Still a Pretty Good Time

Napping on the hunt: Maybe this explains why they’re not having much luck

We’ve got about another week before we can turn the cows out to pasture, though we may push that up a bit. We have plenty of hay remaining but as mentioned earlier, we struggle to keep up with the grass once the spring flush hits in full. Getting them out a little early helps keep them on top of things, even if it’s not ideal for the health of the pasture they’re hitting before it’s quite ready.

Our grazing strategy has evolved over the years. It’s still not perfect, but it’s clearly working. Just a few years ago, there was a marked difference between the health of our pasture and the vibrancy of Melvin’s adjoining hayfield. His grass greened up sooner, grew faster, and generally looked better than ours. That’s no longer the case. In fact, just yesterday Melvin and I were shooting the breeze and he mentioned how he’d been up in the hayfield and he’d noticed that our grass was, if anything, a bit ahead of his. “You’ve done good work up there,” he said, or something like it. Melvin doesn’t give throw-away compliments, so you’ll forgive me if I admit to feeling pretty darn self-satisfied for the remainder of the evening.

When we first got cows nearly a dozen years ago, we had one reel of polywire fence and a couple dozen fiberglass posts. For the first two summers, we constructed haphazard paddocks of varying size and shape. We had no real intentions beyond ensuring that our new friends had grass to eat. Over the years, as we added animals and fencing materials (we now have six cows, which through the magic of artificial insemination are about to be nine), we developed something approaching a plan.

Our roughly 10-acres of pasture run along a northeast-southwestly axis in a sort-of rectangle, which we divide into paddocks along the short side of the rectangle, leaving a lane along the top that returns to the water trough. Each of these paddocks is enough for approximately 24 hours of grazing; I generally divide them in two so the cows get moved twice each day, morning and evening, although on days that are particularly full, we’re not afraid to give them the whole paddock, just to save the 10-minutes or so it takes to do the evening move. Sometimes 10 minutes makes all the difference.

That said, when we went to 2x/day rotations four or five years back is when our pasture really took off. Prior to that, we’d moved them every 24-48 hours, and while that was certainly better than turning them loose to do their bidding, it’s amazing the difference 2x/day rotations has made. I know of graziers who move their cows 3-4x/day, and I can only imagine the results. But I don’t know of any graziers who are moving their cows 3-4x/day AND gittin’ done all the other stuff we’re gittin’ done, and at some level, you’ve gotta be realistic. Or at least not drive yourself insane.

I’ve written before about how much I like moving cows, so I won’t get all sentimental on you again today and instead just note that it’s a heck of nice pair of bookends to the day. The morning move generally happens around 5:30 or maybe quarter-to-six; the evening move around 4 or 4:30. If it’s a hot day and I’m sweating (not uncommon, as our pasture is quite hilly), I usually hop in the pond on my way back from both moves and do you know what’s better than that? Nothing, that’s what. Well, maybe seeing your children being born. Maybe the upcoming Pretty and Gritty show. Maybe your wedding day.

So maybe moving cows and jumping in the pond is only number four. That’s still a pretty good time in my book.