Would you be happy with a 5-6 month rest in summer time As this is when we graze away from the farm and we then take hay Thinking of leaving it alone and grazing in the winter when cows come home Cows are away for 5months of the year
Thanks Russ, as always, awesome video. The take half/leave half rule of thumb is very helpful. Those time lapses were pretty cool! Amazing how much they move around while grazing.
Nice video Russ. I try to take half/leave half and keep moving my cows...but...sometimes my brother comes along and puts my cows back where they were moved from because "they didn't eat all the grass" or "the cows must of jumped the fence to get to the taller grass before they finished eating that piece". I've tried to explain what I'm doing but he has his own thought process. Lol. Some people's children. 🤣
He's quite a boy, I tell ya. Lol. He lives across the road from me and my cows are just down the road at my parents most of the time. I'm working on him, trying to teach him.
@@RussWilson My pleasure. Greg and Judy were right you are a wealth of information on raising them cattle and doing it right. Be encouraged keep up the great job.
Have you looked into Jim Elizondos "total grazing"? He is against the "take half, leave half". He says cattle need to harvest everything (hence the name) instead of grazing selectively - which promotes in his view the less desirable grasses. Spring growth is grazed in a relatively short rotation. A big part of the farm is stockpiled (up to a year) and is then also grazed non selectively in the winter, eventually he adds some protein supplement to the ration. So rest periods are long to very long. Would like to hear your thoughts!
I'm familiar with the total grazing concept. I have seen where Jim is against take half-leave half. We do not suffer selectively in our grazing. Our livestock eats all plants even the toxic ones. We also have a portion of our farm that is stockpiled for up 365 days. The average rest across our farm is 100-120 days. I like to leave the cover on the soil and have benefited greatly from it. I believe Jim is applying a lot of amendments to the soil. We do very little for applying amendments. The stock rate on our farm 1 animal unit to 1.62 acres for an average of 315 days per year. I wonder what Jim's stocking rate is. Our stock rate keeps getting denser every year. IMO our stocking rate is very high and would be hard-pressed to beat it with any other type of grazing. We do not supplement with anything we have culled the livestock that can't get it done on poorer quality forages. Thanks for watching the videos!!!. Always open to new ideas that will make more profit and heal the land.
@@RussWilson Thank you for answering! I think Jim's way is suited for really degraded soil/ pastures and/ or hotter and drier areas. Or at least one can see that he comes from there (Mexico and Florida; sandy soils etc). In the end what you do is not that different from him, as far as I can tell after three videos. If I'm not mistaken you are in a high rainfall area like Greg Judy (arround 40 in)? This is probably the main difference? I just wondered when you mentionned the "take half, leave half" what you think about Jim's take. Iirc the only amendment is some sort of compost tea to boost soil life.
I think you are right it has something to do with rainfall totals. I think the great divide is when you only get enough rain to get one crop of grass a year. I know I don't see all the fine points but some of them are is that protein supplementation becomes necessary when the grass quality drops. It becomes important to keep calves on the cow longer so the internal organs grow optimally to extract limited resources from the poor forage. The techniques of controlling weeds and brush become more subtle. Like some of the Savory high density trots across the landscape to crush old bunch grasses or grazing grass/sagebrush in the fall when the sagebrush is less unpalatable. Perhaps some cattle training by spraying dilute molasses on the weeds. Of course, controlling grazing through water point and shade management becomes even more important. If you are tied to dry land by family it makes sense to stay. However, if you are choosing where to set up, doubling production on high production land pays better than doubling low production land. As another benefit to highly productive land is there are likely more Yuppies within driving distance to buy premium beef directly from you.(a la Salatin)
Wow. You doubled your stocking rate by not making hay and keeping them on grass over 300 days out of the year. Impressive. Little less than 2 acres per animal unit. You harvesting about 30 head a year? What's average weight heifer and bull weight? Thanks again russ. I'm a PA boy and you make me proud.
With like bit of management we were able to double the carry capacity on the farm. We are selling 35-50 head of cattle per year. The average mature weight for the heifers 1000 -1100 pounds and the bulls mature at about 1700-1800 lbs. Thanks for watching!!
