I raise 6 goats and 2 sheep on a 2 acre pasture on the side of a mountain in north ga. My pasture is my backyard. When I first purchased the home the backyard was pure mud and every time it rained I would loose tons of dirt that would end up on the neighbors property down the hill. I started by loading carbon onto the hill. Leaves, logs, then later on hay bales. The grass and Forbes came naturally didn’t even have to seed. Fenced in the slope and started rotationally grazing using your methods. Now I don’t loose any soil at all and have attracted all kinds of wildlife with the wildfowers and we get the enjoyment of watching the sheep and goats. Haven’t touched it with a mower once the animals maintain it fully
I use as many methods greg teaches as I can here. Micro farm, I got 42 paddocks out of 3 acres, 3 rounds last season. Only 3 cows but it's all this land will feed right now. Greg taught me about dung beetles, tree swallows, and many other things. I have a neighbor with 6 acres sitting vacant that I'm really wanting to lease so I can rest my land longer and maybe feed more cows, cant swing the perimeter fence yet. My book want list is yuge, I'm working my way to gregs book ! Praise God for our abundance and our teachers! Amen
Wow! I'd love to see an aerial view of someone's pastures and how they split it up, how much time in each zone, etc. I'm waiting to hear back on 36 acres out in Maryland right now. Plenty of rain, three ponds on the property, I'm excited! But very nervous about having to figure out how to split up the land.
@@qdtsg8 I'm still a beginner, but I'd say don't worry about it too much. Do like Greg says and fence the perimeter and use temporary within. Where to put temporary fencing is a low risk decision. It could be too small, but nothings going to die. Maybe you pug something, or let some orchard grass get away. Wish you the best. Hope you get that place, but there are plenty others if you don't.
I'm very small acreage as well. I'm in Massachusetts I have a silvo Pasture. I have 2 dairy steers right now this is my first year grazing them. We have been blessed with abundant rain. I've not found anything Greg says to not be true it's amazing to see it in action.
@@qdtsg8 Beautiful state to have cattle. Great market area lots of wealthy people looking for local grass fed beef. I'm in Massachusetts we have a little harder weather but great market for local beef. I would buy steers and Finnish them it makes more sense. Best of luck.
My meat birds move around the yard too. One week in a paddock 125' fenced area. After they move, I run spike aerator over the ground crushed up the manure, then I throw seed on whole area, this year, 2 clovers, turnips,radish,winter peas,buckwheat and some grass seed. Water every other day because NO RAIN!. And keeps egg birds from eating seed, they gotta stay in a couple days while stuff sprouts. Building soils bacterias and roots back.up. It's fun to see how the Logos works!
One tip I might add for finding pasture for small herds of livestock (like 10 cows or 60 sheep) would be to find some local hay field owners, and ask if you could graze and clean up all the forage along fence lines, around trees, ditches, nooks and crannies. It's amazing how much forage is wasted around hay fields. You just have to add a single hot wire to the existing fences and build a poly braid lane along the fence line and divide it up with short cross fence, it's so easy, I've done lots. If water is limited, for a small group of animals hauling water with a 300 gal tank on a trailer hooked up with a float valve to your portable stock tank. To keep the water tank cool I strap a white sun blocking tarp (forestry tree planter use them) with a reflective foil on the inner side, works great. I bet most hayland owners would be happy to let someone clean up their field edges for the price of a box of meat every year, they aren't getting anything for anyway.
I'm learning that this is just as much an art as it is a science. Admittedly the engineer in me struggles with this at times however it is my therapy 😁
One of my clients came to pick up my breeding bull last week, they could not believe the transformation my pastures have made since last year. Thank you Greg 🇺🇸
Well said Greg. If your paying tax it means you made a profit and you will still be on your farm next year. Too many farmers have spent too many years eating their equity and relying on increasing land values to stay on their property. Love your videos. Have applied much of what you have said here in Australia.
Greg, your methods are sound and proven, down to earth and reliable. It's better to have more sustainable grassland than not enough, how is this not sound ?
Grew up on a 80 acre here in ohio farm with 20 brewed cows (herfords an charlaois an whatever else we could get) couldn't buy the family farm my older brother did so I went into the military got out bought me 13 acres an now getting back into the farming world
@@jkugler1776 yea same its been a little dry, my neighbor rents my field out an the corn is damn good looking this year, bout get my fence finished ive only had my place for a 2 years had alot of work to be put into the property the ppl before me let it go an get overgrown and into shambles
I love your videos. I just moved to PA to clean up my family's farm and want to get cattle back on it. I've got a lot of work to do. Hopefully I'll be ready to buy some cattle from you this time next year after I come to your spring grazing school. You have been and continue to be inspiration for me.
@@itscheesey that's not too far from New Philly Oh. I've not visited his farm. I was out there last week but he was In Kentucky. I'm not sure how many head he has.
