kenny thomas
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Looks to me like it's working. Compare any pictures you have from last year when they were everywhere
Started rotational grazing
- Thread starter Chapin81
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Chapin81
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Pics from March 2020 from continuous grazing. I think if this keeps up through our summer, which is in March-mid May I will see more head per acre.
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kenny thomas
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So your cows look better and your grass looks better. Good start
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Chapin81
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That's the plan!
Lee VanRoss
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It would seem where one is located on the 'Big Blue Ball' has a bearing on the length of recovery time for intensive grazing. Do you have a
research facility available to you with information as to the optimum amount of time before regrazing? Assuming adequate drinking water my
next concern would be mineral which might be an issue with moving multiple times a day. For me the moving multiple times a day for up to
365 would become a bone of contention based on the availibilty of dedicated and affordable labor. Admittedly, I need to stay tuned and listen.
research facility available to you with information as to the optimum amount of time before regrazing? Assuming adequate drinking water my
next concern would be mineral which might be an issue with moving multiple times a day. For me the moving multiple times a day for up to
365 would become a bone of contention based on the availibilty of dedicated and affordable labor. Admittedly, I need to stay tuned and listen.
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Chapin81
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We are located in Guatemala near the Mexican border on the northwest side. The closest lab is a 12-13 hour drive, when I was down there in March of this year I was supposed to take forage and soil samples with me but that didn't happen due to my schedule. Unfortunately if I were to have someone mail the samples to the lab it would take about 10-14 business days. I was told that the results would not be accurate and to forget it for now until I can actually drive them to the lab myself. The forage/grass we use is koronivia grass/humidicola grass optimal grazing period is every 35-60 days, from what I've read. Depending on soil fertility it can achieve 8%-9% crude protein on 40 days . 13% crude protein on 20 days rest. It does need a nice amount of rainfall per year about 30 inches.
We also use brizantha grass which needs more water and produces about 10% crude protein. As mentioned before I've never done forage samples so I really don't know what our nutritional value is. And the other grass we use its called Mombasa, which I've been told can achieve 12% protein.
In regards to labor I'll be blunt, it's cheap. Minimum wage is the equivalent of US$8.00 per day. Can people survive on this.. yes if you live outside of the biggest cities. As far as water goes We built 3 tanks 2 weeks ago they are located at the highest point (200ft higher) about 7000 gallons each and I also had a well built 300ft deep and runs on solar with a 7.5hp pump and 105 GPM. Water will drain out of the tanks through pvc and with the help of gravity to the water trough, and everyday we move them. At this moment the herd that is being moved everyday has access to a pond, we also give them enough mineral salt in a plastic bin everyday. It's been 23 days since our first oficial move, the first 2x they charged through the poly wire. I hoping i can restore soil health, more lbs per acre, that's the reason for doing all this. I stopped using ivermectin since 2 months ago and other weed killers because our dung beetle population isn't really present. We have another herd of cattle that is continually grazing and the cow manure is mummified, no dung beetles at all. I hope I was able to answer most of your questions. I'll update and let you know the results as time passes. It's a heck of an exciting new journey for me hopefully it all works out.
