Folks If you're interested in a bale unroller like this...here's a link: greenpasturesfarm.net/bale-unrollers/ Tell Greg that Stoney Ridge Farmer sent ya....I DO NOT GET PAID FOR THIS! GREG IS A DEAR FRIEND AND THIS BALE UNROLLER IS THE BEST TOOL I HAVE FOR PASATURE BUILDING!
Josh, you are a fine example of a farmer with a wholistic, environmental view geared to the long term. Sadly, you are among a minority of farmers and ranchers who think this way for the planet and our country. I don't blame a person who focuses on the short term because they need to feed their family today and therefore are dependent on the fertilizer and GMO seed companies. I pray that your message spreads but we also need a Department of Agriculture and a Food and Drug agency that are not in bed with the chemical and petroleum lobbies. I wonder how many Americans know the amount of petroleum based additives that are in the food we eat and items with which we cook and bake. Keep up your excellent work and may God bless you with excellent health in mind, body, and soul.
I do blame a person that focuses on "short term".......it's like investing our money in lottery tickets....every year we buy 10,000 worth of tickets....and every year we win it back....never making a positive investment in ourselves.....take that $10k and put it in an investment account and in 5 years it's $15k!! We've gotta think about it in these terms...."short term gains" are just an excuse to continually perpetuate soil destruction my friend....we've gotta think about our land in decades and centuries...not months and years....just like our bodies.....what's the underlying problem.....obesity? Well...take a diet pill for it....what happens when ya take away the pill? It's about change......changing the way we perceive things....taking responsibility for the long term benifit....not 1 year at a time....or dropping 10 lbs and gaining it right back....it's change.....lifestyle, thought process and understanding cause and effect.....most of us lack the patience to do this....therefore we go back to the "candy isle" or the "fertilizer store"
Right on Josh! Doing it right will guarantee sustainablity for the long term! 100%! We gotta get this incoming administration to watch videos like this! RFK Jr., would be very interested!
this video right here is why i watch your channel, real truth and real solutions to bettering our lives and our surroundings. we are very stricted here as well. As for personal health i beat hbp and refulx meds by eating better and not eating bad foods. yes sure i crave that bad fatty food. but my health is way more important. geting older is not easy and requires more effort to stay in good health. I like to keep moving. I don't hurt as much.
thank you brother. And amen...keep moving!! You've seen this just as well as I have....our "modern" western medicine treats the human body like a machine...."just take this" and you'll be better...how bout .....JUST DO THIS and you won't be sick!! We cannot run from our genetics....but if we can practice self discipline and self care....we know we can be healthy. As a RN I absolutely can't stand modern medicine......the idea that slapping a pill in our mouths is the only answer is simply nuts to me!
I hear you loud and clear, crystal clear! Marvelous illustration of what our environment has naturally that is capable of improving agriculture, which in turn improves human health! I pray the new 2025 FDA commissioner gets wind of this. Well done Josh!
Josh, Totally agree with you! Do you are you still doing TOOL TUESDAY?? I watched you for a long time but I find myself fast forwarding through microbes and rolling out hay….. like the content of you doing projects ( messing it up sometimes lol ) and building, milling, and other stuff… fixing tractors etc… with your brother so on.
When I bought my land it looked good but after I noticed I had no soil in the fields. Graas and weeds were growing on hard clay. Zero organic matter. After three years i have gotten between 0.5 and one inch of black soil. With about 3/8 inch of intermediate soil. Only now do I believe I can get the ground to be decent soil. I will be planting cover crops and will start using a wood chipper to really get organic matter in the soil. I will be putting crushed limestone or dolomite on the fields rather than lime. You gave me encouragement. 😊
3 years and you've got 1/2 inch or black soil....you gotta tell me what you're doing...because that ain't happening here lol...maybe 1/4 inch over the last 8 years!
@StoneyRidgeFarmer Just mowing when it gets knee high or to discourage certain weeds. Deer browse on the fields much like your cows. About 1 per acre. No pesticides except some limited spot treatment for fire ants.
I agree with most of what you say. So your soil samples tell you that lime is needed to be applied to raise ph, what about the potash and potassium? You’re using the lime as a tool to help ph, what’s so wrong with using P and K to adjust the soils deficiency? Fertilizer needs to be treated as a tool as well and once the levels are “acceptable “ there is no need to continue to apply it unless you cut hay off the ground, which you do not. I’ve been through this same scenario you are going through with a newly purchased property a couple years ago. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. I’m spreading my hay out as well and I completely agree as to how much it helps. Good content none the less sir! Have a great one.
my friend....the problem with commercial fertilizers is that they are petroleum based.....and we're "shocking" the land by hitting them with so much nutrient that it's destructive to the biology of the soil..limestone is just a mineral...but shocking the soil with "too much" nutrient is what becomes destructive. It just takes time to heal our land.....I agree with you to an extent....however seeking natural sources is our best option and slowly making changes. You are 100% correct....it is a marathon....however most treat this as a sprint and therefore it becomes destructive. As long as we're thinking about our soil as a living thing and treating it as such...I think we're one step ahead of the game. Thanks for the comment!
