July 27, 2013 by Head Farm Steward

Strolling Through The Pasture July 2013

I enjoy documenting the changes in my landscape month by month but it’s difficult to find the time. Time is precious. More on this later.

A cold front has been rolling through and finally set in solidly. We got 1/2 inch of rain last night and it got into the 50’s. It was cool enough that, after hustling through the pastures taking pictures, I could see my breath.

Remember this from July 10th? I am standing in the shade of a black locust tree in the late afternoon. This picture is representative of much of the area we gave them that day.

Here it is again, from a different angle and 3 weeks later. No rain fell until we got half an inch last night.

There is an ancient walnut tree just to the right of the picture above. It shades a large area.

The plant density under the tree is low, in part because of the shade, in part because cattle have shaded themselves under this tree for …how many years? and the soil is compacted. I’m not going to eliminate the shade. I do try to rest the grass and allow it to break up the soil.

Down the hill to the West and we’re in the triangle (cleverly named for its shape). What a weedy mess. This is also compacted both from cattle and from the road that went through here ? years ago. But it has recovered and is ready for grazing.

Down the hill to the North I stop for a shot of Grandpa Tree…only I can’t seem to get far enough back to fit him in the shot. What a massive old burr oak! It would take three of us to link arms around it…you know…if you were inclined to measure a tree in terms of arms linked. That tree has just always been here and has always been enormous. Hope it is still standing when I’m not.

Down the hill from Grandpa Tree to the North and we’re in the bottom. Last time we grazed here I was in Florida. The water tank was overfilled making a muddy mess in a large circle around the tank from cow hooves. That hasn’t recovered yet. It may not recover for a couple of years. Not much I can do. Otherwise, the bottom is recovering nicely. Dad is concerned about the broadleaf weeds out there. I understand and kind of agree. On the other hand, it’s nice to catch sunlight at different layers and put down roots to different depths. It’s nice to mine nutrients differently and offer the cows variety. It’s nice to not start the tractor. As long as on species doesn’t dominate all the others I think I’ll let it go. Maybe I’ll bunch up the cattle more tightly as we graze through this time and knock more things down. I am going to have to do something about the thorny saplings down there though.

The most interesting thing I saw across the creek was the damage the Japanese beetles had done to the multi-flora rose bushes. Those poor bushes are just skeletons now. Wow.

Recovery across the creek looks pretty good. Tons of forage down there, all recovered, all lush, green and ready to graze.

It looks great, in spite of the fact that it’s a weedy mess full of thorny trees. In spite of the fact that it’s July and we haven’t had any rain for 3 weeks. In spite of the fact that my neighbors are running low on pasture. For comparison sake, I took a picture across the fence (at my own property) a cousin runs cows on. There is no rotation. There is no recovery. Every blade of grass is ragged from grazing. If nothing else, compare the percentage of brown in the picture. That is not to disparage my cousin but to show the value of plant recovery. I should also point out that he is running 12 cow/calves on 40 acres, I am running 8+2 on 13 acres…and I can’t keep up.

Remember looking at recovery earlier this month? The grass should look like it has never been grazed. We looked at this clump of grass as an example of incomplete recovery. This may not be the same clump but it’s within 5 feet. Pointed blades of grass? Check. Yellowing blades of grass adding to the litter? Check. We are recovered. I won’t be grazing this plant for another two to four weeks but it’s ready if I need it.

Disemmemberment hill is recovering slowly. It’s a matted, tangled mess of goldenrod stems, grass, manure and whatever else was growing there at the time. There are still some solid stands of goldenrod growing there. I think I should go ahead and chop them with my sicket. I don’t think we can mow this hill without having to repair the tractor tires when we are finished. The whole hill is a thorny mess.

Disemmemberment Hill There is a good layer of litter on top of the hill.

The grazing plan worked out a little differently than we expected but we’re roughly where we should be. If you follow that link you’ll see we should be on #27 today. The layout worked differently in situ. We have actually spent two days grazing an area somewhere between #26 and #27 and look how fat the cows are. They wouldn’t even get up when I walked over to them.

There is some sort of grass growing there I haven’t identified but I’ve always called “water grass”. It’s nearly 6′ tall and has a thorny-looking seed head.

The cows seem to like it.

They also appear to like willow trees.

Back toward the house the steep, south-facing slope is always a dry, hot area. I don’t know if you can see but there are a number of cow paths cut on countour around the face of the hill. That added compaction makes it harder to get forage established here…keeping things dry.

