{"id":1952,"date":"2013-04-13T19:11:13","date_gmt":"2013-04-13T23:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/?p=1952"},"modified":"2013-04-13T19:17:13","modified_gmt":"2013-04-13T23:17:13","slug":"and-so-it-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/and-so-it-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"And so it begins…."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2012-04-12<\/a>….tomorrow, with our main herd of mama cows, calves and steers moving from the last of this stockpiled grass into the pastures that will be their home through the spring and early summer.\u00a0 Not quite mob grazing…we’ll be putting only about 75,000 pounds pressure per acre…less if we think it’s wise along the way.\u00a0 And we’ll be moving them very fast at first….at least fast for us.\u00a0 Daily.<\/p>\n

There is considerable debate among cattlemen about when to turn out cattle….recommendations range from “first green” to 10 inches.\u00a0 We are agnostic on this and just do what feels right.\u00a0 This evening, after about five days of very warm temperatures and some rain, it simply felt right to get started.<\/p>\n

Average grass height four inches but growing fast.<\/p>\n

If you want a more\u00a0scientific approach, we offer this supplied by our friend, Ridge Shinn.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/matronofhusbandry.wordpress.com\/2013\/04\/10\/its-complicated\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year was the second of applying the grazing techniques we learned in a pilot project sponsored by Holistic Management International.\u00a0 The first year, we cut our hay usage in half.\u00a0 This past year, we took the main herd all the way through the winter and fed hay only one day, a day of freezing snow.\u00a0 The cows could have managed without it but I work for\u00a0a “softy”.<\/p>\n

It was HMI’s Ian Mitchell-Innes who counseled us not to worry about rules, just watch the cows.\u00a0 In the past year, it worked for us.<\/p>\n

PS:\u00a0 for those of you paying close attention, our Italian rye is finally coming up.\u00a0 Those 20 acres will be held back until the stand is really established, probably about the first of June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

….tomorrow, with our main herd of mama cows, calves and steers moving from the last of this stockpiled grass into the pastures that will be their home through the spring and early summer.\u00a0 Not quite mob grazing…we’ll be putting only about 75,000 pounds pressure per acre…less if we think it’s wise along the way.\u00a0 And we’ll be moving them very fast at first….at least fast for us.\u00a0 Daily. There is considerable debate among cattlemen about when to turn out cattle….recommendations range from “first green” to 10 inches.\u00a0 We are agnostic on this and just do what feels right.\u00a0 This evening, after about five days of very warm temperatures and some rain, it simply felt right to get started. Average grass height four inches but growing fast. If you want a more\u00a0scientific approach, we offer this supplied by our friend, Ridge Shinn. http:\/\/matronofhusbandry.wordpress.com\/2013\/04\/10\/its-complicated\/ Last year was the second of applying the grazing techniques we learned in a pilot project sponsored by Holistic Management International.\u00a0 The first year, we cut our hay usage in half.\u00a0 This past year, we took the main herd all the way through the winter and fed hay only one day, a day of freezing snow.\u00a0 The cows could have managed without it but I work for\u00a0a “softy”. It was HMI’s Ian Mitchell-Innes who counseled us not to worry about rules, just watch the cows.\u00a0 In the past year, it worked for us. PS:\u00a0 for those of you paying close attention, our Italian rye is finally coming up.\u00a0 Those 20 acres will be held back until the stand is really established, probably about the first of June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pasture"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1952"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1957,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions\/1957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}