Pasture Pet Peeves

[StrojanHerefords]

What are your pasture management pet peeves?

 

[Lucky]

No Rain.....Too much Rain for too long

 

[RustyTub]

Not being educated enough in pasture management

 

[Mountaintown Creek Ranch]

Weeds

 

[fnfarms1]

Grazing off to nothing, then complaining on feeding hay, cows look like crap, etc

 

[TCRanch]

Not cleaning up! When we bought this ranch, we were shocked at how many old fences were just kinda-sorta balled up & left in the pastures. Fence clips, tools, etc just thrown down & forgotten/never picked up. Booze cruisers throwing their trash and especially beer bottles in the pastures. Oil well pumpers leaving the gates open. Rocks!!!!! Although, that's geography and it is what it is.

 

[Dave]

I thought this was pasture pet, peeves. I don't have any pasture pets but I know people who do own them.

 

[Travlr]

I had a pack of fence busting Llamas next door owned by an absentee owner.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

Not being educated enough in pasture management

Cure: contact your local NRCS office.

There are people here that can help with that too.

 

[Brute 23]

Donkeys, Llamas, pet horses... pretty much any thing other than birds, deer, and cows.

X2 on the junk laying around. I have ocd issues and that drives me nuts. The last place we went it to I had a dozer just piling stuff up so we could burn, bury, give away or just get rid of. It total ruins a place and takes away the natural look. Plus, it's a bad reminder of a neglected place.

 

[Mountaintown Creek Ranch]

Donkeys, Llamas, pet horses... pretty much any thing other than birds, deer, and cows.

X2 on the junk laying around. I have ocd issues and that drives me nuts. The last place we went it to I had a dozer just piling stuff up so we could burn, bury, give away or just get rid of. It total ruins a place and takes away the natural look. Plus, it's a bad reminder of a neglected place.

I hear you on the OCD. I can't even Park crooked in a parking space.
Drives me crazy to see stuff installed crooked, like poorly installed fences that look like the installers were drunk.

 

[sstterry]

Donkeys, Llamas, pet horses... pretty much any thing other than birds, deer, and cows.

So you are ok with Ostriches, Emus, and Rheas?

 

[StrojanHerefords]

My personal pet peeve is people spending a lot of money on the wrong things. I have planted three pastures that were leveled dead flat so the water doesn't drain. Also excessive and overbuilt internal cross fencing, any sort of field work is made much more complicated by excess fencing.

 

[CowboyRam]

I have a pasture that I lease for my bulls during the off season. During the summer it takes him forever to irrigate, about five acres; he started around the first of July and is still at it. He had berms put in in several years ago thinking it would make easier to irrigate. He is an engineer so he had to design a better way. Each berm is about 30' across, and is irrigated by one 10" pipe. Had he put in gated pipe he could irrigate it in a week. I am pretty sure his ears are burning every time I drive over his berms in the tractor when feeding or dragging the pasture.

 

[BFE]

Donkeys, Llamas, pet horses... pretty much any thing other than birds, deer, and cows.

X2 on the junk laying around. I have ocd issues and that drives me nuts. The last place we went it to I had a dozer just piling stuff up so we could burn, bury, give away or just get rid of. It total ruins a place and takes away the natural look. Plus, it's a bad reminder of a neglected place.

I'll take all the junk I can get, the scrap yard is only ten miles from here. It's a bonus, plus they pay cash!

 

[ClinchValley86]

I think I've got a bunch of them. My biggest is unnecessary driving on my grass. That's what the roads are for.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

I think I've got a bunch of them. My biggest is unnecessary driving on my grass. That's what the roads are for.

Especially if it's tinder dry. Ever seen what a hot catalytic converter does to tall, dead, bone dry grass, especially if your vehicle rides fairly low AND you stop driving forward? I have. I'm glad I had a fire extinguisher. The ironic thing is, I was assessing wildfire damage at the time. I ALMOST gave myself more to assess! Returned to the office and replaced my now empty fire extinguisher.

 

[ClinchValley86]

Especially if it's tinder dry. Ever seen what a hot catalytic converter does to tall, dead, bone dry grass, especially if your vehicle rides fairly low AND you stop driving forward? I have. I'm glad I had a fire extinguisher. The ironic thing is, I was assessing wildfire damage at the time. I ALMOST gave myself more to assess! Returned to the office and replaced my now empty fire extinguisher.

Heck yes. Park a hot car in the yard and have a big yellow spot the next day.

Those tire tracks will be visible in pasture for a month or two. Drives me nuts!

 

[Mark Reynolds]

I've got to resurrect this thread. As a conservation planner that gets to address resource concerns on a daily basis, and also be treated as if I'm a banker handing out free money (many people think that with me working for the government), the list I could add here would get pretty long. Here is one I've had put before me a few times, but this one is a bit extreme. Here's the scenario:

I was handed a conservation plan written by a planner that does not work for my agency (the planner should know better than this...you'll see....but this is what I got). The plan was handed to my by a district conservationist (fellow employee) and I was asked what the DC should plan:

The plan was for a grazing operation that had listed on the plan the following:
5 full grown cows (the plan stated these are/were full grown cows but weighed ONLY 600 lbs each???)
40 pigs that weighed 350 lbs each.
several goats
The land area the animals are on TOTALED 6 acres.
ALL the animals are free roaming year round.

The DC was asking how to implement the conservation plan written by the planner that consisted of replanting the 6 acres with cover crops and perennial grasses.

Can someone please tell me that I'm not the only one seeing that there is AT LEAST 7 times the maximum number of animals being maintained on this piece of ground that it POSSIBLY could hold to successfully grow even a single blade of grass? Add to that a planner that is supposed to know what he is doing wrote this plan, with suggested 'improvement measures' that could be paid for, and then the plan was handed to me by a district conservationist who should also know better. NEITHER of these professionals noticed the elephant in the room of the sheer number of animals on the property that makes any improvement an impossibility.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

So you are ok with Ostriches, Emus, and Rheas?

I'm not so sure I am. I've been 'threatened' with being asked to write a grazing management plan for ostriches. I've been attacked by a couple emus, and I have actually written a grazing plan that did include an emu. This has been a few years ago. I still haven't seen any information on how much grass ostriches and/or emus eat.