I believe you did a great job of trying to explain to folks on the subject of how many head of cattle to how many acres ratio. Answer is, there's just WAY to many variables to answer this question. Like you pointed out you first need to know and understand just what are your goals. And if you're new to cattle you should probably consider scaling back some to make it easier and have a better chance of cucces. Learn from your success and move on from there. It's important to realize farming is not a quick to success business or practice, it takes time. Of the many things to consider that you mentioned there was one you didn't mention that you are obviously aware of and I believe it's important to mention. Breed of cattle. All breeds have their pros and cons. For what I'm considering I currently have 10 acres that has never been grazed that I know of. Of the 10 I intend to use 8 as combination pasture and wood lot for my livestock. I am a bachelor who really doesn't need to have a lot of beef available. And also I am planning on doing pasture rotation with succession of other livestock behind the cattle. Goats or sheep ( you told me a few weeks ago of and why you prefer sheep over goats) and finishing with chickens. So with this all said I have mostly made my decision to go with Dexter's. I believe I will be able to get to Dexter cows,preferably pregnant and with calfs and no bulls for my little start off heard. If after a couple of years I have improved the pasture enough and I want to increase the heard size to have more to sell ( I agree with you, I don't understand why so many folks don't like the words money or profits) then that would be great. My current pasture condition is such that I intend to first graze some small livestock ( also considering Kunekune pigs) followed by poultry to get things in shape. Then bringing in the Dexter's. I believe, at least for me, to not expect overnight success. Grow the farm/ homestead, repeat what works. DON'T repeat what doesn't work and strive each day for improvement and in time you should discover what kind of capacity your land and personal life style can maintain. And yuppers, no bull with the cows will mean relying on a AI program. And I have hears that can be somewhat difficult with Dexter's but with such small amounts of land and a small heard size it doesn't make sense to keep the " Big Man on Campus " around just for him to get lucky with the ladies. Anyway, have a great day, I apologize for making such a long comment, I have trouble keeping them short. 😃👍🐂🐖🐑🐐🐇🐔🐣🌤
We started last fall during a 2 year drought with 7 day old calves with bottles of milk then to calf starter grower feed and hay we planted our small pasture in rye and clover and its up to full growth now finally after a long dry period working on getting it fenced right now ...our general rule here is to have our own beef to eat and maybe selling one or two along the way to help pay expenses of feed costs its been a cost struggle but we slowly getting to the self sustaining part planing on staying small for sure ...good advice you have here
Greg, absolutely love your videos. Can you do one on the m word for us newbies? How many cows do you need to sell a year, who do you generally sell to (restaurants, other graziers), how to assess your local beef market? This seems like the most daunting bit of it all. Thanks for everything you do!!
That is a very difficult but good question. There are so many variants. Leasing options can really take it to another level. I learned that from some guy..seems like his name might've been Greg or somethin. Lol thanks
Doesn't seem that complicated to learn but first people have to disregard what they "think they know" and listen to what is being taught. As far as grazing, I'd prefer to leave enough grass behind the livestock to know I have forage there to go back to if need be no matter how much regrowth it gets. There's a lot to be said for just the rest the paddock gets from not having the animal load on it. I've seen paddocks that looked really nice after we moved on but two days later the stress shows up on it from where the livestock were there. Color changes, the whole look of it can change just from grazing, trampling, etc...that's pressure and stress just from the animals being there even when they have just taken the top third of the plants. Within a few days that evidence of stress (animal impact) starts to dissipate. That stress (on a limited basis) also seems to be pretty beneficial to the pastures health in a lot of ways. Grass tillers and gets a boost from being pruned, clovers get more sunlight, etc, etc...
Did you see ( Around 2:14) on this post. That you have a caff with a hurt lag? It is on the left side of the post if you go back to around 2:14. Thanks for sharing and have a nice safe day!!
fencing today, hard to know where to put power points on the interior to get the best bang for the buck. water is another problem, have a lot but it's lower than the paddocks and separated by gullies, may have to hale it in 50 gal drums and water that way, thank god I will only have sheep. could never nuck the ground, poor thinking on someone's part. enjoy all that you are willing to share, thank you
If it is flowing you might be able to use a ram pump. I don’t know much about them other than they use a streams energy to pump a relatively small amount of water uphill (no electricity).
Doesn't have the bull's in all the time make it a little hard to have calves a certain time of the year or does it matter? I don't like winter crops of goat's or calves, but it wouldn't be detrimental. But what abt heifers that aren't quite old enough to calve (not quite a yearling yet), are they separated or daughters from dad's?
Your grass isn’t going to recover in 3 days. Need more than four paddocks. That’s what Greg was saying about the summer slump-if you need a 60 day recovery period at worst, you’ve got to be able to make 60 paddocks to do the kind of grazing he’s talking about. Or you can keep the cows in each paddock longer, but then you start to lose the benefits.
Thanks for the video Greg. I'm just getting started on 5 acres with some sheep. I understand sale direct to customer is the best way to make money with animals but takes time to build a brand. Can you make money taking animals to sale barn?
If you do that, you are setting your future cow size to larger animals. The smallest and biggest animals are not your target. Average size, in the middle should be your target.
stocking rate of livestock is entirely dependent on the amount of graze available. while some areas my be measured by animals per acre.... while other areas like- out west, its acres per animal an can even go up to hundreds of acres per animal in dryland areas.
Greg thanks for your valuable information. Say i buy 3 steer to finish on grass. What kind if money can i expect and when do i sell them? If i had an idea of the potential revenue, then i could create a budget for leasing land, full fencing, poly wire, water and electricity.
My husband and I are starting a sheep dairy. We would like to implement your practices in regards to grazing. Do you have any experience with dairy livestock and if so do you have any advice. Thank you for your videos. You are truly an inspiration
Question for you could I run 2 steers and a lactating cow on a 2100 sq ft of pasture a day during the drier months we get plenty of rain here just wondering if on good pasture if that would sustain them
Great question, Trace. I have the same concern. I only want to run 2 steers. My pasture is size is approx. 2400 sq ft. and I am able to irrigate so water isn't a problem. If I split the field in half and rotate usage, as you suggest, will it support 2 steers??
