I left NYC with dreams of living far from any city on 100 acres because of your videos. My wife was having none of that though so I settled on 4 acres right outside of Chattanooga TN. Had dreams of owning cattle but settling on st. Croix sheep ( hopefully 4 or 5) because of your videos. Just wanted to say thank you.
Help us keep the south SOUTHERN, Por favor. We’ve got so many northerners moving in…I’m friendly but they aren’t helping us fight resining issues and the county is trying to bring in all these condos and warehouses 😩 it’s happening all over, pls help us keep the country… country!
I have been farming since 2012; attended workshops and have read books, listened to podcasts and spent good money after bad attending paid seminars. Your no nonsense approach to farming is SPOT ON!!! THANK YOU for sharing your knowledge and plethora of information. Just added cattle to the mix and your videos have been amazingly simple and so helpful!
I have 20 ewes on 5 acres. I rotate between 5 one-acre paddocks. I have a small paddock with hay that I put the animals in when I need more grass recovery time. I learned from you. Thanks Greg.
This talk may also be of interest. Dr. Allen Williams is a grazing researcher as well as a rancher. Allen Williams, PhD - Restore Soil and Ecosystem Health with Adaptive Grazing (2018, 42 mins.) ua-cam.com/video/BwH6od6Jaq8/v-deo.html
Awesome video series. As a 25 year old man, my goal is to one day achieve an operation of your quality and size, or at least enough to raise my future family, god willing, solely off on-farm revenue. My first step in that is buying a 5-10 acre piece to live on and learn the ways of the pastoralist hands on. Your knowledge is invaluable Sir, and I thank you for it.
Thank you so much Greg! My sister and I are retired widows... We have 10 acres in East Texas... mostly in trees (pine/hardwood mix) and VERY odly shaped (Imagine a profile of Winne the Pooh!). I ran dairy goats for about 7 years very successfully... they LOVE that yaupon!!! They have been gone for almost 2 years and the place has gotten really overgrown! We're have an order placed with a local hair sheep breeder for 4 lambs upon weaning (within the month, I think). I've been watching and re-watching your videos but for some reason I was having trouble making the conversion back to smaller acreage. This video is SO helpful! I'm excited to see the balance of the series as you get them made & posted. Blessings...
Are you following Grace the Shepherdess? She's running Dorper outside of Sulphur Springs and has great local info. I'm in Mt Pleasant and running a variety of goats; painful learning curve, but we love it.
@@JessicaFuller Hi, Jessica -- no, I'm not familiar with Grace the Shepherdess, but I'll check her out! Thanks for the tip. All the best in your goatie adventures!
I already know I'm going to LOVE this video series. We're in the 1st stages of clearing trees to reclaim silvopasture next to the house. This is the exact set of videos that'll answer most, if not all, of my questions! Thanks for your great content and wealth of knowledge!
If you can get some goats run thru, they clean up underbrush and you can come under a few days later and easily rip out prickers,vines and scraggly bushes. Our goats have been wonderful reclaiming out pasture (only fence line trees from the past 10 years of semi neglect are being cut down.)
@gustavoroth62 I've never laid seed at this point, we are considering it for the future. So far the seed bank in the dirt is coming up and it's amazing the things growing now that weren't there last year. We do have goat weed as a pest plant, but we're mowing it (the goats only eat it as a last resort) before it goes to seed.
Thank you Greg, you're ability to show people what works, has helped countless graziers get started. Your practical advice and showing us what it looks like has been the primary driver in getting my farm set up. Not sure what I would be doing if I hadn't found you on UA-cam. Thank you again for everything and have a wonderful day.
I've purchased my house on 4 acres, half of which is a fen that I'm rewilding with native plants. Eventually I'll talk my neighbor into selling me 8 acres on my backside. It's played out pasture ground with played out fences. You've been a great source of knowledge for my future "if/when" acquisition of this land and being able to run some animals. I'm looking forward to all the hard work and effort that it'll take to get things safe, healthy and productive again.
Absolutely agree with woven wire around the property! We have 40 acres with neighbors on the east side with lots of fidos and kids. Putting in woven wire are we speak. Love the timeless fence but dogs can be a nuisance. Thank you for this little instructional!!
Tilling soil results in soil loss from erosion. It takes much longer to make soil that the time it takes to loses an inch to erosion buy Greg Judy ranching books and convert your corn-bean rotation to a cattle-sheep rotation. The USA should not export corn and beans but frozen beef and mutton.
Perfect video! I've got an offer in on 16 acres, 10 are pasture... thank you! Looking for fiber animals, I'm a spinner, weaver, and knitter. Plus, there would be a few extra to process and have milk for the family.
Looking forward to seeing these. I always thought I would never do anything like raise livestock because I was taught that you needed tons of land and staff. The only ranchers I have met had huge herds and multiple staff houses and bunk houses etc. Discovering your channel has been a real eye opener for me. Thank you😊
This was encouraging to watch. We have 5 acres and successfully grazed two cows for 6 months in less than 2.5 of that last year by rotating them intensively (even though it looked silly to many neighbors!) We also raised over 300 meat chickens on that same pasture. You can do a lot with little if you do it right!
I have 1.8 acres of pasture and rotate between 4 permanent paddocks I've established with just two Black Angus steers, moving them into a paddock when the grass is a foot tall and letting them stay about a week until they have eaten off the top 6". (Studies show most of the nutrients in forage are in the top 6" and mature plants are the LAST things cows like to eat, and the least nutritious, too!) Last year my two steers gained 420 pounds (on the hoof), which is about 105 lbs of meat per acre! I always mow my pasture once in June so the grass doesn't get out of control by using a large mulching lawnmower; that mulch protects the pasture from the hot sun in July and August, which quickly dries out the plants if bare ground is exposed! (I NEVER graze to the point where any dirt is showing!!) I grain my cows every day with 1 lb of 4-way to start, increasing it to 1.5 lbs per day half way through the season. Although these were large steers (1,230 lbs each in the beginning) the daily grain ration produced choice beef in one and nearly prime beef in the other, a noticeable upgrade for hay-fed steers! (I grazed 7 months, from May to October. My perimeter fence is six-strand barbed wire augmented with one electric strand of 170 kips 12.5 gauge wire set at 30" high. My barbed wire is 4-point for the bottom and third strands up, and 2-point barbed for the other 4 strands, all clipped to t-posts and interwoven with wire stays. The fence corners are made of braced triplets of old railroad ties using 8' treated 4x4s for the bracing while tension throughout is established with roll-up "strainers" (actually "tensioners").
