Random Pics from On Top of the Ridge

Just a few pics of the cattle on top of the ridge. It's mid July and the grass/clover is incredible but the calves still seem to be starving. Very thin, probably not getting enough milk. The cows seem to be in good shape but just aren't milking very good. I feel like I'm doing a very good job of keeping the cattle in good quality forage, trampling around 60% and eating 40%. The clover and lespedeza is really coming in well and the grass is fantastic. Probably won't have another spring/summer this good for a long time...rains nearly every day.

Eating Tree Sprouts

Here's a before and after look at how the cows are eating the tree sprouts. They really seem to like the walnut tree leaves the most...they pick them clean. Will be interesting to see how these tree sprouts respond. I'm hoping they die. I am spraying these paddocks now (July 5th) with chapparal and remedy ultra mix...tree sprouts and rose bush. Need to keep track of how good of a kill I get.

Cows not milking: 215

This is the calf on cow 215 a week or so after birth.

Cows not milking: 214

This is the calf on cow 214 a week or so after birth.

Cows not milking: 24

This is the heifer calf on cow 24 about a week after birth.

Mob Grazing .... it begins

I started mob grazing the cows on March 25th. I started in the 15 acre hay meadow owned by the Tracy's. The grass is very heavy and when I began it was all brown and dead with just a very small amount of green up. It is now April 12 and I would say that the green is about equal to the brown at this point. I have been feeding 4 lbs of 20% range cubes to help supplement the stockpiled fescue that seems to be a little low in protein as I have moved from 3 lbs to 4 lbs of cubes to keep their stools from stacking up. I have been very happy with everything about the grazing so far. I have 32 head of 1500 lb cows on .425 acres each day. I have a small sacrifice area for a water spot but it seems to be working very well. Cows appear to be putting on weight and the trampling/eating/residual is about as perfect as it could be.

Spring Green Up

It's April 7 and we've had a few weeks of nice weather. I've mowed the lawn once to clean it up and once more due to growth. The pastures are green and growing strong. The grass I planted is about an inch tall and I can see some of the ladino clover sprouting. Cows are in decent shape. I've got them running on the 15 acres and will probably get 25-30 days grazing out of it. I am currently giving them around .5 acre each day and they seem to have plenty to eat....stomping the grass down good too...i'm very happy with the way it's getting mobbed. I have a little buckbrush coming back that will need to be sprayed. Also have some bush honeysuckle tho not a lot. Just a little rose bush. All in all i'm very happy with the results from my spraying efforts last year.

Spring is Springing

I have topdressed everything with 1-2 lbs of Durana ladino clover and 10 lbs of lespedeza. I also seeded the 26 acres with 10 lbs of fescue. We are still burning brush piles so we will have some bare spots that won't get seeded. We moved in 32 head of cows a few months ago and they seem do be doing a good job of picking thru the heavy grass. We didn't do any mob grazing...frozen ground and lack of time. But we plan to start in a week or so. We will probably need to spray the 26 acres for buck brush but it hasn't started blooming just yet. It started to green up a few days ago so i'm sure it's right around the corner. Still have a ton of work to do...biggest priority is getting the cows in a mob and getting our fences figured out. I'm dubious we will get a lot of ladino and lespedeza this year as the fescue is so heavy i'm not sure it's going to give the other plants much of a chance. As we mob graze I am sure the other plants will begin to sprout...they need a chance tho and that won't happen till we get some of this fescue removed. Unfortunately we didn't get all of our piles burnt so we will have to find days to burn. We've come a long way.