Sunday, July 11, 2010

Greener pastures

With ten bovines and a horse eating down our pasture, things were getting pretty scarce for the livestock. So we decided to put them back onto the wooded side of our property for a couple of weeks to eat down the grasses there.

We let the animals transition in our driveway area for a day or so. Here's Brit investigation this weird human barn.




This hen was parked right by our door. I thought she was cute.


We finally shooed everyone into the woods. Here they are in a flower-strewn meadow which, you must admit, is pretty darned picturesque.


Brit is practically wading through daisies.


Matilda chewing her cud. The little black ear on the right belongs to one of the calves. You can't see another calf next to that one, buried in the grasses.


The livestock will eat down the grass on the forest side within two to three weeks. After this, we'll lease an adjacent twenty acres from a neighbor and let the animals graze there until as late as October. Then we'll return them to the woods for the winter so they have barn access, and we'll start feeding hay.

4 comments:

  1. That spot where Matilda is relaxing looks like a lovely spot! I'd lay there with my babies. Now and then, being a cow ain't all bad.

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  2. Have you tried MIG? Management intensive grazing. Divide pastures into smaller parcels and move the cows based on their droppings appearance. For my Ag project I oved my dad's herd onto 12 acres divided into 4 three acre plots. Overall amount of forage increased as well as quality. 14 cows, 8 calves and a bull enjoyed a summer of good grazing. I have a copy of the color photo manure grading chart if interested. May have a website on it. I'll have to check.
    Lorenzo Poe

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