From the Pastures: Walk on the dry side

The Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition had two pasture walks last week that I attended. The first one was from 1 to 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 8 by Quincy. It was at Dean and David Dedert’s cattle farm. They talked about and then showed us their twin-row corn spaced 8 inches apart with 60 inches to the next twin rows. Then they planted cover crops into the 60-inch spacing about 20 days after they planted the corn. It was quite the thing to see.

They have the corn harvested now and their yield was comparable to regular 30-inch rows. In about one month they will turn the cows into this field to graze the corn shucks and cover crops. It will be interesting to see how the cows do because there is a lot of dry matter out in the field. Of course, they have been dry, too, so that stunted the cover crop.

The next pasture walk was in better dirt in DeKalb County. They, too, have been dry and the permanent pastures show it, even though the dirt is blacker. The Saturday afternoon pasture walk was on a multispecies grazing operation of sheep and cattle. They also graze cover crops and sell meat directly to customers. The 160-acre livestock farm is just a small part of a larger corn and soybean farm, but they have this rougher ground along a creek that works out well for livestock.

To add value to his crops, Dan Sanderson has gone organic on the livestock farm’s oat and wheat fields and grinds that grain and sells that to his customers. He began his journey with regenerative grazing after attending the first Soil Health Academy in 2017. Even though Dan is a lifelong farmer, he has tried many farming practices over the years.

The goal of the Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition is to help support livestock producers in building profitable, sustainable grazing operations. We do that with grazing schools and pasture walks, so you can sit and learn, but also go out into the field and see the results.

Both pasture walks had a mix of beginning and experienced farmer grazers, numbering between 20 and 30 people. There was plenty of time to network and see and handle the fencing equipment at both pasture walks.

For more information on the pasture walks — the last one is on Dec. 14 by Ina — go to www.ilgrazinglands.org. They are looking to hire, so you might find a job, also.