Getting Started

pfettig77 · #21 10/29/14, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jwal10

I would fence all the property. Woods are good cover in the winter. Get some cows and the steers to butcher. You can use the rent money to get set up, fence, feeders, panels, chute, sheds, etc. Buy hay for a few years. 30 head, you will need it all for pasture, no hay. Maybe pasture the rent ground during the winter, is it always beans? Corn makes good fodder. Maybe even get the renter to plant covercrop that you can pasture in the winter. Rye, radish and such. Keep your heifers to build your herd. The last year maybe you can get the renter to plant pasture seed with the covercrop....James

Do you think it's possible to to keep them out in the pasture all winter in WI? Last year we had 3 feet of snow most of the winter. I did read in a publication that some farmers in WI do that. I don't really get it.
It's on rotation: beans then corn every other year.
I thought about fencing the whole property. Not sure if that would lower the quality of my deer hunting.

G. Seddon · #22 10/30/14, 05:37 AM

pfettig77, I've never been to Wisconsin. I'm sure there are people who pasture their cattle all year. You would need to provide plenty of hay for cattle 24/7 with 3 feet of snow on the ground. I live in VA and try to provide some shelter for them for weather extremes. They use it.

I don't know if fencing would lower the quality of your deer hunting, but I can tell you that deer will lower the quality of your fencing.

Gravytrain · #23 10/30/14, 06:57 AM

We pasture through the winter, and although your temps will be lower than ours on average, we get a whole lot more than 3 feet of snow on the pasture most of the winter.

I have a 12x20 shed on skids that I rotate on their winter paddocks from year to year as well as the woods. Honestly, they rarely use the shelter though...unless there is a freezing rain or very high wind. Most of the time they will just lay downwind to it.

Then, every time I drop a round bale I move the bale ring so I'm not concentrating the waste mulch hay and manure in one spot. Between the tractor tracks and the cows making their own paths, they get around just fine.

BTW, I run a Lowline bull with Angus cows. He's a big Lowline though at about 1700-1800#. This has worked well for me as I get a good sized carcass that marbles well on grass and the Lowline demeanor. I honestly don't have much of a problem with my Angus cows though...they just get a little touchy when they calve. The crazy cows get the hook.

pfettig77 · #24 10/30/14, 11:10 AM

I wonder how much stockpiling it's possible to do in this climate? Maybe it would get someone around here through November and maybe some of December?

idigbeets · #25 10/30/14, 11:52 AM

You'd have to fertilize a cool season grass / legume earlier inthe fall to stockpile.. but yea it can be done.

pfettig77 · #26 10/31/14, 10:05 AM

After reading the sticky on rotational grazing 'till my eyes are bloodshot, I wonder if there is a size at which a farm so small it won't matter. I only have 50 acres and only about 20 or so will be good pasture.

idigbeets · #27 10/31/14, 01:00 PM

20 acres of good pasture will hold 8-12 cattle no problem.