Man....just google it. I hear what you are saying, and you're thinking of soil as something mechanical....using a "tool" to fix it...when the only tool needed is proper managment. N-P-K are not the building blocks of soil life.....if your goal is to polute, kill soil microbial life and for your land to become dependant on the fertilizer man...then it's your choice my brother. We didn't use chemicals 120 years ago and we had topsoil....now it's all we use and our topsoil is going away. Use that "tool" or start a transition to something that's better for your land, children and grandchildren. We're destroying our earth with this "tool" when the underlying problem is in the soil...or lack of living soil. Ya can't just Take take take from the land....we have to manage it holistically, rotationally and build our soil as a living thing...not as a machine that pumps out green grass. In 5 years we'll be totally self sustained on this farm....from hay to forage to the animals we raise....and we won't need the "tool" that makes grass grow green.....if we'd farmed our land the right way from the start we wouldn't have these problems now. Irresponsible farming practices have created our predicament and we won't fix it by dumping more N-P-K on our land every year. That's my opinion my friend....that's just it. Show me a fertilizer that's not chemical or petroleum based and manufactured and I'm all in brother!!
@@StoneyRidgeFarmer You didn't answer my question, so here's what Google had to say when asked "is phosphorous fertilizer petroleum-based": "No, phosphorus fertilizer is not directly petroleum-based; it is primarily derived from mined rock phosphate, which is a mineral source of phosphorus, not from petroleum products. While the process of manufacturing some phosphorus fertilizers may involve chemicals that are derived from petroleum, the primary source of phosphorus itself is the mined rock phosphate." What are you even talking about with "N-P-K are not the building blocks of soil health" ?!?! Open any microbiology textbook or study on soil and you will read that they are essential in addition to many other components. The difference is that I'm not dogmatic like so many in the "regenerative" farming movement. Every tool has it's place and must be used responsibly. There's no black and white answer to any of this. And yes, I am working like mad to make my farm better for my children.
I speak spanish, thank you for making the effort and for spreading free education for spanish speakers too. You will get better , so far most of the video goes along with the explanation , english takes less time and words for explaining something , that is why the words speed up a little in english but i still understand 100 percent. Thank you for the opportunity the listen to the info in my mother tongue. God bless you.
Another great production from the SRF. You nailed it about the living soil and other things that makes your farm work. I'm sure it's a lot of work but hang in there, in the end it will pay off in a big way. Thanks for sharing all of it.
Great video Josh. I own a small hobby farm up here in east central MN. I am 3rd generation on the farm and i took over the farm 10 years ago from my dad when he passed away and i have never given my cows any kind of meds or vacines. I have healthy charolais cow and calves. Keep up the great work. Love the videos
Josh, it's encouraging to see how you are running your farm. I just bought my first cow and two calves. The seller bragged about how they had been de-wormed. I cringed, but they probably needed it at his farm. It is hard finding livestock that have not been raised on chemicals (vaccines, de-wormers, hormones, sprayed grain, grass and hay) and finding hay that has not been sprayed. I'm going to try to set aside a few acres to grow my own hay rather than importing glyphosate and chemical fertilizers with they hay I would buy locally.
I would buy hay! Very unlikely you'll have any kind of glyphosate in the hay you buy....ask your supplier if they use a broad leaf herbicide ....odds are if they did it was in the fall cut hay...I always get spring cut hay...it's cleaner in my opinion...cow hay isnt typically sprayed...horse hay is in most cases
If I had the land you have, I would do the same thing to it that I do to mine to improve the soil. Keep a large stand of trees, mow the grass and weeds and collect these clippings and leaves for the fruit trees and garden. That is it. I don't have any animals that I have to take care of. My soil has been getting better every year and I am having trouble finding people to give my excess food to.
It’s all about feeling the beneficial microbes, microbes are what brake down the organic matter and make it readily available for root uptake like worms they eat organic matter and brakes it down by pooing it out makings it available for plant uptake. That’s what I’ve learned from indoor garden growing with soils with organic like 100% coco coir and peat moss I have to feed the soil build up the organic matter/nutrients for the plant to brake down and be readily available for the plants to uptake and thrive. I love organic gardening just better quality and more healthier in my opinion
Hey Josh. I really like watching your videos because they are very informative and fun. With your regular rotation of cattle on different pastures, have you thought of planting different types of “fixation” clovers to help improve NPK? Also have you looked into liquid Calcium products to help improve pH? Not sure if that’s a cheaper route vs the granular you put out for the farm.
yep...1000% ....every pasture has clover in it....liquid calcium is about 10 times more expensive than spreading lime...and it's powdered stone...not granular. If it were granular it would cost nearly double
Arrr I love the calves, Charles Dowding is master at soil life. I am slowly adding life to my already nice soil. I must say josh add wood chips around the paddocks and you wanna see the life under that chips and creates good hummus
Love your channel , great information. I only have a few head of cattle and for years have been rolling out hay bales trying to get better pastures. Trying to get away from chemical fertilizers on pastures. I also have a hay field i understand your thoughts on pastures any thoughts on hay fields? How to fertilize ,types of grass etc.... I live in central Alabama so i imagine the weather is comparable to yall's weather except in the winter cant stand the snow lol!!!!!! Anyway love your channel and keep the videos coming!!!!