I especially enjoy watching your videos because I've been there on an NRCS farm tour! Do you recommend any particular brand or type of garden hose? We've tried so many and they all start leaking, usually at the fittings, pretty quickly. It's so easy to do daily moves of the cattle using a small tank with a float in it, but the leaks can waste a lot of water when the hose is used 24/7.
Hi Donna, I remember you coming to the farm. Good garden hoses are hard to come by these days. I have friends that highly recommend the A-Pex garden hoses. They have a lifetime warranty. If they start leaking you cut the ends off and send them in they will send you a new hose. Myself I have been switching over to 3/4" black poly pipe. It seems to hold up better than garden hoses. Thanks for Watching!!!!
This time of the year spring South Central Kentucky I got my grass a little short through this past fall and winter wondering how long would need to keep them in my sacrifice pasture feeding hay until start my rotational grazing again how tall should I let my grass cut before I start
Great Question!! As a general rule. Cut a plant off at the soil level. Count the leaves you want 3 1/2 - 4 full leaves. This works with fescue, perennial rye, and orchard grass. Be careful not to over-graze it this spring. It will decrease the yield for the entire year. Thanks for watching!!
How do you have tall grass in the early spring to graze? Aren't there only certain times if the year you will have tall grass. Like Late spring for your cool season grass and mid/late summer for the warm season plants?
@Russ Wilson, Do you have any videos on how long you have been building your herd to fit your farm, If you are using home raised bulls, Things like that.
Russ. I stumbled onto your Chanel about 3 weeks ago. I am new to mob grazing, but after watching Greg Judy, Joel Salatin, and you, I think it is the right way to go. I am trying to catch up on your previous videos. I have enjoyed them have learned quite a bit from them. Just one question about tall grazing. Do yo have problems from pink eye?
I had a lot of troubles way back when we started. We had up to 60% of the herd with it. We culled the cows out that got pink eye. Put them on a good mineral program to boost immunity. We do vaccinate for the pink eye. It's kind a one of those things I hate to see. We haven't had a case in 4 years. Thanks for watching!!
I just came across your videos and enjoy seeing how other people graze. We rotational grave and started strip grazing last year. Do you go in with a chain harrow after the cows are out of a paddock to break up manure ?
I don't recommend dragging pastures. If you break the manure to soil contact. The manure is slower to absorb into the soil also can becoming a erosion problem. As our soil have improved the manure is worked back into the soil in as little as 14 days. Thanks for watching!
Depends on the year. Average is 100-120 days of rest this year it is going to be longer. I have only grazed just a little over 1/2 the farm so far. Thanks for Watching!
I’m new to mob grazing but from the way I’m doing it on 30 acres of grass and 12 momma cows moving them everyday I can’t get that long of rest before I’m back to the start. Granted this farm was continually grazed for years and then only the hay cut off it so the soil isn’t nearly as fertile as I’m sure yours is now. I just don’t know how to increase rest time unless I cut down on the cattle I have. Is this anything you have dealt with in the past?
@@tsamuelc use smaller paddocks and or move every other or every third day. Read Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown or Greg Judy's How to Think Like a Grazier.
So what you are saying is, if you let the grasses get a taller than what is otherwise considered "peak nutrition", you can still benefit by having more biomass, which means more head per acre AND more more biomass gets trampled onto the ground which inturn means you increase your % organic matter in the soil. The downside is technically the animals are gaining less lbs per day per individual, you just make up for that by lbs per acre...?
The cattle still get good nutrition. They eat the higher quality feed and tramp the lesser quality feed. What they tramp in is recycled back into the soil in little as 21 days to make fertilizer and organic matter. I can't really say we have less weight gain by the way we are grazing. We see really good gains on the finishers and the calves. Actually we see more gain then a lot of other grazers in our area with a 45-50 day rotation. We have seen gains of 2.2 pounds average on finishers and 2.8 pounds of gain on calves. Thanks for the great question!
