So many people don't realize just how much science goes into farming. Despite a lot of the incorrect stereotypes, farmers are some of the smartest people out there.
It’s so nice to hear someone else say grazing is NOT a one size fits all endeavor! And you acknowledged growth stages/nutrient value which is something I don’t hear many others speak about but is so important! Thanks for the common sense!
Hey Farmer Tyler! I've been watching your grazing experiments too. There's no guilt in finding the way that works best for your farm. Grazing on prime growth stage forage was rule one of grazing when I started learning. -Pete
I love that I live a life where - you ranting about "hauling in hay" is the highlight of my week! Your enthusiasm is amazing and making my learning experience a lot more enjoyable. Thank you so much for what you do. It's making a big difference in a few people's lives, at least.
Pete, you must have had TWO coffees this morning, you were on fire ! ha ha Great ideas and thoughts based on your observations and the size of your operation.
Amen Pete !! You have to figure out what works for your land and animals, what decreases your labor and inputs while building benefits and turning deficiencies back to benefits. Up here in western Canada what works in one mountain range doesn't work in another. We have 7 different regional climates in BC from coastal temperate rain forest to the northern tip of the mid altitude Sonora Desert. The soil differs from place to place also. Move over to Alberta and conditions are different all over the map again. If you don't experiment and dial in what works - you're bankrupt. If you don't measure and observe -you're guessing ! If you don't accept the reality of condition of your farm ecosystem - you will fight it and lose! I'm a big fan of Alan Savory and many others and the one thing that I found is that they all agree that you have to find what works for your farm. Love your channel, keep it coming!!
Living in Northwestern Pennsylvania snowbelt region, I understand the need of hay making . As far as stockpiling goes it depends on what type of grass is in the pasture. The best type of grass to use for stockpiling is fescue since it hold nutrients alot better than most other grasses.
After all of my research, some of those same authors of ideas, I would add in a nutshell the best way through observation and trial and error an excellent way,to work a small farm herd. Fantastic sum hypothesis. Thank you. Finally someone who gets it and has provided a way to connect pasture “a” to pasture “z” through the spring, summer, and fall. Thank you a way much better idea of hybridizing ideas to fit a niche for your area. The best by far… thanks again
Dont go to this guys site but Grant woods who is a deer biologist who says if your a cattle farmer you are really a grass farmer. He has a process called the buffalo system where he optimizes the ground to grow the biggest deer. He says he is imitating nature the way the great prairie was made. its very interesting how similar mob grazing is. it utilizes the same principles. very cool stuff Pete!!!
I come from Zimbabwe as does Allan Savory. He makes sense. I admire him a lot. Funnily I wanted to send this to a small farmer in Zim and then you mentioned Allan who I met in my teens. I am hooked on your channel. My dad in his twenties was a cattle rancher in Brazil before he and my mum settled in Zim. He would have loved this.
I do believe after listening all the way through that you have a perfect system that will work for most small operations. The system will have to be tweaked for an operations capabilities, type of pastures and weather, but overall a very good doable approach.
Thank you sharing this amazing information from your experience. We are thankful that with all the experts out there this is not a one size fits all deal and you are willing to tell us what didn't work for you. Blessings
Great info and video setup. No information left out.👏 Hes not even selling us a member only section like justin rhodes. Keep it going sir !! this channel is underrated.
Another great and very informative video. My take away is we need to optimize the grazing and cutting hay and the timing will vary depending on where you live, the types of grass, soil condition, weather and the ratio of cattle to size of pasture.
Pete is such a great educator! Some of these videos Pete you should have on the home page with the title "professor Pete from Just a few acres farm, and the university of TH-cam!"
50k/acre per day works best for us as well. Our system is 99% like yours. Differences are 1.) We clip before grazing. We don't allow grass to reach mature or phase three. Consider your lawn. We clip about once per month june-aug. Huge results.plus helps with pinkeye. 2.) We import hay. We can graze about 300 days a year if we don't cut hay but graze. Plus we're importing another farms minerals onto farm. Love the vids. Your true calling.
