Re: Grazing- Who does it?

Posted by RMinVa on January 30, 2010 at 00:22:42 from (67.142.166.29):

In Reply to: Grazing- Who does it? posted by Don-Wi on January 29, 2010 at 19:44:29:

I have a friend that I've talked with for close to 10 years now in Wi. With the winters you have there there's no way you can winter graze as good as we do here in Va. I've(my family) used stockpile fescue since 1957. Only difference from then to now is I use far more of it than then. What kept us limited in winter grazing then was water and fences.Back then we had 3 pastures. Since high tensile electric came about that's now gone to 13 rotations and hay fields are used for grazing and stockpile too. I've never been able to get by with zero hay feeding but have had it many years that I fed hay less than 30 days for the entire year. You can't do that with the snow cover you have there and temps far below what we have here.

All that being said ,you can't go wrong with fencing and cross fencing to extend your grazing in the growing season. Once grass is grazed or cut for hay it needs min. of 21 days of rest before it's grazed again in my area and I expect it's pretty much the same everywhere.

Rotational grazing is a wonderful thing and is different across the country and from person to person. You do what works for you, your farm and your region. I've never been able to cut hay and feed it and get the same growth and health pattern as the cow can do it. They are so good at what they do to go through life. They eat and grow and put back a good % of what they eat. Most folks that haven't figured that out overgraze and wear the soil and grass out. I have stands of grass that have been in production from the early 60's. Only seeding that has to be done here is from drought. If it rains proper the cows do the work here. I just keep them water and a good hot fence around them.

When I call my cows I just holler come on girls and they follow me where I go. We don't drive cows here. They follow because they know it's going to be good where they are going. We cross the highway in 2 places. They have crossed so many times they all know what to do. I can move 90 head across the highway in less then 2 minutes. They are trained. Make it easy on yourself ,rotate and rotate often.

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