Sprite's calves are back on her property

The pasture in the upper-left portion of the image were not mowed because it was too soupy.

The cattle moved easily. They do like that festulolium. Even though I had a bucket with corn in it, they still stopped and grazed the areas I planted.

The variety I planted, Duo, is a very light green so it will never be a lawn grass.

I did get them into the paddock on Sprite's place where we agreed it would be good to start the rotation.

Then, we pulled the back-blade off the Kubota and installed the brush-hog. Sprite is a great help and not afraid to yank on something heavy to get it to move.

Then I took it over to my pasture and  mowed.

There are a bunch of good reasons to mow the pasture after the cattle move, especially this time of year.

For one thing, I suffer from hay fever and grass pollen is my kryptonite. Orchard grass is the worst. We are a week away from the grass pollinating. mowing the grass now removes the seed heads that generate the pollen.

Another reason to mow is that the grass that the cows did not eat this time around will be even less palatable in four weeks. It is better to cut it now and to get the nutrients back to  the soil.

Cattle eat by gripping a mouthful of grass/clover and ripping it free. As the stems become more woody and tougher, it becomes almost impossible for the cows to rip the grass loose. It is much better to cut the stemmy grass and then the blades of grass that follow are much less likely to be too tough for the cows.

Another benefit of mowing is that it encourages clover. That land of milk and honey you read about....yeah, that means they had lots of clover growing there. Clover is good. Clover is short and susceptible to being shaded out if the grass is allowed to get too tall.

The pasture is still very wet in places

Hercules photo-bombing

This is what the sward looks like when the cows eat it down. It is about 1-1/2" tall versus the 6" the brush-hog leaves. Ideally, I would be able to mow it to three inches but that is not what the equipment is capable of. I will take what I can get.

The disconnect/diagnostics are coming along. Handle pointing down so 3/8", rubber tubing does not fill with water. Hot wire into the bottom and load wire out the top. The rubber tubing is about 4" long and it is to extend the handle to keep my fingers far away from the circuit.

The sensitivity of the device can be adjusted by spinning the "electrodes" and increasing or decreasing the air gap.

Probably not the best wire to use, but it works for now.