I agree , on the haymaking. We do our own also. I put 4000 pound of chicken litter per acre, we know for a fact its triple 60 in fertilizer. Plus the added calcium content. I also have 30 acres or so of dedicated hay field that i can graze if needed. It gets the chicken litter and i use commercial fertilizer. By soil test recommendations. I don’t sell hay. That hay gets fed on the same farm. Those cows spread those nutrients back out. I live in Northeast Arkansas. So winter snow is not a issue usually. We have mild winters for the most part, but grass still goes dormant. I put my hay in the barn, and feed accordingly. We also rotational graze. In my Bermuda grass hayfields this fall i will drill in rye grass and double crop them. Im looking into oats also.Thanks for the videos, i enjoy them and gather information. Like you i read publications and watched you tube videos on this subject, just know getting the puzzles to fit.
I farm up here in southcentral Alaska where we can get 14 feet of snow during 5 months of winter. If I relied on stockpiled forage and didn't feed hay my cattle would be the compost come springtime! Your words about each farm being different is so true and the faster each farmer understands that and ignores the "conventional" wisdom the better their farm will operate.
haha i had to watch this one over and over. too much info for my tiny brain to consume quickly. it is good info though. thank you . this is one of my new favorite channels to watch.
i agree with this method that you have laid out....this is very similar to what we are doing on our small farm here in south Mississippi. The so called mob grazing does not work for us either. We are more of a what i call rotational grazing....one difference we do is that we over-seed our pasture with winter RYE grass so that our cows have the lush green rye grass that they get turned out on for a few days a week during the winter months and get barn stored hay daily and we supplement a little commercial feed to the cows also (mainly because the cows love it and it definitely makes them easier to handle, bribing them with feed instead of forcing them to do....another benefit that i think we see from this is not keeping the cows in a small paddock that gets real muddy and the cows get to stay on the cleaner pastures thru the winter months, helps keep them a little healthier in my mind at least. i agree with you the hay is much better than old summer grass during the winter, our cows will starve to death eating the old grass thru the winter and get thin. Glad to hear someone that doesnt think that we are all doing it wrong by doing it "our" way. No mob grazing for us, thanks and good day.
Well that a book full of knowledge. It really seems to take time to really get to know your land and soil. I am seeing the improvements i have made on my small plot this year. You can really tell when the land is depleted and needs help renewing itself and getting rid of weeds. This year was full of activity from birds to insects. My pests also seemed less this year. This is the year I am not able to plant it like normal. It turned into more of a pollinator/habitat. Think there is alot to what they also say about keeping habitat in hedge row for insects birds and pollinators. You have really brought a lot of great concepts that i will employ this fall to help the nutrients again in the soil i have. Will you have to turn your pasture in and reseed to start over at some point. With the fall seeding will it continue to rejuvenate to be lush replacing the old plants keep the quality at your expectations for nutrients? I really like the plan replacing the nutrients you need for the next year and so on for the growth of the pasture. I think you have really unlocked the cycle of the plants and great technique. I knew i needed a cow in the formula of my plot would help. just didn't realize how much. Keep up the great work! I enjoy your passion for farming.
Pete it sounds like you did some research along with combining some of what you used in the past and have come up with a plan. A farmer should always look at other ideas and tweak their plan for the maximum good for them and their cattle. Pete don't get angry at anybody that might recommend a website, we all want to help each other. Maybe one little thing can make the difference in success or failure. Now go out and visit your Dexters. Have a great day and thanks for another good video.
Hi Larry, I never get angry at helpful comments. I do get angry when people watch another channel and tell me to do the same thing the other guy is doing without trying it themselves or knowing the details of our situation. That "advice" is not helpful. I never feel that way about your comments, incidentally.
Great video this gives me some things to look at with my 15 head of dexter's. Just starting them on some leased land and having to use them as clean up as the grass is matured too much and the old fences have collapsed making cutting for hay a dangerous job until I can get it all cleaned up. Next season things should be better as I will have gone over the fields and removed most of the objects that could quickly make a nice mowing day into a nightmare :) Thanks for your time making these videos! It sure helps seeing what you've learned so I can avoid learning the hard way!
