Quality Pasture :: Chapter 14 Book Report

The final chapter of "Quality Pasture" by Allan Nation is titled "The Next Big Thing." This chapter is just a culmination of the thoughts throughout the entire book and gives one last example of a farmer that is doing things different from the conventional farming structure. Mr. Nation does realize that there are risks in going out and doing something different than the masses, but there is also a great reward. Also, there is a great comparison list of indicators for traditional farm success and quality pasture success. Things like traditional equals big tractors and monocultures while quality pasture equals no tractor and diversity. Or traditional is about producing beef and production per cow while quality pasture is about harvesting grass and profit per acre.

All in all it is a good wrap up for the book and acts as an encouragement for people to get out there and become grass farmers instead of cattle farmers or other livestock farmers. Also, you need to remember that this book was printed in 1995, so twelve years later we are probably further down the road to wide scale grass farming which means there will be more information out there to help beginners and seasoned veterans get started. I have really enjoyed reading this book because of the very technical details that Mr. Nation provides about growing very high quality grass. I would have no problem recommending this book to anyone interested in become a grass based farmer (remember how much I loved the last chapter), but would be especially helpful for someone living in the south or wanting to run a grass and grass silage based dairy operation. While I'm sure that it doesn't go to the complete depths of information, it is a great overview of the ideas and source of specific pasture management plans.

Now, I don't know what I'm going to read! At the moment I am re-reading Joel Salatin's book, You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise. And highlighting some of the most interesting parts for my own encouragement, planning, and learning. But, I'm also finally sending in my subscription to the "Stockman Grass Farmer" magazine which is edited by Mr. Nation. I think that will give me a new source of information each month and I'm really looking forward to receiving my first issue.

Don't forget, you can pick up your own copy of "Quality Pasture : How to create it, manage it, and profit from it" by surfing over to the Stockman Grassfarmer Bookshelf.

Quality Pasture :: Chapter 13 Book Report

I have to say, this chapter and the final chapter were probably my favorite of the entire book. The other chapters were full of interesting information, pasture ideas, and grazing plans, but the final two really hit at the heart of where I see our farming ideas going. Chapter 13 in Allan Nation's book, "Quality Pasture," is titled, "Multiple Species Grazing." Although the chapter is short it gives a nice overview of possible polyculture grazing and it's benefits.

The first option he writes about is sheep. I found this section especially interesting because my dad and I had just been talking about the possibility of bringing some sheep to the farm to do some clean up on old fence rows that need to be taken out or replaced. We were talking about the possible benefits of using sheep as our brush hog and workers and providing a bit of income also. But, Allan Nation mentions some other benefits of adding sheep to a rotational cattle grazing operation. Combining cattle with sheep cuts down on predator problems associated with sheep, they break each others parasite cycles, and there have been studies that show adding the two together increases the performance of both ewe and lamb weight gain while only slightly decreasing calf weight gain. This was encouraging for me and practically makes me want to jump in the truck and head up to the Colfax sale barn! (One other thing he mentions is the option to graze wool wethers, no need to go for weight gain)

Next he brings up the idea of pigs in the pasture. If you have read much of my blog lately you know that I'm extremely interested in this idea. One cool thing I found out from reading this chapter is that cow manure provides an excellent source of vitamin and mineral for pigs. It won't be the only source needed, but it is perfect because that will mean the pigs will be breaking up the cow pies and helping stop the parasite spread and speeding up the breakdown of the manure. There is a lot of great information about pastured pigs in this chapter (the Kerr Foundation research details being one), but since I have talked about pigs a lot lately I won't bore you with repeat information. I will say, that it is almost worth the price of the book for a beginner to be exposed to the ideas in this chapter. It just makes all the great pasture management information bonus!