We haven't had any pinkeye in 4 years. We culled a lot of cows that were prone to pinkeye and found a vaccine that actually works. Thanks for watching!
Our ticks are patchy. If you get in the right place you will be covered. Scout and I picked 60 in one day. But it maybe 2 months before I see another one.
SO RUSS IAM NEW TO THIS CONCEPT,IAM USED TO TALKING ABOUT BREEDING COWS PER ACRE AND YOU TALK UNITS PER ACRE. IASSUME YOU MEAN COW ,CALVES, AND BULLS EACH ONE AS A UNIT. IF SO THAT WOULD MAKE YOU STOCKING RATE LIKE A COW EVERY 3 ACRES OR SO. IS THAT WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT?
A animal unit is 1000 pounds of animal. doesn't matter the species. An animal unit will eat 2.5% of it body weight everyday. Our stocking rate is 1 animal unit for 1.62 acres. Our stocking rate was 1 animal unit for every 3 acre before we started adaptive grazing. Thanks for Watching!!
There are a lot of misconceptions in this style of grazing. Firstly trampling organic matter onto the soil surface does virtually nothing to increase soil organic carbon. Soil organic carbon comes from plants pumping carbon into the soil to feed soil microbes though photosynthesis. When plants are eaten down to the ground they slough off roots as part of their natural growth cycle which further increases soil carbon. If you grazed your grasses fully instead of half grazing you would have the following benefits. 1 Longer recovery periods, 2 higher carrying capacity, 3 more soil carbon, 4 healther grasses as their growing points are cleared of old growth at each grazing, 5 better quality forage instead of feeding the animals rank low quality fodder, 6 faster growing animals 7 much less labor as moving animals less often (every 2-3 days is sufficient to avoid grazing the new shoots in most circumstances is sufficient). There is a method called Grazing Naturally which is worth a look if people are interested in a grazing system thats proven to work.
I hope we can agree to disagree. So you are telling me that I have it all wrong? I don't think so. If I have it all wrong then Dr Allen Williams, Greg Judy, Allen Savory, Jim Gerrish, and many other folks that have been doing this a really long time have all wrong too. I'm not defending myself I'm going to tell you how it is. 1. We already have a long rest period of 120 days. 2. We doubled our carry capacity by doing what we are doing. 3 We are putting lots of carbon back in to the soil. 4 Our grasses are healthier than ever When you over graze and clear the soil you are opening the soil up to wind and water erosion, loss of water, no habitat for your microbes and insects at soil level and below the surface, Warming the soil to the point where the plants stop growing completely, when you kill those roots back you are making it so the plant can not up take water or nutrients. 5 the livestock are grazing quality. 6. daily average gain of 2.2 pound per head per day doesn't get much better than that. 7 move every 2-3 days causes the animals to regraze their paddocks and they will only graze the higher quality forages and leave the rest. making it so the first day they are grazing only the highest quality and by the third day the plain of nutrition goes way down not gaining as much the third day as the first day. We have orchard grass growing 2-4 inches in a 24 hour period after grazing. canary grass growing 3-5 inches in a 24 hour period. The animals go back and regraze the plants. This sets them back to the of stunting for half the over all production for that year. I tried looking up the so called Grazing Naturally there is no information on it. I will continue to do what I do be cause it has been proven, profitable and sound for the environment. Thanks for the comment!!
