7 Cattle, 27 Sheep, 200 Chickens on 4.75 Acres - #1 Question Asked: “How Many Animals Can I Graze?”
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- Опубликовано: 13 июл 2023
- Cattle and sheep moves today, as we review our rotational grazing set-up and talk about our most asked question by you on the channel, “How many animals can I graze on my land?”
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I'm active duty military and heard farming is great for PTSD service members and honestly I have researched and am making the move to becoming a sheep farmer. This video helped me so much. I get out in 2025 and am in Texas, I seriously want to do this! Thank you so much for this video.
Man, that’s so awesome! Glad you’re here. Here’s something I heard yesterday to file away for when you start: Beehives hum in the key of C. They’re finding now that when folks keep bees and hang around the hives, over time their PTSD is resolving! I knew I heard that for a reason! I wish you the best on your healing farming journey.
Thank you so much! I can't hear the key of C but hopefully one day I will ♥ you are so inspiring and I wish to learn much more from you when I start
@@birchfieldfarming
Great information. Living the dream 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Thanks for watching!🤠
This is one of the best farming channels out there. I appreciate how thorough your explanations are because it allows us to learn more, quicker. Thanks!
Thank you so much!
From a food production standpoint too, it's a great demonstration of sustainable intensification in extensive systems. If people want to move away from the unsustainable CAFOs, then this is the way to do it!
You got it! 100% grass-fed lamb is now being called “land salmon” b/c of its high omega-3 content. I would argue high quality protein production through grass-fed ruminants is the most sustainable system we have, as they make meat, milk, fertilizer, and more offspring. The stereotypes of the lifestyle being “backwards” have blinded and robbed the culture, but many are rediscovering! It takes labor and being involved with the landscape, but I find those things enjoyable.
You have articulated the point of this very well. Pros and cons. Well said sir
Good stuff! Thanks for sharing all you're learning.
You got it, thanks for watching!
Amen brother!
Awesome info! Always learn a lot from these videos.
Thanks, Rip! Hope ur well, buddy!🤠
I respect and salute farmers everywhere!! This is a highly informative channel, and you have a splendid looking farm there!!
Thanks for watching and for your kind words.
Thanks for posting these. Great to hear your thoughts as I start to bring animals out to the farm. We are doing chicks ducks and bees so far. Keep up the good work!
I’ve heard ducks are great slug protection in the garden, and that there’s a niche market there for eggs. Thanks for following along here.
Thank you for the information! Working on getting to this level! 🙏🏻🇺🇸
You got it! Keep after it, little bit each day
The visit was great! Thank you for being so open with showing us everything. The boys keep asking when I will get haybales to play on...
Haha! Love those guys!🤩
Amen brother
Great insight my brother, The grazing density is key for all of us who are putting meat on pasture, so your comments about checking our own density is key. Likewise, the reality of the seasons and thinking ahead about maintaining your flurd is what any respectable landowner would do. Thanks for producing this content and helping folks who are getting into the game. God’s love to you and your family.
Thank you, Dan. Hey, so I’ve been wondering and even checking in on your channel…Did everything arrive as expected earlier this month? Super curious how things are going down there!🤠
@@birchfieldfarming We had to push it off until next Saturday, so no update yet. We have been charging hard on getting everything ready, but I am sure many lessons are in my future. Glad to hear you took some time off with the family, we went down to St. Augustine a couple weeks back…Fl’s getting too crowded, wow the traffic…
@@appalachianheartsong5487 I’m so excited for you guys!🤠
Very informative. I subscribed instantly.
Thanks Andrew - glad you’re finding value in the content.
2.5 AU per acre is amazing!!!
Hey thanks, it’s always a work in progress!
We run our sheep and chickens together and it’s doing one heck of a favor to our paddocks,only thing that aggravates me is once in awhile the bloody chickens build a dust bath in the pasture just like the beef in your video.here in Tennessee we have had a tremendous amount of rain and the perfect kind but with all the smoke and haze it has slown down the grass recovery rate from lack of sun, I know you in a moderate drought but do you notice anything from the hazy skies and grass ?