Amen on carolina soil being terrible I have ripped my pasture every year it was so packed hard I subsidies all year with bought hay also I only feed pellet feed I notice gain feed was too weedy
Josh, great video, I just subscribed. Can you explain how you grow your herd while still selling the cattle as well as how you rotate bulls for genetics, which gender or what quantity to sell/keep and any ratios. My wife and I are looking at land to do the same in the piedmont region and are following your lead
simple.....look up "line breeding" in livestock...and what we'll do in some cases is keep back some good stock/hiefers and sometimes a bull. This year we dramatically downsized to 1 bull, 4 steers and around 25 cows. I kept 1 heifer from this year's calving. Next year I may keep more. Basically we've got a core group of cattle that calve every year and save back a few premium animals for breeding in subsequent years. Line breeding means sometimes it's good for the genetics of our animals to have dad breed daughter and cousins.....it's not like people...it occurs in nature as well as in livestock breeding. This year we downsized for the winter....next year we'll keep more heifers as we'll be fencing in more pasture
I’ve been watching farms in North Dakota run drain tile under the fields. I’ve thought to myself the farmers are stupid. The arguments I’ve heard from farmers are it helps in controlling what’s in the soil. We may have a field that got high level of nitrogen or salt when the snow melts the water washes it to the drain tile and we pump that out with the water, this also helps us get a into the field sooner. The thing I find ironic is the one farmer that I was talking with started complaining mid July saying his ground is so dry he needed rain. Over use of chemicals they wash out and pump it away then reapply again. I’ll be talking to my uncle about renting his crop land out and get some grass started on it and rebuild it with cows.
Great talk that makes sense 👏 .. The hey wouldn't last long over here ... The wind would share it out with the incroaching housing 😂.. stay safe 🏴
hmmm....ya must live in a windy place....I'd say hay on the ground like this is no more likely to "go aloft" than grass clipping from a tall lawn my friend
@StoneyRidgeFarmer bonny Scotland sir.. we like a strong wind over here 🤣 .. Thanks for replying.. its always nice to know your comments are being noticed... 👍🏻 and hopefully some use to people.. its nice to share good information.. 👍🏻
I use my manue on my pasters and I still have to put nitrogen on some of it not enough manue. I drag mine atlases two times a week after it gets below 32 f here it be close to spring before I can do it again.
I hear ya.....but I'll also ask ya....has putting down nitrogen helped your pastures become better over time or more dependent on nitrogen? When the air we breath is 78% nitrogen....and if we have the proper microbes in our soil.....then we won't need to supplement with chemical means! Think about it like "shocking" a pool....every season you "shock" your land and wipe out the microbes by putting down 3-10 times more nitrogen than they microbes that fix nitrogen can handle...you reset the microbe growth every season by putting down a shocking amount of N. Think about it my friend...try a pasture for 3 years without hitting it with N...see what it does for ya...it's worth a try isn't it?
@StoneyRidgeFarmer Yes it did I only put down 50 lbs per acer 120 acers about 90 gets dry nitrogen on it but when manuer is available to me I start where I left off at.
section off your land into 3/4 acre paddocks and do exactly what we're doing here my friend...even smaller if you can. Just remember not to over pressure your land
Hi There from Aussie. Great video thank you. I am currently working to improve our soil. I wonder if I could do this feed practice for my land and horses? I am using a hay ring and yes super muddy ring around the ring! My only concern is if I rolled the hay out how would I stop it getting mouldy and making my horses sick. I have 2 horses it takes them around 2 weeks to eat an entire round bale. I keep the hay ring under a shelter so it stays dry. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you Kay.
I would not do this with horses...rolling out hay isn't for horses at all. I'd look into a craddle feeder for your hay v/s a ring...you can move the cradle while hay is still in it. Most certainly can drag pastures after horses......but I'd look into a bale cradle feeder so you can keep it moving...build a little roof structure over it
It will be cool when your experiment starts working! Not starts working, flourishes. It is working now. Maybe next summer you'll see even more things! It's a leap of Faith and smarts. I come from a medium/high worm farming background, well, sort of. Are you still using that Biology spray (I sort of liken it to worm castings etc.), with your Sprayer? Has it been helpful?
so...as for a "formula"....remember, very few things in nature are "square" meaning a formula would be putting a square peg in a round hole. You have to be consistently flexible with your "formula"...it's based on the water system setup that ya have and basically you make "wedges" off that watering system. I have a few vids out in my "turf, lawn and pasture" playlist as well as my "livestock" playlist....I'll do more content on this soon! Great question....I've learned to "read the grass" and adapt my grazing plan
@@StoneyRidgeFarmer I guess what I am asking is, is there a rule of thumb you try to go by to keep padocks around say 2 acres or 4 acres. I understand what you're saying as far as having wedges around your waters sources, I just didn't know if you were trying to keep the padocks around a specific size
around 1 acre....12 hours grazing....smaller the better but you have to take the forage into consideration...grazing in April v/s july is a different world depending on weather and forage density. 50 cows....1 acre paddocks ....90 total paddocks on the farm gives 45 days rest between grazing
@@pbjunkie11 ask your local extension agent or conservation district for your county's average acres to support 1000 pounds of animal or "animal unit". An area's rainfall, heat, soil capacity,... and other context changes one's acres needed. As you develop better soil and forages, your carrying capacity will increase.
When I first started building the farm I went to the Ag center and sat down with my extension agent....I asked "What are people farming in this county that's earning a profit/living?" My agent couldn't answer that question....WHAT???? really? The only thing I got from them is what to spray and what fertilizer to put down......I've written them off as a source of information. Every time I walk in the door they just hand me more pamphlets and try to get me to sign up to go into debt, pay insurance or sign up for some program so their numbers look good. Nope....I'm done with them until something changes.
My cows ate the common last year I’m converting soy bean field to pasture I think the weeds are binging up some positive nutrients and producing a lot of carbon
here's my take on weeds....and pasture. If the cows will eat it...it's not a weed....if it's not desirable it's a weed. Before we had any livestock on the farm I intensively mowed at least 5 times per year....planted legumes to fix nitrogen and basically mimicked the cattle grazing with mowing....I spend 2 summers mowing all summer long! The forage here has quadrupled over the past 6 years! Be patient...it will take some time...and it's tough to stay on top of things!
