The Natural Farmer · Winter 2014-15: Grazing

The great herd on the Arkansas [River] through which I passed ……. was, from my own observation, not less than 25 miles wide, and from reports of hunters and others it was about five days in passing a given point, or not less than 50 miles deep. From the top of Pawnee Rock I could see from 6 to 10 miles in almost every direction. This whole vast space was covered with buffalo, looking at a distance like one compact mass, the visual angle not permitting the ground to be seen. I have seen such a sight a great number of times, but never on so large a scale. -from “The Extermination of the American Bison” written by William T Hornaday in 1889.

The term ‘mob grazing’ means keeping large numbers of cattle on a small area of land and moving them frequently. The land then enjoys long periods of rest before the cattle return. It is mimicking how huge herds of wandering bison or wildebeest or caribou used to move through an area, trampling and grazing all around them before they departed, literally, for pastures new, leaving the grasses to grow, mature and reproduce once more. [Read more…]

One of my pet peeves is the assertion — that I read so often in the writings of well-meaning but poorly informed people commenting on the food system – that livestock production is wasteful of land, water and resources badly needed to feed people.

I know they have read some diatribe by a militant livestock opponent about the number of people who could be fed on the amount of corn and soy being consumed by an American beef cow at a typical feedlot. Not only do they not question the healthfulness of feeding people on so much soy, nor the wisdom of exposing these imagined starving people to a diet of 100% GMOs engineered by Monsanto, they don’t even conceive that the feeding of large amounts of grain to ruminants is unnatural, a product of modern industrial farming, and as much anathema to friends of livestock as to their opponents. [Read more…]

Popular convention in the UK and elsewhere says that grass should be grazed at the three-leaf stage. Beyond this, it either puts up a seedhead or, as it puts out a fourth leaf, the first one dies, so three is the magic number. Popular convention may be wrong!

Neil Dennis is a Saskatchewan farmer who runs cattle in mobs of 1,000 head. He packs them in tight and moves them every couple of hours. He’s been mob grazing for a decade now and he says his land has changed out of all recognition. [Read more…]

4Carbon dioxide + water + energy = carbohydrate + oxygen + water
or 6CO2 + 12H2O + energy (sunlight) = C6H12O6 + 6O2 + 6 H2O

It’s as simple as this. A plant takes carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere plus water out of the soil and converts them into a simple sugar (a carbohydrate) which is stored within the plant to be used either as a future energy source or the carbon is used to create the ‘backbone’ of the plant (starches, cellulose etc). Whilst locking up the carbon, the plant emits life-giving oxygen (plants are the source of all the oxygen in the atmosphere!) [Read more…]

A panting cow may be a sign that not all is well within. Whilst I was at Greg Judy’s mob grazing school, nutritionist Mark Bader explained the role of nitrogen in the diet, and how an excess of it, in the form of urea, reacts with the haemoglobin in the blood and reduces the blood’s oxygen carrying capacity.

He says cows breathing hard is often a sign of too much protein in the diet, something they get from grazing pastures when they are all leaf and hence high in protein, rather than a combination of leaf and stalk, when the carbohydrate:protein ratio starts to become more balanced. The cows pant harder and harder in an attempt to get enough oxygen to their muscles.

‘Farming in Nature’s Image’ is a simple and very successful concept. It means working with nature, making decisions based on what would happen in the natural world if Man wasn’t interfering.

Mob grazing is one example – I’ve already talked about the massive herds of grazing animals that used to roam the grasslands of Europe, Asia and America and which mob grazing, albeit on a small scale, tries to emulate.

The growing of cover crops is another example. Nature hates bare soil. She will do her utmost to cover it, firstly with fast growing weeds, forbs and brassicas, then with legumes and grasses and finally, if the climate is favourable, with bushes and trees. Nature also hates monocultures. They are never seen in the natural world. Instead, different species fill different micro-niches in the same area, the result being a mixture of small and tall, leafy and woody plants all occupying the same area of land. [Read more…]

I was shown something counter-intuitive on Blain Hjertaas’s farm. He outwinters his cattle, setting out large round hay bales in rows across the chosen fields during the preceding autumn. During the winter, electric polywire restricts the animals’ access to the bales, being moved every two or three days to allow them to get to new bales. In effect the cattle are kept in a mob to consume the bales as well as the grass (which Blain has left ungrazed in that field for some months previously). [Read more…]

I have a question for cattle farmers: What do you sell?

