Sometimes….
Hard time deciding
- Thread starter Brute 23
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greybeard
Well-known member
The reason I went into the military was because dad and I had very different ideas about raising cattle. I wanted open pastures with good grass and lots of crossfences and he insisted on running them in the woods. He wasn't gonna clear the place of brush or have trees cut. I suggested he let me take a 1/3rd of the place and try what I thought would work and he said absolutely not! 'What did I know at 18?'
Well, not much but I knew I didn't want to gather rangy kill-ya-in-a minute cows in this kind of mess that our 124 acres was for the next 10 years.
All I wanted was a chance to pass or fail and a little guidance in the right direction but that wasn't to be for a long time to come. I said to heck with it, forged his name on the permission slip at 17 and tried to enlist but got caught at it and had to wait until I graduated high school.
Well, not much but I knew I didn't want to gather rangy kill-ya-in-a minute cows in this kind of mess that our 124 acres was for the next 10 years.
All I wanted was a chance to pass or fail and a little guidance in the right direction but that wasn't to be for a long time to come. I said to heck with it, forged his name on the permission slip at 17 and tried to enlist but got caught at it and had to wait until I graduated high school.
libertygarden
Well-known member
I refuse to cut 25 acres of woods in my place. I like how cows feed in the woods.
Caustic Burno
Well-known member
I like to squirrel hunt it!
I have oaks it's fifty feet to the first limb. Rita cut part of them.
Little Joe
Well-known member
I can't bring myself to cut big oaks either, took too many years for them to get there.
libertygarden
Well-known member
I only have bodark, elm, ash, hackberry, cottonwood, cedar, honey locust and dentist tree on my property. Not a single oak. Every year I gather a few bags of acorns from trees around my house in the city and scatter them on my ranch. Eventually some will take off. My wooded area has a lot of grass, and I've noticed that cows like it to get away from the flies since it tends to be a little darker and cooler in the summer. I also think that leaving bio diversity on a property as opposed to turning it all into pasture reduces the need to feed mineral. Cows seem to self supplement from vine shoots, weeds and all sort of vegetation that grows on the edges of the woods.
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
The soil determines the need for minerals.
libertygarden
Well-known member
But cows don't eat soil...usually. Can you elaborate more? I know different plants mine different minerals from the soil. Is this what you are talking about? I've seen cows eat weeds during parts of the year when there is plenty of grass, so its not out of hunger. This tells me the cow knows which weed has what she needs.
faster horses
Well-known member
Yes. And something is lacking in most all soils.
I was a Check Station Warden back in the early 70's for WY Game and Fish.
Some deer would come into the check station from
a different area over the mountain and those deer were HUGE. The size of elk horns and very dark. Something in the soil in that area caused that. Would have been interesting to have a soil test done, but back then I didn't know about testing soil. Not that it would have been up to me anyway. But I've wondered about it ever since.
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
CowboyRam
Well-known member
It could be something in the soil. I remember when growing up in Northwest Colorado I had an uncle that would go up in the mountains for some topsoil for their yard. One year while hunting up near Hahn's Peak dad seen a Mule deer buck that was so big and dark that he almost shot it for an bull Elk.
OP
OP
Generally, here, the brushy and woody areas have some of the best soils.
People always want to continue to clean naturally open areas because it's cheaper but you better be sure there is a reason it's not the most open spot.
I like diversity also. A couple hours of shade from a tree can make that area have green grass in July and Aug and a slight wind break or some mixed brush can make for good winter grazing.
People always want to continue to clean naturally open areas because it's cheaper but you better be sure there is a reason it's not the most open spot.
I like diversity also. A couple hours of shade from a tree can make that area have green grass in July and Aug and a slight wind break or some mixed brush can make for good winter grazing.
The plants absorb minerals from the soil, and the herbivores get their minerals from eating the plants. Llke Jeanne said., most soil is lacking in one mineral or another, thus the need for mineral salts, etc. uyt the quality of the grass is also dependent on the minerals in the soil.
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
I totally believe in keeping hedgerows and sections of woods. Protection in summer and winter. Yes, they love to graze brush while in there and it definitely has food value. But, I keep those areas for their environment, not for food.
Yep. The sole reason we have those 220 acres I call the Kudzu pasture on here, is for our rabbits and quail that we love to hunt. It is why we don't allow motorized vehicles on it, and is why we don't "improve it". Well, we don't want it "improved". Don't want other kinds of cattle on it that you have to work, feed, etc. , that's why we first put the corriente cows in it. Actually, we were pleasantly surprised the first couple of years at how damned good the calves were, and we attributed it to the great bulls we'd put on them. Then we found out, there was NO grass in the world we could have put on it, even after 10's of thousands of dollars in clearing, planting, and thousands of dollars a year in fertilizer each year, that come anywhere close to being as good as Kudzu at 24%-26% protein. There are 35-40 acres of hardwood bottoms, and a 25-30 acre pine thicket . All through out the rest of the cut over timber are blackberry thickets, honeysuckle wild plum hedges, etc. There is only about 40 acres semi-clear where we had our dove field years ago. About the only time I wish it was like a smoooth, 220 acre hayfield, is at round up time.
libertygarden
Well-known member
I feel like I want some Kudzu now.
Does it grow in your part of Texas?
libertygarden
Well-known member
I don't know. I may get lynched if I introduce it.
greybeard
Well-known member
looks like it is already there.
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