LOL....I'm literally laughing here.....maybe you don't understand the analogy....we shower with harsh soap and rinse off all the good bacteria as well as the bad bacteria on our skin.....we don't need to hit our land with harsh chemicals that kill off all the normal flora that helps our land thrive. Yes...I use soap lol.....but no...we don't need to wash over our land with harsh chemicals that could be destructive to the soil biology
nobody trims the hoofs....it's simply not a necessity in the beef cattle industry...the cows roam the land which keeps their hooves healthy...v/s feed lot or barn kept cattle who indecently walk in feces and have infection issues
makes sense....but most of the time a cow won't need hooves trimmed....it's the health of the animal I'm speaking of...walking in feces constantly effects the hoof health and that's why we see so many hoof and foot issues in the feed lots. My cattle are fat...and they dont have hoof issues because they're moving and not confined to a muddy/manure soaked mess.
doesn't matter my brother...I can't help what farmer bill does over the hill....but I can show him what's working here...and if he's got good eyes and ain't too stubborn to learn....he'll be doing something similar. Just like you can't help it if your neighbor throws their food scraps in the trash while you feed your chickens with them right?
Do you get short sold, at market from raising these cattle in this exceptional way? In other words, the opponent to your philosophy (fertilizer/worming etc.), get's the same price as you? Hey, inquiring mind. WOoo! Enjoy the channel.
@ pasture based beef should demand a premium BUT when you are selling weaned calves into the commercial market he isn’t doing anything different from other cow calf producers. The buyers at the market don’t care about anything outside. They buy calves and ship them to the feed yard. They don’t like bulls because they have to casterate them and it’s one extra thing.
well...as far as I know there is no more "Mike" which is sad......however, the high desert country of Gillette WY is vastly different from our place. The weather out there dictates a very short grazing season, very poor grass growth and it takes around 35 acres for one cow out there. They are in a "feed intensive" enviroment that's simply not hospitable for growing the kind of forage we can grow here in temperate NC. I don't know how they earn a dime on that ranch....and it's over 5,000 acres...but it's high desert sage brush country.....and the climate is so vastly different from us. They get 3 months of pretty weather every year....we get 2 months of bad weather.
@@StoneyRidgeFarmer you might want to check out Alejandro Carrillo's talks about his Chijuajuan desert farm and how he built better soil and grows more forages in the Mexican desert.
So close but yet so far. I keep hearing PH but I'd love to see an actual SOIL Annalise and break down by acre for your farm . You're missing a few steps in your method.
well....the only step "Missed" according to modern technology is putting down chemicals. I did a soil test a few years ago...Ill do one again this fall
@StoneyRidgeFarmer thanks for the response. Modern technology does not always require the use of chemicals as you implied. Might I suggest a comprehensive soil analysis including micro and macro nutrition that's where you're missing a step. There's plenty of organic very affordable products that you can use in your efforts to farm sustainable that may help you unlock your soil condition.
Folks If you're interested in a bale unroller like this...here's a link: greenpasturesfarm.net/bale-unrollers/ Tell Greg that Stoney Ridge Farmer sent ya....I DO NOT GET PAID FOR THIS! GREG IS A DEAR FRIEND AND THIS BALE UNROLLER IS THE BEST TOOL I HAVE FOR PASATURE BUILDING!
Josh, you are a fine example of a farmer with a wholistic, environmental view geared to the long term. Sadly, you are among a minority of farmers and ranchers who think this way for the planet and our country. I don't blame a person who focuses on the short term because they need to feed their family today and therefore are dependent on the fertilizer and GMO seed companies. I pray that your message spreads but we also need a Department of Agriculture and a Food and Drug agency that are not in bed with the chemical and petroleum lobbies. I wonder how many Americans know the amount of petroleum based additives that are in the food we eat and items with which we cook and bake. Keep up your excellent work and may God bless you with excellent health in mind, body, and soul.
I do blame a person that focuses on "short term".......it's like investing our money in lottery tickets....every year we buy 10,000 worth of tickets....and every year we win it back....never making a positive investment in ourselves.....take that $10k and put it in an investment account and in 5 years it's $15k!! We've gotta think about it in these terms...."short term gains" are just an excuse to continually perpetuate soil destruction my friend....we've gotta think about our land in decades and centuries...not months and years....just like our bodies.....what's the underlying problem.....obesity? Well...take a diet pill for it....what happens when ya take away the pill? It's about change......changing the way we perceive things....taking responsibility for the long term benifit....not 1 year at a time....or dropping 10 lbs and gaining it right back....it's change.....lifestyle, thought process and understanding cause and effect.....most of us lack the patience to do this....therefore we go back to the "candy isle" or the "fertilizer store"
What a great man to be an ambassador for young and old farmers?You've got my vote
thank you!
Right on Josh! Doing it right will guarantee sustainablity for the long term! 100%!
We gotta get this incoming administration to watch videos like this! RFK Jr., would be very interested!
this video right here is why i watch your channel, real truth and real solutions to bettering our lives and our surroundings. we are very stricted here as well. As for personal health i beat hbp and refulx meds by eating better and not eating bad foods. yes sure i crave that bad fatty food. but my health is way more important. geting older is not easy and requires more effort to stay in good health. I like to keep moving. I don't hurt as much.
thank you brother. And amen...keep moving!! You've seen this just as well as I have....our "modern" western medicine treats the human body like a machine...."just take this" and you'll be better...how bout .....JUST DO THIS and you won't be sick!! We cannot run from our genetics....but if we can practice self discipline and self care....we know we can be healthy. As a RN I absolutely can't stand modern medicine......the idea that slapping a pill in our mouths is the only answer is simply nuts to me!