Obviously something is working well, I am guessing its a combination of Lower impact of reduced forage production in summer due to longer grazing intervals - in systems where rotations are 21-28 days, your production might half between the spring peak and summer lull. This problem is conventionally "solved" through cutting the surplus to be saved for winter feed and stocking to your summer production levels/using a cover crop to make up the feed deficit - but unless you are cutting exceptional quality silage and then diluting the ration with straw available at cost or as a biproduct of other farm activities, it will be cheaper to outwinter dry cows on stockpiled grass/a cover crop if it is climatically feasible. This would allow you average out the year somewhat and stock to above the production levels of summer without needing to use cover crops to bridge the gap. A "sweet spot" in energy and protein for the cows requirements; at a certain point, there will be diminishing returns in terms of mj of energy and protein to milk production, and diminishing returns in terms of milk volume/quality to calf growth rate. The most profitable system would then try and produce as much energy and protein per unit of land and limit the amount the cows had access to, to just the amount they would need to have the highest feed conversion ratio (this could cause its own issues with lack of gut fill, animals overgrazing below planned residuals etc) - but this is almost impossible to do on a family farm scale operation. What would normally happen with a higher quality pasture is it is grazed ad lib, and there is a solid argument to be made in this case that focusing on volume (of the quality at which when the animal is allowed to graze ad lib it will be at the "sweet spot" of production efficiency) is more profitable than quality, especially when you factor in that increases in quality causes significant increases in intake. On top of this, a significant proportion of the value of a (suckler) calf at sale time is given by the fact that it required a cow to be kept and managed for 9 months, raised for 2 years without any return and kept for ~5 months while "unproductive". It would be much more profitable to have eg. 10 325kg weanlings than 8 375kg weanlings, for both of the reasons that you would be growing more kgs of meat/unit of energy and protein and because a significant amount of the value of the calf is not in its weight but the fact that it is a live animal whose mother had to be kept and managed. This makes it even worse to waste any forage growing potential on surpassing the "sweet spot" of feed conversion - the opportunity cost of a higher stocking rate is huge. Better early spring growth following winter grazing the stockpiled forage due to allowing the plant to build up a root reserve during summer, increasing the growing season. Less poaching/ground disturbance during winter stockpile grazing due to a more established root network holding the soil together. The downsides in my opinion are Tillering through grazing is non existent, this hypothetically should decrease yield and increase weed pressure. Leaving forage on the surface is only going to negligibly increase soil organic matter (will most of it not volatilize in the same way in which organic matter does when fields are ploughed?). Even if it does increase soil organic matter, such a sacrifice in production is not needed to reach exceptional organic matter levels; farms in the UK have permanent pasture @ 20% om just from root cessation. There is going to be no increase in the speed of regrowth due to leaving the bottom of the plant when it is of little feed value (aka dead), it is only going to choke out the new regrowth and slow down growth. You are wasting sunlight hours and nutrients growing leaves that will be dead at the time of grazing. The jump in quality between the boot stage of growth and an open seedhead stage of growth in grasses is dramatic and a does not come with a resulting increase in yields. I think a system where you graze at the boot stage of growth (potentially excepting letting the plant seed once per year to build root reserves, research/trial dependent), while the entire plant retains some feed value down to the high end of a conventional residual you would retain all the benefits of your system and increase stocking rate significantly. Great to have videos like this available so people from all around the world can compare/become aware of different systems!
![NEW Fencing Technology for Daily Cattle Moves [Rotational Grazing]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LRyUNM0jZGA/mqdefault.jpg)
Would you be happy with a 5-6 month rest in summer time
As this is when we graze away from the farm and we then take hay
Thinking of leaving it alone and grazing in the winter when cows come home
Cows are away for 5months of the year
I always enjoy watching the cows and learning about what makes your beef taste so good and be so healthy. Loved seeing Paige.
Thank You!!
Do you have any minerals feeders
If you do feed minerals, what kind do you feed
Thanks Russ, as always, awesome video. The take half/leave half rule of thumb is very helpful. Those time lapses were pretty cool! Amazing how much they move around while grazing.
Nice video Russ. I try to take half/leave half and keep moving my cows...but...sometimes my brother comes along and puts my cows back where they were moved from because "they didn't eat all the grass" or "the cows must of jumped the fence to get to the taller grass before they finished eating that piece". I've tried to explain what I'm doing but he has his own thought process. Lol. Some people's children. 🤣
Put lock on the fence so he can't move them back. Lol Maybe you could set up a demo for your brother. SO he could see the difference..
He's quite a boy, I tell ya. Lol. He lives across the road from me and my cows are just down the road at my parents most of the time. I'm working on him, trying to teach him.
Your forage and cattle all look fantastic and you explained everything really well! Great video 😃
Thanks!!
What reel were you using?
Enjoyed the video Greg Judy shared your site this morning. Sure glad I came good information.😊
Welcome aboard!!