Any ideas of what you do if you want to keep a bull, milk cow, and maybe another steer or so? What I mean is how do you orchestrate the Bull and cow so that you calf when you want to? I would love to keep them together, but I know that bulls will just breed whenever, right? What would you recommend? 1 Bull and a steer together, and then the cow and maybe a heifer? Then I would combine them in the summer as much as possible when I'm okay with them getting pregnant and I want to have them be together as much as possible.
I live out here in the failed liberal experiment cakes California so not much of this transfers over to our climate but I thought your winter was the time of year you didn’t have grass not the summer slump? Am I mistaken?
Love what you are doing and I am trying to emulate it. With some exceptions. I am in a snow belt region (Eastern Ontario) where we often get 4 feet of snow so I dont stockpile. I just dont see keeping cattle alive if they have to root through that much snow. Am I wrong? Secondly I am cursed with this god awful weed, Russian Knapweed. Ive never heard you mention it so I guess you dont have it. It is aleopathic so it kills off good grasses until your field is 100% knapweed and apparently its bitter and cows will only eat the flower tips. I dont like chemicals and wont spray them and apparently you need much more than RoundUp to kill it, so I brushhog my fields after the cows are done and that seems to be working but I will have to do that for years until RK gives up the ghost. Maybe sheep will eat it I dunno but I am not ready for sheep. Too many coyotes! Maybe next year I'll buy a LGD from you! How would you get rid of russian knapweed?
We have spotted knapweed in BC, and it is expanding on our property. My cattle will eat it some, and I’m hopeful that sheep would eat more of it, but I don’t have any sheep yet. I’m planning to mulch it heavily and establish desirable plants on/in the mulch.
@@drewhillfarms Yeah where Ive kept pigs there is no knapweed, but no grass either. I think pigs are a case of the medicine being worst than the disease.
Greg, This may be dumb question but here goes. With your one herd concept how do you track which bull you are selling offsprings from? Does you book teach from the novice level up?
I get your point as it applies to cattle, but what should I do for sheep, which have a shorter gestation period and should lamb preferably in April/May? I have 8 ewes and 2 rams and only want to breed in November. What would you do in my situation?
So if I have 5 acres, and I have 2 steers (I’m in South Eastern Tennessee) is it best to split my pasture into 4 sections? And go like every 30 days rotation? Also is it Ali’s possible to have 3 sheep go behind the steers or is that too much for 5 acres? Thanks Just starting out bought my farm last week and I am eager to learn
See Alan Savory's holistically planned grazing, go to "The Savory institute" for more info and probably books etc., but that I what Greg practices. There's great vlogs on YT pf Alan's talks, I have a playlist on my "channel" here titled with his name where you can find a lot of the best ones. Anyways, so, while in places like where I grew up in western WI the climate and often soils, give you ok results even with just the usual rotational grazing, what Greg does, that Alan fleshed out and tried, and now teaches, is to NOT go by a set time period, or a set number of cows per acre or any of the typical rules, but to go by the recovery of the grass plants, and to move them preferably daily to keep them from re-grazing the individual plants much. You have to start somewhere, of course, so, start by using the usual rules maybe ( I haven't read the actual books or done this yet, I'm just a former dairy farmer and a fan ) and fig. out a paddock size per day to start with, then move them daily. Go to Greg's main vlogs on how to tell if they're getting enough feed ( left side of stomach looks full usually ) and other advice, but Alan says that unless folks actually take the time to do the holistic planning thing - which may seem hard to wrap your head around at 1st and unnecessary - they quickly run into issues or have poor results and, sadly, often blame it on other things. But with Alan's own land, he's come back to find the workers not doing it, did it himself again and right away things were improving again. It was much more drastic being in an arid climate in Africa, but after learning all I have, I'd bet even in western WI farmers would do SO much better, implementing this. Alan says even illiterate bush women ( not to imply that they're not bright - they are ) quickly learn to do it, so, I figure we all have no excuse to not really try it. Joel Salatin's father also kinda fig. it out on his own too, after being inspired by some of the same authors Alan was and Joel further learned then from Alan, and I recommend Joel's book " Salad bar beef " .
Thanks for your great information. I'm relocating to NC and am interested in ranching cattle (cows) for a living. Could you share a few basic points on what will be required to be able to realistically do this as a full time job in beef cattle only? Number of cattle, acres, sales per year needed, etc. To earn a living must I sell at auction live only? or need to incorporate dressed cattle as I think you diversify and do? (more profitable per cattle?) Thanks
I have a lot of dog fennel weeds in pasture.Is it a good idea to keep it cut down regularly so the grass can breathe and take over or spray with 24d? Your thoughts would be much appreciated. Your cows and pastures are absolutely beautiful!
Thanks in advance for any answer given! I’m trying to learn about cattle with the hopes of being able to raise some in the future, and my question is can cows that have had calf’s still be used for meat and sold like heifers? Or can you only use steers and heifers for meat and then cows and bulls are good for breeding purposes only?
If a guy was just starting out and wanted to use your seamen from your bull to breed heifers,, what do you recommend the kind of heifers to breed too.?
Absolutely especially if your on small acreage. I had to move my 2 steers to higher ground just above my property to save my pasture from pugging we had record rain fall the first 2 weeks of July. I'm not complaining but I had to adjust my plan that's for sure. Last year we where dry as a bone.
can you show how to determine HE (hay equivalent)? and how it relates to the AU (animal unit=1,000 pounds)that can be stocked?and how pregnancy/lactation affects the AU
If you only run one herd; how do you keep your heifers from getting bred too early? We separate our 6 month old heifers from the bull(s) until they are 15 months old, so they calve at 2 years. I would love to only run one herd since we only have 40 acres; it sure would make things easier....but ...the heifers....
