One Goal Done!

We have so many things we want to get done on this farm. Unfortunately, there is never enough time or money to get many of them accomplished.

Little by little, we make painful progress.

This week----- we made big strides! One of our goals is to begin rotational grazing to reduce our hay input and improve our pastures. On top of that, we can increase our stocking rate and maybe----- just maybe--- we might make a little money.

To do that, we need fence...... Lots of fence. Seth has been a real trooper. He got a barb wire fence strung up across the entire south end of our pasture. Now, we are using hot wire to run temporary grazing strips in that big paddock.

Late yesterday afternoon, we hitched up the hot wire to the first grazing lot, called up the cows and shut the gate behind them. We put a water trough in there and hoped for the best.

This morning, we filled up the portable water tank in the back of the truck and headed out to refill the trough. Guess what????? They are still in there!!!! One big calf slipped under the hot wire in to the next strip while we were there but he got buzzed pretty good. The plan is to move them over to new lot tomorrow.

If all goes well, this will get us at least 14 days grazing before we start putting out hay. This doesn't sound like very much but it will make a world of difference. Round bales of hay are running around $45-$65 each.

Just before I put the cows in the lot, I spread rye grass seed over most of that area. The idea is that they will walk over it and basically plant the seed for me. If we ever get any rain again, we will have more grazing available very early in the spring/late winter. Again, saving us hay.

The big goal is to get the entire pasture divided up to rotational grazing. That will take us a while...... but we have at least STARTED!