Pastures change and it pays to watch your keylines. Where the slope ends 10 feet downhill from the picture above we see lush forage.

Wrapping things up, walking West through the chicory field, can you see where the fence was last time I grazed through? We had a big rainstorm and a tornado nearby the night the cows were standing to the left half of the picture.

We needed to service our well so we mowed a path through this pasture on the hottest day this summer. It looks like a dead zone out there. It will be interesting to watch that for recovery in the coming weeks. I’m going to have to graze over that ground even though it has not recovered.

Well, time for breakfast. See you later.

July 16, 2013 by Head Farm Steward

Grazing From Now Until August

On or around August 1st our borrowed bull will arrive. Between now and then I have to plan my grazing through my reserve grazing area. Our heat-sensitive heifer needs us to plan for shade. Our Jersey cows need to be AI’d before the bull arrives and we have to have the cows away from the perimeter fence so the borrowed bull and the neighbor’s bull don’t try to duke it out through barbed wire.

With me? Lots of planning to do. I need 15 or so days of grazing then I need to return to the top of the hill under the walnut tree where we can keep an eye on Mr. Bull.

Here’s the plan in picture form with thanks to Google Maps. The projected (planned(hoped for(please God!))) dates are listed on the map in the order they will be grazed.

Well, that’s the rough plan anyway. Now, I’m not following keylines. Well, I kinda am. The lines marked are approximations, just giving an idea. I am a little concerned about 23 and 24 as there is little shade available in those pastures. I will probably give them access to 22 for 3 days so they can find refuge from the sun, though I am concerned about the concentration of manure under those few hedge trees. Don’t worry that 27 looks much larger than 16, the grass under the pond dam is very poor in quality. If feed runs short I’ll drop a few bales of hay. It is important that the cows return nutrients to each paddock even if I have to import them.

If you want to see this area from ground level in winter, check out this post. For readers of some duration, 17 is what the kids call Disemmemberment Hill“…sledding directly into massive, tangled, thorny hedge trees at the bottom of the hill. Should be less disemmembering this winter as the cows and I have cleaned it up a bit. In fact, over time it should become less and less disemmembering as I cut firewood and the cows make the slopes more gentle. That’s the plan anyway.

At least I’ve got a plan. To be honest, most of the time we wing it but I’m trying to do better. Who knows where I would be when that bull gets here if I didn’t try for something.

July 12, 2013 by Head Farm Steward

Grazing, Recovery and Litter

Grass. How much should the cows eat? How much should they leave behind? When can they go back? And how does litter fit into the equation? They were last grazing this grass 51 days ago. Look at all the seed heads.

I let them graze what they wanted and push the rest into litter moving quickly across the landscape. Today they have returned. My grazing strategy is largely the same. The exception is I want a higher utilization of grass to stretch my grazing time longer than 51 days. We have slowed down.

You hear grass gurus say, “Let the cows eat the top 1/3rd of the plant then move on.” What does that mean? Top 1/3rd? The grass was about knee-high. The cows ate some places down to the ground and didn’t touch other places. They tromped huge amounts of grass into the soil and the ground by the water trough. How do you measure the top third and convince the cows to graze more evenly? “Excuse me, ladies. If I could have everyone’s attention. Please line up side by side with your heads down and walk slowly through the pasture eating just a portion of the grass in front of you, never returning for a second bite. Then the grass in front is un-trampled and clean. You will just have to eat whatever is there. Please don’t be picky. Thank you.”

Other gurus proclaim the virtues of leaving litter on the ground to feed the soil. How much litter? How much trampling? How much manure? Then they tell you not to graze again until the grass has recovered. OK. That’s not so bad. But what does “recovery” look like? A seed head? I don’t get many seed heads in December but some of the forage still grows. What then? Today I listened to Episode 53 of the Agricultural Insights podcast. This podcast featured discussion on the 1/3rd grazing, litter and grass recovery questions. Turns out, I’m not alone in not understanding how to convince a cow to only eat so much plant. Graeme Hand offered advice (and advises listeners not to take any advice!) on grazing against the top 1/3rd rule. In short, grass wants to be grazed as that gives it a competitive advantage against weeds and brush and helps it to tiller out into the landscape. By managing recovery and litter we are progressing more toward perennial grasses and low-risk profitability. Basically there are a couple of things he wants you to look at but first a summary:

“There has to be a reason to put them in a paddock and there must be a reason to take them out. The reason to put them in is you’re going to make this pastoral grassland healthier by actually coming in there…it’s got good litter, all the plants are recovered… it’s got ground covers, understory, midstory and canopy so that it’s actually got structure, it’s actually got function and then there’s a really good reason to graze it because you’ll actually make it better. Then you stay there until the animals are starting to say to you, ‘…where our rumens are at the moment and this feed you’ve given us, it’s time for us to move.”(@31:50)

Let’s break it down a little bit.