Six and a half is what I'm starting on. Still gathering supplies for the perimeter fence. I had no plans for a permanent division, but will consider it. My 6.5 is more like 5 because my home/yard/outbuildings and also a swampy spot down in the middle of the woods and a not-so-good pond in the pasture. It's also quite likely that I can lease back the 5 acres I sold-which is all pasture (once the neighbor sees how I manage the grass). Will be using well water. Am thinning the woods down to silvo-pasture, it's dominated by white oaks. The GRASS looks great (in places without sedge) out there now because I stopped mowing it short 2 years ago. But I have only deer for grazers at this point-and they use it more now that it's taller. Once I get this place set up I'll start on my rugged 73 acres just two miles away (the homestead yet to be). It's going to be logged and have ponds made, then fenced. Sheep and LGD's are huge in my "retirement" plan.
If you just have a few sheep a good way of training them to electric wire is put them in a mobile corral made of connected cattle panels I use quick hook links, then put the wire along the inside edge just watch it does not ground out on the metal. You will just have to move the corral each day it will just slide along the ground. Never had a sheep escape the cattle panels and nothing can get in. For just a small number of sheep some have actually built sheep tractors/mobile corrals if you can weld this may be an option also.
From y2k to 2009 we raised cattle and pastured poultry for meat and eggs. We had two flocks of 400 layers and as many as 3000 meat birds per year plus 6 to 8 head of cattle on 10 acres (8.5 acres of pasture). I used a layout identical to what you presented moving cattle in 1/4 acre paddocks daily and layers weekly. Couldn't have done it without the poultry. Winter was the greatest challenge.
Perfect timing on this one Greg! I'm working on convincing my wife to let me use 5 of our acres for a cow, but we get very little rainfall so I will have to irrigate it.
Absolutely fantastic video. Thank you for your passion and desire to teach others about the wonderful life you can have on the farm if you do things correctly
I just finished my perimeter fence on my 5 acres just north of you in Randolph county. I sure love finding your channel such good info and you're local so bought everything you do can apply to my place
We just bought 10 acres, perimeter is already fenced on about 5 of the acres. We want to first work toward being more self sufficient, homesteading was our original goal. But we homeschool 2 young boys with entrepreneurial hearts, and even at ages 7 & 8 they want to find ways to eventually make a profit. 😅 We plan to start with chickens, ducks, bees, and rabbits. My dream is to have a few sheep, for their fertilizer honestly, but also for meat. And my sons love steak/beef so they dream of having a few steer. We have zero experience. We’ve been reading as many books as we can, and watching and learning from as many experts as we can. I see how our homestead can be close to self sufficient, I’m just having a hard time seeing how it can make a side profit.
Neighbor just turned us on to you so very happy your doing these other videos. Looking forward to it. We just got a sheep to grow out. Want to run it with some goats and actually do some land clearing. Hope to do the rotational grazing.
Hey Greg What about rain catching on all the roofs on your land Put it in a 40,000 gall tank or multiple 1000 gall tanks 1500 square foot roof makes about 14,000 gal in an hour if math is right. In drought time you could use it on your land .
My larger acreage has no well potential (drilled it 5x already) and I shall be collecting all the water from the roofs (when they happen) and putting it into a tank for all my water needs. Also will dig some strategically located ponds for stock use. The entire system is up to us to engineer and keep functioning properly and cleanly.
Thanks for the video, any suggestions on how to handle the field if it's full of broomsedge? Let the animals do what the can? Mow it and then put animals on it?
Unroll hay on it and let the cows eat and poo and trample on it. How's the ph? Maybe apply lime. Mr. Judy has videos about it. Just search "greg judy broomsedge"
We have broomsedge. I call it the soil swan song. We are working on raising pH and getting animals on it. AMAZING how much meat chickens in tractors can raise pH also!
At first I tried an electric perimeter fence I figured it was the way to go. It was a complete waste of money and time. Build a strong permanent perimeter fence then use your electric fence inside.
That's what we did. At times wild animals: elk, bear, moose as well as our neighbors buffalo run right through electric fencing. The barbed wire perimeter fence gives a bit more protection. I think it depends on where one lives.
I wished I had found you a decade ago. I have 2 horses on 5 acres though about an acre and half of that 5 acre pasture is wooded with a creek and they over grazed. I did like everyone else and let the horses graze the entire pasture for years. Now there's very minimal grass and lots of weeds. I'd probably would do best to put a couple sheep on that pasture to rejuvenate the entire pasture while keeping the horses off for a year. My horses are hay fed all year round now anyway because of the situation. Its maddening to constantly hay feed all year any animal plus I feel its not ideal for the horses. If I could find somebody to take the horses who had good pasture and barn for them, id actually just give them away, they're up in age 20byr mare and 12 yr gelding was her colt but here in NE AL, seems folks don't have barns for horses and they leave them out all year no matter the weather. The horses come and go barn to pasture as they please. But thank you Greg for going over rotational pasture in detail, maybe I can still do it.
Probably a good first question to find the answer to is Why. Are you planning on making money? Can you afford it? Are you just raising for food or a pleasing lifestyle? It's good that people can watch videos and get some insight. Hopefully they have realistic expectations and don't wind up filled with regret.
we get 2 animal units per acre here in california. No snow. With irrigation grass grows year round. No irrigation and the grass is very seasonal. Realistically though probably best to have 1 cow per 2 acres. Guess it depends on what you are doing exactly... Cow and calf? male calf grow out for meat?