We don't wean our heifers, the cow does. When you don't break the mother/daughter relationship, they are not as eager to breed. Wean them and turn them back into the herd with the bull and they will breed to early. This is not 100%, BUT it certainly helps. The other thing we do is we treat our heifers just like cows, no extra nothing, This prevents them from cycling to early.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher We raise Murray Greys/crosses. For some reason they start all seem to start cycling at 6 or 7 months. We don't (knowingly) do anything to cause this: just let momma raise them. We just had to pull an almost 6 month old out of the herd last month because the bulls were showing interest. We have only lost one calf ( a couple years ago) and it was from a heifer that bred before she was big enough. She was too little and the calf got too big. Thankful we did not lose the heifer.
If I'm understanding correctly here, if you have 20 acres and decent rainfall you should be able to safely run 8 cows on your land? Greg said 2 cows to 5 acres now I wonder if that means you only have 2 cows and 4 different grazing pastures?
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Wow thank you for the very quick response Sir! How many padocks do you think would be appropriate? Five separate acre padocks? Also from what I have researched, sheep are converted to cows about 4 to 1 in grazing weight. So in my 20 acres then I could run roughly 16 sheep instead of cows?
Hi Greg - I'd love to hear your thoughts on the advantages of stockpile grazing in winter versus cutting hay. I've heard the argument that winter forage is of lower quality that the hay you can collect in the spring and summer when your grasses are in the optimum growth state. I'm all for not buying a tracker and haying equipment but not if it results in poorer quality feed for my animals. (I don't have any yet). Thanks - I love your channel!
No hay is better than stockpile feed. If you don't get a lot of snow I mean snow that never melts. You should try to stock pile. Buy hay for insurance absolutely you have to have that feed if you need it.
Thanks for the reply Greg . EU subsidies are most likely the reason for the price here , no matter what the quality of the land the price is minimum 300 per acre .
Finally heard the answer around the 9min mark. For 2 steers you need approximately 5 acres. That’s 1 steer for 2.5 acres. I understand the question is not meant to have an exact answer but an experienced pro should be able to give a ballpark or range pretty easily. This video wasn’t very helpful or concise. How many cattle can you have on 20 acres? Still 1 per every 2.5acres? Or does the land size per cow decrease as you increase total acreage?
It all depends on where your land is located and what your annual rainfall is. There is not a textbook stocking rate, every farm is different. It can also depend on what grasses you have along with the fertility in the soil.
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I raise 6 goats and 2 sheep on a 2 acre pasture on the side of a mountain in north ga. My pasture is my backyard. When I first purchased the home the backyard was pure mud and every time it rained I would loose tons of dirt that would end up on the neighbors property down the hill. I started by loading carbon onto the hill. Leaves, logs, then later on hay bales. The grass and Forbes came naturally didn’t even have to seed. Fenced in the slope and started rotationally grazing using your methods. Now I don’t loose any soil at all and have attracted all kinds of wildlife with the wildfowers and we get the enjoyment of watching the sheep and goats. Haven’t touched it with a mower once the animals maintain it fully
I use as many methods greg teaches as I can here.
Micro farm, I got 42 paddocks out of 3 acres, 3 rounds last season.
Only 3 cows but it's all this land will feed right now.
Greg taught me about dung beetles, tree swallows, and many other things.
I have a neighbor with 6 acres sitting vacant that I'm really wanting to lease so I can rest my land longer and maybe feed more cows, cant swing the perimeter fence yet.
My book want list is yuge, I'm working my way to gregs book !
Praise God for our abundance and our teachers!
Amen
Wow! I'd love to see an aerial view of someone's pastures and how they split it up, how much time in each zone, etc. I'm waiting to hear back on 36 acres out in Maryland right now. Plenty of rain, three ponds on the property, I'm excited! But very nervous about having to figure out how to split up the land.
@@qdtsg8 I'm still a beginner, but I'd say don't worry about it too much. Do like Greg says and fence the perimeter and use temporary within. Where to put temporary fencing is a low risk decision. It could be too small, but nothings going to die. Maybe you pug something, or let some orchard grass get away. Wish you the best. Hope you get that place, but there are plenty others if you don't.
Positive attitude👍👏👌
I'm very small acreage as well. I'm in Massachusetts I have a silvo Pasture. I have 2 dairy steers right now this is my first year grazing them. We have been blessed with abundant rain. I've not found anything Greg says to not be true it's amazing to see it in action.
@@qdtsg8 Beautiful state to have cattle. Great market area lots of wealthy people looking for local grass fed beef. I'm in Massachusetts we have a little harder weather but great market for local beef. I would buy steers and Finnish them it makes more sense. Best of luck.
Never get tired of looking at your beautiful cows on that emerald green grass! Beautiful sight, Greg!
I keep watching that cow grooming her calf - I could watch that all day! So beautiful and peaceful.
This isn’t the same, but I moved my Cornish cross meat birds around in my back yard. Our grass is great now. 😃
Me, too!
Way to go, that's awesome! How many birds on how much acreage?
I did the same with my egg layers!
My meat birds move around the yard too.
One week in a paddock 125' fenced area.
After they move, I run spike aerator over the ground crushed up the manure, then I throw seed on whole area, this year, 2 clovers, turnips,radish,winter peas,buckwheat and some grass seed. Water every other day because NO RAIN!.
And keeps egg birds from eating seed, they gotta stay in a couple days while stuff sprouts.
Building soils bacterias and roots back.up.
It's fun to see how the Logos works!
No but grass is the same the world over, whether bulls or birds are on it.
Rotational grazing is farming. Set stocking is not.