@@StoneyRidgeFarmer yes, 1000% agree.
I hear you loud and clear, crystal clear! Marvelous illustration of what our environment has naturally that is capable of improving agriculture, which in turn improves human health! I pray the new 2025 FDA commissioner gets wind of this. Well done Josh!
pray they just leave us all alone!!!!!!
I’ve been researching regenerative agriculture for years know. Josh, you are spot on, keep doing it how you are, you know and I know it will work. 👍🏻
Awesome! Thank you!
pro tips.. Hugelkulture beds for growing. Way ahead of notill also.
Josh,
Totally agree with you!
Do you are you still doing TOOL TUESDAY??
I watched you for a long time but I find myself fast forwarding through microbes and rolling out hay….. like the content of you doing projects ( messing it up sometimes lol ) and building, milling, and other stuff… fixing tractors etc… with your brother so on.
yes! I've been missing my tool review vids...they are stacking up in the shop right now...soon my friend!
You are the only one that thinks the way I do God Bless the way it should be and you
I’ve been waiting on a video like this maybe one day I can visit the farm
Josh ,you’re vids are awesome
When I bought my land it looked good but after I noticed I had no soil in the fields. Graas and weeds were growing on hard clay. Zero organic matter. After three years i have gotten between 0.5 and one inch of black soil. With about 3/8 inch of intermediate soil. Only now do I believe I can get the ground to be decent soil. I will be planting cover crops and will start using a wood chipper to really get organic matter in the soil. I will be putting crushed limestone or dolomite on the fields rather than lime. You gave me encouragement. 😊
3 years and you've got 1/2 inch or black soil....you gotta tell me what you're doing...because that ain't happening here lol...maybe 1/4 inch over the last 8 years!
@StoneyRidgeFarmer Just mowing when it gets knee high or to discourage certain weeds. Deer browse on the fields much like your cows. About 1 per acre. No pesticides except some limited spot treatment for fire ants.
I agree with most of what you say. So your soil samples tell you that lime is needed to be applied to raise ph, what about the potash and potassium?
You’re using the lime as a tool to help ph, what’s so wrong with using P and K to adjust the soils deficiency?
Fertilizer needs to be treated as a tool as well and once the levels are “acceptable “ there is no need to continue to apply it unless you cut hay off the ground, which you do not.
I’ve been through this same scenario you are going through with a newly purchased property a couple years ago. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
I’m spreading my hay out as well and I completely agree as to how much it helps.
Good content none the less sir! Have a great one.
my friend....the problem with commercial fertilizers is that they are petroleum based.....and we're "shocking" the land by hitting them with so much nutrient that it's destructive to the biology of the soil..limestone is just a mineral...but shocking the soil with "too much" nutrient is what becomes destructive. It just takes time to heal our land.....I agree with you to an extent....however seeking natural sources is our best option and slowly making changes. You are 100% correct....it is a marathon....however most treat this as a sprint and therefore it becomes destructive. As long as we're thinking about our soil as a living thing and treating it as such...I think we're one step ahead of the game. Thanks for the comment!
@@StoneyRidgeFarmer Explain to us how Phosphorous and Potassium fertilizers are "petroleum-based." They literally come from rock deposits.
Man....just google it. I hear what you are saying, and you're thinking of soil as something mechanical....using a "tool" to fix it...when the only tool needed is proper managment. N-P-K are not the building blocks of soil life.....if your goal is to polute, kill soil microbial life and for your land to become dependant on the fertilizer man...then it's your choice my brother. We didn't use chemicals 120 years ago and we had topsoil....now it's all we use and our topsoil is going away. Use that "tool" or start a transition to something that's better for your land, children and grandchildren. We're destroying our earth with this "tool" when the underlying problem is in the soil...or lack of living soil. Ya can't just Take take take from the land....we have to manage it holistically, rotationally and build our soil as a living thing...not as a machine that pumps out green grass. In 5 years we'll be totally self sustained on this farm....from hay to forage to the animals we raise....and we won't need the "tool" that makes grass grow green.....if we'd farmed our land the right way from the start we wouldn't have these problems now. Irresponsible farming practices have created our predicament and we won't fix it by dumping more N-P-K on our land every year. That's my opinion my friend....that's just it. Show me a fertilizer that's not chemical or petroleum based and manufactured and I'm all in brother!!
@@StoneyRidgeFarmer You didn't answer my question, so here's what Google had to say when asked "is phosphorous fertilizer petroleum-based":
"No, phosphorus fertilizer is not directly petroleum-based; it is primarily derived from mined rock phosphate, which is a mineral source of phosphorus, not from petroleum products. While the process of manufacturing some phosphorus fertilizers may involve chemicals that are derived from petroleum, the primary source of phosphorus itself is the mined rock phosphate."
What are you even talking about with "N-P-K are not the building blocks of soil health" ?!?! Open any microbiology textbook or study on soil and you will read that they are essential in addition to many other components. The difference is that I'm not dogmatic like so many in the "regenerative" farming movement. Every tool has it's place and must be used responsibly. There's no black and white answer to any of this. And yes, I am working like mad to make my farm better for my children.