I have a rectangle parcel of land approx. 3.5 acres. I have 5 ewes, 3 adult Katahdin, 1 adult Assaf/Finn, 1-(7) month old Finn/Assaf. Getting an EF/Lacaune ram, 7 month old. I have 1 black angus steer, aprox. 900 lbs. Im gestimating lb wise i have 1.5 units total? Pasture is separated in 3 areas. Electrified. We live in southern Indiana. Steer will be in the freezer next year. After that, sheep only on pastures. Can you explain your walkways to a centralized water spot for several pastures? Your water system is still a bit pricey for now. Great idea, though. I dont mind tending to their watering daily by hand. Like your idea on the whiteboard concerning division of grazing areas. Just wondering about moving an electrified fence in such a way to accommodate a walk through watering laneway to a centralized water spot. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!❤
Greg, this is just absolutely amazing, thank you so much! Theres going to be a LOT of people practicing and hanging on every word of yours in this series, you're so kind and generous to take the time and make the effort to do a series like this 💚I would imaging a flerd situation might be common on farms of this size. Say we have maybe 2 cows with a few sheep and our land can handle this .. what would you suggest in terms of mineral feeder considering that of cows and sheep are different? Thanks in advance, and thanks SO VERY MUCH for this series, you're truly a God send. Also, if you dont mind, in your example you essentially made two permanent paddocks, and you mention not back fencing. Is that not back fencing only within the current paddock, or do you even leave open the back to the previous paddock? I have existing paddocks defined by internal fencing that I didn't put in, and I just started rotating which Im very excited about, and I have been keeping open the back largely because there is shade there, but Im not sure if Im doing the right thing. Sometimes I wonder if I should be back fencing because the sheep love going back under the trees in the 1st days area but Im worried about parasites with them laying there all the time. 🙏🙏🙏
All grass, no grain. Cows do better on grass and feeding grain to your cow herd is a great way to lose your farm. If they can’t eat grass and give you a calf, sell-em.
Thanks Greg!! Love the videos. We have approx 12-15 acres and were thinking of getting cows. What market is there for sheep other than the wool? I've looked for lamb in the grocery and haven't seen it. We wouldn't be able to shear sheep at this point.
Thank you so much! This is very helpful and informative. Just subscribed and plan to watch part 2 :) Just curious, what are your thoughts on dairy vs meat sheep, or a dual purpose like assaf? And with your particular breed, how is the market for the meat?
If you have to start with 5 acres of woods (that’s mostly what we have here in SC for raw land), can you forestry mulch land in a pattern that will leave you with silvopastures and grow grasses/clovers through the wood mulch? Or do you have to seed it?
If you are bringing new animals onto your farm, a catch or unloading pen is a very nice thing to have. When you unload them into the pen right from your trailer, it gives you a secure place to let your livestock de-stress before turning them out to pasture. When you do turn them out, slowly walk out to your gate and open it. Walk away very slowly and let them walk out on their own time schedule. If you walk into the corral, they may come running out.
I have a few neighbors. We are sending each neighbor a letter, as we start fencing near them, explaining how the electric wire works, a bit about our farm, etc. I love that timeless fence and despise putting up woven, so my whole perimeter is going to be electric
@Adelina Warriner thanks for the heads up. How would I check the legality? I'm 100% sure my local Sheriff's Office wouldn't care to even help me find out, much less enforce it if it's not legal 🙄 They don't care about our part of the county. I don't want to do anything that'll get me in trouble though. My insurance did ask if the fence was ON my property or on the property line. When I told her it was 1 ft into my property she said "good", but idk why. We've already done about half of the perimeter
@@carolinablonde88 should be able to google the law codes for your area. Some areas allow electric perimeter, others you have to have the electric With a non electric, other all electric has to be offset behind a permanent fence.
@Adelina Warriner thank you so much; random stranger on the internet. You may have just saved me some legal headache. I looked up my county codes and didn't see anything regarding electric fence, but I emailed the codes office anyway. Then I saw your reply and it dawned on me to check the state laws, just in case. There is a part in my state laws that was recently passed regarding electric fencing but it isn't clear if my fence qualifies or not, so I'm going to follow up on that. I only have a handful of neighbors and they've all been cool with my fence going up, but the last thing I need is a problem after we finish all this fencing
Gregg we live in the south east corner of Oklahoma do you know of any sheep homestead closer to me so we can buy some sheep, your a little farther than I can go to buy sheep. We live in Hugo, Oklahoma
Greg, when you were custom grazing, how did you deal with the animals not being trained to hot wire? Did you take the time to train each new batch of stockers? Thanks for everything and happy Easter!
Hi Greg how are you? I currently live in Southern California now this is just a pipe dream of mine but if I won the lottery man I'd invest in livestock I wish I knew this information sooner I would've built a nest egg especially whats happening in the world these days I would've been ahead of the game so to speak. Like you mentioned about huge capital it can be a curse as well. But if I won the big prize I'd invest accordingly I would go to your grazing class I would Geg I don't know you like that but your a heck of a good person sir.
We only have 4. 1.5 or less is grass, usable in the backyard, not up front.. We're hoping to get the property next to us that will add 2 acres of hill but grass... dunno We'll ask the farmer around us if he'll graze it for us so we can have dairy
Thanks for the video! I remember a post not to long ago on Facebook about you setting this up. I priced how much woven wire costs compared to high tensile wire. Ouch! I think a few years ago in a video your corner post driver is 4” diameter and weighs around 60#. Do you think a 34# post driver with a inner diameter of 4” work? It’s about 24” long too. I found one on Amazon. I’d rather pound them in instead of dig every hole. It takes a long time digging and tapping the dirt back in correctly. Have a Happy Easter tomorrow!
