-
Not an approaching storm…
…but an approaching lime truck. Our pH averaged about 5.8 across the farm and we decided to bring it back up over 6.0. We’re adding one to two tons of dolomitic lime per acre…depending on what soil testing revealed. I think this is the best investment you can make in a pasture. It not only kicks up the yield and feeds soil biology, I’m convinced it is one of the reasons Thistle Hill beef and pork just tastes better! IMHO Good timing too…if we can get it all down. Two days of rain coming to soak it in. Incidentally over the years we’ve found some difference among soil tests…with the…
-
Living in a resort…
…that’s what my 18 years at Thistle Hill have felt like. The farm has been in the family a lot longer…almost 75 years. And now a new generation…the fourth…is beginning to take hold. Grandson Church Humphreys is managing our Devon cattle herd and showing the same appreciation for the setting in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia that his great-grandparents fell in love with. Cutting through the picture…and the farm…is the beautiful Rappahannock River…the stream legend has it George Washington threw a coin across. (Actually a pretty easy toss). And no farm is complete without its fishing hole…and thanks to grandson Luis Gentry we’re well-stocked with large mouth bass perch,…
-
Grass update….
We’ve never gone into the fall and winter with this much reserve grass. It’s called stockpiling and Church is stockpiling about 70 acres which is just over half our total acreage. The best I ever managed was about 40 acres. This field was underwater the first part of the year. We think it’s switchgrass…a native grass that does particularly well with “wet feet”. An adjacent pasture with reed canary grass handled the flooding but not this well. The trick now is to get it consumed while it’s in this nutritious stage. Eventually it will probably grow to about 8 feet and be unpalatable. But for now it takes the pressure…
-
Starting second pass…
…after about 45 days rest. Grandson Church says too many weeds though that’s not apparent in the picture. We calculate we have about 54,000 pounds animal weight per acre…just about a quarter of what we really need to see the results off mob grazing. At this level the cows can still afford to be selective. And there’s only limited trampling affect. The obvious answer is to reduce the size of the paddocks but that brings up the question of water and shade. Yes, we could bring in more cows but it’s almost breeding time and again this year we’ll be testing several young bulls after ai-ing. Interesting choices for a…
-
Second pass…
…after a 45-day rest period, we’re bringing the main herd to where we started six weeks ago. The clover stand predominates…probably 60-70%. Church took the phrase “overseeding” too literally last winter. We may adjust paddock size this time around. We could use more trampling effect. Again trampled grass is particularly beneficial in the hot weather as a kind of armor coating for bare soil. It also breaks down and is beneficial for carbon sequestration and organic matter. Wanna keep those microbes happy! And all that clover adds nitrogen to the soil…saving tons of fertilizer which keeps the treasury happy! That much clover dominated the regrowth of our grasses…but the cows…
-
The good, the bad and…
…alright, the ugly. We’ve certainly answered the question: can you overseed fescue. Grandson Church did just that last January, using a small spreader between light late-season snowfalls. As you can see there was considerable success. You’ll also note some wayward red clover…perhaps in the bulk seed bag but also possibly from earlier years. This much clover will provide all the nitrogen our pastures could possibly need. Now for the bad…a confession: this will certainly serve our goal, which was to provide warm season grazing; an antidote to the endophyte fescue. But as you can tell by the seed heads, we’ve let the orchard grass get ahead of us The best…
-
Watching grass grow….
The definition of “boring” may be watching grass grow but whoever said that was certainly never a cattleman. We’ve finally started strip grazing and here’s an after-action picture of the first paddock. The untouched grass is behind the electric wire in the background. This was the result on a half acre with 30 cow/calf pairs in the first day. Church has decided to add eight more two year olds to increase the trampling and manure distribution. We’d also like the main herd to clean up some of the weeds. Maybe on the next pass. This paddock will rest for about a month…depending on grass regrowth. It’s trial and error while…
-
Here they come…
The main Devon herd stretched out across Thistle Hill at sunset. No fuss or bother as they follow grandson Church for close to a half a mile. Do they understand that luscious green grass awaits? They do certainly trust Church’s leadership and sense of purpose. Outriders, sticks and herding dogs not necessary. Once they’ve regrouped they’ll begin a daily rotation of fresh grass, roughly an acre at a time. They have to be this well trained after all because Church has college to attend and can’t be late. After a few days they’ll be waiting for him at the entrance to the next paddock. He won’t even have to whistle!…
-
That didn’t take long…
What a difference five days makes. Grass is now 8 to 10 inches. We’ll have to move fast or risk falling impossibly behind. Grandson Church is erecting the stakes for one-acre paddocks and the main herd of 30 cows and their new calves will have an acre a day. Look carefully and you’ll see a healthy stand of clover. Out of curiosity Church turned over a shovel of dirt. Look carefully near the top and left of the picture and you’ll see earthworms. I count five in less than a square foot. Again note the clover…and the organic matter. Enlarge all our blog pictures by simply tapping on them. Healthy…
-
So Jim Gerrish knows….
…we practice what he preaches. The experts say the cows get about two-thirds of the best hay. The rest is not wasted but trampled in creating organic matter and feeding the microbes. Add in the fertilizing the cows do as they roam around and our fertilizer bill is precisely “zero”. We do need a minimum application of lime though…if the fields ever dry out. David