Has the grass recovered? Does it look like it has been grazed previously with jagged edges at the top of the blades? (@27:30) If so, recovery is incomplete. Incomplete recovery will allow annual weeds to establish and limit the litter available to feed the soil. This is incomplete (it was grazed at the end of June)

But this grass, last grazed on May 20 (51 days ago), is completely recovered.

Between the green growing grass and the brown litter you should see a layer of yellow grass that is being pushed down by the growing mass above. We’re looking for fresh litter since the previous graze (@23:30). That’s a sign of recovery. Looking into this stand of grass…well, this laying down of grass…

We can find some fresh yellow. We can also see that, though we have plenty of leaves, my plant density is poor. I need more plants per square inch. And more clover. Well, maybe next year.

Earlier in the podcast Hand said, “If the land has got thistles and forbs and weeds it’s pretty clear that your recovery is too short.” (@15:40)

How do you know what the recovery period is on your land?

He suggests you set up trial areas. You pack the cows in a test area at proper density and move them off when they are down to the litter. Then allow that area to recover twice as long as your current rotation. Maybe do this in a corner of a paddock. If the rested ground looks better than your other pasture, you should be making adjustments. Hand feels that the difference will be obvious. The rested ground may be hard for him to look at because it has gone bad.

“A pasture is ready to be grazed when there is the right mix of feed and litter” (@18:20). Litter is key. “If you want the land to be not eroding, if you want the land to be infiltrating water, if you want the land to be cyling nutrients…you need very large perennial grasses with decomposing litter between those perennial grasses….if you’re not creating that…then you’re actually not doing what we need to do to get that stable, low-cost, low-risk production.”(@21:25)

CompleteRecovery3

In the picture above, I have more grass here than I have ever seen before. When we first moved here it was thorny, pioneer trees, thistle and ragweed. There is still ragweed out there (along with Queen Anne’s Lace) but a variety of grass is coming on thick. We are moving toward better water infiltration and nutrient cycling. And check the sunflowers in the background! They will be eaten or trampled this week. Oh well.

How much should the cows eat?

Are the cows pushing litter into the ground? When they are finished you should have a layer of litter covering the soil but the green should be gone. Remember, we’re increasing stocking density (different than stocking rate) to achieve grass recovery, soil health and to propel desirable grass species forward. The goal is to provide everything our cows need from a nutritional perspective by providing everything the grass needs from a nutritional and health perspective. Doing this right puts dollars in our pockets and builds soil health over time.

More specifically, when is it time to move the cows?

Are the cows eating litter? “You don’t want the animals eating the soil food.” (@18:30) Is their manure getting runny? Are their rumens less than full? Hand says, “We shift them …[when] about 10% of the cows are starting to show slightly hollow on that left hand side, on that gut fill.” (@31:00)

As long as they’ve got good gut fill, good dung scores and they’re not eating the litter he leaves them there.

The best thing he said (and this is a paraphrase of multiple quotes) was that incomplete recovery may push the cows to perform better but will, ultimately, bankrupt the operation by impoverishing the soil. Second to that was his advice to test your own results, not listen to gurus.

BTW, I highly recommend the Agricultural Insights podcast. Chris Stelzer is really putting together some good shows. Unfortunately, my carpool doesn’t always want to hear about feeding grass to cows…or milk to dirt…or…

July 8, 2013 by Head Farm Steward

Hot Day, Almost a Bad Day

Well, the good news is no cows died.

We had a hot cow early Sunday afternoon. She was standing with her tongue sticking out and mountains of drool falling from her mouth. Heat stress. How did this happen? She was standing next to a water tank that was half-full. The other cows were lounging in the shade. What on Earth!?

As an immediate fix we moved the cows under a tree and filled a water tank with fresh, cold water. Then we hosed the hot cow down with cool water. It didn’t take long and we were out of danger. She took a good drink of cold water then another. Ultimately she lay down in the shade with the other girls.

OK. What went wrong? We had the cows up for milking…normal thing. The night before I asked them to mow the driveway. They obliged. The next morning I thought they could mow out by the mailbox for me. They were delighted. 4″ grass and clover mix must have been what they dreamed of. Then, to top off the tank, I let them graze the ditch.

