(no subject)
I am breaking my livejournal fast to bring you a post about holistic cattle farming.
I went out to Inglis this weekend with my parents for a family barbeque (Dad's side) for the first time in about ten years. My uncle Perry is a cattle farmer, and it's seriously all he talks about. I love it. Anyway, about six years ago, they were struggling financially and had pretty much reached the point where they either had to change how they were farming or stop altogether. So he went to this farming convention where all these farmers get together and exchange ideas about all aspects of farming, really. He attended a lecture by guest speaker Don Campbell, who spoke about holistic cattle farming, winter bale grazing and planned summer grazing in particular.
We took a drive out to his paddocks and he explained the difference between his method of farming compared to the other cattle farmers in the area:
My uncle has about twenty (maybe more, I can't remember) different small paddocks (5 - 15 acres each), separated by miles and miles of single wire electric fence. In the winter, a portion of these paddocks are further divided into rows with another electric fence. Basically he'll lay out a row of hay between two electric fences maybe 15 - 20 feet apart. This opens to the aisle way, which is the way to water, plus some more pasture area. Once the hay is consumed, they move the electric fence feeding row over another fifteen feet and lay down another row of hay, and so on. I think they have to do this pretty much every day. Anyway, the point is, this leads to better soil management. Conventional winter feeding is mostly grain, supplemented with hay, all in the same area (usually close to or in the barns). The manure has to be shovelled out and the nitrogen-rich urine runs off. With the method my uncle is using, the manure and urine mixes with the leftover hay, and fertilizes the grass in the summer. You can actually see exactly where the rows of hay were in the winter - there are rows and rows of thick, lush grass. The paddock we were looking at had last been grazed July tenth, and the grass was already around eight - ten inches high. The grass close to the fences where no hay is put is short and yellowing (they haven't had much rain this year).
In the summer, the cattle are allowed to graze in one of these small paddocks (minus hay rows) for three to six days, depending on the size. Then they are moved to a new paddock. They are moved before they eat the grass down to the dirt. The remaining grass is trampled, creating this thatch layer that actually protects the soil from baking in the sun. This means that the soil retains as much moisture as possible (and like I said, they haven't gotten much rain this year), and also protects the bacteria that is necessary for decomposition of manure/dead plant material from lethal temperatures. You could see the other farmer's pastures were full of short, brown grass. My uncle's pastures looked lush, like they had been getting a ton of rain. The area actually did get a good rain on Saturday, but if they hadn't, the other farmers would have probably had to start feeding their cows hay in two weeks. My uncle is pretty sure he can continue grass feed his cattle until the end of October, or when there is too much snow cover. This obviously saves him a TON of money on feed. Most of the hay he uses he grows himself (on my Mom and Dad's land - cute!), but he has figured out that if he needs to buy more hay to feed his cattle, it is actually more cost effective to just sell some. If hay is more than five cents per pound (which is will be, because it's been such a crappy growing season), he would lose money.
My uncle has also decided to go against convention by choosing to raise smaller cattle (mostly Herefords), because they calve easier, resulting in lower vet bills. He also allows them to calve in April rather than January and February because the warmer weather is easier on the calves - conventional farmers calve in Jan/Feb so that the calves are larger when it's time to be sold. So his calves will be smaller, but he will have more of them to sell.
As he continues to work his land this way, the grass actually gets thicker and grows faster, and most holistic farmers end up needing to increase their head in order to keep up with the grass! Greater cattle density means a better use of our land and resources, win!
There is a benefit to the consumer, as well: grass fed (or "grass finished", which is what they called their cattle) beef is naturally lower in fat, and higher in omega-3s and CLA than grain fed.
There are not many cattle farmers doing what he's doing. Most people he talks to feel that the planned summer grazing is too much work because a) you have to run a ton of single wire electric fence, and b) you have to move the herd every few days. But my uncle said it was actually cheaper to run the single wire electric fence compared to the typical three-stringed barbed wire fences (pounding posts every twelve feet instead of six, one wire versus three). Also, he says that whenever they ride up to the herd on horse/quad, they totally know what's going on and will gather around gate, waiting to move to the next paddock. It's also easier to check on them as they go by, instead of having to ride around a huge pasture trying to find all the cows that go off in their little groups.
There are a lot of people in town (and this is why I fucking hate small towns), trash talking them for doing this, because it's DIFFERENT. My dad told me that last winter, my uncle heard a rumor that someone was going to report him for "starving his cows". So he got the vet to come up to his farm and check every single one of them. Sure enough, two weeks later, someone filed a report and the vet was able to say that they were perfectly fine. I just don't get that mentality. I mean, even I - and I'm probably the furthest from a farmer that you can get - can see the difference in grass production between his pastures and his neighbour's. Totally ridiculous.
Anyway, I wanted to record this somewhere because I think it's super interesting and I'm happy that my uncle, who obviously loves what he does, has found a way to be profitable and is conserving the environment at the same time. Basically, these stories give me hope that we're not doomed. :P
I said I wanted a quarter of a cow the next time they butchered, but my parents and my grandma laughed at me. So maybe we'd have to go splits with another household, I don't know. haha. A quarter of a cow is apparently a lot, but I have no idea about these things.