Wow, that's beautiful seeing so many cows on that pasture.
Blessings to you Miss Penny 😇 Still praying for God's complete healing touch for you 🙏
One tip I might add for finding pasture for small herds of livestock (like 10 cows or 60 sheep) would be to find some local hay field owners, and ask if you could graze and clean up all the forage along fence lines, around trees, ditches, nooks and crannies. It's amazing how much forage is wasted around hay fields. You just have to add a single hot wire to the existing fences and build a poly braid lane along the fence line and divide it up with short cross fence, it's so easy, I've done lots. If water is limited, for a small group of animals hauling water with a 300 gal tank on a trailer hooked up with a float valve to your portable stock tank. To keep the water tank cool I strap a white sun blocking tarp (forestry tree planter use them) with a reflective foil on the inner side, works great. I bet most hayland owners would be happy to let someone clean up their field edges for the price of a box of meat every year, they aren't getting anything for anyway.
What about insurance
I'm learning that this is just as much an art as it is a science. Admittedly the engineer in me struggles with this at times however it is my therapy 😁
One of my clients came to pick up my breeding bull last week, they could not believe the transformation my pastures have made since last year. Thank you Greg 🇺🇸
That is awesome!
Well said Greg. If your paying tax it means you made a profit and you will still be on your farm next year. Too many farmers have spent too many years eating their equity and relying on increasing land values to stay on their property. Love your videos. Have applied much of what you have said here in Australia.
Greg, your methods are sound and proven, down to earth and reliable. It's better to have more sustainable grassland than not enough, how is this not sound ?
Yes, please draw it out. I'm a visual person and would appreciate it Mr Judy!
Your cattle are a picture of health. Nice to see.
Grew up on a 80 acre here in ohio farm with 20 brewed cows (herfords an charlaois an whatever else we could get) couldn't buy the family farm my older brother did so I went into the military got out bought me 13 acres an now getting back into the farming world
I'm a vet doing some regenerative grazing here in Ohio too!
@@jkugler1776 nice im near the darke County and Shelby County line, how bout ya self?
@@ryanlangston439 Trumbull county here, sopping wet. My cows are definitely nuking areas where they bed down. How are your fields doing?
@@jkugler1776 yea same its been a little dry, my neighbor rents my field out an the corn is damn good looking this year, bout get my fence finished ive only had my place for a 2 years had alot of work to be put into the property the ppl before me let it go an get overgrown and into shambles
Love a good brood cow
Great video. Just received my second Greg Judy book on no risk ranching. Ty vm for all you do for us newbies. Have a great summer!
Good info for smaller ranchers.
I love your videos. I just moved to PA to clean up my family's farm and want to get cattle back on it. I've got a lot of work to do. Hopefully I'll be ready to buy some cattle from you this time next year after I come to your spring grazing school. You have been and continue to be inspiration for me.
Austin Troyer has south poll in New Philadelphia Ohio. He might have some to sell. Where are you in Pa.
@@davidhickenbottom6574 just outside Punxsutawney
@@itscheesey that's not too far from New Philly Oh. I've not visited his farm. I was out there last week but he was In Kentucky. I'm not sure how many head he has.
That is one lovely herd. ..
Flexibility is a good skill...observation pairs well with it.
I believe you did a great job of trying to explain to folks on the subject of how many head of cattle to how many acres ratio. Answer is, there's just WAY to many variables to answer this question. Like you pointed out you first need to know and understand just what are your goals. And if you're new to cattle you should probably consider scaling back some to make it easier and have a better chance of cucces. Learn from your success and move on from there. It's important to realize farming is not a quick to success business or practice, it takes time. Of the many things to consider that you mentioned there was one you didn't mention that you are obviously aware of and I believe it's important to mention. Breed of cattle. All breeds have their pros and cons. For what I'm considering I currently have 10 acres that has never been grazed that I know of. Of the 10 I intend to use 8 as combination pasture and wood lot for my livestock. I am a bachelor who really doesn't need to have a lot of beef available. And also I am planning on doing pasture rotation with succession of other livestock behind the cattle. Goats or sheep ( you told me a few weeks ago of and why you prefer sheep over goats) and finishing with chickens. So with this all said I have mostly made my decision to go with Dexter's. I believe I will be able to get to Dexter cows,preferably pregnant and with calfs and no bulls for my little start off heard. If after a couple of years I have improved the pasture enough and I want to increase the heard size to have more to sell ( I agree with you, I don't understand why so many folks don't like the words money or profits) then that would be great. My current pasture condition is such that I intend to first graze some small livestock ( also considering Kunekune pigs) followed by poultry to get things in shape. Then bringing in the Dexter's. I believe, at least for me, to not expect overnight success. Grow the farm/ homestead, repeat what works. DON'T repeat what doesn't work and strive each day for improvement and in time you should discover what kind of capacity your land and personal life style can maintain. And yuppers, no bull with the cows will mean relying on a AI program. And I have hears that can be somewhat difficult with Dexter's but with such small amounts of land and a small heard size it doesn't make sense to keep the " Big Man on Campus " around just for him to get lucky with the ladies. Anyway, have a great day, I apologize for making such a long comment, I have trouble keeping them short. 😃👍🐂🐖🐑🐐🐇🐔🐣🌤
It's so great reading about all the newbies starting their farms. Kudos and much success to you all!
Beautiful! Some of the happiest cows I've ever seen. Thanks for the information.
what a tribute to your methods: magnificent herd.
Greg is the man!!!
