Farm | Our first season of grazing our EQUIP pasture

Reflecting on our first season of grazing our EQUIP-funded pasture

June 2nd, 2019

Our first day of grazing was June 2nd. I fell significantly behind this spring because I was heavily exhausted in my first trimester of pregnancy and I still had a water line to finish before I could get cattle moved. So, by June 2nd the alfalfa and grasses were significantly over-grown so most of our first grazing in each paddock was trampled vs. eaten.

Our rotation schedule

When I met with my mentor and EQUIP partner this spring she mentioned I would likely move cattle each day, to which I thought, ya I’m sure with how I’m feeling I’ll move them everyday… BUT sure enough I moved cattle each day until July 13th. We had LOADS of grass to be eaten with such a cool and wet start to our grazing season. The cattle trampled and ate and I moved them every day. July 13th things changed with a heat wave and I moved them every two days to keep my work lighter during this time. Of course with that decision I instead made my paddocks larger, which left more to be trampled in the process. But, we got through a few days of a heat index over 100 degrees and we went back to daily moves.

Our first ‘rest’ period was just shy of 30 days for our first rotation, due again to the cool and wet weather we had the grass was growing well. I had planned on continuing with a regulated rotation, however, when an adviser visited the farm he suggested I get my beef back on the best grass instead of being so rigid with my rotation and paddock one was at it’s prime; so I moved them back to that paddock shy of 30 days.

The rest of the summer I maintained a Paddock 1 - 30+ rotation. During the heat of the summer I moved every one to two days depending on my paddock size. I had a few paddocks that were weaker in vegetation so I moved through those quicker than areas with good vegetative stands. I’m dealing with some significantly sandy areas that didn’t seed well so they are thin, leaving very little to eat.

Once fall approached I continued to move every one to two days depending on the quality and quantity of my vegetation.

Thanks to a smaller herd we grazed until November 16th this year!

I made things as easy as possible

I decided before we moved cattle down to this field that with how I was feeling I was going to need to make this first season as easy as possible. So, in the spring I ordered a couple hundred step-in posts and three reels. I set up my entire field with the step-in posts so that with each rotation I was only moving wire. I have to say this was a life-saver for me, especially this season, the less walking laps the better.

Later in the summer my mother purchased a JD Gator for me to use, and that was an incredible help as my energy level diminished with my growing belly.

we made hay

We only grazed 13 head this summer, our capacity is about 30, so this early grazing season we decided to take first and second crop hay from one side of the acreage and the area we cut totaled about 8 acres. Since we had such a great growing season we felt that it would simply age-out if we didn’t cut it since we had very few mouths to feed.

We only cut the areas that were heavy alfalfa which happened to be a big swathe down the middle of our field, so it made some pretty great hay and bounced back for our third rotation of grazing quite nicely.

We ended up in the end taking first and second crop hay and stock piling to extend our grazing season as well as the additional mouths we added in the fall.

things i learned

The biggest thing I learned this season was to be flexible. I thought each paddock should be evenly spaced, that my rotation should go in a certain pattern, and that I should graze my entire field in the same manner. The fact is however, that our 20 acres are very different. Some areas have abundant alfalfa, some clover, some grass and some with heavy weeds which all graze differently and need different periods of rest. I also learned to be patient (aren’t I always learning this in farming). I started the grazing season frustrated with the ‘unevenness’ of growth, diversity and size of my paddocks. I like things even, similar and predictable, again when will I learn farming is NOT predictable.

Overall, I am thrilled with what the pastures produced this year, calves got fat and nothing was over-grazed. I look forward to continuing to see changes and developments with future years of grazing and management. We’ve come so far but there is still so much room to grow!

Our field after the east side was grazed and the west side was cropped.

East side after first rotation, west side after first cropping, view from south

View of our cattle grazing the east side, two day moves, view from south.

Rotation #3, view from South