@@RussWilson My pleasure. Greg and Judy were right you are a wealth of information on raising them cattle and doing it right. Be encouraged keep up the great job.
@@rayclark8920 Thanks you
Great video Russ!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank You!
Awesome Time Lapse, Great Useful Info !
Glad it was helpful!
We like "cattle TV" time lapse. It's interesting to see how they move.
Nice video
What does the sward look like under that litter?
I like this process! Good Job!
Thanks!!
Very informative Russ. Thank you...
Thanks for watching!
Have you looked into Jim Elizondos "total grazing"? He is against the "take half, leave half". He says cattle need to harvest everything (hence the name) instead of grazing selectively - which promotes in his view the less desirable grasses. Spring growth is grazed in a relatively short rotation. A big part of the farm is stockpiled (up to a year) and is then also grazed non selectively in the winter, eventually he adds some protein supplement to the ration. So rest periods are long to very long.
Would like to hear your thoughts!
I'm familiar with the total grazing concept. I have seen where Jim is against take half-leave half. We do not suffer selectively in our grazing. Our livestock eats all plants even the toxic ones. We also have a portion of our farm that is stockpiled for up 365 days. The average rest across our farm is 100-120 days. I like to leave the cover on the soil and have benefited greatly from it. I believe Jim is applying a lot of amendments to the soil. We do very little for applying amendments. The stock rate on our farm 1 animal unit to 1.62 acres for an average of 315 days per year. I wonder what Jim's stocking rate is. Our stock rate keeps getting denser every year. IMO our stocking rate is very high and would be hard-pressed to beat it with any other type of grazing. We do not supplement with anything we have culled the livestock that can't get it done on poorer quality forages. Thanks for watching the videos!!!. Always open to new ideas that will make more profit and heal the land.
@@RussWilson Thank you for answering! I think Jim's way is suited for really degraded soil/ pastures and/ or hotter and drier areas. Or at least one can see that he comes from there (Mexico and Florida; sandy soils etc). In the end what you do is not that different from him, as far as I can tell after three videos. If I'm not mistaken you are in a high rainfall area like Greg Judy (arround 40 in)? This is probably the main difference? I just wondered when you mentionned the "take half, leave half" what you think about Jim's take.
Iirc the only amendment is some sort of compost tea to boost soil life.
I think you are right it has something to do with rainfall totals. I think the great divide is when you only get enough rain to get one crop of grass a year. I know I don't see all the fine points but some of them are is that protein supplementation becomes necessary when the grass quality drops. It becomes important to keep calves on the cow longer so the internal organs grow optimally to extract limited resources from the poor forage. The techniques of controlling weeds and brush become more subtle. Like some of the Savory high density trots across the landscape to crush old bunch grasses or grazing grass/sagebrush in the fall when the sagebrush is less unpalatable. Perhaps some cattle training by spraying dilute molasses on the weeds. Of course, controlling grazing through water point and shade management becomes even more important.
If you are tied to dry land by family it makes sense to stay. However, if you are choosing where to set up, doubling production on high production land pays better than doubling low production land. As another benefit to highly productive land is there are likely more Yuppies within driving distance to buy premium beef directly from you.(a la Salatin)
That was one great video!
Glad you liked it! It was a fun video to make.
Great video loved the time lapse I thought they would lay down at some point.
Thanks 👍 They do lay down a different times during the day. Can almost set your watch to it.
thank you for the tips
Any time
Haha, come on out to New New Mexico and see how much grass you'll be working with!
Wow. You doubled your stocking rate by not making hay and keeping them on grass over 300 days out of the year. Impressive. Little less than 2 acres per animal unit. You harvesting about 30 head a year? What's average weight heifer and bull weight? Thanks again russ. I'm a PA boy and you make me proud.
With like bit of management we were able to double the carry capacity on the farm. We are selling 35-50 head of cattle per year. The average mature weight for the heifers 1000 -1100 pounds and the bulls mature at about 1700-1800 lbs. Thanks for watching!!
