Multi-Species Rotational Grazing - Free Choice Mineral Upgrade and My Phosphorous Connection
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ส.ค. 2024
- Join me today for a Red Devon cattle and St Croix sheep move into a fresh 1/4 acre paddock, as we discuss a recent mineral program switch we made here on the farm - Free Choice Enterprises individual mineral. I’m discussing pros and cons in OUR CONTEXT of offering livestock mineral using this system on our farm.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Free Choice Enterprises in any way, other than as a recent customer.
Great episode Jason, appreciate you catching us up with a honest assessment of the mineral feeder. I’m not sure how I could manage that feeder on our steep ground, but we are giving unneeded minerals and wasting quite a bit through the mineral bag approach. The Johnson Su seems to be a winner, as you’re doing it, and was pretty light on inputs. Our sheep are all doing well, despite the miserable conditions we entered into Fall/Winter here in E. Tennessee, and Welby the ram is making his rounds. We have three Highlands’ coming by the end of the year, a bull one generation out of Scotland and two bred cows. They weren’t our priority or target species for our first cattle but the price/value was so good that we grabbed a chance at a small breed stock herd. God Bless you and your family as we approach the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Dan and Elle
Welby the ram, love it!! You know, the mineral has been a progression for us, and we all do what we can given our varying contexts. I’d say enjoy the convenience of bagged mineral for now, as it can work! The loose mineral has its downsides as well. I’m glad to hear you guys are settling in to your place with animals now. Totally awesome and a full feeling indeed! Be well down there, friends!🤠
oh man! i’m so glad i just found this channel. i’m about to binge it. i’m in cincinnati area and have outgrown my suburban lot with layers and broilers. so far what i’ve seen you’re doing exactly what i’d like to be doing, in roughly the same area. let’s go!
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I have an idea for you. It will take some time and effort but it will get you away from using your lawn tractor for moving the mineral box. You raise red Devons = heritage draft animals. You can either train a calf and raise them to pull the box, or buy a Devon from someone who has already trained them.
That’s such an awesome idea! Love it!🤠💫
Freak me out....lol. fascinating idea :) hmm.....could they pull a light fencing cart too? A spool, a few posts and a few tools?
I LOVE this idea so much! My sheep are constantly dumping their minerals so we end up wasting a ton of it. I've been trying to think about exactly this sort of thing so I'll definitely be looking into it as an option.
I loved the theory…we’ll see how it pans out in reality! Hope things are well up north.🐑
@birchfieldfarming dealing with drought but we managed to secure feed for winter so that's good! I have some plans for how to try to improve our pastures through winter and into spring so fingers crossed they work out too! We still need rain pretty badly though
@@ShepherdsCreek Keep on keepin on, friend🤠
I have wanted to get this exact mineral setup. However I only have 15 sheep total. So I haven’t made the jump yet. I could get close to about the same amount of acres you are using with some fencing alterations. The more I watch your channel the more I want to add some cattle.
For now I would just use the sheep mineral you have plus your old feeders. Take some time observing your new system. Then maybe make a similar feeder that is smaller for the rams. Same amount of compartments just maybe not as robust.
Definitely a big up front cost. But it seems like such a great solution to the multi species. I can’t wait to see how it works out for you.
Thanks Justin. Great ideas here, and after a few days using it I’m thinking exactly along those lines - a separate, smaller custom feeder for sheep, pull it in summer thru paddocks, and save the tank feeder for winter set-up when everything stays put. If I had it to do over again, I think I’d just buy the mineral and build a smaller custom unit myself. I just hate trying to re-invent the wheel b/c it usually takes me 3 generations of builds to get it right! Be well, friend.
Hope the investment pays off. For the rams, you could just use a ram specific salt limited mineral mix. Linessa Farms has one and a good small ruminant education youtube channel. Keep us updated on the buffet style and how it pans out for you.
Thanks Nicole
Salatin swears by kelp and salt. If im not mistaken, that's all he uses. I actually almost lost a cow this spring using only sheep mineral.