The last animal he brings up is chickens. It is just a small section and he basically pats Joel Salatin on the back for the work he has done in this realm. I will say that reading it again from another source has practically sealed the deal for me. I now know that I'm going to be getting chickens for the farm next year whether my dad wants them there or not! I think the just add something to valuable to not have them (breaking up cow pies and eating the bugs), so I'll get some laying hens and just feed them a minimal ration ... no fancy laying ration. He'll get a few eggs if he wants, and I'll know that we are helping our pastures!

I believe combining animals so they work together for the pastures and the pocketbook is the only way to go. I realize right now we only have cattle, and chickens 60 miles from the cattle, but I also know that when we make the move to the farm we will start out diversified from the beginning. It may be diversified on a small scale, but it will be diverse so we can really learn what works best and see on a small farm can work! If you can't tell, this chapter really got me excited...

Quality Pasture :: Chapter 12 Book Report

I'll be hitting the blog with a few days of my chapter by chapter book review of Allan Nation's book, "Quality Pasture," because I finished up this week. Chapter 12 is specifically about pasture beef production. This was a fairly good chapter, but again it did seem to focus a bit on larger scale production instead small farms providing food for their area.

One of my favorite quotes from this chapter comes towards the beginning of the chapter. Mr. Nation says, "All pasture management starts with getting your breeding season in sync with your pasture." I think this is one thing that really resonates with me and just plain makes sense. We need to make sure we are following the system that God set up for the animals. God didn't create livestock or wildlife to have their babies in January in Iowa. It is cold, it is snowy, it can be muddy, and there is no growing forages that can give the mother and the baby the energy that they need. Also, when the calving season gets in sync, then everything thing else falls in sync. The cows are dry when the timing is right, the calves are weaned when the timing is right, everything can just fall in place with God's creation.


In this chapter Mr. Nation also outlines a few other business plans for grazing beef cattle. He suggests things like grazing cull cows (you can put some easy weight on them for the burger market and usually 50% are bred), raising stocker cattle on pasture, and finishing cattle on grass. He also mentions some systems of pasture beef management used in other parts of the world. It is interesting to see how few other places insist on feeding corn to their cattle in order to finish them. I think we are missing the boat and spending too much money on corn production for our cattle. God did make the digestive system of cattle different for a reason, and I for one am not ready to try and change God's system!

This chapter was a good overview beef production on pasture, especially at a larger scale. It provided lots of information on different systems and management ideas for beef production. I do enjoy contrasting this with other books I have read, I feel like it just broadens my knowledge base ... if just by a little bit!

Quality Pasture :: Chapter 11 Book Report

Last night I finished reading the chapter titled, "Baby Calf Rearing On Pasture," from the book Quality Pasture by Allan Nation. I will admit that just by the title this was a chapter that I was interested in because I knew that I was going to be raising our calves on pasture and I thought this would give some great tips for having pasture forages that would be beneficial for the calves.

In reality I would say that this is the chapter that I like the least of what I have read so far. In this chapter Mr. Nation talks a lot about buying in dairy bull calves in order to raise them on pasture and grain to obtain a large gain before slaughter. He also talks about raising replacement heifers for the dairy industry. While I agree that both of these ventures can be profitable in the real world (and he does back that up with farmer testimonials), I'm not sure if I agree with it in principle. In my way of thinking a lot of the things he proposes in this chapter go against the idea of a small family farm (which is what I desire Stoneyfield to be). He talks about the benefits of setting up a industry in the United States like the have in New Zealand where a master contractor handles marketing to find dairymen looking for replacement heifers and then sub-contracts out the growing of those heifers. It seems like that is taking control away from the farmer and placing squarely back in the hands of a business or corporation. Again, I do not doubt that it can work and be profitable if you manage your pastures correctly, but I do wonder at the principle behind it. In one way it sounds an awful lot like some of the vertical ownership farm that we have now days. You know, the ones where the farmer owns the land, buildings, and buys the food, but a company owns the animals. And, if you don't have the right land, right building, or right food they will take the animals away from you... It just seems like a system that would only slightly fix the farming problems in America not bring about a needed paradigm shift.