Thanks for the video Jeff Tennessee
I do think the haze is impairing photosynthetic capability of the plants, not to mention sub-par air quality for animals and humans. We’ve since had some rain, so that has helped. Chickens and sheep together - I like that! Yes, I could see where dust bathing would get to be annoying when you’re trying to grow grass. Be well, Jeff!🤠
Kids are awesome
🤠❤️
Hi Jason,,, am new to the channel, watching it all the way from Kenya and am loving it, and I just want say a big THANK YOU for posting all this informative videos,, GOD bless you.
I just have one quick question,, how long do the animals stay in each paddock?
Hi Christopher - Grazing duration in each paddock depends on multiple factors, time of year, rainfall, number of animals, etc. This year we stayed close to one day in each paddock when the grass was booming in Spring. Lately we’re closer to two days, but also noticing some overgrazing, so needing to quicken moves, yet lengthen rest. Typically your Fall rest period will be twice as long as Spring, generally speaking. I like to be at least 30 days rest, especially for sheep, as it helps break up the parasite cycle.
Thank you very much for your response,, truly appreciate it.
Am trying to gather as much info and learn as much as I can before I bring in the animals.
@@christopherkigaa2618 Very wise approach. I’m so excited to connect with someone in Kenya! May the Lord bless your work there.
Thx, Im curious about 2 things. What growing zone are and what is your annual rainfall? That will help with stocking and forage rates.
Zone 6 here around Cincinnati. Annual rainfall is around 35” but I always tell folks to check with other farmers or extension offices in your area for stocking rate. Start with the more conservative set-stock rate and work up with rotating from there. Take care.👍
Thank you Jason! Great stuff- I see your no longer keeping the red Devon’s with the sheep. Is that new?
Yes, just this season - Too many lambs popping out of fences. Ewes will go back with Reds after lamb sales later in July. Looking forward to the increase in simplicity.
The kids did very well with the sheep.
Most of the fixes around here usually end up with them asking, “Dad, why don’t you do it like this?” Don’t know what I’d do without them!❤️
Great video and explanation. In your situation how long are you having to winter your animals and how much outside feed are you bringing in for the year? If trying to minimize outsourcing hay, how many acres would you need to be keeping aside to stock up for winter?
Thanks, Todd - these are good questions. We graze from April/May until Nov/Dec, depending on the forage. We consume about 16 large round bales plus a couple hundred squares in a sacrifice paddock thru winter. I’ve done the poundage calculation with traditional hay yields per acre and all things considered we’re still about 2X productivity on land utilization as compared to set-stock and haying in a similar setting. I’ve always been curious how stockpiling forage and attempting to graze thru at least a portion of winter would affect utilization and bottom dollar. The catch with stockpiling is the grazing time you lose in the Fall and also dealing with water way out in Ohio winter conditions. However, they say anytime you can have the animal do the harvesting vs making/buying hay, it is a great amount of dollar savings.
Kids make the BEST sheep dogs 😄
🤣🤣🤣
Depreciation of assets vs appreciation of assets is the key that I try most to focus on. Tractors vs livestock, $ is $
You got it!…more time commitment on the livestock but worth it to us here.
Paraguay
That’s quite a small land for such animals, how do you manage to keep up with their feed? Do you buy them or
100% grass fed, that is our feed. The secret is in rotating thru our paddocks and having enough paddocks for sufficient rest. Gotta keep animals moving and the grass in a vegetative state. The book Grass Productivity by Andre Voisin is a great place to start. Be well!
