My plan...

[bigbull338]

so youd be grazing out 40acs a month.id add 13acs to the 40.and bale the last 40acs as need tobe baled.and you should have plenty of hay stored if it turns off dry.

 

[1982vett]

Cut the hay while you have it. You can't cut it if you ain't got it.
If a drouth hits your area you can be sure to have plenty for you and sell the rest of it. If cattle get cheap because of drouth you can buy while others sell.
You can bet if VA was to get dry and cattle cheap and I'm setting on a few thousand bales some pots would be rolling west. I'm set up now to handle them.

jed you have excellent points I guess I will bale some. jed they were almost giving cattle away here 2 years ago and I could kick myself for not buying a ton now. Did you buy any when we had our drought here? we have been really wet the last few years so we are about due for a drought.

I agree with Jed. Every area is different though. Here, stockpiling doesn't work well because the rain leaches the nutrients from the stockpiled forage. IMO, I like to control graze and I rarely ever mow. It makes no sense to me to see people in my area apply all this fertilizer then have more grass than their cows can use then go out and mow it to make the grass more nutritious. Or they let the field go rank and cut it for filler hay. Cows can lose weight with a full stomach. I prefer to make the cows do the mowing and when the grass gets in front of them isolate fields to cut good hay from. This way I have high quality hay and I limit my fertilizer applications to only those fields I intend to hay. Its all a balancing act that you have to determine for yourself and your region but what is universal is the fact that you have a fixed cost in raising a calf and the more time and money you spend on raising that calf only increases your fixed cost.

I just had 40 acres baled on halves. I don't really need the hay for myself but seeing it burn up and go to waste didn't make sense either.

 

[skyhightree1]

I guess I will be doing hay again this year lol

 

[bigbull338]

sky ill tell you something i learned years ago.if you have hay to bale you bale it.

 

[skyhightree1]

sky ill tell you something i learned years ago.if you have hay to bale you bale it.

I'll tell you something I learded this year...... " if you have hay to bale you bale it" thanks to everyone putting things into perspective for me. Some come here to this forum and proclaim to never listen to anything someone same posting on a forum I think that is the most IGNORANT thing someone can say. No one can know everything with all different walks of life here on this board and various knowledge on different issues you would be a complete FOOL to come here and think you know everything and no one can teach you anything. If you stop learning you are not living. I have learned many things from all of you. Thank you :tiphat:

 

[1982vett]

I just had 40 acres baled on halves. I don't really need the hay for myself but seeing it burn up and go to waste didn't make sense either.

Got it done....made more than I expected and........it didn't get wet..... :?

 

[Taylorspruill2014]

As you know grass grows fast in the spring then slows during the middle part of the summer, then picks up again in the fall.

I would plan on moving the cattle over as much area as you can in the spring without letting them take it down too low. If they take the tops off the grass this will delay the grass from forming heads helping it stay in stage two growth longer.

If you wait too long getting them started you may have a very short time before your grass starts forming heads which slows grass growth. For that reason I start my cows a little sooner but move them once in the morning and once in the evening.

What I do is hit as much area as I can in the spring clipping the tops then go back to the starting point and do a spring rotation in one area. Once the summer slump starts and the spring rotation area is not regaining enough growth. I take them off the spring rotation area and put them into tall grass. I call this my summer slump area.

They will knock a lot down, more than they eat sometimes, but this tall grass has a big roots and the mulch layer they make mixed with manure and pee will do a few things.

First tall grass has a lot of reserves in the root and this will push new growth, second the mulch will help protect the soil from both summer heat and fall freezing. Grass will grow if the ground is no froze on warm days, third as this mulch rots it's feeding the worms bacteria and fungi.

Once the summer slump is over and the spring rotation area has regrown I move them back onto that, it's not going to be growing as fast at this stage so I make my cells larger and don't move them as fast.

The summer slump feeding area should come on strong and let you feed you cattle on pasture until you run out of it or until the snow is too deep (at least around here) That's when I start putting bales out onto pasture.

That's how I do it, hope it helps

I almost forgot I change summer slump area each year.

thanks for Information

 

[skyhightree1]

I just had 40 acres baled on halves. I don't really need the hay for myself but seeing it burn up and go to waste didn't make sense either.

Got it done....made more than I expected and........it didn't get wet..... :?

congrats

 

[skyhightree1]

Do yall think the pasture I clipped is ready for some calves now or give it a few weeks then put them on there

front pasture that I have clipped so far





back pasture I gotta get my small tractor in here to cut this as it stands I probably couldn't see the calves walking around.

 

[skyhightree1]

Jed & Jo
I spent the evening taking down the fencing I had put up to rotational graze I just want yall to know I was cussing yall each step of the way for making so much sense lol and any others that suggested to bale the grounds instead of rotational grazing.