Total Grazing – It’s Cold

That cold weather hit on monday – knew it was coming, so i did have a plan and that was turn them loose on the remainder of the paddock which is predominantly timber with not a lot of forage anyway. I plan to return in about 3 days when it warms up. The cows are perfectly capable of thriving without me looking at them everyday. Total Grazing on holiday as well.

Here’s a screenshot of the portion i’ve started with my new Real Wealth Ranching Total Grazing plan. Hopefully, i can explain it here so it makes some kind of sense. The paddock outlined in the thin red line is ground zero – particularly to the right of the purple line running through the middle along the pond. It was at that point i started with stripping off enough to move the cows 2-3 times per day. During these past 12 days, i’ve managed in this manner until the thin red line shown along the timber. At that point, after one time of trying to strip off through the timber, wrestling multiflora rose bushes, and crossing 2 deep ditches, i was not having fun and it was to turn very cold the next three days. Monday evening, i reeled up all the polybraid i had out, picked up the step in posts, and gave the girls the remaining grassy patches and the entire timber (south to the yellow line). I don’t do cold weather, so the plan had to give way. Friday, when it is somewhat warmer, my plan is to start stripping off to the south (towards the bottom of the picture). I will set up a polybraid from the gate to my south permanent fence, then start leap frogging 2 polybraid fences from that temporary fence to the highway (to the right). This will take 3 reels, polybraids, and multiple step in posts.

What will they do for water? the paddock has a water tank below the big pond all the way to the left of the screen shot. Even when grazing to the south of the timber, they could go back to it for water. However, that is unlikely because there is plenty of water in the timber ditches. Putting in a back fence is not necessary for winter grazing since the forage is not growing.

Total Grazing – Week 1

To my delight, the weather in north Missouri has been extraordinarily fine, which has provided a great start to my new grazing plan. As you may know, i DO NOT LIKE cold weather, and in all rights, it should be upon us. However, Yah blessed and allowed me a nice beginning.

When the weather is fine, i have all sorts of things at my farm which i can accomplish in the afternoon (still cold in the mornings). So a late start allows only 2-3 moves per day, but it’s a beginning. In between the moves, i’ve burned small brush piles (it’s still a bit too dry for me to feel comfortable starting conflagrations), cut down a lot of small to mid size trees. Even trees, when growing in the wrong place, are weeds. Plus many are scraggly and worthless or they’ve grown too close together, so none will amount to anything. Or, they are on the bank of a deep ditch, so i know as they grow, they will facilitate a great deal of bank erosion and eventually fall down which is dangerous.

Anyway – back to how did i get on with total grazing. The short answer is excellent. I’m excited to see cows with excellent gut fill, calves growing, and more more even nutrient distribution across the grazed portion of the paddock.

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  Since i only strip off about 10 feet by 600 feet, i need a temporary post on the permanent wire.

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  This is my setup on the other end of the reel. When i get to a 1.22 inch fibreglass semi permanent post, i just use it instead.

The HUGE drawback for me right now is that i have a small mob of 58 cows, 30 calves, and 15 heifers. As incredible as it seems, I could implement this plan of moving 800 cows and calves 4 times per day with NO INCREASE in time! Now that’s effective use of time and greatly reduces labor cost per head. However, I’ll start where I am and get the technique down pat. Plus, my pastures need the healing this plan is supposed to provide.

My cows and calves have adapted quickly and without much debate though in the beginning, they would ‘come and get me’ when they thought it was time to move. Now, after a bit of training and teaching them some patience, they quietly wait for me to reel up the polybraid and they file in behind me to gain access to a new break of yummy stockpiled forage. #TOTALGRAZING and Real Wealth Ranching