After the emergency passed, I came inside to fully research what I did wrong. Turns out, that high-protein grazing early in the day mixed with increasing temperatures was a recipe for disaster. Good thing they were up by the house! This PDF provides a good summary of signs and causes.

The cows were stuffed to the gills just as the day got hot. The full rumen was limiting lung capacity. The heat of fermentation was compounding the problem. Plus, this is a heifer who hasn’t shed her winter coat out well. Greg Judy says that’s grounds for culling. I think she needs another year as I basically took her off of hot feed and threw her on pasture in April. She may just need time to adjust nutritionally. As long as she doesn’t come up open…

So. We are now introducing the cows to fresh pasture in the evening, moving once/day. I’m also checking to be sure there is shade available in every paddock. Consequently, some ground will go ungrazed for the next 4-6 weeks and we’ll skip around on cool days. Today was 97 degrees. Two days from now they are calling for 85. Skipping around will get us through the worst of it. I’m glad I have pasture in reserve. I’m glad I bought several extra water tanks. I’m glad I didn’t cut down all of the hedge trees out there. I’m glad I under-stocked my farm leaving me with options to handle heat stress and inexperience. Unfortunately, the cows are translocating nutrients from the top of the hill to the bottom of the hill, where the trees are. That’s not desirable…but we’ll work with what we’ve got and plant more trees in coming years.

Two other notes:

The neighbor’s cows are all pretending to be hippopotami to deal with the heat and flies, especially the ones without black hides.
The Jersey cows don’t seem to notice the heat. They graze all day.

One final note, much of this thinking carries through well to pet dogs…if that’s what you have for livestock.

July 4, 2013 by Head Farm Steward

Goldenrod Down

Yesterday we parked the cows under a hedge tree in a dense, tall stand of goldenrod. The cows were allowed to the right of the fence (the white line).

Panning a bit to the right, looking at the same place it looks like this now, 14 hours later.

As you get closer to the fence there is less trampling. Makes sense. The cows are well-trained because the fence is consistently hot. But huge amounts of green material has been pushed into the soil. My bees may miss the goldenrod (which makes a lousy honey by the way) in the fall but this is a great first step toward making my pastures better. We’ll rinse and repeat over the coming years, ultimately getting ahead of the weeds. The cows also showed me two honey locust trees I didn’t know about. Hafta fix that.

The cows are up the hill now. Still full from last night but every one of them has their head down, unless they are eating leaves from a tree.

July 3, 2013 by Head Farm Steward

Grazing According to Plan…and Recovery…and Faith…but Mostly Plan.

It’s summer. It’s time to stretch pasture. If this year follows the normal pattern, it’s about to get hot and dry, though it’s cool and rainy this week. I am banking on the grazing we did all spring (two complete rotations) to have left enough carbon, fertility and residual grass to carry the grazing through summer drought and into a stage of strong recovery for fall and winter grazing. I took this picture 34 days ago:

Here is that same spot today.

Recovery happens. Look at that tangled, matted mess of grass, clover, thistle…probably 50 different plants all within arm’s reach. (It’s probably laying down because I need more calcium). I have inches of mulch from stepped on tall fescue matted on the ground all over my farm. From that I have a diverse, thick stand of forage that’s hard to walk through. That’s the goal. Increased forage diversity and density. If we accomplish that goal we can carry more cattle. The slope South of the house was a thick tangled mat of leafy fescue this spring, the result of hog manure last winter. Much of the farm looks like that now except it’s not pure fescue. It’s amazingly diverse, dark green and leafy. The frequent rains and cool weather are only helping the cool-season grasses too.

Now, I don’t think 40 days is enough because just beyond the reach of view the recovery is much less. Then it looks better. Then worse. We covered 8 acres in 34 days. I have to slow things down now that the grass is slowing down. I have a few acres of reserve we have planned as July grazing. That should give us the extra time we need to achieve recovery while allowing room for wildlife diversity on the farm and plant species diversity. Also, if I had tried to graze those few extra acres in the spring I would have been further behind on my primary grazing areas. The best option was to just let it go but to be successful this requires coordination, planning, preparation and a fair amount of guess work. For example, we were here on June 11th.

