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| The growth in my pasture is limited by available moisture. 2021 was a GREAT year for growing. My pasture starts showing moisture stress when rainfall-Evaporation is more than three inches. Overgrazed pasture is much more sensitive. Tall-grass, long rotation is less sensitive. |
The four calves probably average 600 pounds (a guess) and have been rotationally grazed through eight paddocks on about 3.6 acres of upland pasture.
I look at a couple of things when making decisions about feeding my cattle. I look at the height of the grass in the paddock where they are eating. That method does not work so well when there is snow on top of the grass or the grass is flattened and frozen.
Another thing I look at is how full and rounded their midsections are. Full bellies mean they are finding SOMETHING to eat.
Hereford and Hereford crosses were very popular between 1900 and 1960 because they were perceived as "aggressive foragers". It was believed that they could grow and even fatten on range that most other breeds would starve on.
There may be some truth to that. Herefords fell out of favor because they are smaller-framed than the Continental breeds and the Terminal-X Angus sires. It takes longer to reach the magic size that fills the foam trays in the meat showcases.
The flip-side of being slightly smaller is that their maintenance needs are lower.
It may even be possible that the geometry of the Hereford's mouth is enough different that it can scrape out tiny bits of forage where others would skim over. I cannot state yea-or-nay to this claim not having kissed enough cows in my lifetime to form a firm opinion.
Rodents
Three factors combined to make this year a BIG year for mice and voles.
I stock-piled pasture to carry my critters as deep into the winter as I could before having to feed hay.
I supplemented my stock-piled pasture with corn. Large ruminants like cows are not very efficient at grinding up whole corn with their teeth. They slurp id down where it mixes with the contents of their rumen which is a large fermentation vat. Then they burp up a bit of the rumen's contents, chew it a bit more then swallow it again.
That means that some percentage of the corn I feed them passes through their digestive system virtually unchanged. That becomes nourishent for an entire niche of the ecosystem from sparrows, pigeons and wild turkeys to mice and voles. They in turn feed foxes, hoot-owls, kestrels and the like.
The third reason I am overrun with mice is that for the first time in fifteen years Sprite does not have any cattle on her place. She has tall grass and weeds. Heaven for mice.
The classic European small-holding
The classic small-holding is an example of a well-honed system that mimics a natural ecosystem.
While it is possible that it was arrived at by planning and forethought, it seems more likely to me that it evolved as families saw opportunities to capture nutrients and energy one-more-time before it left the property.
The classic small-holding sold value-added products like butter. Butter has almost zero nitrogen, phosphorous or potassium. A small-holding that "exported" butter or wool or cured meat was nearly a closed system for nutrients and could run for millennia with the addition of tiny, incidental amounts of nutrients.
You're just starting hay? Lucky duck... Here in NH we've been feeding hay to our sheep and pigs since Halloween. Last year was great for forage but it went dormant in October. Including yesterday's 800-lb bale we've spent $1100 on hay so far this year and have enough only to get through February. I'll need three more large bales at $150 each to get through until there is good grass in May.
ReplyDeleteOddly, the rainy summer that was so good for pasture made hay scarce and expensive, as there weren't enough clear days in row for harvesting. Still it beats 2020, in which the drought was so bad we fed hay in August.