I speak spanish, thank you for making the effort and for spreading free education for spanish speakers too. You will get better , so far most of the video goes along with the explanation , english takes less time and words for explaining something , that is why the words speed up a little in english but i still understand 100 percent. Thank you for the opportunity the listen to the info in my mother tongue. God bless you.
You bet! Glad you understand! It's always tough to get everything translated perfectly but the goal is to share the info!
@@josephbenyisrael1768 you might search for Alejandro Carrillo's TH-cam videos in Spanish and English...
Nice video, good work.
Another great production from the SRF. You nailed it about the living soil and other things that makes your farm work. I'm sure it's a lot of work but hang in there, in the end it will pay off in a big way. Thanks for sharing all of it.
Thanks brother! Glad you're enjoying the content...we gotta spread the word!
Hey Josh thank you for the video and I hope other people learn from from this video and other Farmers learn from this video to woo
Great video Josh. I own a small hobby farm up here in east central MN. I am 3rd generation on the farm and i took over the farm 10 years ago from my dad when he passed away and i have never given my cows any kind of meds or vacines. I have healthy charolais cow and calves. Keep up the great work. Love the videos
Josh, it's encouraging to see how you are running your farm. I just bought my first cow and two calves. The seller bragged about how they had been de-wormed. I cringed, but they probably needed it at his farm. It is hard finding livestock that have not been raised on chemicals (vaccines, de-wormers, hormones, sprayed grain, grass and hay) and finding hay that has not been sprayed. I'm going to try to set aside a few acres to grow my own hay rather than importing glyphosate and chemical fertilizers with they hay I would buy locally.
I would buy hay! Very unlikely you'll have any kind of glyphosate in the hay you buy....ask your supplier if they use a broad leaf herbicide ....odds are if they did it was in the fall cut hay...I always get spring cut hay...it's cleaner in my opinion...cow hay isnt typically sprayed...horse hay is in most cases
Hugelkultur beds should be made with the logs.... for sure one of the best farm techniques to save water and reduce labor longterm
add in glomus and bacillus blends in the wood, and mushroom spores... in 3 years you have primo soil life
If I had the land you have, I would do the same thing to it that I do to mine to improve the soil. Keep a large stand of trees, mow the grass and weeds and collect these clippings and leaves for the fruit trees and garden. That is it. I don't have any animals that I have to take care of. My soil has been getting better every year and I am having trouble finding people to give my excess food to.
Multispcies forages boosts the nutrient intake of ruminants (cattle, goats, sheep), poultry (chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese), rabbits, pigs,...
That’s all you see here in Rhode Island! Bare compacted tracts of land. Great lecture Josh!! 👏👏
Love your passion.
thank you!
What your explaining makes a lot of sense. Anyone who doesn't get it needs to do more researc. 😊
Well done, Josh!
It’s all about feeling the beneficial microbes, microbes are what brake down the organic matter and make it readily available for root uptake like worms they eat organic matter and brakes it down by pooing it out makings it available for plant uptake. That’s what I’ve learned from indoor garden growing with soils with organic like 100% coco coir and peat moss I have to feed the soil build up the organic matter/nutrients for the plant to brake down and be readily available for the plants to uptake and thrive. I love organic gardening just better quality and more healthier in my opinion
I agree, you gotta feed the soil! Good stuff brother.
Love learning about this !
Hey Josh. I really like watching your videos because they are very informative and fun. With your regular rotation of cattle on different pastures, have you thought of planting different types of “fixation” clovers to help improve NPK? Also have you looked into liquid Calcium products to help improve pH? Not sure if that’s a cheaper route vs the granular you put out for the farm.
yep...1000% ....every pasture has clover in it....liquid calcium is about 10 times more expensive than spreading lime...and it's powdered stone...not granular. If it were granular it would cost nearly double
Arrr I love the calves, Charles Dowding is master at soil life. I am slowly adding life to my already nice soil. I must say josh add wood chips around the paddocks and you wanna see the life under that chips and creates good hummus
Good morning !!!
🌹🌹🌹🌹
Regenerative agriculture is working WITH Mother Nature.
I did both, fertilizer help imensily
Love your channel , great information. I only have a few head of cattle and for years have been rolling out hay bales trying to get better pastures. Trying to get away from chemical fertilizers on pastures. I also have a hay field i understand your thoughts on pastures any thoughts on hay fields? How to fertilize ,types of grass etc....
I live in central Alabama so i imagine the weather is comparable to yall's weather except in the winter cant stand the snow lol!!!!!!
Anyway love your channel and keep the videos coming!!!!
Great advice for human
Amen on carolina soil being terrible I have ripped my pasture every year it was so packed hard I subsidies all year with bought hay also I only feed pellet feed I notice gain feed was too weedy
Yep....you gotta work hard for every inch of gain in that clay!
Great informative viedo that can help anybody i will try different mythods to get rid of my weeds.Have a good holiday get well talk soon
Josh, great video, I just subscribed.
Can you explain how you grow your herd while still selling the cattle as well as how you rotate bulls for genetics, which gender or what quantity to sell/keep and any ratios.