We banded all our lambs tails when they were about a wk old and tagged them while we could catch them still. Keeps their butts and tails clean . My dad used to cut castrate the hundreds of lambs every year as we held them upside down with their head locked between our legs. Had 400 dorper ewes at one point. 850 sheep on 200 acres of pasture at our peak. Now we just raise 140 red angus and dutch belted cattle on 160 acres and sell 25 finished steers a yr for butcher and the rest to Bloomington equity auction when we have a semi load of feeder steers to sell. I hatch out 2000 chickens and ducks every yr and about 100 turkeys. Raise 200 or 300 meat chickens for customers a yr that we process our self. Raise 10 pigs on grass also a yr. Used to finish 100 every yr for butcher. How often do u deworm your sheep. Every 3 wks is when we did it. Sheep are very prone to worms especially in summer bc its on the grass in the pastures after they have ate a paddock. Oral dewormer is what we used
You guys are farm productive for sure! We’re a little different - No dewormer for my St. Croix sheep…no banding, no docking, no vaccines, no antibiotics, no hormones, no AI, no foot rot, 100% grass…it’s taken us a few years to get here tho. (And I’m not knocking anyone who does those things!)
We are in Lebanon ohio! The drought is such a hard year for us to have started. So thankful for your wisdom and insight and I always love your good word!!
We have about 2.5/3 acres of pasture and currently have 2 sheep, a steer, milk cow and her calf. The pasture looked great last year... got the animals the first of the year and have struggled since may.
Do you reseed or Anything in the fall/ winter season?
@@lauraandrade7909 Hi Laura! Wow, Lebanon! Def been over to the Golden Lamb.
I’m so honored you’re encouraged here. Hey, keep going - this is a really tough year to start much of anything! I don’t remember conditions like this since 2012. We do not reseed anything in the off-season, however, this year we are experimenting with warm season cover cropping (mostly annuals) out in the pasture. I ordered a grazing mix from Green Cover Seed, and we broadcast spread over paddock #11 (where we ran the meat birds). It’s purely experimental, but I’m hopeful to get at least one mammoth grazing event off of it before frost, building soil at the same time. We’ll see, maybe some winter rye and hairy vetch cool season cover opportunities too as we move into fall. Things will bounce back, so hang in there. The way I see it, the odds of NOT seeing this again for awhile are in our favor. Please stay in touch, friend!
@@lauraandrade7909 we frost seed red clover usually 8 lbs per acre in March in fields that need improvement. It works when the ground looks bare after winter . We have seeded into snow also. Once the frost leaves the ground and the soil warms up the clover will regrow. We have tons of red and white clover and Brome in our pastures. 5 to 6ft tall canary grass in the lowland spots where water normally is but everything Is dried up. We rotational graze 140 beef cattle in 2 groups. Last yrs Steers/heifers and the cow calf group.so they have to be moved every day or every 2 days depending on how fast they eat the grass down. Never overgraze bc then it takes wks longer for a paddock to recover. Pretty sure we graze our 160 acres at least 4 or 5 times over a yr. Ik we our still moving them on to areas for the 2nd time
@@birchfieldfarming that is a delicious meal there!!
Thank you for being so encouraging and also including your scripture! My husband and I rewatched this video tonight! So inspiring.
I look forward to seeing the experiment updates and I am hopeful with the extra manure load and the more consistent rain we see a bit more growth! I am looking forward to seeing how we can improve our animal stocking rate!
Thank you, we definitely will!
Hi GREAT video thanks. May I ask what is the very large tree that is at the 13:30 min mark, up in the top R/H corner. It's a beautiful shade tree. Thanks in advance.
Thanks Warren! That tree is one of our top producing Sugar Maples. Gives us the most sap of any tree every year. Takes awhile to grow, but I’m a huge fan of Sugar Maples in the pastures! About 15 to 20 degrees cooler under there in the middle of a hot summer day.
Based on the way you are grazing, i would till and reseed in the fall so that it comes in new in the spring
In our context and in our experience, we’ve discovered tillage in perennial, grazed pastures produces higher incidence of grass tetany. This is also confirmed in the book I mentioned, Grass Productivity by Voisin. Thanks for commenting!