The international type of folks everywhere has dramatically increased the demand for sheep and goats according to folks in my area. Of course you can graze other grazers this way. Greg Judy has grazed horses and has a supreme herd of Southpoll right now. You're going to want more land than five acres for bigger stock I'm sure. And you're not going to "saturate" any market with what you produce on five acres. If you'll investigate all the grass-fed operations in your country/area you might see what markets are thriving (what they're sold out of). IN this country, all meats sell, especially if you direct market. Joel Salatin teaches how to raise chickens (in demand everywhere all day long) on any amount of acreage, but they are not strictly grazers-they must have grain as well. Joel has grown about every animal for the market. Rabbits are another option. Best of luck.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Absolutely. I only have two acres at the most of our own land to work with (hoping to be able to negotiate the rental of a few acres of the unused cow pasture that surrounds our property, but that's not a sure thing yet). My goal is to figure out how to produce as much of our meat and milk as possible on that tiny amount of land. But for sure we won't have anything to sell.
@@kathleensanderson3082 yes I know that but there's no local market in my area to purchase or butcher goats and sheep. If I tried to raise them I wouldn't be able to do anything with them. So is there something else to translate this to? Pork maybe? A very small breed of beef?
Wild question. A family is selling their mothers estate. 10 acres of land with a inhabitable house, 5 acres are tillable with a creek passing through, 8 government bins and a crib. I have zero clue where to start. But I want it bad. Really bad. They’re asking $210,000 and the question “where do I start?”. I got maybe 10% down but I’d be broke
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher I like that wisdom. My young mind doesn’t have that patience which has grown over the years. I keep thinking there won’t be much opportunities like that in the future. Especially with these conglomerates like Blackrock n vanguard buying up all the land around us. But no debt is still a great thing. Thanks for the wisdom!
Greg, my wife and I bought 30 ac (approx 22 acres open, 8 acres wooded). We want to run cows on the open land to begin with, and then we will fence in the wooded part a little later. I've done some research and think that we want to put up fixed knot woven wire on the outside perimeter (will use high tensile to split the pasture into different grazing sections). Do you recommend using a wooden post (cedar or pine) or some type of other post for outside perimeter? Price is obviously a factor, but not the end-all-be-all driving factor. I want this fence to be as secure as possible, and obviously want it to last for a long time without worry. Thanks in advance.
Take it from a guy who had a doberman attack (2) week old calves. KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS BEFORE DECIDING WHICH FENCE TO BUILD. If you only have 5acres your going to be close to someone eventually and have no business putting in anything besides woven since you will be running mostly smaller animals.
I'm putting in 5 strands of High Tensile with ground wires in the fencing and a big charger with extra grounding out by the swamp. And there will be LGD's on patrol. I do not anticipate any problems with the neighbors' dogs or coyotes (which are thick and hungry around here). Leave out the LGD's and I'd be taking huge risks every single night. Also that neighbor would be held liable for those losses in any court around here. But of course good neighbors wouldn't have to resort to that.
@@cattywampusmcdoogle Then my dogs get shot, who wins? I'm not shooting any dog unless I catch it in the act, but also I'm doing my level best with hot-tight-fencing and LGD's to keep potential intruders on the other side.
@@wadepatton2433 of course it was implying that you catch your neighbors dogs on your property and attacking the livestock. never meant go next door, knock and then shoot the dogs when the doors open.
I left NYC with dreams of living far from any city on 100 acres because of your videos. My wife was having none of that though so I settled on 4 acres right outside of Chattanooga TN. Had dreams of owning cattle but settling on st. Croix sheep ( hopefully 4 or 5) because of your videos. Just wanted to say thank you.
Hey! We are in Monteagle 😮
we’re in Ooltewah! Green Shanty Farmstead
Walling
Help us keep the south SOUTHERN, Por favor. We’ve got so many northerners moving in…I’m friendly but they aren’t helping us fight resining issues and the county is trying to bring in all these condos and warehouses 😩 it’s happening all over, pls help us keep the country… country!
@@peachykeen7634 how can I help? Is there a website or group I can coordinate with?
Lean toward trusting a farmer who UA-cams
Before trusting a UA-camr who farms.
So glad you did a video on this at a homestead scale
I have been farming since 2012; attended workshops and have read books, listened to podcasts and spent good money after bad attending paid seminars. Your no nonsense approach to farming is SPOT ON!!! THANK YOU for sharing your knowledge and plethora of information. Just added cattle to the mix and your videos have been amazingly simple and so helpful!
Greg Judy at the whiteboard is the best! I know I'm gonna learn something important.
I have 20 ewes on 5 acres. I rotate between 5 one-acre paddocks. I have a small paddock with hay that I put the animals in when I need more grass recovery time. I learned from you. Thanks Greg.
This talk may also be of interest. Dr. Allen Williams is a grazing researcher as well as a rancher.
Allen Williams, PhD - Restore Soil and Ecosystem Health with Adaptive Grazing
(2018, 42 mins.)
ua-cam.com/video/BwH6od6Jaq8/v-deo.html
What kind of sheep you got and what are you raising them for? Meat, dairy or wool? I'm interested in raising sheep!
Do you leave them on each 1 acre paddock for a couple weeks at a time?
Usually around 30 days. Move them before worms can go thru their life cycle. Or move them when grass is getting low@@Kelly_Mae
Awesome video series. As a 25 year old man, my goal is to one day achieve an operation of your quality and size, or at least enough to raise my future family, god willing, solely off on-farm revenue. My first step in that is buying a 5-10 acre piece to live on and learn the ways of the pastoralist hands on. Your knowledge is invaluable Sir, and I thank you for it.
Thank you so much Greg! My sister and I are retired widows... We have 10 acres in East Texas... mostly in trees (pine/hardwood mix) and VERY odly shaped (Imagine a profile of Winne the Pooh!). I ran dairy goats for about 7 years very successfully... they LOVE that yaupon!!! They have been gone for almost 2 years and the place has gotten really overgrown! We're have an order placed with a local hair sheep breeder for 4 lambs upon weaning (within the month, I think). I've been watching and re-watching your videos but for some reason I was having trouble making the conversion back to smaller acreage. This video is SO helpful! I'm excited to see the balance of the series as you get them made & posted. Blessings...
