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Not in your wildest dreams…
….we don’t know for sure, but we think that this may be what a forage experts dream about at night. At least, Sarah Flack, a forage guru from Vermont who visited Thistle Hill the other day, seemed to be in her own personal vision of heaven. Sarah consults on forages for a number of farms. Also lectures. Also writes books. That’s what she was doing here: gathering material for her next book. Her working title is something like “Be Your Own Consultant”. Sarah couldn’t get over the plant diversity in our pastures and had a hard time believing it had all been achieved without over-seeding of any kind. Three years ago…
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Dig the new digs….
….it’s probably their idea of arriving in cow heaven….Wooz calls it “summer camp”. A group of Thistle Hill steers arrive at a nearby farm courtesy of its new owners, Bob and Ann Emory. And “nearby” is certainly accurate. The new 50-acre pasture is just around the corner. And replaces another that was a half hour away….and much smaller. Until now, we’ve had to pull our steers out every winter for lack of water….and set up portable fencing. Bob has prepared a first-class facility complete with a new loading pen. Cows haven’t been on the land for many years so while we’ve checked and re-checked, we’ll wait a year before really…
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The grass is always greener….
….if only by a little bit. These young calves probably went through the high tensile wire on the other side of the pasture…walked along a river…and back up this side to wait near the gate. It’s become something of a game for seven of the calves this season. Better not to chase them. Leave them alone and they’ll come home. We’re keeping the main herd in a sacrifice area with hay, trying to give the grass a start before we launch the rotation. Probably time to give up and just get them moving….fast! Photo by Duane Ard.
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Thistle Hill goes “global”….
….we really enjoy entertaining visitors at Thistle Hill. We always learn more from our guests than they ever learn from us. Just a fresh set of eyes makes us see things we just never focused on. This week we hosted a delegation of cattle and dairymen and women from South Africa and they brought with them an agronomist from Australia, Christine Jones. The group had skipped breakfast and arrived from Washington torn between our pastures and our buffet. Food won out! I haven’t had beer for breakfast, much less burgers and brats, since I was flying for SAC, but Thistle Hill meats are perfect any time. Stomachs satisfied, they set out…
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If everything else fails….
….maybe we can sell the view. Our chief-of-everything around here—Duane Ard—snapped this picture from his porch the other evening. That’s the Rappahannock down there in the haze….nearer us, a pasture we’re stockpiling for winter. Now that I really look at the picture, I’m thinking we’ll move in with Duane. He’s got “The View”!
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Talk about a “giant step for mankind”….
the largest grain producing company in the world is changing course….and converting to grass fed beef! They put a pencil to it and decided industrial ag just isn’t sustainable (as we’ve been saying”. http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23531 Thanks to Dr. Sue Beal for the link.
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A beautiful day in the neighborhood….
….after more than a month without rain, we were anxious to share it with our herd. You can barely make out several of our cows through the windshield of the Gator. They seemed as happy as we were. You could sense the grass turning green and by the end of the three-hour downpour there was no question it was having an effect. While no amount of proper grazing and pasture management can overcome a drought, it does seem to make recovery much quicker. Better yet, the forecast calls for three more days of this magical—and free—fertilizer.
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All for one….
….one of the pleasures of being a part of the grass fed and sustainable farming community is the fellowship and cooperative spirit of people learning together. The process never stops and, like this small grazing meeting at Thistle Hill yesterday afternoon, people learn together and help each other improve their pastures. We like to think we’re doing pretty good but we still have “problem” areas….spots like this one where, unlike most farms, we have too much clover. Not a problem at all in the heat of the summer but not what we want for grazing and adding pounds right now. Click to enlarge….there are three generations in the picture learning together! You…
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Yes, it’s true – 2…..
…we hope you’re following the discussion following the post we did on the Greg Judy farm and mob grazing. Pasture expert Jim Gerrish has chimed in…and I suspect the debate is not over yet. Scroll down to “Yes, it’s true….”
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Help for the grazier on “overload”….
….that’s the mission of a new website we just learned of thanks to Dr. Sue Beal. It’s called “On Pasture” and is intended to be a digest of all the material that’s out there on pasture management. It’s something we try to do on an informal, anecdotal basis on this blog but we certainly welcome the effort to do this on a professional, “sustained” basis. Here’s the link: http://onpasture.com/