Convert bare dirt to beautiful grass pasture using animals. Follow these steps to turn your bare dirt field into a lush healthy pasture for livestock. The animals do most of the work with your management guiding them.
We bought 2 acres it was an alfalfa field for decades. They sucked every last bit of life and happiness out of the land and left us with dust. Thank you for this video. There is hope... 😢
Shalom and Howdy Mr. Greg. Why I never thought looking and spreading cow patties would be so interesting. I tell you and anybody who wants to know, you are the best teacher ever was in Cattle and pasture. Blessings to you and the family!
@@nickwojtow6787 In the fed, whitehouse, wall street, Hollywood, any place of power of influence they say shalom nowadays. Its americas unfortunate reality.
Absolutely! A small 1/4 acre under hoop frame plastic and another 1/2 acre of food crops outside and you can make your mortgage, taxes and insurance. Then buy a small place and rent all you can around it! Life is good!
I just started watching your videos and have learned a lot. I started unrolling my hay this past week. I’m stoked to see the outcome. I’m tired of looking at bare dirt.
I love your message. I’ve been sharing a lot of your videos on Facebook lately trying to drive traffic for you and help you spread the word. You’re doing great work Greg.
I'm in awe at that amazing looking herd of cattle Greg. Anyone can look at your herd and see how happy, content and well nourished every single one are. God Bless my friend.
@@movinon1242 I agree totally, this time of year it's nothing to see cattle fields that are mud holes especially around a round bale feeder and the cattle looking like hogs, covered in so much mud. Greg has definitely got it right!
Hi Mr. Judy, I'm a pretty new subscriber and binge watching your videos. Incredibly inspiring! I've placed my first ad today looking to lease land got a reply back on 8 acres. Unfortunately no water source on the property. But I got started! Thank you for all your generosity here!
I may some day get to do that on my neighbors farm. It used to be pasture when my neighbor was growing up 80yrs ago. She allows farmers come in & plant corn or soybeans. Told her I want to rent the land. & 1st thing I would do let it a year. I might mow it 2x to get whatever grows to be dropped than following yr to put steers on it. I'm loving your videos
It's so enlightening that you are relating regenerative agriculture and healing the soil with human health. If use use regenerative agriculture, we automatically also achieve regenerative health when we eat the produce from it!
I just love listening to you talk -- not only just fantastic information that we can definitely learn from going forward, but just the way you talk is just so genuine. Loved hearing you talk about whipping the cockleburrs! Thanks for being awesome and sharing all this with the world.
This is really informative and specific, I am looking to get pasture land and put in the needed effort to make it healthy for my very small dexter herd i will be getting. Pasture first, then cows come later.
Hey Greg. Would you possibly be able to do a RU-vid video going over your daily routine when you had a day job and were just getting started? I couldnt find a video of you covering that. I also ordered your first book and can’t wait to read it! Should be here today.
Sure wish there was some one you teaches like you about extreme dryland ranching... when you only get 13 in of rain a year its hard to get grass growth like that.
Put the animals that do best in dry places - sheep and cattle, maybe chickens, and go with whatever forage does best in dry places. Might not be grass.
Look up Jim Gerrish. He lived and worked here in MO for many years. Was a contributor at the UM grassland forage researcher at Linneus, MO for many years. Moved to Idaho about 20 years or so ago. He has written books on grazing and others. He is a great resource. He writes for the Stockman Grass Farmer and other publications also. Best regards.
Good morning Greg, I’ve watch so many videos you’ve done and so much information giving on them and learned a lot from you. My question here is when you put hay on the ground how long do you wait till you put mob to graze?
We’re thinking of buying a ragged out farm, grazed to death looks like it has alien crop circles on it, in southern MO, these videos are worth they weight in gold. 👍🏻
Greg, I think you do a wonderful job raising cattle on grass. I do have a question about the process. Can we agree that when you remove an animal from your pastures, there is a net loss of nutrients on the land as a result? It seems unlikely that the animal returns all of the nutrients it consumes. I'm an old retired, traditional dairy farmer and I needed to fertilize to keep the milk flowing. Maybe you can help me understand what I am missing. Thanks and God Bless the two of you.
We buy hay from hay contractors. By bringing outside nutrients from off the farm onto the farm, this replenishes the weight of cattle sold off our farm each year. When you can purchase 1200 lb net wrapped bales for 35 dollars, it makes no sense to bale hay on your farm.
I'm in Georgia .Do you think this method would work for me And do you use a specific type of hay cutting such as first cutting or latter cuttings I'm new at this that's why I have ? .thank you for your channel and all that you do.
I love in a city but this sure is some interesting piles of stuff. I'd be curious to know if you ever tested for any traces of glysophates after your restoration?? That stuff is everywhere... Had to sub, Thanks for sharing..