Absolutely agree Pete. The area you live plays a big part in your grazing method. I have noticed it takes a lot acreage to mob graze. Especially when the season turns dry here in South Central VA as it is now and will continue until September and sometimes longer.
Right on Pete. I got stuck in the same rut trying to figure out how I could follow someone elses model to the T. And wonder why it didn't work. It took me a couple years to realize exactly what you are talking about. Thanks for passing on your wisdom!
Good video Pete, I think the idea of buying in hay vs making your own hay is to replace what is being lost from your farm in the form of produce sold, making your own hay and putting it back in the form of compost is great but you are still mining your soil if you are selling produce. The only way to get around that is buy hay/feed of some sort and put it out in the form of compost or apply purchased fertilizer onto the paddocks which you plan to cut and then that will be evenly distributed over your pastures in the form of compost. You may already buy in enough feed for your other animals which is added to your compost to offset the produce exported from your farm.
Hi Jamie, thanks! The only thing that needs replacing are the trace minerals leaving the farm in the meat. Everything else is replaced by the life in the rhizosphere with the addition of sunlight & rain, constantly producing organic matter. New minerals enter the soil cycle by being taken up from the deeper portions of the soil via the action of microbial life and plant roots, but if your farm is deficient in some minerals then supplements are required. We do that by feeding trace minerals, salt, and kelp to our cattle, and most of that passes through them and onto the pasture.
I love how you're willing to try other's methods but not become religiously attached to them. I'm hoping to start growing vegetables for market next season and much like grazing, there are a dozen different strategies that claim to be best. I can't wait to try them all out and find what works for me! I love your videos, and your attitude!
Hi Alexander, trying new things is what keeps farming interesting! There's always something new to learn and always some new method being hyped as the best, and you get to test it for yourself and blend many together to create your own unique system.
Got a bit ramped up about the hay vs. stockpiled grazing. But you make sense. Thanks for the food for thought. I've got a lot to learn for sure. I just don't know about how to get the cattle to water and have all the small paddock sizes. I understand using electric fence but to configure it for our farm. I just don't know. We have woods and hills and rocks with 3 ponds over 250 acres. Some areas pretty lush, some pretty misserable. Out of that 60 acres of hay field. We are running just shy of 50 cow calf pairs and a couple of bulls.
Great video Pete, I'm currently trying to figure out what's best for my small farm. I have 15 acres with 3 brood cows currently and 4 feeders. I am able to take the brood cows to a different pasture for the spring allowing me to make hay on some of my pasture. I hope to be able to increase to 4 or 5 brood cows in the future. I plan on running some layers behind the feeders next year to help with pasture growth. Thanks for all the information and advice I really enjoy your videos.
New sub. We’re ab to make the move to raising grass fed cattle on some of our farms bc row crops just loses money nowadays. Good info and will be digging into more. Thanks
If there are critics, it is they, not you, that need to re-examine their beliefs. I see you being completely in line with the best thinkers out there. Allan Savory would say that what you are doing is exactly holistic management; neither prioritizing the animals nor the forage, but managing for the best outcome of the entire farm as an ecosystem. Many northern latitude grazers use hay, especially prominent names like Gabe Brown who grows hay on land that he can not use for grazing. Those who try to make it through the winter on stockpile do not have the snowfall that you do in NY.
How about calling it "Pete's Pasture Principles"? I think this is one of your best vids. What works for Judge Judy won't in NY or New England. It's not just the snow but what would happen when that snow turns to ice? Your right about the trimester of the cows. Better nutrition will result in a stronger calf.
