This video was really helpful, and I can't tell you how excited I was to find someone detailing rotational grazing on small acreage. I believe we may be neighbors! I live in Waddell, AZ, and I'm pretty sure I recognize those mountains 😊 We just seeded the pasture and I'm hoping to set up something just like this for our jersey cows and goats!
Thank you. First of all, I learnt about rotational grazing. No doubt it is good for the cows and as well farm owners to manage. I love the idea of moving the electric fence around rather than making a fixed fence. If you collect the manure and spread or drag, then you may have evenly grown green grass. I really appreciate the way you have explained and put it in action. Thanks.
It really does work. I was determined to try it, but I have to confess I had my doubts. But no more, this is the way to go. Now my neighbors are wanting me to graze their pastures too!
Dude! This is a great video!!! We are about to get our first dairy cow (yikes!). So how much did you seed on that annual winter rye? I spend $200 on 4 bags and it barely made a dent on my 5 acres of pasture. Thanks!!
Thanks. Yes, you need about 2 bags per acre. It's expensive! That's why I let it seed out so I can get good cover with a bit less seed every other year.
Is your poly braid hot ? Saw you grab it an then hook into a cattle panel . Great looking grass ! I just got my high tensile hot fence up and the cows are on their first temporary paddock
Thank you for showing me. I have heard a soil test and a bit of lime to start usually to make a more neutral soil then thistle and other weeds will not want to grow as much…a thin layer of rock dust( azomite? ) for micronutrients as well…shade for them?
Interesting. I’m in Utah also a desert and that looks super green for this area! Haha. I’m trying to figure out how much land I need for two cows to graze and stay fat. I’m looking at fencing costs and watering costs just trying to see if it’s something I can even do with my budget. Do you buy hay in the winter or grow your own? Did you install a sprinkler system? How do you water your grass?
We use flood irrigation. Search our channel for flood irrigation. I have several videos about it. During the late fall, we feed a little hay, but I try to keep them on grass as much as possible.
@@savingmiller thank you for your help! You’re doing great things in the last days. Many people are trying to go self sustainable as much as possible to prepare for the revelations in the scriptures to be fulfilled. God keeps all his promises and He will send His son
I wanted to try this on my 4 acres of farm land. I have existing weeds n grass mix from the old farmer that abandoned it. is 4 acres enough? how many steer on 4 acres? also, should i seed a particular type of grass? trying to go for non gmo, organic..
Kareem Farhat I honestly have no first hand experience, however if you added 3-4 goats 🐐 🐐, they’d definitely help you with the weeds. From the research I’ve been doing lately, goats and cattle are ideal co-livestock to run, as they prefer different feed
The number varies a lot. Check with your state agriculture department. They often provide AHU or AMU to help determine this. For our year round, irrigated pasture, I can easily do one AHU per acre. But natural pasture is often much lower, at least to begin with. Regarding grasses, choose a grass that grows well in your climate. We have Bermuda for the warm season grass and annual rye for the cool season.
I initially bought one from TSC. but it was garbage. Don't buy theirs. Now I have a Solar IntelliShock 60. This one works really well to move around with the animals. It will sit on a t-post or on the ground and is pretty powerful. The cows do not question its authority. I'm not necessarily recommending this one but I do like it. Here is the link: www.premier1supplies.com/p/intellishock-60-solar-fence-energizer?cat_id=245
We have 3 steers now. It is divided into 3 large paddocks. Then we use electric fence and give them new grass morning and evening. We vary the size depending on the conditions of the grass.
The yellow is a 6 strand from TSC. I do not recommend. The white is a 9 strand from Premier 1. It is quite durable. I will be using it as I replace the yellow.
Actually, the bermuda grass is very prolific. The bare spot is completely covered with grass now. I think you can see it on my recent video about the winter pasture.
Awesome video! Is the string you put up for the subdivisions electric? It looks just like a normal string from here. Also, do you need to constantly take down and put up these fences to move the cows?
Yes, the string is poly wire, so it is electric. It has poly strands and small wire strands that actually carry the electricity. This makes it much easier to wind up the fence on a reel. So yes, we move the fences twice a day. We've gotten pretty good at it, so it's actually not that hard.
Do you or have you considered occasionally using a drag to drag the section after grazing to more evenly spread the manure? If you have a lot of chickens that can work good too. Do you plant new ryegrass every year? What about the burmuda for summer?
We do have the chickens and ducks on the pasture behind the cows, so they do an excellent job of spreading the manure. It usually is completely gone in about a month. This is the first year here on the farm. I let the ryegrass go to see then mowed it, so I'm hoping that it will seed itself this fall. The bermuda is growing now as the rye has died off, so we are almost finished transitioning to the warm season grass now. My goal with this is to have grazing grass year round.
