Black Bulls on Green Grass

[gizmom]

Going down the drive this morning I saw the bulls on the grass and just had to take a few photos. Took them with my phone so not the greatest photos but they sure look nice standing in some green. We had a late start with our winter pasture this year so they haven't been on it until last week. The boss is starting to turn them out in the morning on the grass then about mid day will pull them off and grain them.

 

[Ky hills]

Nice cattle, nice green and level pastures.

 

[talltimber]

x2. They look like they are enjoying that. Better than anything of mine has access to right now.

 

[Canadianfarmer]

Jealous I have snow and mud lol

 

[gizmom]

The temps we are having are scaring us right now. Getting up in the high 70's and hit 80 a few days. If this is the temps in January I am afraid to see what we will be dealing with in July and August. It is scary, I would rather have some cold weather just to remember what winter is suppose to feel like. We have had a couple cold snaps that lasted a day or at the most two days but only a couple. The majority of this winter has just been warm, Christmas day was actually hot. We were worried the Bahia grass was going to choke out the winter pastures as it was starting to green up until that cold snap last week. I know it was stealing some of the fertilizer away from the rye. So I imagine I will be some kind of jealous of you guys when we are dealing with 100 degree temps with humidity in the 90% range. As close to hell as your going to get this side of the real thing. Ky Hills they are level pastures right now but give the bulls a few weeks and we will have holes dug all over it! Why oh why do they love to dig so much?

gizmom

 

[midTN_Brangusman]

Beautiful as always

 

[wbvs58]

Is that an annual rye in a prepared seed bed or is it just drilled into a summer pasture?

Ken

 

[gizmom]

Ken the two fields here at the home place we rotate between pearl millet and rye grass. We spray the field with roundup then drill in the winter or summer seed. At the big farm we just drill into the summer pasture in all but two fields. Two of the fields are done the same way as the fields at the home place rotated between pearl millet and rye/oat fields with roundup sprayed prior to being drilled. These fields are used to develop the heifers. Jacob researches which seed variety to use each year Ann Blount from UF is a great resource for him on seed selection. Our farm is a family affair Jacob does a great job researching feeds and seeds. The boss manages the cattle, I do the paperwork.

Gizmom

 

[True Grit Farms]

Well I believe your a walking, talking encyclopedia for the Angus breed in the US. I don't know how you keep it all straight.

 

[gizmom]

TG

In truth I could screw up a one car funeral lol. But I do try to keep all this stuff straight. It is a family affair we all work hard to make it work. We don't always agree but we all try to keep an open mind and so far it seems to have worked out ok for us.

gizmom

 

[wbvs58]

Ken the two fields here at the home place we rotate between pearl millet and rye grass. We spray the field with roundup then drill in the winter or summer seed. At the big farm we just drill into the summer pasture in all but two fields. Two of the fields are done the same way as the fields at the home place rotated between pearl millet and rye/oat fields with roundup sprayed prior to being drilled. These fields are used to develop the heifers. Jacob researches which seed variety to use each year Ann Blount from UF is a great resource for him on seed selection. Our farm is a family affair Jacob does a great job researching feeds and seeds. The boss manages the cattle, I do the paperwork.

Gizmom

Thanks Gizmon. I am a couple of years into doing something similar. I am going through my paddocks one by one. They basically are native grasses with some introduced clovers on some pretty rough country that hasn't been cultivated since they were cleared back in the 60's and 70's. I start with giving them one good cultivation initially to level them out and fill in all the stump holes and try and get a good seed bed add lime and chicken litter then start with a Millet which I bale and then graze it off and then spray it out in the last week of summer and then drill in oats for winter feed then spray it out again for the millet and this is where I am with my first paddock now and will probably give a tetraploid rye a go this winter and next summer I would like to put in some cow pea or lablab to try to put a bit back into the soil before putting back to pasture of a perenial rye, fescue and clovers. I have another paddock under way as well, the millet this summer being the first forage cereal rotation.

I must say I am surprised at how well things have gone in my poor sandy soils but then I guess there is nothing that money can't fix. I really think that the soil structure has improved with just spraying them out and drilling in the next rotation in. The hay I have made I am going to use to prepare my bulls for their sale in August so I can cut back on the grain I use.

I'll have to get a photo of my millet, it is looking pretty impressive at the moment.

Ken

 

[elkwc]

Ken the two fields here at the home place we rotate between pearl millet and rye grass. We spray the field with roundup then drill in the winter or summer seed. At the big farm we just drill into the summer pasture in all but two fields. Two of the fields are done the same way as the fields at the home place rotated between pearl millet and rye/oat fields with roundup sprayed prior to being drilled. These fields are used to develop the heifers. Jacob researches which seed variety to use each year Ann Blount from UF is a great resource for him on seed selection. Our farm is a family affair Jacob does a great job researching feeds and seeds. The boss manages the cattle, I do the paperwork.