I realize that we are never again going to be a country full of family farms proving all the food needs for the surrounding areas, but I do believe that it is something we need to strive for. I believe we need diversified farms around our communities not single aspect farms like those talked about in this chapter. Maybe I am a little too idealistic, but I believe that is what we need to work towards.

So, did I learn anything in this chapter? Sure I did, I have more understanding of pasture management and how to make a highly nutritious pasture for baby calves. But, more importantly I believe it has made me think about the "business" of farming and how I would like to see that "business" working. At least in my case...

**The picture above is of a little calf from Cascade Meadows Farm located in Oregon. You can check out their website by clicking on their farm name.**

Quality Pasture :: Chapter 10 Book Report

I just finished up reading chapter 10 of "Quality Pasture" by Allan Nation. This chapter was titled, "Seasonal Grass Dairying". I knew from the title that there wasn't going to be a lot of specific information in this chapter that would be useful for any operation that I was thinking about at the time, but it was still a good read. Dairying seems to a be an art, kind of like baling or just about all farming, that takes a good amount of knowledge about animals, health, forages, and more. I'm not about ready to tackle that right off (did you read my post about the farmer who hit the end), but I did find a lot of interesting nuggets in this chapter.

The most encouraging thing I read was the examples from real life farmers who are making grass based seasonal dairies work. So often when you mention some ideas you find from sources such as Joel Salatin, Allan Nation, the Stockman Grass Farmer, and other books/periodicals you get the standard Iowa farming tradition answer, "well, that won't work for you or here". But, this chapter proved that there are plenty of guys out there that are feeding forages for their main feed and running a seasonal dairy for a decent profit. Plus, the get the benefit of a few months off!

Another interesting thing is how America seems to be lagging behind in terms of thinking outside of the grain box (or should I say bushel basket). One interesting piece of information comes from Carl Pulvermacher a Holstein grazier from Wisconsin.

"He said his 68 acres of pasture land currently grosses #1430.70 per acre ($1305.20 from milk and $125.50 from meat) compared to only $402 from his corn ground (162 bushels at $2.50 - grain is higher now - per bushel)." -Quality Pasture by Allan Nation (pg. 186)

It seems like sometime our farmers would catch on to things like that ... but, maybe I'm just missing something? Please let me know if I am!

The last thing that I found really interesting in this chapter was a list of cost cutters for most dairy producers. While it is geared for the dairymen I thought it would be just as important for a beef cattle producer:

1. Get Your Breeding Season In Sync With the Pasture


2. Stop Grain Farming


3. Concentrate On Cutting Feed Costs


4. Minimize Machinery Costs


5. Increase Stocking Rate


6. Be Realistic About Animal Genetics


7. Don't Blame The Animals For Lack Of Profits


8. Change As Fast As Possible

If you have any thoughts on these things I would love to hear them!

Quality Pasture :: Chapter 9 Book Report

This chapter is titled, "Stored Forages", but it easily could have been called, "A Little Information About Nasty Hay, and an Intense Look at Silage." But, I guess that title would have been too long! Really, it was an interesting chapter, but I was surprised how quickly Allan Nation, the author, dismissed baled hay. He believes that hay is a good option in more arid climates (West?), while it may be a poor choice in moist or humid climates that receive decent amounts of rain.

I don't know if it is a little bit of, "conventional Iowa farmer", in me or what, but I don't know if I would write off hay so quickly. That being said, I do understand the benefits of silage, and if you are set up for that it can be slightly easier to harvest and store (although I absolutely love making hay, not that that is a good reason to keep doing it). Approximately two pages are dedicated to hay in this chapter, and the rest is dedicated to silage.

The conclusion that kept coming to my mind is that if I was doing a grassfed dairy on any scale or if I was keeping large herds with lots of land and capital, I might investigate silage more. But, in my part of Iowa we can get a decent small square baler, mower, and rack for a reasonable amount of money. Granted you will need a building to store the hay in, but in reality those buildings don't have to be anything overly special.