Hi Pete, I found your channel a few weeks ago and I've watched several of your videos more than once. I like the fact that you are honest and are willing to adjust if things aren't working the way you want them to. What I've seen locally with people who try to use some of these "systems" is that they seem to think that they can double the number of head if, they move them around in separate paddocks. Once the cattle cut all the grass down to the dirt in all their paddocks they wonder why rotational grazing isn't working! It seems they haven't given any thought to how many animals per acre or what the total capacity is for their acreage. We purchased 25 acres about 5 years ago, (it was all pasture with exception of the buildings). We have put in perimeter fencing and some cross fencing. We have made hay on some sections but we're still working on bringing some of the areas up to better quality. I've done some research, read some of their books and watched hours of youtube videos! The concept sounds great but I know I'm not ready for or set up for mob grazing and I wondered already if it could even work on our small acreage. Thanks for another very informative video and reinforcing the fact that nobody's "canned/patented" system will work for everyone. Your No Nonsense grazing principles make lots of sense to me and I plan to use some of them in adjusting what we're doing at our place. I also agree that good hay is just as important as good forage and stockpiling and forcing cattle to eat poor quality feed all winter is not for me. BTW, your channel is one of the very few that I've subscribed to.
Thanks for subscribing Steve! I read and researched a lot when we were starting out, and I think one of the fun things about farming is being able to blend different techniques to develop a system that works best for your situation. I run into folks I call "farming fundamentalists" quite often, who say you have to follow someone's system exactly in order to be successful. Very few of them have ever farmed themselves.
Thank you for that I only have a 40 acre place in northern mn and it’s 100 percent forest. But have heard that dexters are my best bet if I want a couple beef cows because there not as picky eaters as some cattle. Thanks for the great advice.
We really enjoy your videos. We have a small dexter herd in NC and are trying to figure out the best method and timing to switch from open grazing to a hybrid rotational grazing. I’m just not sure how to start without over stressing the first few paddocks. I appreciate any advice. Thanks for the great information for small farms!
Liked this video. Just out of curiosity have you considered spreading rock dust on your fields to increase the micronutrients. I'm not sure how good it works, as I just watched a video on it. But the idea has merit, at least on the surface. Basically the microbes break the dust down and feed it to the plants increasing the micronutrients in the plants and thus the animals. Further, it's supposedly really inexpensive, the dust is cheap from the local quarry, $2 to $4 dollars a ton, but getting it to the farm is the most expensive part, renting a dump truck. Supposedly it only requires a 1/4 ton per acre to really increase the nutrients of the plants. Just a thought. Again thanks for an informative video.
It's always a question of priorities. You are optimizing for land usage efficiency. If you go to Greg Judy, he has 40 times your land (rented very cheaply) but only 10 times your headcount. He optimizes on labour costs so he doesn't bother with hay cutting and keeps stock for winter. And he's happy with his system, just like you are with yours :)
That's a very good observation. I'm also a big fan of Greg Judy and think his own methods work extremely well in the circumstances he's faced with. Not only is there much less snowfall in Missouri than in New York (making stockpile grazing much more practical), but his land is much more extensive and lower in cost. In addition to the labour cost savings involved in using his method, there are also savings in on-farm capital and fuel costs he achieves by not making hay. Cost reductions allow for lower efficiencies in some areas while still achieving high (or higher) profitability. Of course, the capital and fuel costs are still paid for by somebody, as well as those required for trucking hay, and Pete is right that those costs are lower when the hay is produced on-farm. Presumably all these costs are factored into the price of the hay that Greg Judy buys. It's again something that will be affected by local circumstances -- if there's a buyer's market for quality hay in your area, it's probably better to buy it rather than build it. A hay-producing specialist may also be able to grow and harvest hay with greater efficiency than the small livestock farmer due to specialization and economies of scale (larger, more efficient haying equipment). One thing Pete said which perhaps was directed at Greg Judy that I thought unfair was when he said that farmers who are buying-in hay are _"stealing"_ from somebody else's nutrition bank. He's right that the overall effect on the farming system is zero-sum, but there's no theft involved. Those farmers who make hay and _choose_ to sell it may be degrading the level of nutrients in their own soil (unless they're adding their own external inputs, which is very likely), but it's a choice they freely make. The nutrients that Greg Judy adds to his livestock and soil from imported hay are bought and paid for with hard cash. It's no different than importing any other external resource, which almost invariably degrades a resource base somewhere else.