@@birchfieldfarming I have not read the book i will look into it thank you. i am only going by tradition in my family. we reseeded every 7 years for the higher protein plants to regain control of the fields.
@@mentallyraw7077 Yeah, it can be done. Do you remember your seed mix for pasture? Just curious. Some of the newer research on minimal tillage and cover cropping is interesting as well. Thanks for sharing!
@@birchfieldfarming I don't remember the exact mix percentages but it was birdsfoot, alfalfa, clover, timothy and orchard grass
@@mentallyraw7077 Thanks! Sounds like a good mix!
Just found your channel. I do not see any guard dogs, do you see predation on chickens and/or lambs?
No dogs, never had an issue. Our entire property has a perimeter fence, so I’m sure that helps.
I would love to see a detailed guide or book from you talking about every technical detail you can identify running this style of farm. ❤
That’s interesting. I’ve been thinking of writing a book on our first 5 years of raising St Croix sheep, but maybe I should expand the horizon. Thanks for the encouragement!
If you make the paddocks smaller they will trample the stuff they don’t eat. It’s part of AMP grazing.
Paddocks are permanent size, so stocking rate is the only variable. 40 to 50K/lbs per acre live weight is working well now.
@@birchfieldfarming I’m about to buy 4.25 acres and I’m wanting to do small paddocks for 1-3 head of cattle. Not sure on what size I should make them so each can rest for 30 days. I’m wanting to move daily.
Really enjoy your videos. Very laid back, informative, and you just seem like a very good guy. Keep ‘em coming.
@@PROAmateur01Thanks for your kind words! 1/8th acre paddocks gives you 34 days with daily moves. In my area, they recommend about 1 animal unit (1000 lb cow) per acre. With rotating, I’m seeing more than double that. This would mean I could run 8 to 10 AU on those 4.25 if rotating. Not sure how your annual rainfall and pasture growth compares to here tho. Harvesting and packing some simple air tight containers in Spring with cut grass silage fed out toward late fall could help extend things as well. Hope all goes well for you!🤠
Do you run your rams in your rotation?
Great question and something I didn’t touch on in the video - Yes, rams are moving separately around in that 4.75 acres as well, just not as intensively since there are only 3. We remove rams out around lambing and put them back in with ewes around late Nov. We’re eeking out every grass nook & cranny with rams in the electronet we can, even grazing vegetable gardens when they are done fruiting! Minimizing mowing, maxing high quality (high omega-3) protein production.
Don't they need a shaded area in each paddock?
My sheep do not, cattle definitely do better with shade - another reason for running sheep in paddocks 9, 10, and 11.
From Zambia... i just haven't found contacts here doing much of this. Difficult to adapt your system to our situation here, esp as a new farmer. Even less to be found on the internet re zambian regen.
You might look into Allan Savory with his holistic approach - they may know someone in your area practicing regen ag. Don’t give up!
Hola !! My name is Chelsie and we live in Costa Rica. We have 50 acres in the mountains, around 30 of grass and 20 in jungle. What do you think about 4 cows as pets only to help eat the grass instead of chopping or mowing? We were also thinking about guineas to eat ticks and bugs. We have so much grass year round and shouldn't need to buy hay. But we don't want a lot of cows . All the farmers here have many cows and chickens. There are also hair sheep available. Our grass does not seem to have any weeds in it. We have well water. If we started to get Flys, would raking out the poop piles help or collecting them into a compost help? I also heard natural charcoal is good for parasites. Any suggestions is very much appreciated. Loved the Bible verse. Love Jesus . Thank you !!! Pura Vida
Oh and we like all natural organic stuff also no chemicals
Hi Chelsie,
Thanks for reaching out! Your property sounds amazing! One of the best things you can do is talk with another local farmer successfully raising cattle in your area. It sounds like you would have plenty of forage for your animals, but I do not know the area to say for sure. Personally, I prefer hair sheep over cattle. They rarely have issues with flies or heat stress, are easier to handle, and are more profitable for us than cattle. You can absolutely make compost from cattle manure or rake/harrow out the pats to cut down on flies. One thing we’ve done here is to run chickens behind cattle to scratch out the pats and eat fly larvae. They have completely rid our farm of ticks! Best of luck to you in Costa Rica!
