Farmers develop grazing system for cattle herd, sheep flock

CLARE, Ill. — Cattle and sheep graze on permanent pasture, cover crops and crop residue on Pasture Grazed Regenerative Farm in northern Illinois.

“We start our grazing season about the third week of May,” said Dan Sanderson, who together with his wife, Hattie, own the farm.

“For the permanent pasture, we divide it in 30 pieces,” explained Sanderson during a Pasture Walk organized by the Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition. “We have 25 cows and we move them every day.”

The perimeter fence is 48-inch woven wire.

“I put a barbed wire on top and we use polywire to subdivide the pasture,” Sanderson said.

“I don’t let the cattle into the creek because cattle will stand in the water,” he said. “Sheep will jump over the water and won’t stand in it, so I let the sheep graze down to the water.”

Sanderson likes having the two species grazing on the farm.

“The sheep are great companion grazers — they eat things that cattle won’t,” he said. “The sheep keep the trees and brush from filling in the creek.”

The goal, Sanderson said, is for the cattle to graze half and leave half of the forage.

“It’s hard to match your stock density to your grass,” he said.

The 160-acre farm is certified organic. In addition to the permanent pasture, the farmers grow oats, wheat, corn and soybeans.

“We plant red clover with oats, so our hope is 30 days after harvesting the oats, it will be ready to graze,” Sanderson said. “We also plant cover crops that includes oats, peas, rapeseed, sunflower and sunn hemp.

“Today we are in our winter mode, so I have a hay feeder in the cattle yard. I built this feeder out of guardrail and it seems to be cow proof.”

“When the ground freezes and we start to get snow cover, we do bale grazing in the field,” he said. “We set out 200 bales and I give them six to eight bales once a week and then move the polywire.”

Sanderson takes the net off the bales and lays them on their side.

“Don’t lay them on the end because they will take on too much moisture,” he said.

The 200 bales typically feed the herd for the winter.

“They’ll probably calve there, too, and they’ll have access to all of this all winter to pick whatever crop residue is out there,” Sanderson said. “The hay they don’t eat, they sleep on.”

Calving season on the farm in DeKalb County in north-central Illinois starts about April 1 and lasts 60 days.

“In early December, we vaccinate and castrate the bull calves and they go back out with mom,” Sanderson said. “I want one herd during the winter so when I’m feeding hay it’s just one spot.”

Calves are separated from the cows in March and fed until October. The hair sheep lamb on the pasture from late May to June.

“I put up four rolls of electric net fencing and put the sheep in there every night during lambing,” Sanderson said. “They lamb unassisted and pretty much take care of themselves.”

The lambs from the flock are sold to Halal Farms in Shannon in northwest Illinois.

“They like 70-pound lambs and I got $4 per pound on hanging weight,” Sanderson said.

“We butcher 24 head of cattle and 10 pigs each year and most of our business is quarters and halves,” said Rosie Trump, Sanderson’s daughter. “We pre-sell all the quarters and halves and we take a deposit when you put in your order.”

Demand for meat from Pasture Grazed Regenerative Farm is strong.

“We sell out every year and I have a wait list for 2025,” Trump said. “We could sell more, but we don’t want to put more pressure on our pastures.”

During COVID, the livestock producers decided to open a farm store for selling their meat.

“People wanted to buy meat from us, but they only had a fridge with a little freezer so they couldn’t buy a quarter beef,” Trump said. “So, it started with two freezers in our shop.”

Customers can order meat from the farm’s website, but they must visit the farm to pick up their meat.

“That’s part of the experience, people can come to the farm, look at the animals, talk to us and a lot of customers like that,” Trump said.

“If you need your meat shipped, we’re not the farm for you,” she said. “But there are plenty of farms that are doing that.”

The cattle are grain finished using the organic corn and oats grown on the farm.

“We get a lot of questions about the grain they’re eating,” Trump said. “Our customers prefer no GMOs or antibiotics and we don’t use growth hormones.”

This year the Sanderson family added Grandpa Dan’s flour to their farm store.

“We started milling some of our organic corn, wheat and rye,” Trump said. “We are trying to figure out how to market value-added products.”