My wife and I are looking at land to do the same in the piedmont region and are following your lead
simple.....look up "line breeding" in livestock...and what we'll do in some cases is keep back some good stock/hiefers and sometimes a bull. This year we dramatically downsized to 1 bull, 4 steers and around 25 cows. I kept 1 heifer from this year's calving. Next year I may keep more. Basically we've got a core group of cattle that calve every year and save back a few premium animals for breeding in subsequent years. Line breeding means sometimes it's good for the genetics of our animals to have dad breed daughter and cousins.....it's not like people...it occurs in nature as well as in livestock breeding. This year we downsized for the winter....next year we'll keep more heifers as we'll be fencing in more pasture
I’ve been watching farms in North Dakota run drain tile under the fields. I’ve thought to myself the farmers are stupid. The arguments I’ve heard from farmers are it helps in controlling what’s in the soil. We may have a field that got high level of nitrogen or salt when the snow melts the water washes it to the drain tile and we pump that out with the water, this also helps us get a into the field sooner. The thing I find ironic is the one farmer that I was talking with started complaining mid July saying his ground is so dry he needed rain. Over use of chemicals they wash out and pump it away then reapply again. I’ll be talking to my uncle about renting his crop land out and get some grass started on it and rebuild it with cows.
Great talk that makes sense 👏 .. The hey wouldn't last long over here ... The wind would share it out with the incroaching housing 😂.. stay safe 🏴
hmmm....ya must live in a windy place....I'd say hay on the ground like this is no more likely to "go aloft" than grass clipping from a tall lawn my friend
@StoneyRidgeFarmer bonny Scotland sir.. we like a strong wind over here 🤣 .. Thanks for replying.. its always nice to know your comments are being noticed... 👍🏻 and hopefully some use to people.. its nice to share good information.. 👍🏻
Thank you
I use my manue on my pasters and I still have to put nitrogen on some of it not enough manue. I drag mine atlases two times a week after it gets below 32 f here it be close to spring before I can do it again.
I hear ya.....but I'll also ask ya....has putting down nitrogen helped your pastures become better over time or more dependent on nitrogen? When the air we breath is 78% nitrogen....and if we have the proper microbes in our soil.....then we won't need to supplement with chemical means! Think about it like "shocking" a pool....every season you "shock" your land and wipe out the microbes by putting down 3-10 times more nitrogen than they microbes that fix nitrogen can handle...you reset the microbe growth every season by putting down a shocking amount of N. Think about it my friend...try a pasture for 3 years without hitting it with N...see what it does for ya...it's worth a try isn't it?
@StoneyRidgeFarmer Yes it did I only put down 50 lbs per acer 120 acers about 90 gets dry nitrogen on it but when manuer is available to me I start where I left off at.
...you are right!!!...😀
Love this. But what if I don’t have cows? How can I scale it down to a 5 acre parcel? Chicken tractors? Sheep?
section off your land into 3/4 acre paddocks and do exactly what we're doing here my friend...even smaller if you can. Just remember not to over pressure your land
Hi There from Aussie. Great video thank you. I am currently working to improve our soil. I wonder if I could do this feed practice for my land and horses? I am using a hay ring and yes super muddy ring around the ring! My only concern is if I rolled the hay out how would I stop it getting mouldy and making my horses sick. I have 2 horses it takes them around 2 weeks to eat an entire round bale. I keep the hay ring under a shelter so it stays dry. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you Kay.
I would not do this with horses...rolling out hay isn't for horses at all. I'd look into a craddle feeder for your hay v/s a ring...you can move the cradle while hay is still in it. Most certainly can drag pastures after horses......but I'd look into a bale cradle feeder so you can keep it moving...build a little roof structure over it
It will be cool when your experiment starts working! Not starts working, flourishes. It is working now. Maybe next summer you'll see even more things!
It's a leap of Faith and smarts. I come from a medium/high worm farming background, well, sort of. Are you still using that Biology spray (I sort of liken it to worm castings etc.), with your Sprayer? Has it been helpful?
It's been working pretty good so far...I'm starting to see a difference, I think it's gonna be great!
a lot of the mid west got blown away in the 1930s dust bowel era
Do you have a formula for the size of the paddocks/how many you have?
so...as for a "formula"....remember, very few things in nature are "square" meaning a formula would be putting a square peg in a round hole. You have to be consistently flexible with your "formula"...it's based on the water system setup that ya have and basically you make "wedges" off that watering system. I have a few vids out in my "turf, lawn and pasture" playlist as well as my "livestock" playlist....I'll do more content on this soon! Great question....I've learned to "read the grass" and adapt my grazing plan
@@StoneyRidgeFarmer I guess what I am asking is, is there a rule of thumb you try to go by to keep padocks around say 2 acres or 4 acres. I understand what you're saying as far as having wedges around your waters sources, I just didn't know if you were trying to keep the padocks around a specific size
around 1 acre....12 hours grazing....smaller the better but you have to take the forage into consideration...grazing in April v/s july is a different world depending on weather and forage density. 50 cows....1 acre paddocks ....90 total paddocks on the farm gives 45 days rest between grazing
@@pbjunkie11 ask your local extension agent or conservation district for your county's average acres to support 1000 pounds of animal or "animal unit". An area's rainfall, heat, soil capacity,... and other context changes one's acres needed. As you develop better soil and forages, your carrying capacity will increase.
When I first started building the farm I went to the Ag center and sat down with my extension agent....I asked "What are people farming in this county that's earning a profit/living?" My agent couldn't answer that question....WHAT???? really? The only thing I got from them is what to spray and what fertilizer to put down......I've written them off as a source of information. Every time I walk in the door they just hand me more pamphlets and try to get me to sign up to go into debt, pay insurance or sign up for some program so their numbers look good. Nope....I'm done with them until something changes.
Should you brush hog after you graze if there is a lot of stems of rag weed that went to seed
most certainly keep those weeds mowed before they seed out...it will help!