The chances are, your immediate answer would be something along the lines of “Store cattle!” or “Beef!” or “Fat cattle!” Wrong. Try again…..

Hmmm, how about “Grass?” Getting closer…..

Give up? The answer is sunlight! You are capturing light energy and converting it into a saleable form. It is as simple as that. You are virtually unique in this (maybe solar or hydro-electricity are almost there, though they always require some manufactured products before they can function). [Read more…]

Tyler, Melanie and Wyatt lead cows to pasture

When it comes to agriculture, every state seems to have its rivalries. In Illinois and Iowa, bragging rights over which grows the most corn are serious business at harvest time each year. In Vermont, it is milk. Addison County, west of the Green Mountains and centered around Middlebury, claims the most dairy acreage. But Franklin County, at the extreme northwest of the state bounded by Lake Champlain and Canada, wins the contest for number of dairy farmers.

One of those, proud proprietor of Stony Pond Farm in Fairfield, is Tyler Webb. Not a farm kid himself, Webb, now 39, grew up in Rochester, NY.

“Anthropology was what I was interested in when I went to school,” he says. “Then I realized that the rise and subsequent fall of every organized civilization in history was due to soil erosion and over-grazing. That inspired me to be interested in sustainable agriculture and ecological design. I wasn’t a great student, but passed enough classes in anthropology to get an undergraduate degree in that with a minor in plant and soil science.” [Read more…]

My wife, Holly, and I are new farmers. After long careers in the financial and consulting world, we left the concrete jungle of Manhattan for the agriculturally oriented North Fork of Long Island. After one season working as an apprentice at a local organic vegetable farm, we launched Browder’s Birds Pastured Poultry Farm in early 2010. This year marks our fifth season raising certified organic, pastured egg and meat chickens. We were enamored with the rotational grazing model Joel Salatin made famous and was so eloquently discussed in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Salatin’s own books, Pastured Poultry Profits and You Can Farm provided further detail into the system. We were determined to mimic his system as best we could given our situation. We started with absolutely nothing in terms of infrastructure and leased a 5 acre parcel as part of a New Farmer Initiative created by the Peconic Land Trust. The only problem with our poultry rotational grazing model was we didn’t have a lead herbivore. At Salatin’s Polyface farm, his cows mow down the pasture and leave behind plenty of cow pies that a few days later generate maggots. Chickens love maggots, so he grazes the chickens on the mowed down pasture and they feast on the forage and maggots. [Read more…]

The Benefits of Good Pasture Management

When done correctly, livestock grazing can create many benefits for the environment, plants, soils, animals and farm income. Pasture plant quality and soil health can improve, animal welfare can benefit, feed costs can go down, animal performance can increase and farm finances can become more sustainable.

A high producing dairy cow grazing in a diverse, high quality pasture uses her tongue to grab a mouth full of pasture. This photo was taken just as the herd was turned into one of the new paddocks they get after each milking. Photo by Sarah Flack

Good grazing management can change pasture plant species without tillage and reseeding, by just using animal impact from grazing. This can convert weedy brushy pastures, where animals have to search to find good quality forage, into highly productive pastures, which feed more animals higher quality forage.

These improved pastures provide low cost, high quality feed, which is particularly helpful for farmers facing rising feed and fuel costs. With high quality pasture in the ration, farms can decrease the amount of purchased grain and forages. Other cost savings can come from having cows harvest their own feed instead of paying for fuel needed for mechanical harvest, storage and feeding. [Read more…]

Dairy Cows graze 7 year-old pasture improved by Holistic Management at Dharma Lea. Photo by Phyllis Van Amburgh