Wow quite a complicated system given the name haha. I think the key to what you are saying is that you have to think on your feet and not blindly follow a system. A lot of what you were explaining comes down to observation, adjustment, and learning from mistakes. I think this can be lost when you get a "system" to follow.
Also I am wondering why you dont cover your manure pile somehow (even with cheap straw)? I know you have read about nitrogen losses with exposed piles, maybe you just haven't gotten there yet.
Yes it's all about trying something , observing the result, and adjusting accordingly. When I did the earlier mob grazing videos, I got bombed with comments from armchair farmers saying "just use so-and-so's system," and I felt they were missing the whole point of grazing intelligently. And this whole love affair with stockpiled forage makes no sense to me. Regarding our composting method, it does need some work. We get a decent brown/green mix from hay, straw, and wood chips that are mixed with the manure, but we need to turn the pile more often because it gets anaerobic after a while, and it really should be covered to keep it from getting too wet.
@@JustaFewAcresFarm We just use a nice thick layer of straw to cover our piles, its not perfect either but I think it helps with shedding rain if you use enough. Stockpiling has helped us get 2-4 more weeks of grazing in late october and november in a similar climate to yours, but otherwise I agree with you. I have seen greg judy raving about stockpiling as he stands over 1 or 2 inches of green and a whole lot of wasted forage. Works if your system involves renting massive amounts of extra of land, buying hay, and avoiding housing.
Pete, another great video. I'm glad you are passionate about your farm and cattle. I'm even more impressed that you are able to assimilate different philosophies and adapt them to your farm and not be another person trying to convince people that their way is the only way. So happy to have found your channel. Strong work.
This is closer to holistic grazing management, which is much more adaptive to whatever size of land or herd or whatever your local requirements. It's all about being mindful and using intelligent management 👌 When I was on Allan Savory's farm last year, it's even adapted to whatever areas of the farm need to be rested to allow nesting birds to be undisturbed at certain parts of the year, and avoiding some low lying areas during certain months because of tick borne disease risk being increased then. Being a good grazier is a real skill.
It's common to se a temporary drop in production when you change practices. In the other video you were very optimistic about what mob grazing could do for you., and as you said, mob grazing improves the fields in the long run. Maybe you are impatient? I know I am. I understand that this is not that easy to do on a small farm. Many things becomes harder, like for example adjusting stocking rate dynamically, maybe especially hard when you use a rare breed. I hope you find something that works for you. I'd suggest investing in a wood chipper for the tractor, a proper one with hydraulic feed. Use this for deep bedding, and also see if there's ways to improve the way you later mature the compost. You can also plant woody species along access roads for coppicing or pollarding to make collecting of material for bedding easier, and reduce pressure on your forest. The right species also has high feed value, ash elm and some legume tree species are right up there with alfalfa. And they are also a great mineral source. Can be fed directly in pasture to stretch forage in growth slumps. They do this quite a bit in Australia. But yes, it's a lot of work. If you're interested, then please join the group "Tree Hay" on Facebook. Best wishes, and thanks for sharing, I especially appreciate that you dare to show your failures, very few do.
Well our situation is nearly 180 degrees different. 160 acre south facing property at over 5k feet elevation. Nothing Is flat and there are house sized boulders in most pastures. Trees over 100 feet tall were in all pastures before the massive California wildfire that destroyed more than half the property and burned through all of it. Now they are in about 40 acres. Humidity is in the single digits, usually under 5 percent. Soils are sandy loams or loamy sand. Rain occurs somewhere between October and May primarily from January to April. They can be torrential and actually wash cattle away if the are standing in the wrong place. Sometimes a few monsoon weeks in the summer, but this is completely unpredictable. We get snow in the winter but it can be 18 degrees in the morning and 70 degrees that afternoon. Snow doesn’t last long. The backbone of our pastures are deep rooted perennial bunch grasses. The main takeaways from this video for my area is to watch the brows/pasture and move the cattle before the favorites are destroyed -based on their seasonally regenerative potential. By the way, mob grazing has been shown to work in the arid west and to be questionable even under ideal circumstances in the east with its good rainfall from the studies I have read.
