Maintaining Pasture

It sounds odd to many that pasture requires management.  Its just grass, right?  Well, yes and no.  Pasture doen't need constant cultivation, management of insects or harvesting like corn, but since it composes such a staple of our cows' diets we strive to keep it the best quality possible.  There are more varieties of grass, legumes and herbs than I care to count and they all have different nutritional quality, preferred growing seasons and life-spans.  Some that you want to grow side-by-side often compete with one another for nutrients, cows have preferred species and many become tough and undesireable to the cow after setting seed.  Often the best varieties don't occur naturally in a pasture without encouagement and weeds can quickly overcome a field without management. 

So that's where we come in!  We are continually seeking to improve the condition of our pastures through soil testing, fertilization, planting custom blends of forage, intensive rotation (breaking each pasture up into smaller paddocks and only allowing the cows to graze each paddock for a day or two at a time), and mowing.  This Spring we were returning a couple of corn fields to pasture.  Mom and Dad spent several weeks deciding what forages would be best for that field's terrain, handle cow traffic and give us the most longevity and nutrition for the cows.  Blends of grass and legumes are most often preferred because they complement each other with one having high carbs and the other higher protein.  Additionally, the legumes work to fix atmospheric nitrogen, feeding themselves, the grass around them and enriching the soil at the same time.  Once chosen and planted the routine management kicks in - grazing rotation and mowing!

While its not something we need to do on a weekly basis, we do keep an eye on the pastures and try to mow them when the grasses begin to head (make flowers and seeds).  We choose to mow at this time because the grass becomes much tougher and less desireable for the cows.  Also, when the grass begins getting this big it is competeing with the surrounding plants for more than its share of light and nutrients.



Before.............After!

As you can see here the grass is getting unruly (on the left) and gets a severe hair cut (on the right) to reign it back in.  After a week it will recover nicely and be producing new tender leaf blades that the cows will gobble up!

At the same time we are checking the growth of the grass we are giving the legumes a chance to take off.  You can see here how nicely the red and white clover have been uncovered after the grass is cut back.  Leaving the clippings on the field helps increase organic matter content and continue improvement of the soil.

As with most things in life, clean pastures involve a lot of work - but it is totally worth it to see the cows hurrying to the field, udders swinging to find her favorite spot!

'Farmerese' - The Brickhouse Dialect

If you live in or visit a rural area you might overhear something like "We hauled the heifers from their old pasture this morning, we'll need to fence off a few acres of pasture so they don't founder on this flush of growth."  Heifers? Founder? Flush? What is this person talking about?  Well my friend, you have just been introduced to 'Farmerese'!

Farmers work in a unique field, one could correctly call them specialists, and just like specialists in any other field they have their own dialect.  These terms are specific to the details of daily life on the farm and describe animals, machinery, landscape and procedures in terms that other farmers readily understand.  For those looking in these terms can be rather bewildering, but now you have the inside scoop and can impress your friends with your new and expanded vocabulary!

We will be using and expanding an excellent list originally compiled by Our Ohio and hope to teach you some new words over the next few months so that when you hear a sentence like the one above you will know exactly what is going on!  Yes, I promise these are all real words, how about we start with a couple you will hear regularly around here?


Terms frequently used for female cattle (bovines):


Cow - A cow is a female bovine that has had at least one baby, or calf.  Just like other mammals, cows cannot make milk until they have had a baby, so all of the milking cows in our herd are mommas!  Our cows usually have a calf every year or so with a break of several months before the new calf is born where they aren't producing any milk.


Heifer - A heifer is a female bovine that has not had a calf yet.  Normally she is under two years of age.


Freemartin - A heifer who was twin to a bull (male) calf.  Freemartins are almost always sterile.  True story.



Tune in later for more terms from 'Farmerese'!

Milkyway: Our Poster Cow

Milkyway is a second generation cow in our herd.  Her mother, Starlit, came to our herd in 2004.  Milkyway has a unique bloodline that makes her very valuable on our farm.  Her great grandmother was a cow called Aron-P who was a record breaking producer of milk and national champion show cow.  Aron's lifetime production record was over 300,000 pounds - 100,000 pounds is considered an average lifetime production for the dairy industry.  (A gallon of milk usually weighs ~8 pounds, so she milked over 37,500 gallons in her lifetime!)  Milkyway has lived up to this family history and is a top milk producer in our herd, while we still have several years to find out what her lifetime average will be, we enjoy milking her every day.


Milkyway just turned six years old on May 7th and has a heifer and a bull in our herd.  Her daughter, Galaxy, was born in 2011 and we look forward to adding her to the milking parlor sometime next year.  Her son, Mars, is currently a sire in the herd.  We have high expectations for his daughters and Milkyway's grand-babies for generations to come!

 

When trying to design our label we took some glamor shots of several cows and Milkyway was the winner!  She has a beautiful, very Jersey face and we felt like she perfectly represented our herd.  She is now the "Poster Cow" for Brickhouse Cheese!