From the Pastures: A great awakening

Hello from Graze-N-Grow. Last month, I mentioned we had plenty of soil moisture. Now, not so much. My cover crop of oats, rye and turnips are waiting, as we all are, for the next rain. After discing twice before seeding, the moisture left. I kick myself for not going with my plan last winter of frost seeding clover in the dormant wheat, but instead I thought I would benefit more with a winter grazable cover crop, which now seems less likely. I won’t make that mistake next year on the 40 acres of wheat I plan on seeding after the beans are out.

Harvest has barely begun around here, but I expect most will start real soon. There has been a lot of free corn drying the last week or two and I expect decent corn yields locally. I expect we may see outdoor piles later this fall. Beans looked good last month, but have missed the rains needed to make it a bumper crop, I imagine.

On the livestock side, pastures are getting short and hay feeding may get an early start. At least hay supplies are good and prices are lower than the last few years. The animals are doing well and we just sold 45 ewe lambs to a Wisconsin producer who has been grazing solar farms and needed to add to his 200 head flock. He’s using the Nofence collars on them to control them within the solar farm perimeters and they have been working well for him.

I just went to my friend Monte’s pasture tour and heard their representative show us how they worked. Monte has been using them on his cows for two or three years now and is pleased with the low labor benefits. Between the cattle, pigs, goats and broilers all out on pasture and his direct marketing protocol, he’s running a cool operation at Grateful Graze. It was also got to connect with Trevor and Brad and other like-minded animal caretakers there.

We just added four more calves to our growing herd of dairy and beef calves to put on Ruth’s cow, Ella, since I weaned her first four. She adopted them without complaint, as usual, much to my neighbor Ron’s surprise. He’s milked Holsteins for many years and continues to be amazed that a cow would so easily accept any new calf. He says she’s special and I’m inclined to agree. So, Ruth’s sabbatical from milking is extended.

On a much more somber note, many of us are still reeling from the recent tragic murder of Charlie Kirk. His legacy as a staunch defender of his Christian faith, as well as his defense of truth, has inspired thousands of people, young and old, around the world to boldly follow his example and I pray that from this horrific event there will be a great awakening in our country. It’s long overdue. Happy trails.