From the Barns: From the ground up

The 2020-2021 winter grazing season was finished up here at River Oak on Friday, Jan. 22. That concluded 66 days of grazing our stockpiled fescue and red clover. We were running 104 head of yearling heifers and a pair of lead cows. Overall the program went very smooth with no heavy snow and moderate temperatures for easy water supplies. That winter graze yielded 76 animal units per acre, an impressive amount considering the dry fall we experienced. We did observe the heifers showing some reluctance to consume the very driest fescue leaves, a scenario we usually don’t experience.

I am happy with the condition of all the paddocks we grazed, even though there were a few days that resulted in a little pugging from either light rain or melting snow. The condition of our new south 20 paddocks remains undetermined since we were attempting to graze the heavy red clover stand to allow the grass seedlings a head start next spring. We hope that was not overdone. We plan to frost seed fescue and no clover there this month.

Speaking of which, it is frost seeding time. However, I don’t think we will be out there with the ATV seeder just yet. We are looking at 10 days of very cold temperatures and as of yet an undetermined amount of snow. I really don’t like to place frost seeding in very much snow, since runoff and or pooling can cause losses. A little snow is welcome to help application accuracy. We have several different recipes for different paddocks to try and improve each according to their needs. Most will still receive the common 3 to 4 pounds of red clover per acre.

For those of you who have been traditional and continuous graziers and are thinking about making the change to rotational grazing, you might want to check out the online zoom series entitled Regenerative Grazing Fundamentals that was scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Feb. 11 and continues Feb. 18 and 25. You would need to register at: https://thelandconnection.org/event/grazing-series.

Don’t be scared off by the term regenerative grazing. Those of us who have been at it for a while, that is, Adaptive Management Intensive Rotational Grazing, didn’t coin that term. That new term is what happens when too many soil scientists and desk jockeys get interested in the practices. Also, it sure is a lot harder to say regenerative than rotational.

Jane and I felt good to receive our first COVID vaccine at the local Hy-Vee store on Jan. 27. That was a whole week ahead of when the local bureaucracy, the health department, finally announced a method to schedule — free market at work. Stay safe and sane and take in a virtual grazing event.