Yes, no chemicals in our regenerative ag rotation, I’m with you! Stay in touch, friend!
It's funny to me how you're thinking in terms of scaling up, because my reaction to this is, "Could I scale this down to my 1/6 acre backyard?" I figure a couple sheep and some chickens would be the carrying capacity, even in wet, warm Georgia. I think getting plots small enough to give the rest of the yard time to recover would be the hard part. Also, having a backyard with grass up to my thighs my be a code violation, but I'm not sure on that.
Ha, that’s awesome! Micro rotation - You might be into something there! You’ve got me thinking…I agree, that 30 day rest might be challenging, but I bet something like a few rabbits in a moveable structure (dog house-ish) with open bottom could come close. Rabbit manure is also has of the highest nutrient levels of all manures and can be applied right away (cold manure). I’m so excited to see the view of grass in this culture shifting from one of liability and status symbol to one of health and wholeness. The ruminant animal truly is a gift capable of producing meat, milk, fertilizer, and more offspring off grass alone…still no machine that can come close.
@@birchfieldfarming Haha, I have talked to my wife so many times about raising meat rabbits, and she just can't handle the idea of eating Thumper.
I'm sure there are some pygmy sheep+goat breeds we could keep, though.
@@wannabelikegzus 🤣 I am so with her on that one!
@@wannabelikegzus for sure!🤠
Nice vid new sub - u said rent out land -any left looking ?
Hi Dennis! And welcome. We’re full here, as most of the farm land buy/rent market is unfortunately driven by row mono crops at the moment. I feel fortunate to be entirely grass and woods on our farm combined with a workable business model. Best of luck.
@@birchfieldfarming you too good luck nice place
Get chickens, they’ll solve your fly problem FAST
Ok, thanks
You asked what will work on 50 acres. We are on 50 acres. Our goal is 300 ewes - Katahdin with 8 or 9 dorper rams. 5 Nigerian dwarf Nanny goats, 1 Billy and 50 chickens. if pasture allows it some small breed cattle, maybe Dexter, Zebu or mini Jersey's. Currently we have the goats, chickens 60 ewes and about 40 lambs. lambs are only on the ground for about 60 days and were not planning any more winter lambing.
We just started rotational grazing. Were in SW Missouri so longer hotter summers, shorter winters than you. We were in D4 for a short while in 2023 and D3 the rest of the year.
The companies with big RUclips named folks that sell the regenerative program told me our max was 1 ewe per acre. Im wondering if UA works for WEF
Very interesting. The first whiff I get of WEF, and I’m gone!
@@birchfieldfarming I can understand more right now, being in winter, up until 3 months ago conventionally grazed, and so on. But you, I and almost all others raise more than 250 lbs per acre.
1 ewe per acre was their go forward plan, when soils and forage was better. I tried to talk basic and high level math with them as well as norms of neighbors. They commented stocking at a loss should be done as a lifestyle choice. I was done with em at that point.
@@northernozarkhomesteadFascinating. I’m running north of 1600 lbs/acre. I know nothing of grazing in your area, but 250 seems ultra low if anything similar to us. To clarify, you’re talking about the cert at Regenify.com?
…let’s try that again…regenified.com
@@birchfieldfarming Understanding Ag - not sure if its same folks at both companies. I also clarified we were talking sheep per acre not cattle. And even said my neighbours run more than 1 cow per acre, were running sheep.
Over grazing is function of time... never a truer word.
Tough lesson for me to learn in the beginning!
Nice channel. Why not use AI and have two more cows than the 2 bulls?
…I wish I wasn’t so old fashioned