Today it looks like this (from a slightly different angle, sans moos):

All that grass was tromped turned into a sponge and food source for the soil. The dense mat of dead grass holds moisture as it decays feeding the growing grass. You can see the mix of new and old grass in the background compared to the mowing line that is the path to the family cemetery. One might think it’s time to graze it again but I think that would be a mistake. The grass is tall but the forage hasn’t recovered. You’re seeing tall wild oats, some fescue and quite a bit of clover but the remaining forbs really haven’t recovered yet. I could graze it now but I’ll get more bang for my buck if I just hang on a bit longer. More root growth, more plant diversity, more volume of grass. I just have to wait. Besides, drought may start tomorrow and that standing grass is money in the bank. But let’s say I’m wrong. (It’s OK. I get told I’m wrong a lot. No, a lot lot. (As if I’m not insecure enough.)) The grass will go to seed, the cows will mat it down and my next recovery will be even stronger and more drought resistant.

It was with these thoughts that I spent some time walking the pasture with my wife last night. We looked at forage recovery, quality and density and, also, at our cows. This is the first year I have managed grazing cattle, it’s the first year the pastures have been allowed to rest, it’s the first time these cows have had to graze for a living…lots of firsts. I have two that are slick and fat, two that are slightly less slick and have less belly (one with ringworm), and two that are carrying good weight but also carrying lots of hair (both are mostly white). Greg Judy would cull the last four. I explained to my wife that those four heifers are probably just here to eat grass with the hope of throwing bull calves. I plan to breed them to a more fescue-tolerant bull but the future herd will probably come from the two slick cows and any others I can find like them.

Then we spent some time talking about the importance of focusing on the forage, not on the cows. The cows are the result of grazing management. The cows are the tools we use to manage our forage. But the grass is the goal…well, the soil but grass is the obvious result of soil health.

I have 3 acres set (maybe 4) set aside that we haven’t touched yet this year. I have 4-5′ tall weeds out there. Starting this week the cows are expected to knock most of it to the ground and eat what they can. We’ll move pretty quick through there in narrow strips. This is a remodel job. Should be exciting! That part of the pasture has always been a nasty, weedy mess. Now we’re going to remodel before those weeds go to seed. Then we’ll let it rest until we graze in the fall again then sled on it in the winter.

The rested ground is kind of a weird thing but Greg Judy mentioned it in a video, I had the acreage to spare and though we would give it a try. I hope there is something they will eat out there. We’ll see. I think it will work well from a carbon perspective if the cows can find something to eat.

June 26, 2013 by Head Farm Steward

Thoughts and Advice…but not from me

I read Thoughts and Advice From an Old Cattleman while sitting in a hotel in Florida last week…along with other reading. I thought I would share some of my thoughts, but I’ll keep my advice to myself…short of this one thing: Get this book.

The author details a plan for moving cattle through your pastures on a regular basis, selling and then immediately buying again. If the market is down, you’ll buy immediately. If the market is up, you’ll have to pay more for better animals but still, buy immediately. Different classes of animals do better at different times. He goes into long detail about feeding, worming, fly killer…all things we don’t do but also talks about getting the most bang for your buck on grass…using low-cost grass to grow calves up to feeder size.

A recurring theme in the reading I have done lately is the disassociation of ranching and tractor ownership. Gordon goes so far as to say you are better off with 4 ex-wives than with 4 John Deere’s.

Again, I highly recommend this book. I found it to be very encouraging that a 70+ year old man runs 1,800 head of calves across 3,000 acres (with zero debt!) and humorously complains that he only has enough work to keep him busy for 3-4 hours each day. Wow. Poison aside, he’s doing things right.

I am now rethinking everything we have on the farm. Iron pile? Buildings? Corrals? Fencing? Ponds? Chickens? Cattle? Which of these things are increasing in value? Can I make it with a cow/calf operation or should I consider exclusively running or at least adding stocker calves? How can I put my debts behind me?

June 11, 2013 by Head Farm Steward

What is it You’re Trying To Do?

Q: What is it You’re Trying To Do?

A: Wow. What do you mean by that?

Q: Why did you move here?

A: Well, it was Grandma’s house. Almost every Christmas of my life has been here. It was available, affordable and emotionally satisfying. Plus it’s a good place to raise the kids.

Q: But can’t you do all that without the animal work?

A: Oh. Well…I mean…I guess. I could rent the fields to another farmer who may or may not farm in a way I approve of. He could spray whatever out there, abuse the ground in whatever way, cause erosion and pay me for the abuse but isn’t it better if I just manage it myself?

Q: So what are you managing?

