DS Family Farm
Worried about what you are "really" eating? Have peace of mind with pasture grazed meats.
Grazing Stockpiled Grass
In earlier posts we have mentioned cattle grazing stockpiled grass. To explain, “stockpiled” grass is portions of pasture lands that were left un-grazed during the growing season for the specific purpose of grazing those areas during the non-growing season. We are now well into the non-growing season, no new grass growing around here this time of the year. During the growing season, we have more grass growing than what the herd can consume. This is a good thing, because we need that extra grass this time of the year when nothing is growing. It is a balancing act. If we had enough cattle to graze all the grass grown during the growing season, we would not have any stockpiled grass to graze during the non-growing season. The proper way to decide the number of cattle to run on a pasture in our part of the world is to determine how many cows you can graze during the non-growing season. That is, if you don’t want to feed hay.
In another earlier post we explained that we do make hay and we do feed some hay. The hay continues to act as insurance for when a natural event prevents our cattle from being able to graze (very deep snow & ice, fire, hail etc.). The main purpose of hay in our operation is to feed a small amount of quality hay as a diet supplement. Just a little quality hay (2 pounds per day) can keep a cows digestive system functioning properly while she consumes large amounts of low quality stockpiled grass (20+ pounds per day). It is a lot less work to let the cows harvest the stockpiled grass than to cut it for hay and feed it back to cows. In addition, cows rather graze than eat hay.
The tall brown grass that is taller than the back of our cows in the photos above is native grasses such as big bluestem and indian grass. Some of our pasture will have this tallgrass through next spring. It provides excellent cover for wildlife and will catch any blowing snow we get this winter. If the tall grass is still standing next growing season it will shade out new grass trying to grow. Our goal over the non-growing season is to graze and stomp the tall stuff down. Cattle are not able to digest the hardest tall stems and we don’t want to force them to eat it. By keeping their paddocks small, they are able to graze the good to medium quality stockpiled grass and stomp the bad stuff to the ground. Once the tough stuff is on the ground, our soil livestock (microbes, worms etc) will grind up the carbon into new soil organic matter. New soil organic matter will help grow more and hopefully better grass next year. It is a wonderful cycle to watch but hard to see at a glance.
With this type of year around grazing the overall quality of our pasture grass is improving. The next step is to build a herd of cattle that is adapted to our climate and pasture. At some point in the future we may be able to eliminate feeding hay as a diet supplement (our long-term goal).
Calves going into winter
Last April and May we posted some photos of our spring born calves. Here we share some recent photos of some cow calf pairs. The calves are looking healthy after a summer of grass and cow milk.
As always, you are welcome to contact us for a farm visit any time of the year. We always have the herd on the move trying to mimic the natural effect of short term intense grazing followed by long term rest. The system that was in place when buffalo (bison) roamed this area and created some of the deepest most productive soils in the world.
Prairie Gopher Bad or Prairie Gopher Good?
Our grass growing season is coming to an end. The cattle are now grazing “stockpiled” forage. Stockpiled forage is pasture that we have not grazed for several months. The grass grew all summer long and left un-grazed as “stockpile”, for grazing during the non-growing season.
While setting up portable fence in the pasture today we noticed a number of gopher mounds. We have seen a few gopher mounds over the past few years, but in just a small area today we noted three different mounds. Gophers dig tunnels under the soil surface feeding on roots and who knows what else. At first glance one may conclude the gophers are bad. Feeding on grass roots and making soil piles will reduce the amount of grass available for the cattle to graze, right? From an ecological point of view, increased gopher activity in our pasture maybe a good sign. Aeration of the soil will increase water infiltration. The freshly tilled soil may allow new forage species to grow. Diversity of life is always a good sign of a healthy prairie in our opinion.
So while others may see gophers as bad and consider poison to reduce their numbers, for now we will accept the increase in gopher activity as a good sign that our prairie is moving in a positive direction. More diversity will help our pastures become more resilient in the future.
2014 Broiler Butcher Day
After having the privilege to care and raise a batch of chickens, the “reward” is this special day. Photos below from 2014 Broiler Butcher Day. It is a humbling experience to go through this process. With help, we were able to clean and package 25 broilers in about three hours.
Maybe not the most pleasant overall process but it makes one stop and think where our food really comes from. As for a packaged chicken without a breast? Jacob donated a number of breasts to our local High School fund-raiser for Breast Cancer Awareness.
Happy New Water Year
Well I guess it is actually New Years Eve of the Water Year. October 1st marks the start of a new water year. As grass growth slows down and becomes dormant over the next few months, the moisture we have in the soil now and what we get over the winter will greatly influence what kind of grass growth we can expect next spring and early summer.