Thankyou mr Judy
We started last fall during a 2 year drought with 7 day old calves with bottles of milk then to calf starter grower feed and hay we planted our small pasture in rye and clover and its up to full growth now finally after a long dry period working on getting it fenced right now ...our general rule here is to have our own beef to eat and maybe selling one or two along the way to help pay expenses of feed costs its been a cost struggle but we slowly getting to the self sustaining part planing on staying small for sure ...good advice you have here
Gotta love the wisdom from a farmer 🙂🙏
Greg, it all comes down to three thigs. Management, management and management.
AND THE GRACE Of GOD.😇 He is soooooo amazing and faithful and provides for His precious children 🙏
Greg, absolutely love your videos. Can you do one on the m word for us newbies? How many cows do you need to sell a year, who do you generally sell to (restaurants, other graziers), how to assess your local beef market? This seems like the most daunting bit of it all. Thanks for everything you do!!
Check out Seven Sons or The Shepherdess, they discuss the sales aspect.
Beautiful cattle
I'm starting my grass fed lamb operation on around 3 acres next year. And I plan to open up about 5 acres more of silvo pasture in my forest
Envy your rain, up here in the okanagan we haven't had any decent rain since february.
That is a very difficult but good question. There are so many variants. Leasing options can really take it to another level. I learned that from some guy..seems like his name might've been Greg or somethin. Lol thanks
Doesn't seem that complicated to learn but first people have to disregard what they "think they know" and listen to what is being taught. As far as grazing, I'd prefer to leave enough grass behind the livestock to know I have forage there to go back to if need be no matter how much regrowth it gets. There's a lot to be said for just the rest the paddock gets from not having the animal load on it. I've seen paddocks that looked really nice after we moved on but two days later the stress shows up on it from where the livestock were there. Color changes, the whole look of it can change just from grazing, trampling, etc...that's pressure and stress just from the animals being there even when they have just taken the top third of the plants. Within a few days that evidence of stress (animal impact) starts to dissipate. That stress (on a limited basis) also seems to be pretty beneficial to the pastures health in a lot of ways. Grass tillers and gets a boost from being pruned, clovers get more sunlight, etc, etc...
love your videos so much raw info coming from this channel
I enjoy watching and learning from your channel and today I became a subscriber.
Welcome!!
So lovely!
Can't wait to meet you at grazing conference at polyface .
Thx Greg
Oh thank you for mentioning the taxes we have been saying that for years.
Great content as usual Greg!👍🏻
I’ve got 8 acres that I want to start steer on next year. Going to start with 3 and go from there
Did you see ( Around 2:14) on this post. That you have a caff with a hurt lag? It is on the left side of the post if you go back to around 2:14. Thanks for sharing and have a nice safe day!!
I would love to see a map of your paddocks on a white board and could you draw how the herd moves through them.
I am working 5 acres of wet clay slab with sheep and geese. It's doable, even without cattle.
fencing today, hard to know where to put power points on the interior to get the best bang for the buck. water is another problem, have a lot but it's lower than the paddocks and separated by gullies, may have to hale it in 50 gal drums and water that way, thank god I will only have sheep. could never nuck the ground, poor thinking on someone's part. enjoy all that you are willing to share, thank you
If it is flowing you might be able to use a ram pump. I don’t know much about them other than they use a streams energy to pump a relatively small amount of water uphill (no electricity).
hows that arizona operation you worked with doing?
What breed of cattle do you raise they look good
Would love for you to put that on a chart!!
Your cattle are beautiful
My son and I are trying to convert a friend to regenerative grazing.
Nice bro
Another great video. Thank you
But I didn't hear the answer to the acreage question for a couple of steer....
It depends on the rainfall and where you live
Greg: How is the Arizona experiment, any updates?
I was wondering the same thing!
Yeah!
Doesn't have the bull's in all the time make it a little hard to have calves a certain time of the year or does it matter? I don't like winter crops of goat's or calves, but it wouldn't be detrimental. But what abt heifers that aren't quite old enough to calve (not quite a yearling yet), are they separated or daughters from dad's?
Would it work to put a cow and calf on 1 acre, maybe divided into 4 paddocks to rotate? Smaller cow breed like dexter/jersey for milking. Thanks!
Your grass isn’t going to recover in 3 days. Need more than four paddocks. That’s what Greg was saying about the summer slump-if you need a 60 day recovery period at worst, you’ve got to be able to make 60 paddocks to do the kind of grazing he’s talking about. Or you can keep the cows in each paddock longer, but then you start to lose the benefits.
Is grazing it to the ground in heavy rain areas, my parents used to this
Thanks for the video Greg. I'm just getting started on 5 acres with some sheep. I understand sale direct to customer is the best way to make money with animals but takes time to build a brand. Can you make money taking animals to sale barn?
Only if you have a very low input system
Is it ok to keep your biggest and best bull and cow from the start for breeding?
If you do that, you are setting your future cow size to larger animals. The smallest and biggest animals are not your target. Average size, in the middle should be your target.
Cheers.
When it comes to recovery, the more solar panels you leave on the grass plant, the faster it can recover when you get rain.
stocking rate of livestock is entirely dependent on the amount of graze available. while some areas my be measured by animals per acre.... while other areas like- out west, its acres per animal an can even go up to hundreds of acres per animal in dryland areas.
Greg thanks for your valuable information. Say i buy 3 steer to finish on grass. What kind if money can i expect and when do i sell them? If i had an idea of the potential revenue, then i could create a budget for leasing land, full fencing, poly wire, water and electricity.
Check what its selling for in your area. I would sell small amounts to many customers if you sell sides or quarters you'll make less on them.
Greg, have you looked at the virtual fence products? It seems like it would fit right into your operation.
