Pasture

[Hippie Rancher]

thought some of you from wetter parts of the country might like to see some good western pasture

 

[3waycross]

How ya gonna keep em on the farm after they have seen grass like that.

Seriously, folks east of Salina Ks look at western grazing and wonder how our cows survive at all.

 

[dun]

How ya gonna keep em on the farm after they have seen grass like that.

Seriously, folks east of Salina Ks look at western grazing and wonder how our cows survive at all.

All the cows from out there have longer legs on one side then the other so they can walk level, It's a mess if one gets turned around because the roll all the way to the bottom

 

[mattyboy]

All the cows from out there have longer legs on one side then the other so they can walk level, It's a mess if one gets turned around because the roll all the way to the bottom

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

 

[Hippie Rancher]

and here is our version of a wild hog :lol2:

 

[mattyboy]

Is that one of them javies I hear about?

Will they breed with wild hogs?

 

[dun]

Is that one of them javies I hear about?

Will they breed with wild hogs?

They aren;t related to hogs, they just resemble them.

 

[upfrombottom]

If our hogs had nothing to eat but yucca bushes, they would look like that too. :nod:

 

[Hippie Rancher]

If our hogs had nothing to eat but yucca bushes, they would look like that too. :nod:

actually Yuccas have a HUGE starchy root that you can theoretically fatten animals on - even the stem itself is good if you burn off the leaves.

My Grandfather liked to tell a story on his younger brother who was going to get rich fattening domestic hogs on roasted yuccas. He built a pen and bought some number of pigs, built a big wood burning roasting oven out of block and tin (still sitting there about a half mile below the house). Anyway the story goes, Great Uncle W. fell and broke his arm and couldn't feed his pigs so Grampa had to do it and of course the whole deal probably ended up costing $$$. And that is probably why there were never pigs raised here ever again.

 

[upfrombottom]

From the looks of that terrain, a hog would have to have an iron nose to get to any root.

 

[1982vett]

From the looks of that terrain, a hog would have to have an iron nose to get to any root.

Funny you should say that.................it ain't iron, but it digs like it is.

 

[BRYANT]

My cows would probley die in that kind of pasture and them cows in that picture ,if turned into my pasture, would probley think they had died and went to heaven. If a cow thinks. It looks like you would need some tough cattle to make it in that kind of place.
Hippie how many acres does it take per cow out there, where I live 3 to 5 is pretty common and have seen some better than that.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

My cows would probley die in that kind of pasture and them cows in that picture ,if turned into my pasture, would probley think they had died and went to heaven. If a cow thinks. It looks like you would need some tough cattle to make it in that kind of place.
Hippie how many acres does it take per cow out there, where I live 3 to 5 is pretty common and have seen some better than that.

aw man...3 to 5 is better than my front yard! NRCS starts this kind of country out at 80 acres to a cow. You can do better but that is what they say is safe for a beginner. We run closer to 60/cow or higher when there is moisture. (rainfall average is ~15 - 16 inches, but can vary from 8.5 to over 24) ranch elevation low spot is 3500 feet and high point is 5800, those cattle are right about 4580, top of that hill about 5200.

 

[Jogeephus]

That looks pretty harsh. Could use a bunch of those rocks myself though.

 

[dun]

NRCS starts this kind of country out at 80 acres to a cow. You can do better but that is what they say is safe for a beginner. We run closer to 60/cow or higher when there is moisture. (rainfall average is ~15 - 16 inches, but can vary from 8.5 to over 24) ranch elevation low spot is 3500 feet and high point is 5800, those cattle are right about 4580, top of that hill about 5200.

That must be some pretty good forage. Where we moved from it was 300 acres per pair (in a good year)

 

[mattyboy]

They aren;t related to hogs, they just resemble them.

Didn't know that. What are they related to?

 

[dun]

They aren;t related to hogs, they just resemble them.

Didn't know that. What are they related to?

Not sure, I think they're kind of like proghorns, not really related to anything. Years ago I saw something that said they were close to rodents (like the capibara), but I coudln't find it when I looked for it. But the aren;t related to them either. That was way before the internet (25 plus years ago) so it's on paper somewhere aorund here somewhere.
Had a close friend that used to go hunting them every year, made a safari out of it. I got one of those squeeky rubber rats and cut the head off and mounted the head on a trophy plaque for him.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

Javelinas (aka peccaries) are distantly related to pigs but in a different family. Domestic hogs evolved in Eurasia, javelina in the new world.

link on this page for their noises: http://www.desertmuseum.org/kids/oz/lon ... velina.php

People often confuse peccaries, which are found in the Americas, with pigs which originated in Afro-Eurasia, especially since some domestic pigs brought by European settlers have escaped over the years and now run wild as razorback hogs in many parts of the United States.
<snip>
Characteristics

Peccaries are medium-sized animals, with a strong superficial resemblance to pigs. Like pigs, they have a snout ending in a cartilagenous disc, and eyes that are small relative to their head. Also like pigs, they use only the middle two digits for walking, although, unlike pigs, the other toes may be altogether absent. Their stomach is non-ruminating, although it has three chambers, and is more complex than that of pigs.[2]

Peccaries are omnivores, and will eat small animals, although their preferred food consists of roots, grass, seeds, and fruit. One of the ways to tell apart pigs and peccaries is the shape of the canine tooth, or tusk. In European pigs the tusk is long and curves around on itself, whereas in peccaries, the tusk is short and straight. The jaws and tusks of peccaries are adapted for crushing hard seeds and slicing into plant roots[2], and they also use their tusks for defending against predators. The dental formula for peccaries is: Upper: 2.1.3.3, lower: 3.1.3.3

By rubbing the tusks together they can make a chattering noise that warns potential predators not to get too close. Peccaries are aggressive enough in temperament that, unlike Eurasian pigs, they cannot be domesticated as they are likely to injure humans. In recent years in North-western Bolivia near Madidi National Park there have been reports of people being seriously injured and killed by large groups of peccaries. [3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peccary

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[JH_cattle_co]

Think I might have ya beat.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

Think I might have ya beat.

We have 3 or 4 sections of that kind of country - limey soil, whitethorn, creosote, classic Chihuahuan desert. Not much feed, but what is there is pretty nutritious. Some years the twinberry will sure fatten them up.

Those animals look like they are doing fine. Calves look dang good.