You know you are having an effect with your channel when the comments section has lengthy detailed questions and statements. It shows you are bringing in an intelligent viewership. My comment is short...so I'm the outlier. 🤣
I don’t often comment on videos but I just came across your videos, and subscribed....first off let me say thank you, very informative and it’s always great to see other ways of thinking and options (I don’t own farm land, but hope to some day, just researching and trying to figure it out) I know for instance in Joel’s way he runs chickens behind his cows a few days after, wonder if you did the same, seems like the chicken are beneficial for stirring up the cow pats and as well as bug control and helps basically till the land, wonder if you tried running chickens behind your Hurd and if it would help more Thank you !
Hey Pete! My name is Andrew. My wife and I have just purchased a property with about 10 acres. On that 10 acres there are 4 Springfed ponds. Now I know we’re 5 years out from having cattle on it so that why I’m doing my research now. So I have a few questions and maybe you can do a few videos on them (or not it’s your channel). Question 1 (well it’s more of a concern) now with the Springs and ponds on the property I know that the water table is fairly high(so high it’s above the ground haha) what can I do to keep the manure from (for lack of a better word) poisoning the water? Question 2. Now with only 10 acres I’m not sure I can make my one hay. In your opinion what’s the best way to give the cattle the best during the winter. Now I am in the Central piedmont of North Carolina so our winters are no where’s near as bad as yours. We still mow the grass in January some years. I guess that’s it just those. Just a few things about use though. We’re not into farming to make money we’re just in it for the love of the work and the enjoyment of raising our own food. I’m planning on building a chicken coop within the first weeks of being in the house and getting some laying hens by the end of August.
this is a fuckton of information and frankly too much for me to digest in one sitting. thank you sir. im studying cause i want to start using sheep as lawn mowers but rotate pasture to reduce medical interventions and maybe regenerate my soil. im also incorporating sheep and fruit trees and some eucalyptus
How much do you make per hour? It looks like you have VERY good management, but not enough "employees". :-) The results look very good, but compared to most 30-35 cow operations, there's a bit of extra work. It would be expensive, but why not divide into 5 acre tracts with a system of automatic gates. subdivide with electric as needed during prime growing. For haying, take out the wire. Most days, the herd can be managed remotely with a drone for inspection. Instead of 20 minutes a day moving, maybe 20 minutes a week. I assume your not full time with this small a herd, so are pretty busy with the rest of your life. BTW, I love the inside feeding. Even in a larger operation, inside storage saves a lot on quality. Extra covered space for feeding means even more efficient feed usage. Where I live, there's nothing to be gained by sheltering the cattle from the weather, but protecting the feed seems worthwhile.
Pete, I 100% agree with you. A person can watch and read all the info out there but it won't always work for you. But I have a friend that won't listen to anyone and his system is not working for him how do you help someone like that
Thank you for putting this info out in a way that helps people realize a hybrid grazing system will work. I, like you, have a small farm and am doing a hybrid rotation grazing system that is starting to prove it is the way to go. I haven’t got the manure spreader and winter feeding all ironed out but I hope to have a spreader soon. What are your thoughts on a pasture drag made of back-hoe tires and dragging the pasture as soon as the herd has been moved out and onto a new paddock? Rather than clipping the pasture? Love your channel! Keep up the good work!
Hi Devin, it seems like farming is always a work in progress. I'm not sure how well a drag like that would work. There's not enough manure dropped to make it worthwhile to spread that out. As far knocking down seed heads some of them are pretty tough and I don't know whether it would keep them down. Clipping is just easy for me to do. I did 7 acres this afternoon in about 3 hours, and I won't have to do those fields again until next year. And all the fields don't need to be clipped, just the ones that the cattle grazed in after the forage started to go to seed.
