didn't give me very good results for my dirt samples. Hope I got enough to give a decent reading. I will be planting ky 31fescue when the time is right. I don't know how long before I have pastures as nice as yours..but I sure hope someday

Agmantoo, When I was there the first of June I thought you had pretty good grass,but 30 days later and a little rain really makes a big difference.Rotating really is the only way to go. Up here in Ky it has been above 90 degrees 25 of 30 days with heat index between 100 and 115,really hot for us. I went out and bushhogged most of the overgrown pasture I had to get rid of the ironweed and other weeds and rotated through them and had some real good regrowth even in this heat. It's kind of hard to get them to move out of the shade to another paddock after 9 am til 7 pm. The pasture looks better and seems to come back thicker now than when I waited to bushhog after grazing. Thanks for all the tips on this thread.

topgun
Glad to see you are posting here!
The folks here are a good group.
I have also been doing some bushhogging but will now wait until after the middle of August. Rarely will weeds have time to recover and make seeds able to germinate if I wait until then. It is time to get things in order to prepare for Fall planting. I intend to put some Marshall ryegrass out starting early Sept. I most likely will plant several times in different areas spread over roughly 3 to 4 weeks. Good to hear from you.
Remind me, weren't you here on the 28 of June rather than the first as mentioned above?

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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!

You are right,it was the 28th. It took me 3 days to get back home. had to go and see Andy and Barney the Indian casino and Gattlenburg on the way home.

Thanks for the motivational picture, Agman.

I'm still in the first year (2nd rotation cycle) of doing this but already see some serious benefits to the pasture. My father in law thinks I'm nuts.

Just wanted to share with everyone an update on how things are going here. I started rotational grazing last year, in the spring of 2010, with help from this post and after reading a few books on it. The grass was OK. I thought it was great in the spring, but it didn't last too long. I started strong, that is for sure. It did better than in previous years. I had a lot of weeds. Then it got dry from July to November. The end results were not very impressive, but I kept with it. I ended up feeding hay from September to April, which was about what all the neighbors were doing as well. It was an expensive winter! I couldn't get any rye or ryegrass to grow due to the dry conditions.

This spring the grass came back like I have never seen before. It was tall and thick with so many different kinds that I have never seen before. I grazed everything on a 30 to 45 day rotation and we had good timely rains. Where I fed hay was some of the nicest grass. Everything looked so good. It has been a little dry now but not like last year and nothing like some of you are going through. The grass is still green and coming back. I noticed that my neighbors grass is brown and drying up already. The yards in town are all brown unless they are watering them heavily. The short grass can't seem to take the heat. Right now, I have 30 days of good grass and at least 60 days emergency grass if I need it (this is a patch of new grass I started that I am trying to let get established). It is all still coming back with good regrowth. If the grass can keep growing, I will be able to stockpile for winter with no problems. I still think I will buy some hay for this winter, just because I don't have confidence in winter grazing yet. But I know it can be done here and some day I will do it. I just need to get my mind around how much I need to stockpile to last the winter.

What I am saying is stick in there folks. Rotational grazing does work. Agmantoo is a great tutor and asset to the farming community. I don't think he has any idea how many people he has helped with just this single thread. With corn prices shooting up daily, this is the only solution that makes any long term sense. Agmantoo, I really appreciate all your help. Some day I hope I can repay you!

Yes definitely , thanks to Godsgapeach for starting the thread, and for Agmantoo for making it all work.

__________________
Sold the farm no more critters
I have a postage stamp lot now
I aim to make it the most organic productive 1/3 acre in southwest Missouri
With a 20 acre plot to be added in 3 years or so

godsgapeach

Just wondered how you guys are doing having switched to the rotational grazing for some time now, are you any closer to achieving 'good' pastures and or producing the cattle you are after in terms of breed, numbers, frame size etc, how have you coped with the hot dry summer and are you grazing longer into winter reducing the amount of hay?? aslo, and perhaps most importantly are you seeing the financial results having changed your approach?? Any chance you could post some photos?

hello everyone, great thread, great site. I am new here and it is very encouraging to find others discovering the joys of growing more grass. as a holistic practitioner and an advocate of planned rotational grazing i was just wondering why you guys bushhog?