I guess this is mostly for Ryan, because I don't know who else would be interested in this lengthy description? hahaha
I went out to Inglis this weekend with my parents for a family barbeque (Dad's side) for the first time in about ten years. My uncle Perry is a cattle farmer, and it's seriously all he talks about. I love it. Anyway, about six years ago, they were struggling financially and had pretty much reached the point where they either had to change how they were farming or stop altogether. So he went to this farming convention where all these farmers get together and exchange ideas about all aspects of farming, really. He attended a lecture by guest speaker Don Campbell, who spoke about holistic cattle farming, winter bale grazing and planned summer grazing in particular.
We took a drive out to his paddocks and he explained the difference between his method of farming compared to the other cattle farmers in the area:
My uncle has about twenty (maybe more, I can't remember) different small paddocks (5 - 15 acres each), separated by miles and miles of single wire electric fence. In the winter, a portion of these paddocks are further divided into rows with another electric fence. Basically he'll lay out a row of hay between two electric fences maybe 15 - 20 feet apart. This opens to the aisle way, which is the way to water, plus some more pasture area. Once the hay is consumed, they move the electric fence feeding row over another fifteen feet and lay down another row of hay, and so on. I think they have to do this pretty much every day. Anyway, the point is, this leads to better soil management. Conventional winter feeding is mostly grain, supplemented with hay, all in the same area (usually close to or in the barns). The manure has to be shovelled out and the nitrogen-rich urine runs off. With the method my uncle is using, the manure and urine mixes with the leftover hay, and fertilizes the grass in the summer. You can actually see exactly where the rows of hay were in the winter - there are rows and rows of thick, lush grass. The paddock we were looking at had last been grazed July tenth, and the grass was already around eight - ten inches high. The grass close to the fences where no hay is put is short and yellowing (they haven't had much rain this year).
In the summer, the cattle are allowed to graze in one of these small paddocks (minus hay rows) for three to six days, depending on the size. Then they are moved to a new paddock. They are moved before they eat the grass down to the dirt. The remaining grass is trampled, creating this thatch layer that actually protects the soil from baking in the sun. This means that the soil retains as much moisture as possible (and like I said, they haven't gotten much rain this year), and also protects the bacteria that is necessary for decomposition of manure/dead plant material from lethal temperatures. You could see the other farmer's pastures were full of short, brown grass. My uncle's pastures looked lush, like they had been getting a ton of rain. The area actually did get a good rain on Saturday, but if they hadn't, the other farmers would have probably had to start feeding their cows hay in two weeks. My uncle is pretty sure he can continue grass feed his cattle until the end of October, or when there is too much snow cover. This obviously saves him a TON of money on feed. Most of the hay he uses he grows himself (on my Mom and Dad's land - cute!), but he has figured out that if he needs to buy more hay to feed his cattle, it is actually more cost effective to just sell some. If hay is more than five cents per pound (which is will be, because it's been such a crappy growing season), he would lose money.
My uncle has also decided to go against convention by choosing to raise smaller cattle (mostly Herefords), because they calve easier, resulting in lower vet bills. He also allows them to calve in April rather than January and February because the warmer weather is easier on the calves - conventional farmers calve in Jan/Feb so that the calves are larger when it's time to be sold. So his calves will be smaller, but he will have more of them to sell.
As he continues to work his land this way, the grass actually gets thicker and grows faster, and most holistic farmers end up needing to increase their head in order to keep up with the grass! Greater cattle density means a better use of our land and resources, win!
There is a benefit to the consumer, as well: grass fed (or "grass finished", which is what they called their cattle) beef is naturally lower in fat, and higher in omega-3s and CLA than grain fed.
There are not many cattle farmers doing what he's doing. Most people he talks to feel that the planned summer grazing is too much work because a) you have to run a ton of single wire electric fence, and b) you have to move the herd every few days. But my uncle said it was actually cheaper to run the single wire electric fence compared to the typical three-stringed barbed wire fences (pounding posts every twelve feet instead of six, one wire versus three). Also, he says that whenever they ride up to the herd on horse/quad, they totally know what's going on and will gather around gate, waiting to move to the next paddock. It's also easier to check on them as they go by, instead of having to ride around a huge pasture trying to find all the cows that go off in their little groups.
There are a lot of people in town (and this is why I fucking hate small towns), trash talking them for doing this, because it's DIFFERENT. My dad told me that last winter, my uncle heard a rumor that someone was going to report him for "starving his cows". So he got the vet to come up to his farm and check every single one of them. Sure enough, two weeks later, someone filed a report and the vet was able to say that they were perfectly fine. I just don't get that mentality. I mean, even I - and I'm probably the furthest from a farmer that you can get - can see the difference in grass production between his pastures and his neighbour's. Totally ridiculous.
Anyway, I wanted to record this somewhere because I think it's super interesting and I'm happy that my uncle, who obviously loves what he does, has found a way to be profitable and is conserving the environment at the same time. Basically, these stories give me hope that we're not doomed. :P
I said I wanted a quarter of a cow the next time they butchered, but my parents and my grandma laughed at me. So maybe we'd have to go splits with another household, I don't know. haha. A quarter of a cow is apparently a lot, but I have no idea about these things.
I guess this is mostly for Ryan, because I don't know who else would be interested in this lengthy description? hahaha