Patience, is a virtue.

I made a decision that, I hope, will impact the depth into which we can go into fall or winter without hay. I had begun the rotational plan that I had eagerly waited to try. We have had plenty of rain here this spring and the grass is growing. I am seeing the fruit of our efforts, I spread chicken waste on the pastures, feed hay in various spots, sowed annual Rye, orchard grass and Korean Lespedeza. These things are now becoming visible, our land is greener than it has been in the past. All of these things are positive, of course.

On the negative side, the grass isn't getting tall or thick. I was afraid of this, knowing that I am an impatient man. Like I said, I began the rotation, excited to finally get off the hay. However, I got to thinking that the grass is not getting tall. Then I realized that the cows were eating it as fast as it grew, keeping it very short.

Knowing that, traditionally, around here it tends to dry up around mid June or the first part of July. This scares me, short grass has short roots and, therefore, little tolerance for drought. Not to mention that with every nip of leaf up top, there is the same amount of root killed off. That in itself is a good thing, adding organic matter to the soil, but, again no tolerance for dry weather and will burn up in the heat.

So, what to do? The only option I could think of was to go back to square one. I knew I would get ahead of myself and graze too early, so, I had to start over. I decided to get "one last" load of hay. (I hope this is the last as our supplier is about out.) Then I quarantined the animals in a small area with polywire to feed there and keep them there. The plan is to keep them there until the hay is gone, buying enough time to let the grass get taller. Then the rotation plan should allow for continued regrowth over a 12-15 day rest period. In a nutshell, I had to sacrifice a little land and more expense in hay in order to get a longer grazing season.

Folks, hay is getting expensive (what isn't?) and we need to manage better in order to survive. The economy issues will play into the grass farmers pockets, because grass farmers tend to think outside the box and operate in a least cost operation, thereby, they are able to weather economic storms better than the traditional farmer who tends to operate under the premise that fuel is cheap. Well, fuel is no longer cheap, and the commodities that are harvested with fuel are no longer cheap, as a result. It behooves us little farmers to grow quality grass, manage it and feed it out over the winter and learn to do this with as little input costs as possible. This is where we want to be.

It is interesting to note how well pastured poultry plays into this idea of grass farming. Their manure gives the land an almost immediate shot of N because of its liquidity. Just yesterday, I cut the grass and killed the mower several time because the grass was so thick. I was not able to cover the entire pastures with the broilers last year. This was in a strip of about one hundred feet. As you can see, if these birds can cover the whole area from their tractors, what a difference that can make. Another area of thick cover was in our orchard, a place the cows don't go, we don't want to damage our young trees. It is thick because of an area in which we used to keep the compost pile. The runoff from that has aided the growth of grass tremendously. I see this principle in action, on a much smaller scale, in the areas I fed hay out in the pasture. Oh how I envy the growth of these areas and want to transfer the grass to the pastures. The pastures are a work in progress and are improving, but they were overrun with brambles and weeds. Like I said, they are getting there.

The key with the chickens is the mob density method. Unfortunately, we don't have enough of them to cover all the pastures. But, those guys are grass machines!

So, I will try to be more patient. I think my patience will pay off in the end, I just tend to want things now. (Ugh!) I just hope the cows can endure looking at the grass grow all around them. They too, must be patient, for they will reap the benefits and be healthier for it. Oh yeah, another thing to think about. Parasites live in the bottom two inches of the grass. So if the cattle are grazing grass in that length, what are they getting? I need to let it grow to six inches or better before hitting it hard. (Ugh again!)