Good video Pete. Our farm is smaller and we are raising Kiko goats versus cows. We recently went to a hybrid of rotational/mob grazing, which I will highlight in a video soon. One thing we do is take our bedding pack from the barn and put it into our chicken yard as a big pile of compost. We mix in other organic material and use the chickens to turn it for us. They help out with the work, keeps them busy and cuts down on food costs. It does seem to break down faster which means we get to use it quicker. Your compost piles are larger than mine, but I was wondering is you were doing anything similar?
We haven't tried that, but there's a farm in Trumansburg with a large youtube channel that has some videos on it. Seems like a brilliant idea for smaller operations. I am still trying to get a handle on how best to keep on giant piles aerated for better decomposition.
Just a Few Acres Farm. The best thing I've found is to mix it with a bunch of wood chips. This ads carbon and creates that air space. I typically layer chips, bedding and goat/chicken manuer. I have a local arborist that drops off loads of chips for free during spring and summer. It's just a matter of finding someone. It could be faster/cheaper for them to give them to you versus hauling elsewhere.
Ahh, you say you have the smarts to graze your farm but, Is YOUR Name Allen? :) (Just a yoke) Have you ever been an educator? Listening to some of your videos causes me to miss my college days, an interesting subject, well thought out presentation, principles to work with. Again, Thank you for your help. (BTW I am reading your book and it is great. Thanks for that too!)
Howdy Pete! Great video. I just bought a 56 acre farm in Virginia and the fields are in terrible shape...this video helps a lot! Question: how large is you hay storage barn and how many round bales do you need for your 30 cows to get you through the winter? Looking forward to more great videos...thanks!
Another excellent video that's jam-packed with many good points. You've really thought this through! I do have one question/observation about your system though that wasn't fully explained, and that's about the straw/wood chip bedding pack that you create in winter: Since you're not cropping the land, it doesn't appear to me that you have the capacity to harvest straw, so I assume you're buying that from neighbours (?), or possibly have some source of wood-chips. Could you explain this in a bit more detail? One concern I have about off-farm straw is that most of what's available is from "conventional" farmers that use pesticides like glyphosate to "dessicate" (kill) grain crops prior to harvest, and I wouldn't want those pesticide residues added to my land. In theory, it would be possible to buy organic straw, but most organic farmers understand the importance of using any plant residues they have to help rebuild soil, so that sort of "safe" straw is either unreasonably expensive or outright unavailable. Non-organic, conventional farmers where I live generally don't seem to care about soil health, so they're more inclined to sell the straw, but perhaps it's different in your area. Could you explain what you do about this?
Hi Andrea, our town has wood chips from trimming the trees on the roadsides that are free for the taking. We borrow a neighbors dump trailer and the town loads it for us from their pile. The county also delivers wood chips to us from time to time if they are trimming trees in the area. But most of our carbon comes from hay in the bedding pack. Inevitably the cattle pull some into the winter pen when they are eating.
@@JustaFewAcresFarm Thanks for the quick reply. It sounds like you've found a good solution to the potential problem I've identified. I guess New York state is quite heavily wooded so that wood-chip resources are readily and freely available. That's sadly not the case where I live! I guess it would be possible to rely entirely on hay stems to provide the carbon, but this will require more hay overall and therefore a lower stocking rate for the farm. Culling/slaughtering as many animals as possible before going into winter is probably the best way to minimize the need for straw.
I was so interested in his presentation that I only realized after two thirds through the video that I don’t even own any cows....
Neither do I yet and I can’t stop watching cow grazing videos. Lol
Gotta get that pasture ready first. 😁
Same here 😄
😂Saaaaame😊
Hg
So many people don't realize just how much science goes into farming. Despite a lot of the incorrect stereotypes, farmers are some of the smartest people out there.
Some have even been Astronauts (another Allen)
Yet another professional standard video from one of the best agricultural educators on TH-cam! Thank you Pete!
Thank you! I think of myself more as a neverending student.
Totally agree. Very educational
I work with Farmers, and they always share their knowledge freely. Amazing people
Dude gets all excited about the topic and I'm thinking, "You crazy-animated man, I'm in! Let's feed the cows some good hay."
lol LaFawn, no doubt I'm passionate about this!
