Rotational Grazing on Our Dairy Farm
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- Опубликовано: 24 янв 2021
- We are all dreaming of the lush spring grass! Here is a video about how we have set up our rotational grazing on our regenerative dairy farm. We also share some books that we have used to help us along the way. Of course, experience and observation are the best teachers and we are constantly learning! We mention Gallagher fencing products, and again we are not sponsored by them.
Books we mention:
All Flesh is Grass Gene Logsdon
Greener Grass on your Side of the Fence Bill Murphy
The Art and Science of Grazing Sarah Flack
Grass Fed Beef Julius Ruechel
Managing Pasture Dale Strickler
Holistic Management Allan Savory
Music: Apple iMovie River Walk
Ah yes, Jersey cows as a PR tool. We have a semi-permanent heifer pasture along a public road skirting the west edge of our farm. During nice-weather months we see folks stop their cars along the fence line almost daily as they talk with and photograph the dry cows and heifers. Quite often they get to see cows calving, too! Fun.
And I'm sure the Jerseys put on a nice show! People are just drawn to cows in pastures.
I love that you are intellectual farmers. Thank you for sharing the books you like. I have learned so much from your videos!
Thanks, B.R.! We do spend a lot of time researching and planning. It is always interesting to see what works and doesn't. Nature is a patient teacher.
I will be raising my first cows soon. I ordered a couple of those books to read. Thanks for the info.
You’re welcome! Good luck in your endeavors!
Your cows are just so beautiful and healthy too. I've watched as they've grown from the tiny heifers you hauled home. They were so fun to watch playing in their paddock, and now they have calves doing the same.
Thanks for being on this journey with us!
Morning folks. Saw the thumbnail and was scratching my head about you having the cows out in the pasture in mid-Winter? Turning snowballs into milk? You've really done your homework, duh. Of course you have. Gotta love electric fences.
Have you worked a team of horses into your schemes? Another great video, guys. Thanks.
Hi, Rich! "snowballs into milk" Oh that cracked us up! We actually spend a lot of time in the winter thinking about grazing and looking at the green photos from summer. We are constantly learning, that is life after all. We are still planning on horses. We've worked out the improvements to infrastructure we need to do, and have talked with our teamster trainers and horse vet. Now we wait on summer and the right team finding us. We look forward to sharing all of this on RUclips. Stay warm!
kudos to you guys thats how it was done when i was a kid no grain just grazing just like nature
For us nature is an important teacher. It seems some of the most harmful things in our modern agricultural system arise from trying to control or bend nature to one's will. Thanks for your comment!
Always interesting and well presented 🐄 🐄 🐄 🐄 🐄
Glad you enjoyed it! If anything it was just nice to see green grass (even if only in a video) during the depth of winter!
Your land is beautiful and reminds me of Northwest Maine. Blessings
Thank you! Yes, we are very blessed to live in some beautiful country! I like Maine, but never made it up to the NW part though. Thanks for watching!
Very interesting. The more input the better. What you are doing is working! Thanks for sharing.🐂🐂🐂🐂😷👍
We have definitely been excited to see improvement in our pastures in just 3 years of adding the cows and rotational grazing. Farming is a lot of observation and adjustment. Always learning, always!
Beautiful, healthy cows, and gorgeous pasture. You are making a beautiful dairy farm.
Thanks, Gary! We always wanted to have a beautiful farm because we want to work in a beautiful place. Sometimes farming is incredibly hard, and at those times it is important to have a nice view when taking a break.
Good video on a timely topic. My goal is grass fed milk in spite of the fact that we currently have no grass. Keep up the good work.
I bought Logsdon’s Homesteading book in 1978. Been a fan since, but I missed “All Flesh is Grass.” I will buy that one for the title alone and count everything else bonus.
Shalom
I remember finding his Homesteading book in a used bookstore in Bellingham, WA one day when my ship was in dry dock there. Of course I bought it! Even in death, his blog has been preserved and I find myself still going there to read from time to time.
I’m longing to be grazing again, but am thankful for the hay we have in the barn. I refer to our hay as “stored sunshine”.
Always appreciate your comments! Thank you!
I'm still trying to get the grazing figured out. Thanks for the encouragement.
So are we! Haha! Don’t let being perfect get in the way of being good!
Another grazing day on the Farm. Sounds good to me :)
Sounds good to us too! Bring on Spring!
Between the pandemic and getting buried in snow, Spring can’t come soon enough
Yes! We agree!
Great point on the grazing environment at 2:25 ! Average rainfall is gonna dictate everything about a farm or ranch . We would average 45 to 50 inch rainfall in south Indiana . The neighbor grazes his heard on our pastures and works out great for both parties as if it weren't for the cattle grazing the clean pasture would be taken over buy tree growth with the rain we get .
I really like your rotational setup at 5:30 , beautiful countryside you folks have !
Thank you! One joke we like is when folks ask how much rain we get, we reply “all of it”... Getting the water to stay on the farm is a cornerstone of regenerative agriculture. Thanks for watching!
Good morning guys, great job as usual!! One thing I would offer, in my limited experience, and reading. Maybe instead of tightening up the cows in the spring and picking up speed in the summer, I’ve read, and attempt to practice, when the grass is growing fast, you move fast, when the grass slows down, so do the moves. Anyways, just food for thought, great job!!
Hi there! Yes, trying to manage the cows to the grass growth can be challenging at times! This last year we ended up haying some of our pastures in the Spring when the grass was getting ahead of the cows. As we get more cows, it’ll give us a bit more flexibility in management. Thanks for watching!
Very good books! :-D
Thanks for watching!
