Cow Pie Testing

Viewer discretion advised, cow pies ahead! We all know cows communicate by mooing.  Cows also communicate through their “back-end”.  Note the caption under the cow pie photo above.  A “healthy looking” cow pie means the cows are healthy!  We, I mean Doug, spends a lot of time…

A Cows Calling Card

Warning, poop photos! One of the many benefits of having the herd always on the move is manure distribution.  A cow herd in a tight group, on the move, will evenly distribute nutrients (poop) throughout a pasture.  In season long grazed pastures (cows left in a pasture for weeks at…

Reed Canary Animal Impact Revisited

With the recent warm weather, forages are green when they are normally brown this time of year.  Especially down in the swamp pasture.  This wetland area is quite unique, tucked between the more common rolling hills of Lancaster County.  While trudging through the muck with portable fence I…

Animal impact while farming grass

Year round grazing on pasture presents some interesting situations for us grass farmers.  In this past post from July 2015 we demonstrated the results of planned animal impact on a wetland site heavily used through the non-growing season.  Below we show what we had to…

Cow – Icon of nutrient cycles – we need the poop!

Cattle are key to a healthy ecosystem, that is if we manage cattle in natures image.  Nature provides examples of how herds such as the bison of North America or the buffalo and wildebeest of Africa work as keystone species.  An important feature of these…