Cow per acre of pasture

[3legdonkey]

I am a feeder calf producer that does year round rotational grazing. No hay is fed in normal rainfall years. I can typically feed a cow and her offspring on 1.4 acres all year. I grow fescue as the primary forage and add rye grass in for cool season grazing. All acreage has clover interseeded and I have Red River crabgrass in the low lying areas for late summer grazing. The fescue is stockpiled for winter feeding. No commercial fertilizer is used.

I am glad to see your post. I have been trying to figure out what the likelihood of my not having to feed hay this winter will be. I am running about 15 acres per head with about 2/3's of the total being well drained river bottom with thick grass and clover on top of 20 feet of good soil. The other 1/3 has good grass on about 2 feet of soil. My partner is a retired dairyman and is having issues with the concept of not feeding. But he has also never had access to so much grass per head so I am hoping to covert him.

Any suggestions for someone looking to not have to supplement with hay or grain?

 

[agmantoo]

3legdonkey

Your question... "Any suggestions for someone looking to not have to supplement with hay or grain?"

1) An open mind and a willingness to accept change

2) A desire to make it work

3) Animals adapted to the forage on YOUR place

4) Animals that are best suited to such methods

5) Being in business for profit

6) Acceptance of being "different"

IMO a lot of people reject the idea of doing what I do because of their unwillingness to venture forward and to possibly fail. It seems fully acceptable to fail using conventional methods but there seems to be a stigma in failing attempting something out of the ordinary.

Recently I had 3 visitors to my place to personally observe what I do. One of the visitors already had his mind made up that it would not work for him. The other two took away with them some ideas that they said they will use. Unfortunately this is not untypical.

If you would like to see more of what works for me go here
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showth ... p?t=286704

 

[3legdonkey]

3legdonkey

Your question... "Any suggestions for someone looking to not have to supplement with hay or grain?"

1) An open mind and a willingness to accept change

2) A desire to make it work

3) Animals adapted to the forage on YOUR place

4) Animals that are best suited to such methods

5) Being in business for profit

6) Acceptance of being "different"

IMO a lot of people reject the idea of doing what I do because of their unwillingness to venture forward and to possibly fail. It seems fully acceptable to fail using conventional methods but there seems to be a stigma in failing attempting something out of the ordinary.

Recently I had 3 visitors to my place to personally observe what I do. One of the visitors already had his mind made up that it would not work for him. The other two took away with them some ideas that they said they will use. Unfortunately this is not untypical.

If you would like to see more of what works for me go here
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/showth ... p?t=286704

Great post!

I currently have my partner reading "All flesh is grass" by Gene Logsdon and will now see if I can get him to read your post as well.

 

[skyhightree1]

I only have 24 head and I am using 30 acres to keep as the fall/winter pasture letting the grass grow out a bit so I stuck them on a 24 acre piece . I have my hayfield which is 20 acres that I want to try to get a few more cuttings off of if possible that I also may divide cattle up and split between the 30 acre piece and 20 acre piece for fall

skyhigh, do you normally expect several more cuttings this time of year? If your grass is growing good after all the rain you may could stock pile that 50 acres for pasture and do great late into winter. I'm trying that with several smaller fields.

fitz

With all this rain were getting I just cut and baled I think I should be able to squeeze one more cutting out of it.... Yes you are right... I think I will do that and stockpile thats a great idea... What size fields are you trying that on?

 

[fitz]

I only have 24 head and I am using 30 acres to keep as the fall/winter pasture letting the grass grow out a bit so I stuck them on a 24 acre piece . I have my hayfield which is 20 acres that I want to try to get a few more cuttings off of if possible that I also may divide cattle up and split between the 30 acre piece and 20 acre piece for fall

skyhigh, do you normally expect several more cuttings this time of year? If your grass is growing good after all the rain you may could stock pile that 50 acres for pasture and do great late into winter. I'm trying that with several smaller fields.

fitz

With all this rain were getting I just cut and baled I think I should be able to squeeze one more cutting out of it.... Yes you are right... I think I will do that and stockpile thats a great idea... What size fields are you trying that on?

It had gotten so dry here I had sold 29 head. Some of what I cut for hay at another location I ended up just going over with a rotary mower.
My cows are divided between spring and fall calving. The Bull and the spring calvers I have shut off from approx. 20 acres. With the rains the storm brought I thought I would hold that little area back now till the first frost. Most years each group are moved to a different area every two weeks. It had gotten so dry I wasn't making any headway with that. Fall calvers started the 8th so they are contained to approx. 30 acres til that's finished. With some more good rain I may be able to rotate that group some before going to hay.

 

[skyhightree1]

Fitz... that sounds good... I am sorry you are short on rain we had 15 inches week before last... bring a pale and get as much as you want and take it back home with you...

 

[Lon]

We run 12 acres per pair 6 months. Same for the winter 6 months but with some cake and hay when snows over the grass and freezes so they cant dig through.