Are you following Grace the Shepherdess? She's running Dorper outside of Sulphur Springs and has great local info. I'm in Mt Pleasant and running a variety of goats; painful learning curve, but we love it.
@@JessicaFuller Hi, Jessica -- no, I'm not familiar with Grace the Shepherdess, but I'll check her out! Thanks for the tip. All the best in your goatie adventures!
I already know I'm going to LOVE this video series. We're in the 1st stages of clearing trees to reclaim silvopasture next to the house. This is the exact set of videos that'll answer most, if not all, of my questions! Thanks for your great content and wealth of knowledge!
Hey! I am looking to start clearing to turn some acres into pasture. Do you have any recommendations on resources to follow? Thank you
If you can get some goats run thru, they clean up underbrush and you can come under a few days later and easily rip out prickers,vines and scraggly bushes.
Our goats have been wonderful reclaiming out pasture (only fence line trees from the past 10 years of semi neglect are being cut down.)
@@JessicaFuller Thank you very much! After steps you mentioned above, are you doing any additional disturbance to top soil prior to seeding?
@gustavoroth62 I've never laid seed at this point, we are considering it for the future. So far the seed bank in the dirt is coming up and it's amazing the things growing now that weren't there last year. We do have goat weed as a pest plant, but we're mowing it (the goats only eat it as a last resort) before it goes to seed.
@@JessicaFuller Thanks! Really appreciate you responding to my questions. Wishing you the best of luck with your plans!!
Thank you Greg, you're ability to show people what works, has helped countless graziers get started. Your practical advice and showing us what it looks like has been the primary driver in getting my farm set up. Not sure what I would be doing if I hadn't found you on UA-cam. Thank you again for everything and have a wonderful day.
Hi George, enjoy your vids on UA-cam.
I've purchased my house on 4 acres, half of which is a fen that I'm rewilding with native plants. Eventually I'll talk my neighbor into selling me 8 acres on my backside. It's played out pasture ground with played out fences. You've been a great source of knowledge for my future "if/when" acquisition of this land and being able to run some animals. I'm looking forward to all the hard work and effort that it'll take to get things safe, healthy and productive again.
Absolutely agree with woven wire around the property! We have 40 acres with neighbors on the east side with lots of fidos and kids. Putting in woven wire are we speak. Love the timeless fence but dogs can be a nuisance. Thank you for this little instructional!!
Tilling soil results in soil loss from erosion. It takes much longer to make soil that the time it takes to loses an inch to erosion buy Greg Judy ranching books and convert your corn-bean rotation to a cattle-sheep rotation. The USA should not export corn and beans but frozen beef and mutton.
Perfect video! I've got an offer in on 16 acres, 10 are pasture... thank you! Looking for fiber animals, I'm a spinner, weaver, and knitter. Plus, there would be a few extra to process and have milk for the family.
Looking forward to seeing these. I always thought I would never do anything like raise livestock because I was taught that you needed tons of land and staff. The only ranchers I have met had huge herds and multiple staff houses and bunk houses etc. Discovering your channel has been a real eye opener for me.
Thank you😊
This was encouraging to watch. We have 5 acres and successfully grazed two cows for 6 months in less than 2.5 of that last year by rotating them intensively (even though it looked silly to many neighbors!)
We also raised over 300 meat chickens on that same pasture. You can do a lot with little if you do it right!
300!!! That's intense! How many at a time and what system?
@@JessicaFuller last year we did batches of 150. This year we are doing batch of 100
I have 1.8 acres of pasture and rotate between 4 permanent paddocks I've established with just two Black Angus steers, moving them into a paddock when the grass is a foot tall and letting them stay about a week until they have eaten off the top 6". (Studies show most of the nutrients in forage are in the top 6" and mature plants are the LAST things cows like to eat, and the least nutritious, too!)
Last year my two steers gained 420 pounds (on the hoof), which is about 105 lbs of meat per acre! I always mow my pasture once in June so the grass doesn't get out of control by using a large mulching lawnmower; that mulch protects the pasture from the hot sun in July and August, which quickly dries out the plants if bare ground is exposed! (I NEVER graze to the point where any dirt is showing!!)
I grain my cows every day with 1 lb of 4-way to start, increasing it to 1.5 lbs per day half way through the season. Although these were large steers (1,230 lbs each in the beginning) the daily grain ration produced choice beef in one and nearly prime beef in the other, a noticeable upgrade for hay-fed steers! (I grazed 7 months, from May to October. My perimeter fence is six-strand barbed wire augmented with one electric strand of 170 kips 12.5 gauge wire set at 30" high. My barbed wire is 4-point for the bottom and third strands up, and 2-point barbed for the other 4 strands, all clipped to t-posts and interwoven with wire stays. The fence corners are made of braced triplets of old railroad ties using 8' treated 4x4s for the bracing while tension throughout is established with roll-up "strainers" (actually "tensioners").
Six and a half is what I'm starting on. Still gathering supplies for the perimeter fence. I had no plans for a permanent division, but will consider it. My 6.5 is more like 5 because my home/yard/outbuildings and also a swampy spot down in the middle of the woods and a not-so-good pond in the pasture. It's also quite likely that I can lease back the 5 acres I sold-which is all pasture (once the neighbor sees how I manage the grass). Will be using well water. Am thinning the woods down to silvo-pasture, it's dominated by white oaks. The GRASS looks great (in places without sedge) out there now because I stopped mowing it short 2 years ago. But I have only deer for grazers at this point-and they use it more now that it's taller. Once I get this place set up I'll start on my rugged 73 acres just two miles away (the homestead yet to be). It's going to be logged and have ponds made, then fenced. Sheep and LGD's are huge in my "retirement" plan.