Calf limping at 2:19 ? Great info as always
My husband and I are starting a sheep dairy. We would like to implement your practices in regards to grazing. Do you have any experience with dairy livestock and if so do you have any advice. Thank you for your videos. You are truly an inspiration
Question for you could I run 2 steers and a lactating cow on a 2100 sq ft of pasture a day during the drier months we get plenty of rain here just wondering if on good pasture if that would sustain them
Great question, Trace. I have the same concern. I only want to run 2 steers. My pasture is size is approx. 2400 sq ft. and I am able to irrigate so water isn't a problem. If I split the field in half and rotate usage, as you suggest, will it support 2 steers??
Herefords? Live the content new SUB.
Thanks for the video Greg. So you talk about 1 hurd.. with your sheep, what do you do with your Rams when there not working??
Check out my ram video coming soon!!
Any ideas of what you do if you want to keep a bull, milk cow, and maybe another steer or so? What I mean is how do you orchestrate the Bull and cow so that you calf when you want to? I would love to keep them together, but I know that bulls will just breed whenever, right? What would you recommend? 1 Bull and a steer together, and then the cow and maybe a heifer? Then I would combine them in the summer as much as possible when I'm okay with them getting pregnant and I want to have them be together as much as possible.
I live out here in the failed liberal experiment cakes California so not much of this transfers over to our climate but I thought your winter was the time of year you didn’t have grass not the summer slump? Am I mistaken?
Love what you are doing and I am trying to emulate it. With some exceptions. I am in a snow belt region (Eastern Ontario) where we often get 4 feet of snow so I dont stockpile. I just dont see keeping cattle alive if they have to root through that much snow. Am I wrong?
Secondly I am cursed with this god awful weed, Russian Knapweed. Ive never heard you mention it so I guess you dont have it. It is aleopathic so it kills off good grasses until your field is 100% knapweed and apparently its bitter and cows will only eat the flower tips. I dont like chemicals and wont spray them and apparently you need much more than RoundUp to kill it, so I brushhog my fields after the cows are done and that seems to be working but I will have to do that for years until RK gives up the ghost. Maybe sheep will eat it I dunno but I am not ready for sheep. Too many coyotes! Maybe next year I'll buy a LGD from you!
How would you get rid of russian knapweed?
Pigs?
We have spotted knapweed in BC, and it is expanding on our property. My cattle will eat it some, and I’m hopeful that sheep would eat more of it, but I don’t have any sheep yet. I’m planning to mulch it heavily and establish desirable plants on/in the mulch.
@@drewhillfarms Yeah where Ive kept pigs there is no knapweed, but no grass either. I think pigs are a case of the medicine being worst than the disease.
@@jeffmarchand6168 Try taking the pigs out as soon as the weeds are gone and then seeding something that comes up quickly.
Greg, This may be dumb question but here goes. With your one herd concept how do you track which bull you are selling offsprings from? Does you book teach from the novice level up?
I get your point as it applies to cattle, but what should I do for sheep, which have a shorter gestation period and should lamb preferably in April/May? I have 8 ewes and 2 rams and only want to breed in November. What would you do in my situation?
So if I have 5 acres, and I have 2 steers (I’m in South Eastern Tennessee) is it best to split my pasture into 4 sections? And go like every 30 days rotation?
Also is it Ali’s possible to have 3 sheep go behind the steers or is that too much for 5 acres?
Thanks
Just starting out bought my farm last week and I am eager to learn
See Alan Savory's holistically planned grazing, go to "The Savory institute" for more info and probably books etc., but that I what Greg practices. There's great vlogs on YT pf Alan's talks, I have a playlist on my "channel" here titled with his name where you can find a lot of the best ones. Anyways, so, while in places like where I grew up in western WI the climate and often soils, give you ok results even with just the usual rotational grazing, what Greg does, that Alan fleshed out and tried, and now teaches, is to NOT go by a set time period, or a set number of cows per acre or any of the typical rules, but to go by the recovery of the grass plants, and to move them preferably daily to keep them from re-grazing the individual plants much. You have to start somewhere, of course, so, start by using the usual rules maybe ( I haven't read the actual books or done this yet, I'm just a former dairy farmer and a fan ) and fig. out a paddock size per day to start with, then move them daily. Go to Greg's main vlogs on how to tell if they're getting enough feed ( left side of stomach looks full usually ) and other advice, but Alan says that unless folks actually take the time to do the holistic planning thing - which may seem hard to wrap your head around at 1st and unnecessary - they quickly run into issues or have poor results and, sadly, often blame it on other things. But with Alan's own land, he's come back to find the workers not doing it, did it himself again and right away things were improving again. It was much more drastic being in an arid climate in Africa, but after learning all I have, I'd bet even in western WI farmers would do SO much better, implementing this. Alan says even illiterate bush women ( not to imply that they're not bright - they are ) quickly learn to do it, so, I figure we all have no excuse to not really try it. Joel Salatin's father also kinda fig. it out on his own too, after being inspired by some of the same authors Alan was and Joel further learned then from Alan, and I recommend Joel's book " Salad bar beef " .
Thanks for your great information. I'm relocating to NC and am interested in ranching cattle (cows) for a living. Could you share a few basic points on what will be required to be able to realistically do this as a full time job in beef cattle only? Number of cattle, acres, sales per year needed, etc. To earn a living must I sell at auction live only? or need to incorporate dressed cattle as I think you diversify and do? (more profitable per cattle?) Thanks
I have a lot of dog fennel weeds in pasture.Is it a good idea to keep it cut down regularly so the grass can breathe and take over or spray with 24d? Your thoughts would be much appreciated. Your cows and pastures are absolutely beautiful!
hello, what bread are these cattel, ty.