With that said, our area has very good soil moisture at the beginning of the 2015 water year. Below is a map of the 48 states showing the actual rainfall from September 1 to September 29 COMPARED to the 30 year average (1981 to 2010).
Our farm is located in an area that has received around 150% of the rainfall we would receive compared to the 30 year average. When I downloaded this image on September 30th, we were getting another good shower, over an inch total for the day. Grass needs moisture and sun for growth. We are always sure of the sun light, moisture is more variable. One always needs to be an optimist to farm/ranch. At this point things are looking good for being a perennial vegetation (grass/forb) farmer going into 2015 based on where we are starting the 2015 water year.
Source of information: http://prism.oregonstate.edu/
For current weather information that includes long-term average data in an easy to view format try: http://weatherspark.com/
Colors From Our Pasture
With fall approaching, will share some recent photos from our farm.
Through the summer we noticed a few Monarch butterflies. Our pasture contain a nice stand of milkweed which Monarchs need to complete their life cycle. Just this past week the number of monarchs have increased. They are preparing for migration?
We hope you enjoyed these photos displaying different colors from our pasture.
Feel free to stop by if you would like to stroll the grasslands.
2014 Monitor Update
Monitoring of our grazing animals and the impacts on the grasslands we manage is something we do daily. What does the pasture look like ahead of our herd? What does the pasture look like where we just moved from? How do the cattle look (body condition) compared to a week ago? Based on these observations we can make decisions during the current season and anticipate decisions for the upcoming grazing season.
What about the long-term monitoring? We started some basic monitoring activities prior to the cattle arriving in 2011. This includes soil, water and forage sampling. In 2009 we established a photo monitoring site along with collecting detailed forage data at the site. We return to this site each year near the same date and collect photos and forage data. Please share any thoughts you may have after reviewing the photos through the years below.
2014 monitor update, looking back through 2009:
Where is 2012? Not sure what happened in 2012. A major drought developed after mid-June that year. I probably decided it was to much of a downer to take photos. Of course now I wish we had a photo.
2014 Fall Broilers On Grass
Well it’s not quite fall yet, but our second batch of pasture poultry for the year went to grass this week. We start the day old chicks in a chicken coop to control the temperature and keep them dry. After three weeks they have good feather growth to withstand temperature swings and dampness from the elements. By no means are they exposed completely to the outdoors. A “chicken tractor” provides shelter and protection. Plenty of fresh grass and fresh air without the worry of predators or weather.
Contact us if you would be interested in trying a chicken. The taste is unlike anything you will find in a store. Why? Very few chickens grown in the USA and sold in stores actually have access to grass at any point in their life. Grass is not required to keep a chicken alive, but when given the opportunity a chicken will readily consume grass as part of a normal healthy diet.
Feel free to stop by to see what we are talking about.
Our first beef – one year to go
In the last post we noted that we are three years into our beef operation, yet we have not shipped any beef yet. Last year we had our first calf crop, 5 heifers and 4 bulls. The 5 heifer calves were shipped off to be developed into future momma cows. We kept the four bull calves and are “finishing” them out, fattening them in our pastures to sell as pastured grass-fed beef. Our first beef – one year to go – will be ready to butcher mid summer 2015. Could we speed things up? Sure, the industrial agriculture sector does it all the time. Just bring in an outside energy source (oil) and you can compress the growing to finishing process. Calves put into feed lots can be “finished” in less than 18 months, fed corn, corn by products and provided other growth promoting technologies. Our farm uses very little outside inputs (minerals and stored forages). The main energy source used on our farm to create beef is solar.
So what does a solar fattened one year old beef look like. We are happy to share the photos below of our pastured only fat yearlings. These cattle are just over one year old. We need one more year to get these animals to “fat cattle” that are ready for your table. Join us over the next year to watch these animals turn into gourmet pastured beef!
Three Years And Counting
This 2011 photo was taken shortly after our herd of 10 heifers and a bull showed up on our farm. Three years seems like a long time but in the process of turning a startup beef herd into a product you can ship to consumers, well we still have a year to go!
Prior to the herd arrival there was about six years of on and off work to prepare the farm. Pulling old fence, cutting unwanted trees and building new fence. Reading, attending grazing conferences, research, meeting folks and networking with people willing to give us help and advice along the way.
That is correct, four years to manufacture our first product, we hope. Fortunately, this has been somewhat of a labor of love for us. One good friend told us early on that to take on something like this almost requires a “calling”. Is this our “calling”? We are not exactly sure but God has not closed the door on this adventure yet. Three years (1095 days) may seem like a long time when building a widget, but when working with nature this has only been 3 growing “seasons”.
Setting your clock to work on natures time is totally different from the American 8 hour day. Feel free to contact us if you would like to visit a working grass farm and enjoy some time away from the day and take in our current season. Three years and counting…