A: Well, I can grow forage without even trying. I mean, it’s silly how easy it is to grow forage. I just depend on free sunlight and free, occasional rain. But grass isn’t worth much so it really doesn’t matter how much I can grow unless I can find a way to add value to it. Right now we’re using cows to convert that grass into beef and milk. Milk isn’t worth a whole lot. Beef isn’t worth a whole lot. But they are worth more than grass. Further, using cows to mow saves me from mowing. Grazing, trampling and manuring also help more grass to grow than would otherwise be there so that means I’m fixing more carbon than my farm would otherwise…so I get a happy green feeling inside. So, to answer your question, I guess you could say I’m managing grass.

Well, except I jokingly refer to myself as the “Head Farm Steward” (a title I am anxious to hand to one of my much more capable children). Stewardship has little to do with cattle or grass. It means I’m accepting that I am in charge of a few resources for a short time and have to do my best to increase those resources. That means more dirt, more carbon, more grass, more earthworms, more dung beetles…but it also means more money. I mean, 5 talents or 5 acres, I want to hear, “Well done.” We are currently using grass to convert sunlight, sunlight and time to convert beef into dollars. Would we see more increase if I planted forests to passively fix carbon, absorb sunlight, mine nutrients out of the soil and create value? Maybe. Dunno. Would it be better to open a composting facility? Dunno. Would it be better to build an array of hog floors, haul in nutrients, add value to corn and haul out manure? Maybe…maybe not. That sounds like a lot of work. Also, it sounds like a lot of manure for my few acres to metabolize.

At any rate, “management” sounds/feels different than “stewardship”. I wish you had asked me what I was stewarding. That’s an easy question. I’m stewarding land that has been in my family since 1843. My land surrounds the graves of my mother’s fathers. In a way, I’m honoring the work they did when had their turn on this land. Honoring my father and mother…well, my mom’s father and mother. Dad’s side are all buried in Eastern Tennessee.

The “what” question takes us to the “how” question. That takes us back to grass and cows…and chickens. …and ducks. …and a small orchard. …and children. …and an alarmingly small amount of money. And it’s the money I am working on growing as I find that it helps with so many problems. And that’s why I need sunlight, rain and cows. And that’s why we need Eddie Van Halen (bonus points if you got that reference without using Google).

But here we are. Taking things of lesser value and adding value to them. Chicks to chickens. Chicken feed to eggs. Logs to lumber. Sunlight to grass. Grass to beef. Girls to women. Boys to men (ABC BBD (…mmmm hmmmm)).

So now I ask you, Are you adding value to something each day? Are you conscious of your need to steward your resources and seek increase?

June 7, 2013 by Head Farm Steward

Fly Predators

Every year our white house is covered in black flies. The kids take fly swatters out and make a sport of killing 10 or 12 in one swat. Not this year.

This year I got on the Spalding Labs site to buy fly predators. When they arrived, we waited for them to start hatching then released them in groups in each of the recent grazing areas. The idea is that they will attack flies in the pupae stage, flying up to 150 feet to find more. Every 30 days through September the company will send more fly predators so every 30 days we’ll go behind the cows, dropping more predators on manure pats.

Fly populations are already getting strong but I hope we’re far enough ahead of the curve to have a fighting chance. I suspect we’ll have to start earlier in the spring next year. This year we’ll just run with what we’ve got.

June 2, 2013 by Head Farm Steward

Fescue World Domination

Well, not world domination but…my pastures anyway. Our friend from SailorsSmallFarm asked the following question:

So, probably a dumb question, but if they never eat the fescue, since it’s clearly the boring food in their salad bar, and just trample it in, won’t it eventually dominate the pasture?

Not a dumb question but before I answer I offer a disclaimer: I think this is an exciting topic. If you don’t think growing grass is exciting…come back tomorrow. I’ll try to put up pictures of kittens soon as those seem to be popular on the internet. The short answer is, no matter what your forage base, rainfall, livestock, temperature…it’s all up to your skill at grazing management to maintain forage diversity. As a small point of correction, cows DO eat the fescue. However, at certain points in the year fescue adds a measure of difficulty to grazing. For the long answer we have to look closely at fescue.

What’s wrong with Fescue?

Rather than answer that question immediately I’ll start with what is RIGHT with fescue. It may be some of the very best forage I can grow. First, it’s durable. Horses can eat it down to the dirt, pigs can root through it, making a muddy soup of the soil and it will grow back and will grow thick, tall and lush. Second, it’s an excellent forage for your winter stockpile. It has a waxy coat and the green of fescue growing in healthy soil survives long past frost and even into freeze. From the West Virginia Extension Service:

There is seldom a problem when tall fescue is used as part of a forage system containing other forages, with the tall fescue being used primarily in the spring and winter seasons. The best use of tall fescue is for late fall and winter grazing.

