Learning to change how you do things...
October 23, 2020
One of the struggles you have as a cow farmer raising grass fed beef is how to more economically provide grass options for your grass fed beef. Problem is Mother Nature does not always help you out either with not enough rain or it snows etc. The other part of the equation is learning what you can do to help stack things in your favor to provide your cows with the best grass they can eat.
We have 8 pastures we rotate from. The most we have ever planted in ROW (Rye-Oats-Wheat) for winter pastures has been 4 total. After brainstorming we decided to go all out this year 2020 and do ALL of the pastures in Rye-Oats-Wheat with fertilizer. So with careful planning we have rotated the two groups of cows we have to the last 2 pastures with grass from the summer and have actually replanted all the remaining 6 pastures with Rye-Oats-Wheat. Probably in the next 2 weeks or so we will begin the process of providing alfa pellets with hay until our first 2 fields are ready for the cows to go on for winter grazing. I am praying this will help us keep the cows happy and we will not have to feed so much of the hay and alfa pellets this season.
Will keep you posted on how this pans out. Hopefully God will bless our labor and we will get enough rain and learn how to rotate on winter pastures (it is totally different than rotating in spring and summer pastures in many ways) These cows bring such joy to your soul! They have such pleasant personalities and you learn to love each one of them as you get to know them! Thank you Lord for providing us with such wonderful cows as the Dexter Breed!