White Oaks are great feed (acorns) and better wood than Red Oaks, which do rot exposed outdoors. Ask me how I know !
@@davemi00 Yes I'm well aware of the differences in the oaks. I'll be leaving plenty, but also open the canopy significantly.
@@davemi00 Greg has often mentioned sheep "making a pretty good living" on white oak leaves in forested areas.
Love this guy!
If you just have a few sheep a good way of training them to electric wire is put them in a mobile corral made of connected cattle panels I use quick hook links, then put the wire along the inside edge just watch it does not ground out on the metal. You will just have to move the corral each day it will just slide along the ground. Never had a sheep escape the cattle panels and nothing can get in. For just a small number of sheep some have actually built sheep tractors/mobile corrals if you can weld this may be an option also.
From y2k to 2009 we raised cattle and pastured poultry for meat and eggs. We had two flocks of 400 layers and as many as 3000 meat birds per year plus 6 to 8 head of cattle on 10 acres (8.5 acres of pasture). I used a layout identical to what you presented moving cattle in 1/4 acre paddocks daily and layers weekly. Couldn't have done it without the poultry. Winter was the greatest challenge.
I love the step by step basic approach. I would guess these will be some of your most watched videos. Thanks Greg
I have 9.87 acres with about ten acres of new planted hay field. Plan to run a couple steer every year once I can save to fence it in
Greg I love your matter of fact teaching method. Thank you so much for your time and for making these videos!
Perfect timing on this one Greg! I'm working on convincing my wife to let me use 5 of our acres for a cow, but we get very little rainfall so I will have to irrigate it.
Greg, thank you for making time for these videos and sharing your knowledge. We appreciate it. Greetings from South Africa
Greg you're a gem
Absolutely fantastic video. Thank you for your passion and desire to teach others about the wonderful life you can have on the farm if you do things correctly
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. 🙏
Very practical and informative. I am really looking forward to these. Thank you very much.
Thanks for your time and advice.
I'm living in downtown Raleigh, NC and I'm buying 54 acres of pasture and woods. Many thanks for the guidance.
I just finished my perimeter fence on my 5 acres just north of you in Randolph county. I sure love finding your channel such good info and you're local so bought everything you do can apply to my place
Excellent video - Thanks! Can't wait for part 2-
We just bought 10 acres, perimeter is already fenced on about 5 of the acres. We want to first work toward being more self sufficient, homesteading was our original goal. But we homeschool 2 young boys with entrepreneurial hearts, and even at ages 7 & 8 they want to find ways to eventually make a profit. 😅
We plan to start with chickens, ducks, bees, and rabbits.
My dream is to have a few sheep, for their fertilizer honestly, but also for meat.
And my sons love steak/beef so they dream of having a few steer.
We have zero experience. We’ve been reading as many books as we can, and watching and learning from as many experts as we can.
I see how our homestead can be close to self sufficient, I’m just having a hard time seeing how it can make a side profit.
Always great information....Thank you.
Helping people 👍
Greatly explained! Thank you!
Thank you, Greg.
Neighbor just turned us on to you so very happy your doing these other videos. Looking forward to it. We just got a sheep to grow out. Want to run it with some goats and actually do some land clearing. Hope to do the rotational grazing.
Mr. Judy, you are a fine ambassador sir. Best from the border country
Thank you sir!
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Now, if I could just get eyeballs on my patch of climax pinion Juniper...pretty please....
Super good info. I used to have a few sheep I’m looking forward to getting sheep again now that I’m learning how to do it right. Thank you! 👍❤️
Great video love seeing it step-by-step Thanks
Hey. Thanks for these vids! I see my future cattle system forming. Great stuff.
Great video, real info that I can apply here. Thank you.
Great advice! ❤
Finally the video we’ve been needing
Good morning Greg
Good morning
God bless
This is so helpful, thank you!
Hey Greg
What about rain catching on all the roofs on your land
Put it in a 40,000 gall tank or multiple 1000 gall tanks
1500 square foot roof makes about 14,000 gal in an hour if math is right.
In drought time you could use it on your land .
My larger acreage has no well potential (drilled it 5x already) and I shall be collecting all the water from the roofs (when they happen) and putting it into a tank for all my water needs. Also will dig some strategically located ponds for stock use. The entire system is up to us to engineer and keep functioning properly and cleanly.
Thanks for the video, any suggestions on how to handle the field if it's full of broomsedge? Let the animals do what the can? Mow it and then put animals on it?
Unroll hay on it and let the cows eat and poo and trample on it. How's the ph? Maybe apply lime. Mr. Judy has videos about it. Just search "greg judy broomsedge"
We have broomsedge. I call it the soil swan song. We are working on raising pH and getting animals on it. AMAZING how much meat chickens in tractors can raise pH also!
Thanks!
Thank-you very much for your support!
Thank you
Super helpful video!
Looking forward to this!
Thanks Greg. This helps.
Priceless information, thank you.
Greg PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE speak about the pump you are using to deliver water to your hdpe pipe/livestock!
We use county pressurized water when we pipe water. No pumps or pressure tank or electricity needed to run pump.
At first I tried an electric perimeter fence I figured it was the way to go. It was a complete waste of money and time. Build a strong permanent perimeter fence then use your electric fence inside.
If you build them right, they work fine. We have numerous farms that are all hi tensile electric fence. No problems at all and about 1/3rd the cost.
That's what we did. At times wild animals: elk, bear, moose as well as our neighbors buffalo run right through electric fencing. The barbed wire perimeter fence gives a bit more protection. I think it depends on where one lives.
