Hay feeding has come to an end (pictures)

[WarEagle73]

Spent some time at our farm this weekend and took some pictures. We are done feeding hay finally. Using some new grazing management we cut our hay consumption back to less than 2 large round bales per cow-calf pair from 3-4 in years past. With a bit more work we think we can get that down even lower without cutting back our cow numbers or getting more ground.




Calves get to creep graze


7 days after grazing

Just finished grazing. We probably pushed them a day or two too long, but we were trying to clean up the last of the hay in the hay feeders. This part of the field might be a bit stunted going into the next rotation.

Ready to go to new grass

 

[WarEagle73]

After a couple of hours they are laid down enjoying the sun.

 

[WarEagle73]

Heifer with her 3 and a half month old heifer calf

New herd bull turned out with the cows

Glad to see more of this popping up all over the place

 

[AllForage]

Very Nice!!!! With the hay savings, do yourself a huge favor and buy some high gear ratio reels.

 

[artesianspringsfarm]

Very Nice!!!! With the hay savings, do yourself a huge favor and buy some high gear ratio reels.

:nod: Spoken like a guy who has done his fair share of rotating. I thought the same exact thing. Buying equipment for setting up rotational grazing may be expensive, but its not cheaper to buy cheaper that part I can prove. Get some good reels and good line. Definitely got the right idea though! Pretty jealous of that green.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing with us!

 

[HDRider]

Beautiful all the way around. Good management.

 

[greybeard]

What kind of forage is that?

 

[nobull82]

Man, I can't wait to put cows on pasture! I'm jealous!

 

[WarEagle73]

It's a fescue and orchardgrass pasture but we have over seeded it with ryegrass and oats. That in the last picture I believe is fescue but I could be wrong. We are looking at renovating it over the next couple years and planting it in Russell Bermuda to give us more grazing in July and August, but also a better grass type to interseed the ryegrass and small grains into for late winter/ early spring grazing.

 

[Jogeephus]

Impressive job with raising both grass and cattle!

 

[Brute 23]

Very Nice!

 

[LRTX1]

Nice setup and cattle

 

[fitz]

That is a really nice looking setup. Nice cow/calves and a strong looking Bull. Looks like fescue to me also.

 

[WarEagle73]

Thanks for all the kind comments. It has been pretty amazing to see how the grass has changed and improved since we started doing some more intense rotational grazing. We used to only have 3 rotations that were not equal in size. The cows would spend 4 weeks on one field, 2-3 weeks on another and 1 week on the third. Now we are moving them at least every 7 days.

Unfortunately I live 2 hours from the farm, so it took some work to convince my dad that the portable fencing was the way to go. This past winter, our ability to strip graze stockpiled fescue and basically cut hay costs in half while maintaining flesh instead of losing it really opened his eyes I think. He has bought in now and we will likely start moving cattle every 2-3 days this spring and summer.