So I just have to make sure I’m offering them other options besides pure fescue. No problem.

Back to the winter forage idea, Joel Salatin also emphasizes the value of winter feed in Salad Bar Beef by suggesting you add chicken manure to your stand in the late fall to help the fescue stay green into the freeze. It may be only a maintenance ration but it really lasts. He points out that frosted fescue goes up to 14% sugar. Pretty good winter eats.

So what’s the problem?

Toxicity. If you do a little research you’ll find out that Fescue will knock the hooves off of your cows and cause them to abort calves by raising their body temperature on hot days. It lowers circulation causing tips of ears and tails to turn black. Scared yet? Should you be? I don’t know. Joel Salatin doesn’t warn his readers of imminent cow death in Salad Bar Beef. Neither does Greg Judy. But both men maintain diverse swards. This paper lists three options for dealing with fescue and two of them include spraying it with a strong herbicide until you win then replanting. Greg Judy discusses this briefly in No Risk Ranching saying he tried. The first 3 or 4 years after replanting, the pasture was soft and pugged quickly. The 5th year it was dominated by fescue again. But the first option listed is “dilution with legumes.” This is what Greg Judy says to do in No Risk Ranching by seeding red clover into stands of fescue after grazing them hard in the fall/winter. More on this later.

Many plants, if eaten in isolation, are toxic. Walt Davis says this even includes alfalfa. But, when eaten together with other species…even other toxic species, the toxicity of each decreases. So, is the endophyte in my fescue stand an issue? It can be but primarily if it’s a pure stand of fescue. It limits weight gain in hot weather, limits milk production…not good, right? Right. But it can be managed by making sure I have a diverse sward. And good news…I do…well, mostly…ish.

How do I maintain that diversity? By making sure all plants have a chance to reach reproductive maturity. Rather than grazing the whole pasture at once and allowing the cattle to stick to favorite grazing and loafing areas, overloading nutrients in some places, overgrazing forage in some places and allowing brushy overgrowth in others, all of my pasture gets grazed, manured, stomped on and rested fairly evenly in a rotation. That means the cows can’t return to graze the clover or ryegrass out of my pastures before it has a chance to recover and re-establish itself and also weeds that would normally be ignored and allowed to grow are either eaten or stomped into oblivion.

Trampling…any carbon will do.

It’s the stomping into oblivion that I find most interesting. The soil is hungry. How about that? It’s hungry. Soil is alive. It needs to eat. If I scoop up all the growing grass, bale it and haul it away what is left to feed the soil? The roots that are pruned off of the plant but not much else. When the cows step, stomp, jump, run and otherwise disturb the soil with their hooves they are pushing organic material down. That could be manure, grass, weeds, tree branches, dead bugs…whatever is out there. It will be broken down by microorganisms and added to the soil structure by worms, moles, mice, dung beetles….things that physically work the dirt. But I have to have something in contact with the soil. If the cows are allowed to eat it all I get nothing. Cows are not inclined to eat fescue down to the ground. They are more inclined to eat a little fescue along with everything else growing out there and knock the remaining fescue to the ground. Perfect. At around the 9 minute mark of this podcast Ian Mitchell-Innes says:

Do not eat everything. In fact, the more you tread on the ground, the more your return over time because the carbon you put on the ground will be worth more to you, in the long run, than the animal.

He also goes on to say that as soil health increases you’ll see darker greens and more leaf material. All that extra nutrition punched down into a 4″ circle of soil by 1,000 pounds of beef leads to healthy soil in a number of ways. The additional organic material helps the soil retain moisture…in fact, helps it to soak up more water before allowing runoff. With water and food, microbial life in the soil explodes. Legumes do a good job of fixing nitrogen but microbes do too, then they are eaten by worms. A healthy worm population can eat 40 tons of dirt each day…but they won’t be a healthy population unless I feed them and feed the things they like to eat. And it’s mostly the fescue that gets stomped, tromped and abused. From an article about Greg Judy:

The Judys may get another advantage particular to their area from leaving so much forage behind. Their primary forage base is endophyte-infested fescue. It appears their cattle eat less of it, including fewer of the “hottest” plant parts — the stems and seed heads — when they are moved frequently and not made to “clean up” all the forage. That fescue then contributes organic matter and ground litter to help build the soil.