@@RussWilson i asked about south pole earlier you said yours about 100 pounds heavier. Any advantage or disadvantage from a bigger size?
Great info. Thank you for sharing!
Glad it was helpful!
I especially enjoy watching your videos because I've been there on an NRCS farm tour! Do you recommend any particular brand or type of garden hose? We've tried so many and they all start leaking, usually at the fittings, pretty quickly. It's so easy to do daily moves of the cattle using a small tank with a float in it, but the leaks can waste a lot of water when the hose is used 24/7.
Hi Donna, I remember you coming to the farm. Good garden hoses are hard to come by these days. I have friends that highly recommend the A-Pex garden hoses. They have a lifetime warranty. If they start leaking you cut the ends off and send them in they will send you a new hose. Myself I have been switching over to 3/4" black poly pipe. It seems to hold up better than garden hoses. Thanks for Watching!!!!
This time of the year spring South Central Kentucky I got my grass a little short through this past fall and winter wondering how long would need to keep them in my sacrifice pasture feeding hay until start my rotational grazing again how tall should I let my grass cut before I start
Great Question!! As a general rule. Cut a plant off at the soil level. Count the leaves you want 3 1/2 - 4 full leaves. This works with fescue, perennial rye, and orchard grass. Be careful not to over-graze it this spring. It will decrease the yield for the entire year. Thanks for watching!!
Of goodness what do u have planted there? What green goodness; we got no green in Ks
That is mostly canary grass. I've heard Kansas is in a very bad drought. Hope it breaks soon. Thanks for watching!
How do you have tall grass in the early spring to graze? Aren't there only certain times if the year you will have tall grass. Like Late spring for your cool season grass and mid/late summer for the warm season plants?
Another informative video.
Thanks again!
Thank you this content
@Russ Wilson, Do you have any videos on how long you have been building your herd to fit your farm, If you are using home raised bulls, Things like that.
I do not have any video on those subjects. I put it on the list of videos to do. Thanks for watching!
Nice video! What is the average weight of your cows?
our cow weight is 1000-1100 pounds. Thanks for watching!!
Russ. I stumbled onto your Chanel about 3 weeks ago. I am new to mob grazing, but after watching Greg Judy, Joel Salatin, and you, I think it is the right way to go. I am trying to catch up on your previous videos. I have enjoyed them have learned quite a bit from them. Just one question about tall grazing. Do yo have problems from pink eye?
I had a lot of troubles way back when we started. We had up to 60% of the herd with it. We culled the cows out that got pink eye. Put them on a good mineral program to boost immunity. We do vaccinate for the pink eye. It's kind a one of those things I hate to see. We haven't had a case in 4 years. Thanks for watching!!
How many lots do you have to rotate
Good-looking diverse forage
Thank You!
I just came across your videos and enjoy seeing how other people graze. We rotational grave and started strip grazing last year. Do you go in with a chain harrow after the cows are out of a paddock to break up manure ?
I don't recommend dragging pastures. If you break the manure to soil contact. The manure is slower to absorb into the soil also can becoming a erosion problem. As our soil have improved the manure is worked back into the soil in as little as 14 days. Thanks for watching!
Great video. How long are your rest periods typically?
Depends on the year. Average is 100-120 days of rest this year it is going to be longer. I have only grazed just a little over 1/2 the farm so far. Thanks for Watching!
@@RussWilson farm looks incredible. Have really been enjoying your videos
I’m new to mob grazing but from the way I’m doing it on 30 acres of grass and 12 momma cows moving them everyday I can’t get that long of rest before I’m back to the start. Granted this farm was continually grazed for years and then only the hay cut off it so the soil isn’t nearly as fertile as I’m sure yours is now. I just don’t know how to increase rest time unless I cut down on the cattle I have. Is this anything you have dealt with in the past?
@@tsamuelc use smaller paddocks and or move every other or every third day. Read Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown or Greg Judy's How to Think Like a Grazier.
I'm new to your videos and loved it! How many acres do you have?
What rainfall are you in? Also what climate zone are you in? We are between 5a-5b zone. Thanks for the videos!