I wished I had found you a decade ago. I have 2 horses on 5 acres though about an acre and half of that 5 acre pasture is wooded with a creek and they over grazed. I did like everyone else and let the horses graze the entire pasture for years. Now there's very minimal grass and lots of weeds. I'd probably would do best to put a couple sheep on that pasture to rejuvenate the entire pasture while keeping the horses off for a year. My horses are hay fed all year round now anyway because of the situation. Its maddening to constantly hay feed all year any animal plus I feel its not ideal for the horses. If I could find somebody to take the horses who had good pasture and barn for them, id actually just give them away, they're up in age 20byr mare and 12 yr gelding was her colt but here in NE AL, seems folks don't have barns for horses and they leave them out all year no matter the weather. The horses come and go barn to pasture as they please. But thank you Greg for going over rotational pasture in detail, maybe I can still do it.
Probably a good first question to find the answer to is Why.
Are you planning on making money?
Can you afford it?
Are you just raising for food or a pleasing lifestyle?
It's good that people can watch videos and get some insight. Hopefully they have realistic expectations and don't wind up filled with regret.
THANK YOU GREAT TEACHING VIDEO LOOK FORWARD FOR NEXT ONE
I heard you on the P.I.M.P cast from Perma Pastures Farm. They are great folks.
we get 2 animal units per acre here in california. No snow. With irrigation grass grows year round. No irrigation and the grass is very seasonal. Realistically though probably best to have 1 cow per 2 acres. Guess it depends on what you are doing exactly... Cow and calf? male calf grow out for meat?
Nicely said!
I have a rectangle parcel of land approx. 3.5 acres. I have 5 ewes, 3 adult Katahdin, 1 adult Assaf/Finn, 1-(7) month old Finn/Assaf. Getting an EF/Lacaune ram, 7 month old. I have 1 black angus steer, aprox. 900 lbs. Im gestimating lb wise i have 1.5 units total? Pasture is separated in 3 areas. Electrified. We live in southern Indiana. Steer will be in the freezer next year. After that, sheep only on pastures. Can you explain your walkways to a centralized water spot for several pastures? Your water system is still a bit pricey for now. Great idea, though. I dont mind tending to their watering daily by hand. Like your idea on the whiteboard concerning division of grazing areas. Just wondering about moving an electrified fence in such a way to accommodate a walk through watering laneway to a centralized water spot. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!❤
Greg, this is just absolutely amazing, thank you so much! Theres going to be a LOT of people practicing and hanging on every word of yours in this series, you're so kind and generous to take the time and make the effort to do a series like this 💚I would imaging a flerd situation might be common on farms of this size. Say we have maybe 2 cows with a few sheep and our land can handle this .. what would you suggest in terms of mineral feeder considering that of cows and sheep are different? Thanks in advance, and thanks SO VERY MUCH for this series, you're truly a God send.
Also, if you dont mind, in your example you essentially made two permanent paddocks, and you mention not back fencing. Is that not back fencing only within the current paddock, or do you even leave open the back to the previous paddock? I have existing paddocks defined by internal fencing that I didn't put in, and I just started rotating which Im very excited about, and I have been keeping open the back largely because there is shade there, but Im not sure if Im doing the right thing. Sometimes I wonder if I should be back fencing because the sheep love going back under the trees in the 1st days area but Im worried about parasites with them laying there all the time.
🙏🙏🙏
You can go 3 days with out back fencing. After 3 days will start going back and regrazing the area that needs to full regrow.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher That makes sense, thanks 1M!!
So my question is do you graze the cows from start to finish or do you finish with grain?
All grass, no grain. Cows do better on grass and feeding grain to your cow herd is a great way to lose your farm. If they can’t eat grass and give you a calf, sell-em.
If the territory of the purchased farm is very large and fencing it requires a lot of money, what can be done in this case?
Thanks Greg!! Love the videos. We have approx 12-15 acres and were thinking of getting cows. What market is there for sheep other than the wool? I've looked for lamb in the grocery and haven't seen it. We wouldn't be able to shear sheep at this point.
Hi greg, can i use only fixed wire, we don't have the movil ones here
Thank you so much! This is very helpful and informative. Just subscribed and plan to watch part 2 :) Just curious, what are your thoughts on dairy vs meat sheep, or a dual purpose like assaf? And with your particular breed, how is the market for the meat?
If you have to start with 5 acres of woods (that’s mostly what we have here in SC for raw land), can you forestry mulch land in a pattern that will leave you with silvopastures and grow grasses/clovers through the wood mulch? Or do you have to seed it?
Do you need a sorting pen or can you use wires like with your cattle?
If you are bringing new animals onto your farm, a catch or unloading pen is a very nice thing to have. When you unload them into the pen right from your trailer, it gives you a secure place to let your livestock de-stress before turning them out to pasture. When you do turn them out, slowly walk out to your gate and open it. Walk away very slowly and let them walk out on their own time schedule. If you walk into the corral, they may come running out.
I have a few neighbors. We are sending each neighbor a letter, as we start fencing near them, explaining how the electric wire works, a bit about our farm, etc. I love that timeless fence and despise putting up woven, so my whole perimeter is going to be electric
l think Greg recommends wire for perimeter fencing.
Might wanna verify that's legal in your area
@Adelina Warriner thanks for the heads up. How would I check the legality? I'm 100% sure my local Sheriff's Office wouldn't care to even help me find out, much less enforce it if it's not legal 🙄 They don't care about our part of the county. I don't want to do anything that'll get me in trouble though. My insurance did ask if the fence was ON my property or on the property line. When I told her it was 1 ft into my property she said "good", but idk why. We've already done about half of the perimeter
@@carolinablonde88 should be able to google the law codes for your area. Some areas allow electric perimeter, others you have to have the electric With a non electric, other all electric has to be offset behind a permanent fence.