Thanks in advance for any answer given! I’m trying to learn about cattle with the hopes of being able to raise some in the future, and my question is can cows that have had calf’s still be used for meat and sold like heifers? Or can you only use steers and heifers for meat and then cows and bulls are good for breeding purposes only?
If a guy was just starting out and wanted to use your seamen from your bull to breed heifers,, what do you recommend the kind of heifers to breed too.?
Something that was red would be best. Hereford, red angus, devon.
It seems like you could have an emergency paddock wherever the grass isn't growing and feed hay until there is rain and the grass is healthy, again.
Absolutely especially if your on small acreage. I had to move my 2 steers to higher ground just above my property to save my pasture from pugging we had record rain fall the first 2 weeks of July. I'm not complaining but I had to adjust my plan that's for sure. Last year we where dry as a bone.
How do you keep the bulls from inbreeding with their mother or sisters?
The best grass-fed genetics in the US Mid-west for the cost of your straw at the restaurant, (if you exclude the price of the meal)...
can you show how to determine HE (hay equivalent)? and how it relates to the AU (animal unit=1,000 pounds)that can be stocked?and how pregnancy/lactation affects the AU
What do you do with replacement heifers? are they kept in your single herd?
Yea, or buy or lease more land
Is it best to rent when first starting with a small herd?
If you only run one herd; how do you keep your heifers from getting bred too early? We separate our 6 month old heifers from the bull(s) until they are 15 months old, so they calve at 2 years. I would love to only run one herd since we only have 40 acres; it sure would make things easier....but ...the heifers....
We don't wean our heifers, the cow does. When you don't break the mother/daughter relationship, they are not as eager to breed. Wean them and turn them back into the herd with the bull and they will breed to early. This is not 100%, BUT it certainly helps. The other thing we do is we treat our heifers just like cows, no extra nothing, This prevents them from cycling to early.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher We raise Murray Greys/crosses. For some reason they start all seem to start cycling at 6 or 7 months. We don't (knowingly) do anything to cause this: just let momma raise them. We just had to pull an almost 6 month old out of the herd last month because the bulls were showing interest. We have only lost one calf ( a couple years ago) and it was from a heifer that bred before she was big enough. She was too little and the calf got too big. Thankful we did not lose the heifer.
You appear to have a limping calf at 2:24. Thanks for your videos and sage advice.
Yes for sure you do! Good catch Charlotte!
If I'm understanding correctly here, if you have 20 acres and decent rainfall you should be able to safely run 8 cows on your land? Greg said 2 cows to 5 acres now I wonder if that means you only have 2 cows and 4 different grazing pastures?
I would start out with 4 because when they calve, you will have 8
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Wow thank you for the very quick response Sir! How many padocks do you think would be appropriate? Five separate acre padocks? Also from what I have researched, sheep are converted to cows about 4 to 1 in grazing weight. So in my 20 acres then I could run roughly 16 sheep instead of cows?
@@johnbricks3980 you are correct
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Awesome thanks Greg hope you and the wife have a great Sunday!
Can't do one grazing group with sheep in the summer 😔
How many cows can you safety grass on 18acres?
Greg. What should I reseed with when my chickens take the grass/weeds down to nothing?
Whatever plants are growing in your road ditch. Seed those because you know they will grow and are adapted to your environment.
may want to try rotating them a bit faster or with less density...
Yeah, just don't ever try it in southern Utah. With a great winter, grass is yellow by June. Couldn't do 2 cows on 10 acres.
Buffalo moved with the rain and didn’t have to contend with fences.
Hi Greg - I'd love to hear your thoughts on the advantages of stockpile grazing in winter versus cutting hay. I've heard the argument that winter forage is of lower quality that the hay you can collect in the spring and summer when your grasses are in the optimum growth state. I'm all for not buying a tracker and haying equipment but not if it results in poorer quality feed for my animals. (I don't have any yet). Thanks - I love your channel!
No hay is better than stockpile feed. If you don't get a lot of snow I mean snow that never melts. You should try to stock pile. Buy hay for insurance absolutely you have to have that feed if you need it.
Learn to trust your grass, it will most always be better than any hay that you can buy. Your animals will thank you!
@@davidhickenbottom6574 thank you!
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Thanks Greg!
Thanks Greg . How much are people renting farmland for in the US ?? in Ireland it’s minimum 300 dollars per acre per year .
It depends on where you are located in the US. Locally here, pasture land is leased for 20-50 dollars an acre per year.
Thanks for the reply Greg . EU subsidies are most likely the reason for the price here , no matter what the quality of the land the price is minimum 300 per acre .
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher that’s not even close to what we’ve seen. More like $20 an acre per MONTH
does water leach out of the pond to nearby plants?...
Do you ever have problems with bulls not getting along when there's more than one bull among the female cows?
Why are there so many flies?
Finally heard the answer around the 9min mark. For 2 steers you need approximately 5 acres. That’s 1 steer for 2.5 acres.
I understand the question is not meant to have an exact answer but an experienced pro should be able to give a ballpark or range pretty easily. This video wasn’t very helpful or concise.
How many cattle can you have on 20 acres? Still 1 per every 2.5acres? Or does the land size per cow decrease as you increase total acreage?
It all depends on where your land is located and what your annual rainfall is. There is not a textbook stocking rate, every farm is different. It can also depend on what grasses you have along with the fertility in the soil.
Or 0.4 cow/acre. I have 2 acres; where can I buy 0.8 cow?