From the Pastures: Before the first frost

It’s been a beautiful dry fall, almost too dry. I checked my records and found 2019 and 2020 were so-so for rain, 2021 was a wet fall and 2022 and 2023 were dry. With all the talk about an El Niño weather system, I sure hope we get a lot of moisture this winter because we need to recharge the soil moisture. But you make your prediction. What do you think?

On May 25, I drilled in my summer annuals of leftover corn and soybeans, pearl millet, brown mid-rib sorghum x sudangrass and turnips into the existing stand of cereal rye, red clover, chicory and plantain. This was to thicken up the bare patches in the field and to give me some feed if it didn’t rain. And you know it did not rain for a while, but the established deep-rooted plants kept growing enough that I could lightly graze that field one month later. Then it rained and everything sprouted and grew, including the weeds, which is very nutritional for sheep.

I didn’t get back to that field until Sept. 12 and the sorghum was waist-high by then with the pearl millet close behind it. On Oct. 15 I measured spots of the sorghum x sudangrass at 7 feet tall and pearl millet at 6 feet tall. No, I didn’t put stilts on the sheep’s legs so they could eat it — they figured out how to walk it down between their front legs and eat it.

They are putting on weight and looking good and leaving some residual behind. I’m just trying to get it eaten up before the first frost and I think we’ll get her done. Also the corn did put on an ear with kernels and they are eating some of the ears along with some soybean plants, turnips, red clover, chicory and plantain. The above-ground livestock have as diverse a diet of forage as the below-ground microbes have of roots. This should help the soil health a lot.

I moved the ewe flock to the farmettes — that I made hay off of in June — on the first of August to take the pressure off the forage at home. The old girls are cleaning up several farmsteads to make them look nice for the winter.

Speaking of winter, I drilled in my winter annuals Sept. 15, which was later than usual, but I was waiting for some rain. While I was waiting for rain I grazed the wheat stubble and all the weeds that came up after the rain. I got two weeks of grazing for the ewes with their lambs on them and then I weaned off the lambs and kept the lambs on my farm and sent the ewes to different farms.

Enjoy the fall and the many colors. It’s a gift from God.