Love your last statement about farming being an experiment :} we used to say in the Old Coast Guard "its a fluid battlefield" so you better adapt :} love your Jerseys :}
I was always partial to “embrace the suck”! HaHa! Farming really is an experiment. We’ll do our research, try something, and it’ll work or it doesn’t. Even a failure results in the knowledge of how not to do something! We just try and improve a little each year. Thanks for watching!
@@vnthomas16 So true but that is why Coasties do so much better than everyone else You my Friend have common sense Love your farm and I must say we Covet your barn and milking parlor ours is over a 100years old and could use a update :} stay safe and Semper P
that is a great systom
Thanks! We are constantly learning, but so far we find it works well on our farm. Cheers!
He Was a great wtiter
Yes, he definitely had a way with words! Hope you are having a wonderful winter.
Thanks for another fantastic video! From my experience, when do the cows or other animals get out? Guaranteed, when you are in a hurry and have to go somewhere! Church on Sunday morning, going out to eat with friends, or when there is an important appointment, they seem to know!
Ha! That is so true! We had a dairy friend whose cows got out on Christmas and ate the neighbors carefully trimmed hedge bushes! Husband: "The cows are out." Wife: "But it's Christmas Eve." Husband: "And that makes it about the right time. We better grab a pie for the neighbors." Oh, the joy!
@@vnthomas16 That was a good idea of getting a pie for the neighbors!
@@vnthomas16 Peace on earth to all people of good will (so they wil not get as upset about your cows on the holy day) :)
Cool
Thanks for watching!
Leuk onderwerp. de mest . gras. wat ik zie dat je het gras te lang laat groeien . hier zit geen voedings waarde meer in . gras niet langer dan 1foot lengte. je kan wat lang hooi gebruiken voor de pens werking. De mest omzetten in compost . Kijk naar cnc compost.
Dat was van Dokter Pfeiffer systeem . brengt grote humus waarde. Ik kan hier uren over praten.
We proberen te hooien of grazen voordat het gras volwassen is. We kijken naar compostering. Bedankt voor het kijken!
Checkout New zealand type farming all based on grazing its my favorite type of dairy farming
Our entire farm is built around New Zealand grazing genetics. Thanks for watching!
What type of alfalfa pellets do you feed? Is it the pellets or cubes? We supplement our dairy cow just with a dairy mix ration we get at the feed store, but I know there is mixed grain in there I would rather transition off of that to be grain-free. Thanks for the videos.
We get organic alfalfa pellets from Modesto Milling (California) that is sold through our farm store here in WA. You should be able to source some type at a farm store near you. We find the cows love them and we can mix stuff in easily like kelp, and then any tinctures we may need (garlic, arnica, etc.). We use them just as a supplemental treat, most feed value still comes from grazing or hay. Good luck!
Do you clip the pastures to enhance the mid to late Summer grass?
We clipped a little last year, but we want to try to do better this year. That and dragging them too. Every year we just try and do a little better!
Would be cool
To have a dairy farm
It’s a lifestyle we enjoy. I say “lifestyle” rather than “job” because it’s so much more. We enjoy producing nutrient dense food for our neighbors.
@@vnthomas16 hope to visit your farm someday
Daisy and Carnation not so sure about that camera in the field?
Always. They always wonder "what is that weird black boxy thing?" Lucky that day Daisy didn't go lick it and knock it over into a cow pie!
What Type of pushing states were they In the video Orange and white ones
We use Gallagher fence posts. Thanks for watching!
No list of grazing books would be complete without mention of Greg Judy.
Sure! He is also a great resource as is Joel Salatin and the Stockman Grass Farmer as well as lots of others. The books we shared were just a start and not a complete list. We are not perfect and constantly learning. Cheers!
Did you plant any grass to start and if you did what type?
We planted our entire farm to Smooth Bromegrass in 2011. Prior to that (and our ownership) it was in annual crops. The Smooth Brome is good, but now we’re focusing in increasing the diversity of the sward. Thanks for watching!
Its one of the hardest things to control in my 30 years of a dairyfarmer and the wheather is the only reason for it, we milk 65 cows and try to graze from mid april until half oktober only during daytime. But when Everything is working its easy and lowcost milk for sure. Only downside in our case is the high milkproduction ,you have to feed the cows otherwise they won t hold on at least our cows, the herdaverage was last year about 9600lt in 305 days, thanks and greetings from a Dutch dairyfarmer
Always great to hear your perspective! We'll have a video in February or March addressing our costs and production. We too graze mostly from April to October or November. Why do you not graze at night? Do you have a certain amount of milk you have to make for a quota or is it to make a certain amount of money from a lower milk price? Just curious. Thanks!
Its hard for the cows to produce only on pure grass, in our situation at least thats what i think we have to feed cornsilage grassilage and grainpallets to maintain the condition and the milkproduction and the european quota dissapered in april 2015 but now we have a sort of manure quota per acre and a P quota per cow so again we are limited to produce at high cost,glad you asked and youre welcome
How long is your milk good for once opened?
We date it at 17 days, but we’ve heard it’s good for at least 3 weeks. Thanks for watching!
How many cows do you want to get up to
Definitely no more than 12... But I think we’d be more happy at 6-8. Thanks for watching!
How many hay cuttings do you get a year?
On grass, we take one cutting, and then usually at least two grazings afterwards. We get 2-3 cuttings of Alfalfa.
@@vnthomas16 the reason i asked because has your herd grows you will need more hay to make it through winter. Now a days you have to be careful from who you buy hay from because some farmers use pesticides or chemical fertilizers on their hay fields.
We’re certified organic and can only buy certified organic feed. We have a little ways to go before our herd matches the potential of our land!
@@vnthomas16 how many cows can your land support and how many acres do you have?
We have 40 acres. Not sure how many it could support. 20? Maybe more as our land becomes more productive.