Greg: I forest mulched to reclaim some overgrown pasture. Was planning on unrolling round bales and putting my little South Poll herd on it. I can have several paddocks. Do you suggest I do as planned or treat it like I dont own it? thanks (have both books)
290 cows on 1600 acres...... only way to do this is leasing land. Folks your not out there to own the land just manage it. But it can be done on a small scale. Im doing it with 4 cows on 2acres. In three years ive gained one inch of top soil and im in the south west corner of Missouri. I believe we need to prepare for a drought with all the rain the last two years. This year i planted perennial native grasses. As i rolled out hay over broom sedge on a new leased 6 acre hay field. Let the cows do all the tilling trampling hay 4 inchs into the mud then ill let it rest for a long time with all the little farm ponds from the pug marks. I just get the cows off before they compact the soil. Bought my hay for 35 a bail this year 1300 lb of fertilizer with good seed heads.
@@movinon1242 sorry i was miss leading i am purposely over stocked to get the right impact on the soil. Im running 2500 lbs on 2.4 acres. I use an extension cord reel and polly wire to move them every day. And to protect the hay bail as i roll some out for them every day i can put a single strand of polly wire around it.
I am new to your channel and I'm starting a small farm soon, and I want to plant Grass what would you say is the best to use ? I'm in West Virginia the land has not been used for over 30 years all I do is mow I plan on putting some cattle on it Love your Videos I found you through Stoney ridge farmer thanks
Man, you have some beautiful cattle. I just purchased some energizers and I’m gearing up to use your technique. We just posted a video on the chargers and gave you a shout out. You are a great mentor/teacher. Question, can you use this technique with weekly rotations vs Daily?
With weekly rotations you will get more plants overgrazed simply because the animals were there 7 days instead of 12 hours. But weekly rotations are a 1000 times better than giving your animals the whole farm at once. So I would definitely go with weekly rotations over no rotating!
Greg, just curious on your thoughts about South Poll vs Longhorns in the Gulf coast of Texas. I know you like the cattle low to the ground, just curious of an experienced rancher's thoughts.
Greg there has to be at least 300 bovine on that pasture. Your full time job is cattle/sheep. How do you get your products to market? Do you sell at farmers markets? Ok in short, once you make great pastures, then what?
What do you think about grazing those big powerline cuts? Is it too risky to not have a perimeter fence? Seems like the utility companies would like for it to be managed and keep the trees from growing.
8:17-9:17.....everyone else but regenerative ranchers will honestly think that Greg Judy has lost his mind solely listening ton this one minute. Truly one of the truest monologues based on pure bullshit...or cowshit...:)
I am considering some very brittle land in west texas, only gets 13 inches of rain a year, pretty much mesquite and bare soil with a few clumps of broom sage here or there. I am thinking chickens first, to try and build out 5 or 10 acres of soil, and once I can get that going, maybe bringing in goats or sheep to maintain it, and the chickens will move over to the next 5 to 10 acres, is is over 100 acres in all, but 10-20% will have to be for rain harvesting. any suggestions, or criticisms of that plan?
I think dragging pastures is a waste of time and fuel. Focus on building healthy soil and the animal life in your soil will absolutely, take care of those manure pats!
We did a test last spring on this very idea of dragging the pasture. One paddock drug in the middle of spring. I agree with Greg pretty much a waste of time, it did not make the pasture any worse but did not notice this paddock looking any better than the ones next to it either. So probably lost a little money on that deal but we tried it and moved on.
Mike Wargo glad to hear that, not enough time and money for any other unnecessary chores on the farm anyway guess I’ll just keep watching neighbors enjoying their time dragging.
Mike, did you establish metrics and measurable goals for the process? Did you measure change in soil composition between paddocks that did or did not get dragged? How can you be sure of the effects? "Looks" and "notice" don't sound very quantifiable...
Greg-I think I’ve watched all you videos and love them. I bought 160 acres between Denver and Colorado Springs. I have plenty of water rights and will have a solar well (to holding pond) irrigation and stock watering system in a few weeks. Do you have any density/rotational advice for the high prairie region? I’ve no-till planted some test sections with a wide mix of cold/warm season and drought tolerant grasses (wheat, rye, brome) and alfalfa. I’m going to experiment on this test plot with and without irrigation. I intend to rotate cattle, goats, and chickens. Appreciate any advice. Our grasses out here are dramatically different than what you have in Missouri. Heck, a truck tire path takes years to come back.
Greg GREAT video, especially the part about the cow pies. Love that! But listen, we need a way to *integrate* crop growing with mob grazing of the type you practice. We live on annual crops for the most part. We need a method to grow those beans your neighbor does but in a way that can combine no till planting, no chemical input AND with cattle on the ground.
Its possible. Gabe Brown is doing it. And Colin Seis developed pasture cropping. He drills annual crops and covercrops into a perennial pasture prepared by sheep.
@@sebastianbroich8458 I agree...I think. Gabe is the closest. I've attended workshops at UC Davis (I think it was there) by him, but I don't see the *methodology* he uses. Does he graze for 2 years and then plant? I don't know. He only mentions it in passing in RU-vid lectures but he doesn't mentioned the relationship between the no-tilling and the grazing. I'd wish he'd go into it more.
@@davidwalters9462 He grazes covercrops only on his arable fields. You do not want perrenial grasses in crops. I found it very usefull to watch ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uUmIdq0D6-A.html because small video's lack the overview needed to understand what Gabe is doing.
