Holistic Grazing Seminar

Over the weekend I attended a seminar on holistic grazing by Cody Holmes a rancher from south Missouri. The definition of holistic is:

a. Emphasizing the importance of the whole and the interdependence of its parts.

b. concerned with wholes rather then analysis or separation into parts.

I learned a lot more about grass land and animal management then I ever knew. A few of the key things I learned were: let the pasture grow high in the summer and then let the cattle nock it down this will in time build the soil, When the grass grows fast move the cattle fast, when the grass grows slow move the cattle slow, the animals should not re graze a paddock until a minimum of 90 days, and much much more. As part of the class we went to two farms with Cody to discuss them and what could be done to holistically heal the land using the existing animals on each of the farms. One farm is a buffalo ranch and is hundreds of acres the other is ten or so acres and has four horses on it. The buffalo ranch is a mess, it has no dividing fences so the buffalo can roam any where they want and there is very little grass and severe erosion on the hill sides. The horse pasture looks good and with a little ingenuity and Pollywire could look much better. The wether was nasty, wet snow and rain. So we all retreated to the near by Big Boy restaurant to finish up our discussion on grazing ,raising grass fed animals and poultry and the potential markets for this healthy meat and eggs in the area. I do not go out to eat very often maybe one or twice in the past five years. The food is terrible and is full of empty calories. It was strange to to be eating such junk and talking about heathy food at the same time! Today was also market day so then we all went to show Cody our indoor market. He gave us some insight on what he feels is ignorance in the venders concerning marketing their products. He feels they are pricing their products too low, and feels we are 5 years behind in marketing skills compared to his farmers market in Springfield Missouri.

Visiting with Cody after the market closed

Here is the link to Cody Holmes website www.rockinh.net

Pasture Preparation

I'v been busy getting one of our pastures ready for our intensive rotational grazing setup. This pasture is about 12 acres and is divided in to a grid of mown lines running east and west, and north and south across the whole pasture. Each square in the grid is 82 x 82 feet. I keep the lines mowed throughout the grazing months and the sheep and goats do the rest! Well not really, someone has to move the portable electric netting once every day sometimes twice this is primarily me. Our farm gets a lot of attention from passerby's on the road because of this. sometimes we'll meet somebody for the first time and when telling them where we live they'll say "oh are you at the place where the sheep and goats are in a different spot when ever we go past?" This goes to show that not many are doing intensive rotational grazing in our area. This is very sad to me it is not good for the health of the Pasture and the animals to stay in one place fore over 24 hours at a time. I if you look at a wild herd of ruminant animals their always on the move to new feeding places also in a well balanced ecosystem there are predators so they stay close together for protection. We can mimic this wonderful aspect created by God by using portable electric fencing. The fence is like a predator and keeps the herd bunched up and moving every day. Doing it this way improves the health of pasture and the herd.

This is the rotational grazing setup. The sheep&goats eat the grass and then the egg laying chickens follow then the grass is left to re grow.

sometimes we put young cattle in the fence too. We use to run the cows with the sheep and goats, but onetime one of the cows stepped on a sheep and broke it's leg so not any more

This is a wild resident of the pasture, it is a Upland Plover chick.

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