I can't completely attribute it to the lack of copper but all the symptoms were there, so we wormed him and then put cattle mineral right in front of him, he licked it right up and within 2 days he was back. Dont know which it was but, after that we switched to kelp and they seem to be thriving. Tricky stuff!
Context is so important with a lot of these big regen ag names and their remineralized land (Salatin, Judy, etc). Kelp and salt has not even close to 1% mag and cost us a heifer. It will absolutely work in non-tetany prone pastures for most of the year. However, when you hit the real green stuff in Spring and Fall consider getting some mg in there. Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) in their water can work, just not too much to make it unpalatable.
@birchfieldfarming Something more for me to think about for sure! Sometimes, text can convey thoughts differently than the writer wishes, reading it back now i hope you didn't take that as criticism of your video and method. I was just stating what we were going through and how things, just like cow unit per acre varies wildly on location. This is all tricky.
I have to say i really appreciate your videos though man. You deserve a bigger following. Keep it up Jason!
@@ProvidenceAcresFarm Certainly didn’t take it as criticism. Thanks for speaking to it! Yes, so many challenges on so many levels. Always appreciate your encouragement here!
Did you test for available or non available nutrients? Or both? Curious to if Phos was there and not being made available, or if it wasn't there at all.
Great question - Just a modified morgan ppm, which I believe is just what’s there, not necessarily available. I think that’s an old outdated testing method too. Would be interesting to have data from Regen Ag labs to compare now…ideas for future videos, thanks!🤠
@@birchfieldfarming Appreciate the fast reply! Regen Ag labs is what I've been hearing about lately, their Total Nutrient Digestion Analysis Report. By the looks of the grass and cattle whatever deficiency it is seems to be a slight one, they look fantastic. Tough thing about small scale is the fly control. I always notice with smaller scale grazing operations it's hard to escape the fly pressure no matter what you do. (Can't just leave 40ac and go to the next 40, when all small scalers got is much less than that.) However, rotationally grazing like nature did / does still has its perks and that is quite noticeable!
@@TobyElGatoVery good info on the Regen Ag test, thanks! Yes, I agree with your fly pressure assessment. Thank you for your info and encouragement this morning!
Could you keep your back fences open for a few paddock moves, so you don't have to move the cafe mineral as often?
This is true, certainly could, and we’ve done a bit of that with shade. Certainly pros and cons. The challenge I’ve noticed is preventing overgrazing in that situation. My flerd will always wander back, eventually. Precisely why I can’t wrap my head around the mob grazing with no back fence thing - how is it done without overgrazing where they’ve been, especially if there’s water/mineral where they came off of the previous day?
How long does it take for that mineral system to break even versus buying mineral mixtures? It makes so much sense that if I can’t afford it I might just make something similar that I can use
Really great question, Guy. For us, the switch was primarily about improving animal and pasture health, but I can tell you we were paying $55 for every 50# bag of Fertrell sheep nutri-balancer and still not getting the copper my cattle needed. It’ll take some time, but I was willing to try.
Why not run an axle through the front and rear of the 4x4 skids and put some wheels on your mineral feeder? IF the wheels are outside the feeder, it shouldn’t tip over easily. You could then pull it by hand rather than use your gas powered mower.
They sell a wheel kit for this one. It’s so expensive I think I could build another whole smaller one for less. To be honest though, I still don’t think we could budge it by hand even with wheels. Maybe I need to hit the gym!💪🏻
Q is: why are we having to use minerals? What has changed? Deer dont need minerals. My guess is on a big enough farm no minerals would be necessary. Maybe our genetics are off as well.
This really begs the question of why even farm at all. Deer roam wherever, whenever and have a much wider selection than simple pasture. Also the areas where deer mostly roam (woods, etc) haven’t been farmed to crud dirt. I farm because harvesting when I want is loads more convenient and enjoyable than a hunter/gatherer existence. Private property rights and ownership prohibit my animals from just ranging like the deer wherever they want. An attempt at remineralization thru using ruminant animals is the best way forward given my context.