I am 18 and started managing my grandpas cow herd around 3 years ago. At first he was reluctant to let me have any control but he has started to realize that I know what I am doing and is giving me more control. Over the past three years I have gained a lot of knowledge from experience but also from the internet. Rotational grazing has been one of my most valuable tools and has helped me bring the operation a long ways.
What he preaches just seems to make sense. We bought land and are in process of building, so no animals out there since we don’t have a water source yet. But I plan on following his techniques for moving the cattle daily (less than 12) and following them with chickens. Going to try to work in lambs and pigs, but still learning.
@@jeffhuntley2921 yep that is where I am going to start too probably. I want to jump right in and go for the big guys, but I will cool down and come to my senses soon hahaha. I am so ready to try it, but we aren’t moved yet. Was at Tractor Supply picking up some things - husband takes off to get what we actually went for while I wander over to the baby ducks and chicks. He comes walking by and says “not yet” and starts moving me to the register. It was like I was a little kid staring at puppies in the window LOL What breed of pigs are you raising?
@@firehorsewoman414 it’s good to have the whole family on board when taking on a new farm addition. We’ve had great luck with our yorkshire duroc mixes. If you’re keeping a boar for breeding I would suggest putting a ring in his nose. Mistake I’ll only make once:)
Wow right around the 9 minute 30 second Mark he explains that regular sorghum is not good for livestock because during drought conditions it builds up a lot of a certain type of acid that turns into arsenic in your livestocks blood and explains why it's better to plant Sudan sorghum if you're going to be planting it.
Even some sorghum x sudan hybrids are prone to that (basically result in cyanide poisoning). Some seed varieties are bred to be less toxics. Sheep are less susceptible though. Read up on symptoms and if you see it in cows move them immediately Another reason to never plant monocrops
I am intrigued with this! We purchased 10 acres in Arkansas and its very rocky and hilly...but I am trying to stop soil erosion and planted the hill in front of our house with chicken friendly plants so they can forage...the roots will help and the decay each year should rebuilt the soil. even this first year, i saw a population explosion of crickets, bugs etc...I started a compost area to bring back worms.
Wow. Learned ALOT!!! We just turned our row crop 6 acres into pasture and of course didn’t do it correctly. So I will be taking this knowledge and do better this year.
We plant cereal rye and buckwheat as a crop to broadcast perrrenial seeds into. Sometimes we roller crimp it afyer seeding but usual we let the cows/goats walk it in...works every time
I really enjoy watching how so many different farmers and ranchers manage their animals. Of course down in the Southeast it's a lot different than what we have here in Northern california. So, it's achievable in certain respects even though we have a different climate different soils we need to adapt to where we are. I don't have the benefit of being able to irrigate and most of my grazing is on slopes so even doing cover cropping or supplemental seating is extremely difficult and near impossible. However I do agree with being able to move the animals around more often has improved the soils most measurably.
Great video, but I think most folks don't have the luxury of starting with row crop land--rather the only option is forested woodland for most new farms as it's basically impossible to find productive pasture or row crop fields for sale, and if you’re able to find good fertile tillable farmland the price is astronomical compared to uncleared woodland.
@@whitefarms3274 very good point. I don’t have any direct experience with Silviopasture but I’ve been very intrigued with it and would like to try it on my property, at least at a small scale at first.
@pacodefrancis7235 Shade improves the animal's efficiency quite a bit, not sure the exact numbers, something to look into. Anywhere from 5-20% improved efficiency is the average I got from chat.openai for chickens, sheep, cattle, and pigs. God bless
Certainly was a hobby for personal consumption, but I used electric fencing in a narrow cleared path to get my sheep eating undergrowth. Then cut and burned the trees. Not fast, but it worked
So true - all we could afford was woodland, but that's okay! We have no shortage of wood, so lots of free heat and free building materials. Forest is also perfect for raising pigs, which clear, till, level and fertilize the earth so it can be be cleared afterward and then used for plant crops or whatever ;)
I am John Simeon Barkar, commenting from Sierra Leone west Africa. I am amazed by your video and i have learnt a lot from your video. I am planning to start livestock farming in my home town as i already have a land.
Bought 8 acres 6 of it was tow crop land as soon as I could I planted peas clover wheat rye triticale let it go to seed to cut in this year before we got our cattle
Wonderful episode! I have been trying with cover crops in east Texas and had many struggles..finally paying attention and making progress. I wish I had this 2 years ago! Few additional suggestions for fellow commentators: - If you have over 50% weeds, till it over just before spring or fall rain then broadcast cover crops densely. Don't waste time spraying. Don't keep tilling each season. - Start with NRCS mix. It's pretty cheap ($1/lbs) and multispecies. Buy as local as possible for adaptability - There's some valuable research by A&M. For Southeast Texas, sorghum-sudangrass, sunn hemp, cowpea and buckwheat was summer cover crops with the most potential while triticale, oat, mustard and Austrian winter pea were the top winter cover crops - You need to have winter AND summer cover crops. Unfilled space will get taken over by weeds. Teach your cows to eat weeds though (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wAUoNtOFbCE.html) - I like to mix in about 15-20% perennials with 80% annual covercrop mixes. Annual ryegrass/white clover (both reseeding) for winter, and about 1lbs of Bermuda/acre for summer. Eventually you'll get enough perennial re-growth to not need cover crops. I am still looking for a perennial warm legume (if anyone has experience with LabLab, reseeding annual lespezda or illinois bundleflower I'll greatly appreciate it). - Terminating cover crops at the right moment is less important when they won't survive the heat/cold anyway. Crimp, mow or re-graze when you're ready to plant the next season then either no-till drill or disc lightly and broadcast into the worked soil. If you want to fertilize, granulated chicken manure is amazing and easy to broadcast - Pick whatever is cheaper and practical but if you don't have cows yet a good used crimper roller is an investment that you can sell later. Mowing costs a lot in diesel and does not work or last as much for weed suppression.