One interesting point that he mentions a few times in this chapter is that it would probably be more cost effective to have a contractor do all of your silage making rather than owning your own equipment. This will be an interesting thing to pencil out in the coming months and years, but I do see some benefit for this type of thinking.

So, does anyone have any thoughts or experience with silage? This really is something new to me, so I would like to learn and understand as much as I can.

Quality Pasture :: Chapter 8 Book Report

Yesterday I finished reading chapter eight of "Quality Pasture" by Allan Nation. This chapter was entitled Climate and it's Effect. It was a pretty interesting chapter dealing with temperature, precipitation, and more. As with other chapters it spent a decent amount of time discussing applications with grass based dairy operations, but I also noticed a slight focus on the southern part of the United States which makes sense because I believe he is based in Mississippi.

One thing that I found especially interesting in this chapter was his discussion of shade. Mr. Nation's contention was that shade is not always needed. He spoke about the ability of cattle to adjust to climates when they are given time and the fact that it is still the same temperature under the shade as in the sun. He believes that you either need to have plenty of spreed out shade for your entire herd or none at all. Another thing he points out is that if you are going to use trees as shade devices they should have all branches trimmed twenty feet up. This will make the shade move quite a bit during the day and will force the cattle to spread out during their day. Another interesting idea he gave was to give cattle multiple small breaks of grass during hot days. His contention is that cattle will forget about the heat if they have enough tasty food.

He also gave a lot of great tips for drought management. The thing about a drought is the question isn't if, but rather when it will happen. He writes about needing to have a drought plan in place early on in your Management Intensive Grazing progression. It is important that you begin building up a stockpile of stored forages right away because feeding hay in a drought instead of letting them to continue to eat down your suffering pastures will help those pastures bounce back so much more quickly when you finally do get rain.

I'm looking forward to the last few chapters of this book. I have continued debating in my mind the differences between Mr. Nation's high input methods and the lower input method of Joel Salatin. The more I read the more I appreciate the ideas of Mr. Salatin and I can't wait to put them to work and see some of the results with my own eyes ... that being said, I think my dad will be putting some lime down this fall or winter in order to jump start some pastures for the animals and for our hay. We will see how that goes for our farm.

Quality Pasture :: Chapter 5 Book Report

The title of this chapter is, "Quality Pasture For Warm-Temperate And Subtropical Climates". The title kind of sums up the lack of real practical application information I found in this chapter. I don' think you could call Southern Iowa "Warm-Temperate" or "Subtropical" unless you were comparing it to Northern Iowa!

But, there was still plenty of information for me in this chapter. One of the more interesting things that had me thinking was the section of this chapter that discussed the profitability of a seasonal dairy. This was interesting not because I'm interested in starting a seasonal dairy, but because the article that I linked to a few days ago about the farmer quitting mentioned that in order to survive you will need to have a year round dairy. Now, Allan Nation was speaking of seasonal dairies in the south and the author of the previous article was in the north, but it is still an interesting counterpoint. Most pastured dairy information I have read focused on the benefits and profitability of a seasonal dairy. I think the biggest problem with the farmer that was having to shut down is that he took himself so far into debt to get his operation up and running quickly. Maybe if he had taken more steps his end would not have come.

Much of the rest of the chapter deals with different pasture forages that can be used in the south for year round grazing, but it does emphasize that you will still need to have mechanically harvested forages even in the south. Even though the weather is warmer down there you still will have a fall slump before the winter cool season forages get going.

I am thoroughly enjoying this book mostly because it is increasing my knowledge (little by little) and it is giving me a sense of what is possible on a farm ... specifically on a smaller farm. I think there are great opportunities in Iowa for someone who is willing to study their pastures and and really become grass farmers instead of the old standard row crop farmers!

The next chapter is on pasture irrigation. It will be interesting to see what that is all about, but what I'm really looking forward to is chapter 7 about Management Intensive Grazing. Stay tuned!