Average rainfall is 43" This year we more like 60" I'm in zone 5a-5b It seems to be getting warmer every year. Thanks for Watching!
So what you are saying is, if you let the grasses get a taller than what is otherwise considered "peak nutrition", you can still benefit by having more biomass, which means more head per acre AND more more biomass gets trampled onto the ground which inturn means you increase your % organic matter in the soil. The downside is technically the animals are gaining less lbs per day per individual, you just make up for that by lbs per acre...?
The cattle still get good nutrition. They eat the higher quality feed and tramp the lesser quality feed. What they tramp in is recycled back into the soil in little as 21 days to make fertilizer and organic matter. I can't really say we have less weight gain by the way we are grazing. We see really good gains on the finishers and the calves. Actually we see more gain then a lot of other grazers in our area with a 45-50 day rotation. We have seen gains of 2.2 pounds average on finishers and 2.8 pounds of gain on calves. Thanks for the great question!
Great video! Do you have permanent pastures or do you have a cycle of putting them back into annual crops after a certain amount of years?
I have 145 ares total about 5-10 acres of the is annuals and the rest of it in permanent pasture. I will move the annuals around to reseed pastures.
And how’s ur pinkeye come July ..?
We haven't had any pinkeye in 4 years. We culled a lot of cows that were prone to pinkeye and found a vaccine that actually works. Thanks for watching!
What area of the country do you operate??
Do u have ticks?
Our ticks are patchy. If you get in the right place you will be covered. Scout and I picked 60 in one day. But it maybe 2 months before I see another one.
Where you located?
I'm in northwestern PA. Thanks for watching!!
Where abouts is your farm?
SO RUSS IAM NEW TO THIS CONCEPT,IAM USED TO TALKING ABOUT BREEDING COWS PER ACRE AND YOU TALK UNITS PER ACRE. IASSUME YOU MEAN COW ,CALVES, AND BULLS EACH ONE AS A UNIT. IF SO THAT WOULD MAKE YOU STOCKING RATE LIKE A COW EVERY 3 ACRES OR SO. IS THAT WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT?
A animal unit is 1000 pounds of animal. doesn't matter the species. An animal unit will eat 2.5% of it body weight everyday. Our stocking rate is 1 animal unit for 1.62 acres. Our stocking rate was 1 animal unit for every 3 acre before we started adaptive grazing. Thanks for Watching!!
There are a lot of misconceptions in this style of grazing. Firstly trampling organic matter onto the soil surface does virtually nothing to increase soil organic carbon. Soil organic carbon comes from plants pumping carbon into the soil to feed soil microbes though photosynthesis. When plants are eaten down to the ground they slough off roots as part of their natural growth cycle which further increases soil carbon. If you grazed your grasses fully instead of half grazing you would have the following benefits. 1 Longer recovery periods, 2 higher carrying capacity, 3 more soil carbon, 4 healther grasses as their growing points are cleared of old growth at each grazing, 5 better quality forage instead of feeding the animals rank low quality fodder, 6 faster growing animals 7 much less labor as moving animals less often (every 2-3 days is sufficient to avoid grazing the new shoots in most circumstances is sufficient). There is a method called Grazing Naturally which is worth a look if people are interested in a grazing system thats proven to work.
I hope we can agree to disagree. So you are telling me that I have it all wrong? I don't think so. If I have it all wrong then Dr Allen Williams, Greg Judy, Allen Savory, Jim Gerrish, and many other folks that have been doing this a really long time have all wrong too. I'm not defending myself I'm going to tell you how it is. 1. We already have a long rest period of 120 days. 2. We doubled our carry capacity by doing what we are doing. 3 We are putting lots of carbon back in to the soil. 4 Our grasses are healthier than ever When you over graze and clear the soil you are opening the soil up to wind and water erosion, loss of water, no habitat for your microbes and insects at soil level and below the surface, Warming the soil to the point where the plants stop growing completely, when you kill those roots back you are making it so the plant can not up take water or nutrients. 5 the livestock are grazing quality. 6. daily average gain of 2.2 pound per head per day doesn't get much better than that. 7 move every 2-3 days causes the animals to regraze their paddocks and they will only graze the higher quality forages and leave the rest. making it so the first day they are grazing only the highest quality and by the third day the plain of nutrition goes way down not gaining as much the third day as the first day. We have orchard grass growing 2-4 inches in a 24 hour period after grazing. canary grass growing 3-5 inches in a 24 hour period. The animals go back and regraze the plants. This sets them back to the of stunting for half the over all production for that year. I tried looking up the so called Grazing Naturally there is no information on it. I will continue to do what I do be cause it has been proven, profitable and sound for the environment. Thanks for the comment!!
