Current grazing situation

[oscarsteve]

Shown below is my current grazing situation. Drilled rye, oats, and ryegrass at the end of October. The cows are on their 3rd rotation through it now. I'm limit grazing paddocks that are about 2 acres in size with 24 momma cows, 4 heifers and 19 calves (as of right now). This time through, they're getting 6-7 hours per day on it and then I take them off. Paddocks are lasting 3-4 days. To the left of the polywire is the paddock they go into tomorrow. In the middle, is the paddock I got them off of today. To the right of the reel is the previous paddock they were on that has now had 4 days rest. I've got 19 of these paddocks. Hard to believe the grazing could be this good considering how bad things were last Summer and Fall with the drought and overgrazing I had to do.

 

[RanchMan90]

Looks good. Get through winter with minimal supplementation?

 

[callmefence]

As far as I'm concerned those post your using are as handy as it gets for temp electric.

 

[oscarsteve]

Only supplementation was hay. Averaged 23 bales/month October through February. So, for me, it wasn't minimal because it was a little more than normal due to the drought. I normally don't have to feed hay in October or November. But I did this season. Normally don't feed hay in July either, but I did last Summer. But last Summer/Fall weren't normal and hope that doesn't become the norm. I like those posts because they're pretty stout. I can set two at a pretty significant angle at a corner and they flex like fishing poles with no problems. the spikes are bigger than those on some other posts. So, not easy to push in with my foot sometimes. Some convincing with a hammer helps and I also have a big nail/spike with me to make a pilot hole, just in case.

 

[slick4591]

Plenty of good spring grasses and they are stuffing themselves. Having to stand 20' behind them in case they sneeze.

 

[True Grit Farms]

You must be north of me. The rye grass in Madison is unbelievable, here it's burnt up. I'm selling more cows this week because it's so dry. We haven't caught a rain now in 34 days, and the last good rain was during the January tornadoes.

 

[kilroy60]

You must be north of me. The rye grass in Madison is unbelievable, here it's burnt up. I'm selling more cows this week because it's so dry. We haven't caught a rain now in 34 days, and the last good rain was during the January tornadoes.

We've had some good rains here in NE Ga over the last couple of months. No "gulley-washers" like we really need though. Our rye is growing great and we've just started rotating our cows on it. My concern is that we may have another dry season again this year. Hopefully not as bad as last year but I feel that it's heading in that direction. Lake here which should be at full pool level or higher is down 12 feet. I think hay is going to be scarce again this year due to what happened around here last year. A lot of farmers have already said that they were not selling any of their first cuttings this year. Let's pray for a good year of moisture from above.

 

[oscarsteve]

Grit: I'm located about halfway between Athens and Augusta on the East side of Wilkes County. We've had about 3.3 inches of rain this month. The biggest single rain event was 1.3 on the 22nd. (Heck, the West side of the county got about what my monthly total was in one event last week) Other rain events here have only been a tenth or two at a time. It's been somewhat spread out. I have a bad feeling we're in for something similar to last year but praying it won't be. For the first time I overseeded my hayfields with ryegrass hoping to get a much better (quantity and quality) first cutting to boost what I'll have just in case.

 

[oscarsteve]

Pictures from this morning when I turned them into the next paddock. This was after I ran all of them through the pen and chute vaccinating and tagging 12 calves. Takes the calves a while to get used to the tags. Hoping to be able to hold back some of the paddocks in the latter part of this rotation so I can cut it for hay.