Gizmom

Thanks Gizmon. I am a couple of years into doing something similar. I am going through my paddocks one by one. They basically are native grasses with some introduced clovers on some pretty rough country that hasn't been cultivated since they were cleared back in the 60's and 70's. I start with giving them one good cultivation initially to level them out and fill in all the stump holes and try and get a good seed bed add lime and chicken litter then start with a Millet which I bale and then graze it off and then spray it out in the last week of summer and then drill in oats for winter feed then spray it out again for the millet and this is where I am with my first paddock now and will probably give a tetraploid rye a go this winter and next summer I would like to put in some cow pea or lablab to try to put a bit back into the soil before putting back to pasture of a perenial rye, fescue and clovers. I have another paddock under way as well, the millet this summer being the first forage cereal rotation.

I must say I am surprised at how well things have gone in my poor sandy soils but then I guess there is nothing that money can't fix. I really think that the soil structure has improved with just spraying them out and drilling in the next rotation in. The hay I have made I am going to use to prepare my bulls for their sale in August so I can cut back on the grain I use.

I'll have to get a photo of my millet, it is looking pretty impressive at the moment.

Ken

Millet makes excellent hay and livestock like it.

 

[gizmom]

Ken

It is expensive but worth the cost in the long run. The boss has spent the past three years working on a fifty acre field on the back side of the farm. It was really rough we had to get the cogan grass under control first and clearing work. He is trying to get all the piles burned but has to work on it between all the other farm work. Once completed it will be an excellent summer pasture which we desperately need. He also had to get it fenced. We actually ran heifers in the field this fall, had a good stand of millet but the dang heifers wouldn't stay on it. Since we don't have water in the field as yet we had to leave a gate open so they could go to water. They just wouldn't go back. We're thinking about putting our older cattle in there this summer I imagine they will appreciate having all that natural shade.

It sounds like you have a good plan, the millet sure puts some grow on the calves. Our weaning weights have been much higher since we started creep grazing instead of creep feeding.

Gizmom

 

[wbvs58]

Here is the millet in the new paddock I prepared this summer. It has been pretty amazing. I planted it about 3 days after we had 1/2" on two consecutive days, I couldn't get to it straight after the rain due to other commitments and I would say that only about 2/3 germinated and then we had very hot conditions with no rain for 3 weeks and it just hung on and then when we got the next lot of rain the seed that did not germinate got going and filled in all the blank spots. Most of it is waist height and I am looking for a time to cut it as it is going to take a bit of drying. I have to go into hospital for a couple of days on the 30th for a minor operation so will probably have to wait until after then though I don't know how mobile I will be. The variety is an older one that the seed breeders rights have expired and a local Co-op gets it grown and grades and germ tests it, the cost is very reasonable compared to the latest developed ones and in my hands the good stuff would be wasted.

Gizmon, I can relate to "the boss" with getting time to develop that paddock, I have so many projects on the go I have to pick the most important for the present time and try to see it through.



Ken

 

[gizmom]

Ken

That millet looks great! I sure hope all goes well with your surgery. I will be saying a prayer for you. I pray for complete success on whatever precedure they are preforming and a complete and fast recovery for you.

Gizmom

 

[wbvs58]

Thanks Gizmon it is only repairing a small umbilical hernia that I have always had but with age and carrying 20 litre buckets of feed for the bulls it seems to have stretched and gets a bit uncomfortable at times. The good thing is I have got the surgeon to do it laproscopically and he is going to have a look around where I had my appendix removed in 1974 for some adhesions as I have been spending an occaisional night in hospital that I feel is very similar to when I used to get appendicitis colic so maybe kill 2 birds with one stone. It maybe pay back time from my wife, we had two children both girls and after the 2nd being a girl I said nope not trying again for a boy so we sent her in to be speyed, tubal ligation actually and it was an overnighter. I was training a racehorse at the time and used to swim him nearby on a lake on a friends place. I picked Pam up from the hospital at the designated time and we went straight home, got the truck out and loaded the horse up to take him around to swim him. I used to row the boat and Pam had to lead him out into the water to me and he was a stallion and liked to paw at the water and try to roll and Pam with her sore belly had to try and keep his head up until I got him into deeper water. Yeh, I know I'm a cruel ba$tard but we got on well and still do and we laugh about that now. Hopefully I'll be able to get on the tractor as soon as I get home, just won't carry buckets of feed as I don't have to at this time of year.

Ken

 

[mncowboy]

Gizmom, I PM'd you when you have time. Thanks

 

[gizmom]

Mncowboy

I didn't get a PM.

Gizmom