Obviously something is working well, I am guessing its a combination of
Lower impact of reduced forage production in summer due to longer grazing intervals - in systems where rotations are 21-28 days, your production might half between the spring peak and summer lull. This problem is conventionally "solved" through cutting the surplus to be saved for winter feed and stocking to your summer production levels/using a cover crop to make up the feed deficit - but unless you are cutting exceptional quality silage and then diluting the ration with straw available at cost or as a biproduct of other farm activities, it will be cheaper to outwinter dry cows on stockpiled grass/a cover crop if it is climatically feasible.
This would allow you average out the year somewhat and stock to above the production levels of summer without needing to use cover crops to bridge the gap.
A "sweet spot" in energy and protein for the cows requirements; at a certain point, there will be diminishing returns in terms of mj of energy and protein to milk production, and diminishing returns in terms of milk volume/quality to calf growth rate.
The most profitable system would then try and produce as much energy and protein per unit of land and limit the amount the cows had access to, to just the amount they would need to have the highest feed conversion ratio (this could cause its own issues with lack of gut fill, animals overgrazing below planned residuals etc) - but this is almost impossible to do on a family farm scale operation. What would normally happen with a higher quality pasture is it is grazed ad lib, and there is a solid argument to be made in this case that focusing on volume (of the quality at which when the animal is allowed to graze ad lib it will be at the "sweet spot" of production efficiency) is more profitable than quality, especially when you factor in that increases in quality causes significant increases in intake.
On top of this, a significant proportion of the value of a (suckler) calf at sale time is given by the fact that it required a cow to be kept and managed for 9 months, raised for 2 years without any return and kept for ~5 months while "unproductive". It would be much more profitable to have eg. 10 325kg weanlings than 8 375kg weanlings, for both of the reasons that you would be growing more kgs of meat/unit of energy and protein and because a significant amount of the value of the calf is not in its weight but the fact that it is a live animal whose mother had to be kept and managed. This makes it even worse to waste any forage growing potential on surpassing the "sweet spot" of feed conversion - the opportunity cost of a higher stocking rate is huge.
Better early spring growth following winter grazing the stockpiled forage due to allowing the plant to build up a root reserve during summer, increasing the growing season.
Less poaching/ground disturbance during winter stockpile grazing due to a more established root network holding the soil together.
The downsides in my opinion are
Tillering through grazing is non existent, this hypothetically should decrease yield and increase weed pressure.
Leaving forage on the surface is only going to negligibly increase soil organic matter (will most of it not volatilize in the same way in which organic matter does when fields are ploughed?).
Even if it does increase soil organic matter, such a sacrifice in production is not needed to reach exceptional organic matter levels; farms in the UK have permanent pasture @ 20% om just from root cessation.
There is going to be no increase in the speed of regrowth due to leaving the bottom of the plant when it is of little feed value (aka dead), it is only going to choke out the new regrowth and slow down growth.
You are wasting sunlight hours and nutrients growing leaves that will be dead at the time of grazing.
The jump in quality between the boot stage of growth and an open seedhead stage of growth in grasses is dramatic and a does not come with a resulting increase in yields.
I think a system where you graze at the boot stage of growth (potentially excepting letting the plant seed once per year to build root reserves, research/trial dependent), while the entire plant retains some feed value down to the high end of a conventional residual you would retain all the benefits of your system and increase stocking rate significantly.
Great to have videos like this available so people from all around the world can compare/become aware of different systems!