Stay Off the Grass!

Here we are on May 14th, 2013 and, as you can see from the picture above, the only animals on my farm enjoying the bounty of the pasture are the chickens and the rabbits. In fact it is all that I can do to stop myself from turning the cows and sheep out on the pasture ... especially since I'm purchasing small square bales of hay about every 10 or 12 days! But, I know that it is for the best because my pastures are just not to the point they need to be for them to be grazed.

I believe there are a combination of factors that have my pastures lagging behind a little bit this spring. First of all it has been a cool spring (we had 9 inches of snow on May 4th). That has kept everybody's pastures growing slowly, but especially mine that still have a large amount of warm season grasses as the main forage (even after 4 years of intensive rotational grazing). On top of the cool spring combined with the warm season grasses there is the whole issue of the drought of 2012. I ran my pastures pretty hard last year, and if I am going to be truthful with myself I used them up a little more than I should have. So, even though as you can see from the picture below that we are statistically out of the drought I'm still paying the price.

All of this has led to me having to make the painfully tough choice of keeping my cattle and sheep off the pastures and up at the house still eating hay. Each day as I drive to town for work I see what seems like every other farmers cattle out grazing while mine are still eating expensive (still have drought prices here) hay. And, each time I see those cows grazing I try to tell myself that I could put them out on the pasture and just give them bigger paddocks while feeding a little hay still. In my "want to get grazing" mind that seems like the perfect solution, but in my "need to do what is best for the longevity of the pastures" mind I know that I need to just hold off and let them heal as we keep getting some decent moisture this spring.

How are your pastures? Has the cool spring kept them from taking off? Did you do a better job managing them last summer than I did (most likely you did)? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

"The Ominvore's Dilemma"

As I may have mentioned recently, in a comment or something, I have begun to work my way through Michael Pollan's, "The Ominvore's Dilemma". I had read many articles by Mr. Pollan (including the "Farmer in Chief" piece), listened to videos, and read various other things by him and about him. But, this is the first time that I have attempted to tackle his most popular piece of writing. When I'm reading some books I like to do a little "book report" after each chapter, but with this bad boy I thought I would just throw out some thoughts from time to time. If you have read the book I would also love to hear what you conclusions were!

• Mr. Pollan is an evolutionist. There is no doubt about it and it is evident about every other page. I am not an evolutionist and I get kind of tired of reading "this evolved" and "that evolved". I feel like if things evolved one way than they might as well just evolve to the industrial agricultural model, but I don't really want to debate evolution ... plus, he is entitled to his opinion just as I am. One thing though, I can really see the work of creation through much of what Mr. Pollan writes.
• I always find it interesting to hear the thoughts of an Iowa farmer. It seems liket he guy that Mr. Pollan intervied and spent time with is cut from the same cloth as the farmer that was featured some in "King Corn". But, I know that not all Iowa farmers think like George Naylor ... at least I think so. Mr. Naylor (along with Mr. Pollan) make it seem like corn is grown because to change would be too difficult ... I guess that may make some sense.
• Just like many others that read this book I am continually surprised at how much stuff corn finds a home in. They always say on "The Big Show" (WHO Radio) that Iowa farmers are feeding the world ... and that truly is the case, but not in the way that some would like to believe. They are doing it through super-duper processed corn, not the idealistic way that it is sometimes portrayed.
• This is the first time that I have heard about the Federal Granery and the New Deal agricultural policies. I must admit that my ultra-conservative upbringing, leanings, and beliefs makes me cringe at the metion of New Deal projects, but it is an interesting thing that I would love to learn more about. I think understanding the agricultural policy history of our country will help me have better picture of what I understand today. Any thoughts on this subject...
• Finally, I would be interested to read/hear some contrasting views. I think it would be cool to have a debate between Mr. Pollan and an big agriculture proponent. I have heard some Iowans speak of Mr. Pollan almost as a curse word, but it is always good to hear both sides of the story. I do appreciate the research that Mr. Pollan offers up though!

Remember, if you have read the book I would love to hear what you think!

From Grain To Grass

I have often wondered what it would look like if a number of farmers in Iowa just began converting their row crop operations back into grass for pasture. It would be quite the site and I'm sure there would be many other farmers who would look at it like the farmers looked at Ray Kinsella when he made a baseball field in the middle of his corn field (yep, that is a "Field of Dreams" reference). But, what if it really did happen? What if some of those flat and fertile acres in central Iowa were taken back to pasture and managed with rotational or mob grazing? I bet they could support quite a few head per acre!

This is exactly what one farm family in South Dakota has done. I read the article quite awhile ago in the October issue of "The Stockman Grassfarmer", but hadn't had a chance to write about it yet. The farm family in question had been raising conventional row crops and feedlot cattle on family land when the decided that the wanted to make the switch. So, the moved from away from their crops and machinery and planted wheatgrass, big bluestem, switchgrass, and other grasses ... oh, and now they only have one tractor that they try not to use very often.

Along with their switch to grass they also made a chance in the cattle genetics and moved their herd to smaller framed bovines of the Irish Black and Hereford breeds. They feel, just as many others feel, that genetics and frame size has a big impact on how well a beeve will finish on grass and they have been very pleased with their results (at least that is what the article indicated).

One other thing that was mentioned in the article was their use of windrow grazing. This is a technique that I have read about previously, but must admit that I don't know much about it. What they are doing is using three of what had been their hayfields and rotating through those. Each year they will use two to make hay for their calves after weaning and then use the third for windrow grazing (sort of like strip grazing). Each year the windrow graze a different field in the winter in order to spread around the fertilizer.

I'm not exactly sure this windrow grazing idea would work on a farm our size, but it is an interesting concept and something I would love to learn more about. Plus, the article encouraged me ... maybe in 20 or so years when our place is mostly paid off the row crop field across the road will come up for sale. Then I could see what the transition looks like first hand!