My cows ate the common last year I’m converting soy bean field to pasture I think the weeds are binging up some positive nutrients and producing a lot of carbon
here's my take on weeds....and pasture. If the cows will eat it...it's not a weed....if it's not desirable it's a weed. Before we had any livestock on the farm I intensively mowed at least 5 times per year....planted legumes to fix nitrogen and basically mimicked the cattle grazing with mowing....I spend 2 summers mowing all summer long! The forage here has quadrupled over the past 6 years! Be patient...it will take some time...and it's tough to stay on top of things!
@ thanks for the in depth reply appreciate it
When are you going to work on popcorn the Willie's Jeep
it's burried up in the shop, but soon!!! I even have a paint booth for it!!
5:50 guessing you don't use soap to shower
LOL....I'm literally laughing here.....maybe you don't understand the analogy....we shower with harsh soap and rinse off all the good bacteria as well as the bad bacteria on our skin.....we don't need to hit our land with harsh chemicals that kill off all the normal flora that helps our land thrive. Yes...I use soap lol.....but no...we don't need to wash over our land with harsh chemicals that could be destructive to the soil biology
Love it but weeds are sometimes only weed in context.
Was hear. Woooo
Hi mate, can I ask if you don't mind who trims hoofs?
nobody trims the hoofs....it's simply not a necessity in the beef cattle industry...the cows roam the land which keeps their hooves healthy...v/s feed lot or barn kept cattle who indecently walk in feces and have infection issues
@@BillsCountrysideAdventures if NO grain is fed, hooves and horns do not grow excessively. Feeding grain grows hooves and horns.
it's not so much grain...it's confinement of the animals
@@StoneyRidgeFarmer look it up. Protein and energy are required for building both horns and hooves. Footing can wear hooves, but it cannot grow them.
makes sense....but most of the time a cow won't need hooves trimmed....it's the health of the animal I'm speaking of...walking in feces constantly effects the hoof health and that's why we see so many hoof and foot issues in the feed lots. My cattle are fat...and they dont have hoof issues because they're moving and not confined to a muddy/manure soaked mess.
Can u use it on 5x6 bales?
yessir!
Are those bales of hay from others land fertilizer free ?
doesn't matter my brother...I can't help what farmer bill does over the hill....but I can show him what's working here...and if he's got good eyes and ain't too stubborn to learn....he'll be doing something similar. Just like you can't help it if your neighbor throws their food scraps in the trash while you feed your chickens with them right?
Doesn’t transfer nearly as much damage as dumping petroleum based npk every year making your ground dependent on it.
How do you get rid of gophers/moles?
lol...have soil that's as hard as a rock! I don't have any issues here...but once you've got a rodent problem I hear it's tough!
Can this work on a garden to
we "grazed" our garden spot with hogs and goats every winter and have never had to use fertilizer
Do you get short sold, at market from raising these cattle in this exceptional way?
In other words, the opponent to your philosophy (fertilizer/worming etc.), get's the same price as you? Hey, inquiring mind. WOoo! Enjoy the channel.
my cattle have less input costs and bring the same $$ my friend....that's the cool thing about this...regenerative farming is farming on the cheap!
@@StoneyRidgeFarmer OK I see. see, I didn't think of that. Thanks. I mean perhaps it's better meat as well. Another thing I don't know.
Only place he is getting short sold is selling bull calves instead of steer calves. Otherwise shouldn’t be any different.
@ pasture based beef should demand a premium BUT when you are selling weaned calves into the commercial market he isn’t doing anything different from other cow calf producers. The buyers at the market don’t care about anything outside. They buy calves and ship them to the feed yard. They don’t like bulls because they have to casterate them and it’s one extra thing.
Yes a calibrate bander would pat for itself quickly
My grandpa never used fertilizer. He used horse manure.
Aaannd, the chicken poopies! 💩
Lol i wish I could own a cow on a 1/4 acre lot😂. The fl grass is dying.
Aa well the best thing i could do is make a organic compost tea. I wish I could own some big land?
yep...it's very tough to do this on that small of a scale...I will tell ya...get some chickens!! You'll take food scraps and make fertilzer and eggs!
To bad you couldn't convince Mike & Erin of this when you were out there. 🤔
well...as far as I know there is no more "Mike" which is sad......however, the high desert country of Gillette WY is vastly different from our place. The weather out there dictates a very short grazing season, very poor grass growth and it takes around 35 acres for one cow out there. They are in a "feed intensive" enviroment that's simply not hospitable for growing the kind of forage we can grow here in temperate NC. I don't know how they earn a dime on that ranch....and it's over 5,000 acres...but it's high desert sage brush country.....and the climate is so vastly different from us. They get 3 months of pretty weather every year....we get 2 months of bad weather.
@@StoneyRidgeFarmer you might want to check out Alejandro Carrillo's talks about his Chijuajuan desert farm and how he built better soil and grows more forages in the Mexican desert.
So close but yet so far.
I keep hearing PH but I'd love to see an actual SOIL Annalise and break down by acre for your farm .
You're missing a few steps in your method.
well....the only step "Missed" according to modern technology is putting down chemicals. I did a soil test a few years ago...Ill do one again this fall
@StoneyRidgeFarmer thanks for the response.
Modern technology does not always require the use of chemicals as you implied.
Might I suggest a comprehensive soil analysis including micro and macro nutrition that's where you're missing a step.
There's plenty of organic very affordable products that you can use in your efforts to farm sustainable that may help you unlock your soil condition.
More trees now in the US than in 1700s 🙂