"Quality Pasture" :: Chapter 3 & 4 Book Report

This continues to be an interesting read, and as I read more and more I continue to believe that I know less and less! I have noticed Mr. Nation bringing up dairy cattle a lot in his analogies and stories, but this was to be expected because I read that on a few reviews. Dairy cows require a higher level of forage to continue to produce high levels of milk so this information is important to dairy grass farmers, but the higher quailty forage surely doesn't hurt the beef producers.

This chapter is specifically about year-round grazing in temperate climates, and he discusses different plans and grasses/legumes that would be practical to use in this climate for year-round grazing. Grazing your animals through the entire year is an interesting concept and is one that I am somewhat familar with through "All Flesh is Grass" by Gene Logsdon. To me it seems like it would take a lot of inputs (seed and soil amendments). I don't know how the numbers would work out, but I question if it is just as economical, or more economical, to make hay during the spring/early summer flush when your grazing can't keep up with the pasture growth and feed that hay durining the winter months. Also, by using a hay shed type of feeding system like Joel Salatin does I think you may also be able to save more nutrients rather than them hitting a potentially frozen pasture.

There was some interesting information about promoting clover growth among your pasture grasses. The grass can easily outgrow the clover so it is important to keep the grass clipped so the clover can thrive. Another thing that has come up in this book, and in "All Flesh is Grass", is the idea of feeding standing corn (green ... and by the way corn is a grass) along with brassicas (rape, kale, turnips, swedes, and cabbages). These are all interesting ideas, but I don't know if I am ready to tackle any of them just yet. I think they would be great if I wanted to stock the pastures at a higher level than would be expected even with excellent pastures, but really there is no reason to go to all the work if I don't have the animals to harvest all of this exceptional food (Mr. Salatin says that a lot).

The great thing about reading a book like this is that it gives me a glimpse into all the possibilities and gives me hope for the small farmer ... even in Iowa ... the king of corn, soybeans, and really BIG green and red tractors!

"Quality Pasture" :: Chapters 1 & 2 Book Report

I received my copy of Quality Pasture by Allan Nation (editor of The Stockman Grass Farmer) last week and have finally had a chance to read the first two chapters. It has been a pretty interesting read, but I have really come away with two points.

Point #1: Recently I have read a few books by Joel Salatin, Carol Ekarius, and Gene Logsdon all relating to pasture raising beef and other livestock. It seems that they all quote each other and other important figures in grass farming like Andre Voisin, but they all have different approaches to obtaining high forage pastures. I would say that Mr. Salatin probably believes less in inputs and more in letting the animals along with the natural work of nature do a lot of the work in creating quality pasture. Next, I think Mrs. Ekarius kind of tries to hit the balance there between the "natural" work and human manipulation through adding things to the pasture (fertilizers, etc.). Possibly I would put Mr. Logsdon third as he seems to be very interested in trying different foraging types on different paddocks in order to obtain the longest pasture season and a high quality. And, finally I would say (according to the first two chapters) that Mr. Nation has a high regard for adding things to the soil and the pasture to make them the most productive. It is interesting to read such a wide range of thoughts, but realize that they are all preaching the same sort of thing ... ruminents can be raised solely on pasture and at a lower cost of money.

Point #2: After reading the first two chapters I realized that I'm not very smart! I don't know very much about microbes, nitrogen, potassium, blah, blah, blah...! It seems like I will have to read this book a few times and then do some outside research to really understand it, but that also seems like a good thing. Like so many things in farming (putting up hay, plowing a straight line, etc.) creating a quality pasture is an art. And, since it is an art it is going to take knowledge, thinking, and creativity. These first two chapters have really piqued my interest and also made me think more about taking some Agriculture classes from ISU if I continue my Bachelor of Liberal Studies program.

All-in-all I'm glad that I picked up this book and I look forward to reading more. It has really given me a glimpse into the depth of creating pasture. Also, even in these first two chapters I am thinking about things we can do on my dad's farm to increase the quality and productivity (I'm going to be looking into winter rye...).

I'll try and post an update to my reading every chapter or two, so check back if you are interested.