@Adelina Warriner thank you so much; random stranger on the internet. You may have just saved me some legal headache. I looked up my county codes and didn't see anything regarding electric fence, but I emailed the codes office anyway. Then I saw your reply and it dawned on me to check the state laws, just in case. There is a part in my state laws that was recently passed regarding electric fencing but it isn't clear if my fence qualifies or not, so I'm going to follow up on that. I only have a handful of neighbors and they've all been cool with my fence going up, but the last thing I need is a problem after we finish all this fencing
Gregg we live in the south east corner of Oklahoma do you know of any sheep homestead closer to me so we can buy some sheep, your a little farther than I can go to buy sheep. We live in Hugo, Oklahoma
Greg, when you were custom grazing, how did you deal with the animals not being trained to hot wire? Did you take the time to train each new batch of stockers? Thanks for everything and happy Easter!
Yes, when custom grazing, we trained each set of new arrivals. 2-3 days and they are trained.
Hi Greg how are you? I currently live in Southern California now this is just a pipe dream of mine but if I won the lottery man I'd invest in livestock I wish I knew this information sooner I would've built a nest egg especially whats happening in the world these days I would've been ahead of the game so to speak. Like you mentioned about huge capital it can be a curse as well. But if I won the big prize I'd invest accordingly I would go to your grazing class I would Geg I don't know you like that but your a heck of a good person sir.
Why not plant a Hawthorn hedge around your field ?
We only have 4.
1.5 or less is grass, usable in the backyard, not up front..
We're hoping to get the property next to us that will add 2 acres of hill but grass... dunno
We'll ask the farmer around us if he'll graze it for us so we can have dairy
Thanks for the video! I remember a post not to long ago on Facebook about you setting this up. I priced how much woven wire costs compared to high tensile wire. Ouch! I think a few years ago in a video your corner post driver is 4” diameter and weighs around 60#. Do you think a 34# post driver with a inner diameter of 4” work? It’s about 24” long too. I found one on Amazon. I’d rather pound them in instead of dig every hole. It takes a long time digging and tapping the dirt back in correctly. Have a Happy Easter tomorrow!
I think you can drive them in wet spring soil especially if you dig a 20” deep starter hole to set post down into.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher thanks!
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher You have great videos! If I can I ask - how to do recommend digging the 20" starter hole?
Use a hand post hole digger, the hole only needs to be 4-6” wide
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Thanks Mr. Judy!
What if there's no market for sheep/goats? Can this be translated to some other type of livestock to produce meat?
The international type of folks everywhere has dramatically increased the demand for sheep and goats according to folks in my area. Of course you can graze other grazers this way. Greg Judy has grazed horses and has a supreme herd of Southpoll right now.
You're going to want more land than five acres for bigger stock I'm sure. And you're not going to "saturate" any market with what you produce on five acres. If you'll investigate all the grass-fed operations in your country/area you might see what markets are thriving (what they're sold out of). IN this country, all meats sell, especially if you direct market. Joel Salatin teaches how to raise chickens (in demand everywhere all day long) on any amount of acreage, but they are not strictly grazers-they must have grain as well. Joel has grown about every animal for the market. Rabbits are another option. Best of luck.
If you only have five acres (or less), you won't be sending much meat to market. On that scale, you would primarily be growing for your family.
Healthy food security for your family is more valuable than gold.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Absolutely. I only have two acres at the most of our own land to work with (hoping to be able to negotiate the rental of a few acres of the unused cow pasture that surrounds our property, but that's not a sure thing yet). My goal is to figure out how to produce as much of our meat and milk as possible on that tiny amount of land. But for sure we won't have anything to sell.
@@kathleensanderson3082 yes I know that but there's no local market in my area to purchase or butcher goats and sheep. If I tried to raise them I wouldn't be able to do anything with them. So is there something else to translate this to? Pork maybe? A very small breed of beef?
Wild question. A family is selling their mothers estate. 10 acres of land with a inhabitable house, 5 acres are tillable with a creek passing through, 8 government bins and a crib. I have zero clue where to start. But I want it bad. Really bad. They’re asking $210,000 and the question “where do I start?”. I got maybe 10% down but I’d be broke
I would not go in debt right now. Be patient, prices may come back down. Interest rates are to high right now to take on debt.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher I like that wisdom. My young mind doesn’t have that patience which has grown over the years. I keep thinking there won’t be much opportunities like that in the future. Especially with these conglomerates like Blackrock n vanguard buying up all the land around us. But no debt is still a great thing. Thanks for the wisdom!
Greg, my wife and I bought 30 ac (approx 22 acres open, 8 acres wooded). We want to run cows on the open land to begin with, and then we will fence in the wooded part a little later. I've done some research and think that we want to put up fixed knot woven wire on the outside perimeter (will use high tensile to split the pasture into different grazing sections). Do you recommend using a wooden post (cedar or pine) or some type of other post for outside perimeter? Price is obviously a factor, but not the end-all-be-all driving factor. I want this fence to be as secure as possible, and obviously want it to last for a long time without worry. Thanks in advance.
Take it from a guy who had a doberman attack (2) week old calves. KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS BEFORE DECIDING WHICH FENCE TO BUILD. If you only have 5acres your going to be close to someone eventually and have no business putting in anything besides woven since you will be running mostly smaller animals.
That is good advice, keep the neighbors dogs out of your farm.
don't forget to shoot the neighbors dogs
I'm putting in 5 strands of High Tensile with ground wires in the fencing and a big charger with extra grounding out by the swamp. And there will be LGD's on patrol. I do not anticipate any problems with the neighbors' dogs or coyotes (which are thick and hungry around here). Leave out the LGD's and I'd be taking huge risks every single night. Also that neighbor would be held liable for those losses in any court around here. But of course good neighbors wouldn't have to resort to that.
@@cattywampusmcdoogle Then my dogs get shot, who wins? I'm not shooting any dog unless I catch it in the act, but also I'm doing my level best with hot-tight-fencing and LGD's to keep potential intruders on the other side.
@@wadepatton2433 of course it was implying that you catch your neighbors dogs on your property and attacking the livestock. never meant go next door, knock and then shoot the dogs when the doors open.
Bison pasture
🎉
Triggering the algorithm
try gettig pigs back on your land!
You say almost nothing about that perimeter fence!
5 acres is a farm?
Thank you