9:11 Not super important but sorghum does not cause Arsenic poisoning. Arsenic is an element and can’t be created, but prussic acid can cause cyanide poisoning (HCN).
That's what I'm looking thru the Comments for, to see if anyone corrected the prussic acid error. Thank you. I wish they would have put up a text bubble correction. Makes me wonder what else is incorrect
Morning. Just working out how to use this mobile /RU-vid system. Sorry. Lol. I run a horse farm on 75 acres, but LOVE to be able to change my way for the VERY FERTILE land, to become very self-sufficient. ( Not sure what tho)
To test for grazon you can have your animals eat some of the hay and use some of their manure mixed in soil and try to grow a dicot. The most sensitive wants to graze on I believe are beans and if it's sprouts and then later in early development the leaves begin to wither you will know that it's contaminated with grazon. Might be able to test by soaking some of the hay and water and using that to wet your growing medium to see if it contains grazon but I'm not 100% sure of that way but it might work. Grass is a monocot and plant with two leaves starting out are dicots and that is what Grazon glyphosate kills. To remediate your soil you can plant sunflowers and then when they're done growing they will have sucked up the gray zone from your soil and do not throw them into your compost bin you need to throw them away to make sure your soil doesn't get re contaminated. Do that for a couple years and it will really remove it.
watching from the philippines soon to be working abroad and be able to take care of a good breed of animal and be able to get experience abroad happy farming and God bless😊.
My question is, where do you keep your cattle when your pastures have to rest. Like if you‘ve moved through your pastures and they are still growing back. In the early days of your rotational grazing, when your pastures are still developing, do you just paddock the livestock and feed hay until it‘s time to put them out again, so the grass has a chance to grow?
@@ericedwards9658 They showed previous crop land with just bare dirt covered in hay. Then they showed it as lush grasses, and said they feed their cows on the ground so the seeds from the hay and the manure from the cows improves the soil. Then they use rotational grazing to improve the forage. At some point in between, the cows can‘t be moved because the forage hasn’t grown back enough to move them. Where do the cows go during that time? Or when it isn‘t growing season?
Ethan states he started with 1 cow calf pair and a bull on 10-acres. Depending on your land you might need to start with an animal like chickens and seeding after the chickens go through. If you've got lots of brambles or invasive maybe start with a few goats or sheep instead of cattle. He's also feeding hay throughout each field and the seed from the hay is going to help populate your pasture with desirables. Look up Jaime Alizondo's videos too as he goes into creating a winter stockpile pasture. He also works a lot in dryer areas in case you don't have abundant rains.
It depends on how much land you have, pay attention to never graze to less than 4" and preferably not graze more than 50% of the grass. This spring we had tons of rain you could rest it 2 weeks and it'll grow back up. In the summer it's closer to 40 days. You'll need to feed hay when you're starting. Develop 1 third of your property at a time so it does not all sit there. Learn about stockpiling, etc..
Anyone have good practices for planting annuals into dormant land that wasn't necessarily crop land without using herbicides? I'm working to reclaim some old hay ground that has been neglected for many years. I grazed hard and unrolled hay on it in the spring and then used an overseeder to plant Sorgum Sudangrass. It kind of worked, but the weed pressure really stunted the sorgum so I didn't get a lot of tonnage. It came in great where the soil was bare.
Prussic acid yeilds cyanide not arsenic. Stressed plannts can be mowed, dried and used for hay. The prussic acid/cyanide will evaporate but arsenic is an element and won't evaporate. Some land has more than other, some plants take up more arsenic than others .
Smartmix at the green cover seed company. I want to increase my grazing pasture for cattle. What do I put as the termination date because grazing Fields don't have a termination date, right?
Namibia 🇳🇦, we have 271.816 acres and farm with Dorper sheep and Boer goat. Rocky terrain and depleted and eroded soil has degraded pasture. Need help replenishing the land.
Main concern is bloat with high protein and moisture. Especially when there’s more than 50% legumes. A quick google brought up these results from MSU Pastures are made up of 50% or more of the legumes listed above that cause bloat Hungry animals are first turned into a new paddock or pasture Pastures are wet from dew or from rainfall at turn in Alfalfas are in the vegetative stage and have not reached blossom Animals are given large areas to graze that take over a week or more to graze down Animals are turned into legume pastures after a frost When the animal’s diet is 100% pasture based God bless
@@TobyElGato thanks yeah that’s my next step is start reading college Agg edu pages, I’m in early research stage as well as I haven’t purchased. Moving accross the country with a bunch of kids as not cheap so saving for that as well, I’m blessed to have a Vererans loan for house and property so I can purchase with 0 down through VA loan. Thanks for the info
