There's no need to wait for conditions to be perfect. You can fashion a perfectly wonderful moment out of whatever conditions you come upon.

Flag Counter started April 3, 2008

We bought these calves at the auction four days ago, and they are quietly grazing the yard grass with just one electric polywire around them.

I went out to check the calving heifers and caught these two shots of the first calf of the season (one week old) relaxing beside the pond with his mother (right) and auntie (left).

This morning is Day 2 of the most recent lawnmowing experience here on the farm. We had a stretch with no rain there so didn’t need to mow, but the recent rains have created a jungle in the yard needing some attention. Rather than take half a day on the riding lawn mower using expensive gas, we move the cattle through the yard in carefully thought-out slices marked off with a single strand of electric fence. After attending a mob-grazing seminar in June, we’ve cut our slices smaller and smaller until our goal is giving them about double the area they need to stand on. You can see I gave them a little too much in the slice above. They grazed this area from 7:30 to 9:30 am.

This slice (move 2 of the day, move 1 is just to the bottom of this photo) is a bit smaller. Hopefully they will eat it a little closer. In the upper left of their grazing area you might see 3 plastic posts. These are blocking the cattle from our little flower bed in the middle of the yard. I’ve got a pretty good system of dividing out the yard which allows me to protect the plants the cattle would make a mess of yet allow them to graze everything else. They don’t eat all the ragweed plants, but they knock them down enough so we are happy with it. We do have to walk a little carefully the first few days after grazing the yard, but then we don’t need to fertilize the yard either! It’s a trade-off! And think of the ecology of it all. I bet Al Gore grazes his yard with his cattle too in order to save on all that gas for the lawn mower. Or, do cattle put off more CO2 than a lawn mower? I get confused on that, maybe some global warming fanatic can help me out?

Us and Al Gore use the same lawn maintenance program, grazing cattle. At least, I’m SURE Al Gore must use cattle or some other carbon neutral/negative management since he’s so certain the earth is going to end from SUV use. . . . oh, sorry, I digress and use too much sarcasm and several other things. Anyway, today was lawn mowing day on the farm, and the cows are hard at work in their little section for the hour.

Here’s the cattle just turned into the lane going out to the county road.

And here’s the same lane after they grazed it.

This evening we chopped some musk thistle and took photos of the Flower Head Weevil which is doing a good job of eating the seeds before they can go to seed. Here you can see the eggs the weevil lays on the bottom side of the thistle head (circled in the photo to the right).

Then we cut it open to show the larvae eating the developing seedheads. Richard doesn’t have many thistle, due in part to the weevils, but mostly due to good pasture management.

Click here for more good info on the weevils.

Richard, Garland and I cut a load of winter wood in just a small area where limbs fell on a fence from the ice storm. We were able to do two things in one job, get winter fuel and fix fence!