The hope is the development of perennial grain crops from the long lived perennial grasses that are cousins to our annual crops. Dr. Wes Jackson at the Land Institute in Kansas is working on this. Once developed, such grasses could be grazed one year, hayed one year, then grain cropped two years. That's where we need to go as an agricultural society.
Greg, question on the going around your burr field to allow the grass to put pressure on the burrs; won't that allow them to grow up and produce seed to create more? Then you get trapped in that cycle. Somehow I'm missing how you got out of it.
Help Greg, please tell me how to fix a dead moon scape. There is a patch of grass here and there but not nearly enough. I accidentally over grazed my heard on it and now it isn't coming back. Do i put straw hay? Or should i put something like wheat hay or field grass? Thank you
You need to give your pasture time to recover from your overgrazing. There is no magic bullet, your pasture will recover with a full rest. Dont graze your plants until they have at least 4 leaves on them, then only take the top third of the plant and move them.
We use the same practices as you do but we farm the field but dont use any chemicals on our hay ground for our cattle we haul all the natural fertilizers but eventually we will get it fenced in
well i have a different but similar problem. old railbed surrounded by pine forest. water doesnt run off it just goes straight down. also years of soil sterilant. tackling it this spring.
Good luck! But realize that reinvigorating that land right may take 2-3 years without much to show for it! But in the long term it will pay for itself :-D
I enjoy your videos, and you have a lot of great insight on grass growing. However, i think it’s an unfair assumption to believe that conventional farming ruins the soil. No row cropper would stay in business long without taking care of their soil in a matter that would produce a healthy crop.
I'm seeing that your getting some commercials as I watch your videos. I'm guessing that's a good thing because you will get paid for putting out the content. That's great, keep the videos coming 👍
I drove by 2 cattle fields yesterday. One the manure was 8 inches high the other where in a sacrifice paddock around a pond with a spring, mud up to their knees. Not sure what that dude was thinking. Some people already have them out grazing 2 inch grass. I just shake my head.
Greg we are in the corn belt, jealous of your grazing situation with not having the row croppers competing for marginal land. Trying to make lemonade out of lemons with grazing corn stalks. I do not like the idea of all that manure going back on the crop fields but they need it. Struggling with gathering more pasture competing with $150 cash rent. Thinking of ways in addition to corn stalk grazing to intertwine the grazing and row crops, any thoughts?
Yes, we need to get rid of grain subsidies, land would be adjusted to the correct price. I found the USDA website the other day that shows what the grain farmers are getting paid by taxpayer dollars. The top tier of them was well over 1.5 million dollars each. How are we supposed to compete against that?
Pre $7.00 corn here there were twice as many pastures in our area. Once the corn price came back down NONE went back to pasture. We as grazers are too small of a fish in a large pond. I think in our area working the Gabe Brown angle is our ray of hope. The low cost grazers don't have the political pull to change the landscape. Large corporations are not going to make any money off of us grazers, we can flip that coin and take that as a compliment as well. Out here on the land doing our thing the way it was intended.
I understand your dislike of subsidies for grain subsidies, but it is unfortunately a complex issue. From a national security/ strategic standpoint, we need to keep farmland in the hands of American farmers. Otherwise we run the risk of the land being sold off for any number of reasons that leave us with less good farmland. Think of how much of California's super-fertile, agricultural land that has urban, suburban and corporate sprawl all atop if it instead of growing fruits and vegetables.o Then there is also the pressure to keep food cheap for the poorest 50% of the country who need calories and nutrition as cheaply as they can be produced. Not everyone can afford to pay $20/ pound for grass-fed beef, or pay $30 for a free-range chicken.grass-fed Corporate subsidies for shitty agricultural practices are obviously an undesirable relic of the Cold War when we didn't want farmers turning Red. But just like farming, we need a holistic approach to agricultural support from the federal government.
"The poorest..." It is a relative term indicating the 50% of society with the lowest incomes (or wealth, or disposable income, etc., all depends upon your definition of the term). Of course, the "poorest" in the U.S. have a greater standard of living and income than even the middle classes outside the Western world. Everything is relative.
We have lot of overgrowth on farm but ye no interest in spraying any poison on it to kill it off id rather do some manual clearing slowly myself than poison the land! like you said look at all the health problems these days and what ppl put onto pasture or crops, bit of common sense goes a long way!
When we first moved to our farm I let a fella put in 2 one acre plots of Tobacco. He promised that the would be better than before...... wrong! I was thinking KY31 and some clover this next week here in Kentucky. At the end of this video RU-vid offered another channel, if you put end screens on of your videos people will click and stay on your channel making you more money. Also you can put a card in your videos were people can click for things like your Grazing School, making you more money. Needles to say Greg you inspire many folk.
A lot of folks have those turned off, so not everyone will see those links. Few stay till the very end, and then a majority have the option turned off (I know I have had them off for almost a decade). I don't know if it would really be worth the effort.
I believe more people stay till the end on Greg’s channel because his content isn’t fill and fluff. I know before he started RU-vid I would track down his stuff and binge watch. I know it makes it easier for myself as the viewer to follow his content. If you look at the comments here people seem to be starving for this information,