Absolutely. A bit of a difference, though, since sheep eat a bit differently than cows. You may need to plant the right pasture. Our goats are just getting used to the rotational grazing and seem to be doing quite well with it.
Hey Marc! I have a question about rotational grazing and milking. How do you go about bringing in cows? Do you bring them in all at once and keep them fenced in close by or something?
Sadly, we do not have a dairy cow yet, although we are almost ready to start looking for one. We're hoping to keep raising the steers and add a cow. We do have plenty of grass. I would probably bring them all in at once. Herd animals like to stick together. I have a stall that they can access most of the time for shade and backup water. It's nice to have them there and it gives us a nice supply of manure.
Yeah I have done that, with our cows, it does makes a difference which if you think about it, it's pretty much common sense, like it's no different than how they would of been in the wild pa sides in lot of areas..lol but inerways yeah that does help, if if you have enough acres to rotate them but ryegrass usually does grows a bit faster;) but by the way if you don't know for sure? But those look like cows but there actually not...lol but inerways good video.👍 sir.
Yup, these are definitely steers! Yes, the ryegrass grows really fast for about 2 months, but we are close to the end of its cycle and the bermuda is starting to come up for the summer.
Just bought about ten acres and hoping to split it into four 1.5 acres paddocks. Plan on starting with 4 steer and move paddocks every ten days. You think that’s a manageable plan?
It should work fine. Keep an eye on the grass to help you with the timing. Can it recover fully in 30 days? If not, you could use electric fence like I do to split up the 1.5 acres into smaller sections so the grass has more rest time. A lot depends on your type of grass and climate. I have to graze very differently in summer vs. winter.
Yes, the summer grass goes dormant and the winter rye doesn't grow much till late January. So we feed some hay starting in November till the end of January typically. But we do keep rotating during that time.
I do give them a mineral mix to supplement. I didn't get into the chicken part, but yes, they follow the cows several days behind and make sure the manure is spread well!
Actually, I do very little with bare patches. I make sure the cows spend some time there by putting their water on the bare spots, but I let the grass come in on it's own. The bermuda is very invasive so it usually only takes one season or so.
I vary it based on the grass. The rye in this picture only needs a week. During the summer, the bermuda gets about 2 weeks. But then I vary it some based on other needs as the seasons change. But generally a 2 weeks minimum for us. Some grasses would need more.
I think it would certainly be possible. Horses can be tricky, because they don't provide much nutrition for the grass. Also, it depends on the types of grasses you have and how much moisture you have for the grass. But a good rotation program is always going to help maintain healthy grass.
The warm season grass is primarily bermuda. In this video, it's annual rye that we plant for the winter. Not a great feed, but better than nothing I suppose.
I don't know if I would call the rye a cover crop or not. Basically, we have the bermuda, which is a perennial warm season grass, and then we overseed the annual cool season rye over it. So it does kind of act as a cover crop. And the rye is a fantastic feed for cows. That's the grass you see in this video. Once it went to seed, then they eat the heads as well. So I think it's a very good late winter to early summer feed. Just have to watch for bloat.
@@savingmiller wow that's actually quite simple and effective feed for the cattle. But some plant 8 to 10 species ot even 15 species in their pastures that include legumes , grasses and forbs. They say diversity increases health of soil and cattle. So have you ever considered doing that and is it even worth it.
If cows have plenty of fresh grass, a single strand electric fence will easily guide them and they won't bother trying to go elsewhere. They don't like getting shocked any more than we do.
I measured it at 2.1 acres in total, divided into 3 paddocks. One is about half the size of the other two, which are roughly the same size. I vary the daily grazing area based on the amount of grass.
It's amazing to me that more people don't do this, he results are a amazing. The very few people I know who do this have such a stark difference in grass quality and production compared to the neighbors it looks like two different worlds.
My thoughts exactly. However, most traditional farmers have relationships with the big feed companies who convince them that using feed is going to get them faster growth and more profits. So they stick with them in hopes they can survive. And then smaller farmers like me go to the feed store and there are all kinds of feed that just look so great and it seems like the right thing to do. We have been heavily marketed into thinking animals must have feed. It's really hard to change that mind set. Even for us, I really want to feed the chickens, even though they can mostly eat from the pasture! So we do still feed them.
These two steers are a total of about 1800 lbs. I have 2 acres that they graze and they can't keep up. I'm going to add another 400 lb. steer soon. I think I can easily have 3 steers and maybe 4 eventually.
very depends on how much forgae grass growing on one acre durning the season. Folks in wet climates and with errogation probabbly will do better so can afford more cows per same land unit. I have wild grasses , 3 acres, no cultiwation can do with 2 cows and 2 acres i make hay from
Please.....why would anyone compare them self to Joel ? Every farm operation is totally different from the next . Do whats most efficient for you.......move on. Never try to relate to another farmer / operator. You do not know or understand their operation or situation !