So I just have to make sure the good stuff is out there to eat as they tromp down the mature fescue. How do I do that? Where the stands of fescue are the most thick I’m grazing in narrow strips because narrow strips = higher residual while wide strips = higher forage utilization. I want to knock down as much as I can as the cows race through the stand looking for something to eat. But the real secret comes before they graze and tromp. I overseed annuals and legumes into the stand. Then the cows tromp those seeds into the soil and I have additional diversity just in time for the next grazing cycle. Beyond the use of annuals I need to keep up a program of frost seeding red clover until I reach the point where the tall grass grazing will enable established stands of red clover to re-seed themselves. Here’s another article about Greg Judy:

Judy focuses on utilizing the existing seedbank that is stimulated by the heavy impact of mob grazing to initially promote the resurgence of a polyculture. If there is no legume seedbank, an initial seeding of clovers and other legumes may be necessary. One established, tall grass grazing will ensure the legumes will reseed themselves, and reduce the need for nitrogen fertilizer.

Rest, Nutrient Distribution and Pasture Diversity

If the cows are allowed to run the pasture in a set-stocking situation, they will find places where soil nutrition is high and the grass tastes good and will eat it down to the roots. They will find stands of bluegrass, bromegrass, rye, clover or wild oat and they’ll eat it all each time it begins to recover. They will find tasty saplings and eat them as fast as they can recover. Over time I’ll be left with a pasture full of cow paths, weeds, briars and thorny trees that tolerate grazing well, not to mention fescue. I will have very little clover, very little wild oat, very little rye or bromegrass. I say this from direct observation. Left to their own, cows will travel long distances (making paths) for one little bite of grass. The sod will be poor as the root systems won’t develop to their potential. Manure will be largely concentrated in the loafing areas. Loafing areas will be compacted. I could keep going. I am describing my farm as I bought it. Grazing a mob, the cows ignore a fair portion of the fescue I offer them but they do eat some along with other, tastier forages. The animal density puts a hoof print in at least every square inch, manure in every square yard and more is better. Then they are forced to move on, leaving manure, trampled waste and stubs of tasty forages behind for 40-90 days. In those 40-90 days those forages have an opportunity to fully recover. They may even develop a seed head. If I have managed my grazing correctly, the grazing action of cattle will help those species to gain ground in their territorial battle against other species or at least fill in the spaces between plants. I have clover where I have never seen clover before. I have fewer thistles than I have ever seen (in fact, I have watched my cows eat thistle). Bromegrass, rye, foxtail, wild oats start showing up in unexpected places. Dandelions fill in the holes along with a variety of weeds I have never seen and can’t always identify…but there they are. Impact is the tool but rest is the key. Not just the time between grazings but the time between pastures. Almost a third of my farm is held in reserve and is outside of the regular rotation…and I will rotate that third each year. This gives room for ground nesting birds to do their thing, allows native prairie grasses the chance to go to seed, builds deep, tangled root systems and provides a forage reserve in case of drought. All of those things are positives.

Observation, Change, Control and Experimentation

How do I know if I have managed my grazing correctly? How do I know if this is working? There is no set formula for this. No predetermined function allowing me to pass in cows, land and time to return pasture health and diversity and profitability. So how do I know if I’m using the time tool, the land tool and the cow tool correctly? I observe…daily if possible. I define a goal. I shoot for that goal. I review my progress, make adjustments and continue moving forward. Sometimes it works and nobody notices. Sometimes I fail miserably and I look like an idiot or, worse, animals get sick. That’s not the goal. I make adjustments and move on again. What if I seed millet and cowpeas into the pasture before the cows trample the ground? What if I frost seed red clover every year? What if I don’t? The forage will change over time. I have to monitor those changes. I am an active part of the grazing program. The herd will change over time. Some cows will do better than others even without changing breeds. David Hall of Ozark Hills Genetics relies on the best performing cows passing their genetics on to future herd members. Cows that can’t tolerate our conditions will ultimately get culled from our program. Fescue is just part of our program. Am I worried that fescue will take over the world? Well, it already has…at least on my farm. Now I have to give a competitive advantage to other species and leverage the strong points I see in fescue. Over time the pastures will change…for better or for worse. Each year the weather will change…for better or worse. I’ll just have to accomodate those changes and roll with the punches. But since Joel Salatin and Greg Judy can live with it, I can make it work. Right now the focus is on knocking as much of it down as I can to build soil health while also establishing a healthy stand of clover. That should keep me busy for a couple of years. Now, if you want a little homework, study up on midwestern pasture grass identification with me.

Chism Heritage Farm

A Stewardship Chronicle

Pasture Management