There has been much talk in the last few years about pasture, grass, grazing, and grass-fed. You might say we are experiencing a sort of forage renaissance. Astute farmers want to know how to manage their grassland. They want to know how to become regenerative farmers. We have good news: the knowledge is already available to us. There is actually a glut of information, enough to keep a farmer busy researching for countless reading and Youtube-ing nights. And there is better news: there is also a way to make sense of this information, to organize it, and use it. The problem of degraded land has existed for thousands of years, but at least one man, Allan Savory, has dedicated his life to finding a solution and putting in place a simple, universal, framework for tackling what has become the greatest challenge humans have faced –ecosystem degradation. In many parts of the world this means desertification. In our part of the world it is low crop and hay yields, pests, weather extremes, and sub-optimal animal and human health. [Read more…]

Rotational stocking requires pastures to be subdivided into individual grazing units called paddocks. The size and number of paddocks depend on the level of pasture productivity, stocking rate of livestock, and the desired residency period. Individual paddocks are grazed one at a time, in a planned order, with livestock occupying each paddock long enough to harvest the existing forage, but not so long as to allow grazing of regrowth to occur. After each paddock is grazed to the desired forage stubble height (which depends on the plant species and grazing prescription), the pasture is allowed to regrow and regain vigor before again being grazed. [Read more…]

This aerial photo is Troy’s home farm. The road runs up and down on the right edge and the land rises as you proceed to the left, or westward. Photo by Jack Kittredge

Agriculture is still one of the largest industries in New York state. It contributes 5.7 billion dollars to the economy each year, and occupies almost a quarter of the land area. That importance is obvious as one travels through central New York along the Mohawk River and the route of the old Erie Canal and sees the gently rolling hills, large fields, and occasional barns and farmhouses.

Troy Bishopp is privileged to be a fifth generation farmer at one of these farms, Bishopp Family Farm in Deansboro, southwest of Utica. The farm, once a dairy operation like so many in New York, boasts 101 acres – most of them lush pasture sitting on a limestone hill. Several springs in the middle of his land have been piped to fill tubs that water animals, providing an excellent year-round gravity fed plumbing system. The paddocks containing the tubs are left open so that animals in nearby paddocks can always have access to water. [Read more…]

The vast majority of plants found in pastures in the Northeast region of the United States (U.S.) are cool-season grasses, legumes, and forbs. These plants begin growth in spring soon after snowmelt and are most active when soil temperatures are in the 40 to 60 degree F. range. Root growth begins at cooler temperatures than shoot growth. With the increasing soil temperatures of summer, growth slows. However, once fall returns and soil temperatures begin to cool, growth rates pick back up. This change in growth rate over the growing season produces a distinct seasonal pattern of production in most all cool-season grass and legume pastures such that about 50% of the seasonal growth occurs during the first 2 to 2.5 months while the remaining 50% is produced over the remaining 3.5 to 4 months. [Read more…]

Growing demand for grass-fed dairy products is encouraging more farmers to try zero grain rations. Organic milk buyers are now paying a premium for this “Grassmilk”. In addition, some dairy farms direct marketing raw milk or farmstead cheeses are interested in zero grain dairying.

But zero grain dairy farming is not easy to do, which is why there are still a relatively small number of farms doing it successfully. Some of the successful zero grain dairy farms transitioned to zero-grain 7 to 10 years ago, and continue to find it works well for them. Other farms made the transition to zero-grain more rapidly, due to financial pressures caused by high grain costs and in some situations, due to unpaid grain bills. This year, there are more farms transitioning to zero grain so they can get the organic “grassmilk” premiums. Back in the 1990’s, there was also interest in zero-grain dairy production. Some of those farms, along with farms trying it today, found it worked for them, but others found that their cows did not do well, and that milk production was too low to cover farm overhead costs. [Read more…]

When a prescribed grazing management plan is being developed, there are several important factors to consider.

Water

Water is an extremely important part of a grazing plan and the more accessible it is to the livestock, the better. However, this does not mean that every paddock requires a separate stock tank. In some cases a stock tank can be placed in a fence line and serve two or more paddocks, or with some creative fencing, one source of water can supply the entire planned acreage. In addition, by using a main water line with plug-in points and a 100-foot garden hose, stock tanks can be placed in different locations within paddocks thus eliminating trampling losses and mud. The primary concern is making sure that water is available to the livestock at all times and that it is of adequate quantity and quality. Grazing management plans for lactating dairy cattle should include a source of water at least every 300 feet. Other classes and kinds of livestock should have a source of water at least every 1,000 feet. [Read more…]