The more I listen to you shows the more I want a homestead and the more I’m interested in Dexters
It’s so nice to hear someone else say grazing is NOT a one size fits all endeavor! And you acknowledged growth stages/nutrient value which is something I don’t hear many others speak about but is so important! Thanks for the common sense!
Hey Farmer Tyler! I've been watching your grazing experiments too. There's no guilt in finding the way that works best for your farm. Grazing on prime growth stage forage was rule one of grazing when I started learning. -Pete
I love that I live a life where - you ranting about "hauling in hay" is the highlight of my week! Your enthusiasm is amazing and making my learning experience a lot more enjoyable. Thank you so much for what you do. It's making a big difference in a few people's lives, at least.
Pete, you must have had TWO coffees this morning, you were on fire ! ha ha Great ideas and thoughts based on your observations and the size of your operation.
Two coffees AND Hilarie pushed me out of bed at 5am ;)
Pete...you’re literally the man! Keep it up!!
Those are beautiful happy cows 🐮
from 1k to almost 40k subscribers in 6 months. you're doing something right.
94k now 100k soon!
Love the passion you have for your farm and livestock.
Amen Pete !! You have to figure out what works for your land and animals, what decreases your labor and inputs while building benefits and turning deficiencies back to benefits. Up here in western Canada what works in one mountain range doesn't work in another. We have 7 different regional climates in BC from coastal temperate rain forest to the northern tip of the mid altitude Sonora Desert. The soil differs from place to place also. Move over to Alberta and conditions are different all over the map again. If you don't experiment and dial in what works - you're bankrupt. If you don't measure and observe -you're guessing ! If you don't accept the reality of condition of your farm ecosystem - you will fight it and lose! I'm a big fan of Alan Savory and many others and the one thing that I found is that they all agree that you have to find what works for your farm. Love your channel, keep it coming!!
You hit the nail on the head Searle! Thank you!
It’s fascinating and educational to hear how you have tweaked your grazing for your context - esp in terms of small acerage. Thanks
Best video ever.. clear info, will have to watch over and over.
I can’t wait to have a ranch like you Pete!!!
Your information delivery is very clear and concise, and professionally done. Thanks much for the education. Keep these coming! 👍👍👍👍🇺🇸
Living in Northwestern Pennsylvania snowbelt region, I understand the need of hay making . As far as stockpiling goes it depends on what type of grass is in the pasture. The best type of grass to use for stockpiling is fescue since it hold nutrients alot better than most other grasses.
After all of my research, some of those same authors of ideas, I would add in a nutshell the best way through observation and trial and error an excellent way,to work a small farm herd. Fantastic sum hypothesis. Thank you. Finally someone who gets it and has provided a way to connect pasture “a” to pasture “z” through the spring, summer, and fall. Thank you a way much better idea of hybridizing ideas to fit a niche for your area. The best by far… thanks again
Ur content is always so useful. Appreciate you sharing!
Excellent perceptions. Very impressive and instructive. I like your style.
Dont go to this guys site but Grant woods who is a deer biologist who says if your a cattle farmer you are really a grass farmer. He has a process called the buffalo system where he optimizes the ground to grow the biggest deer. He says he is imitating nature the way the great prairie was made. its very interesting how similar mob grazing is. it utilizes the same principles. very cool stuff Pete!!!
as you said, you are not selling anything to us but with your honesty, passion and perfectly explained content, you just bought me as a subscriber :)
Thanks for subscribing!!
Great video. It's easy to understand and apply.
Great video; inspirational
I come from Zimbabwe as does Allan Savory. He makes sense. I admire him a lot. Funnily I wanted to send this to a small farmer in Zim and then you mentioned Allan who I met in my teens. I am hooked on your channel. My dad in his twenties was a cattle rancher in Brazil before he and my mum settled in Zim. He would have loved this.
That is some great information, for me.
I do believe after listening all the way through that you have a perfect system that will work for most small operations. The system will have to be tweaked for an operations capabilities, type of pastures and weather, but overall a very good doable approach.
Thank you SO MUCH Pete, what an incredible ressource, very helpful
Thank you sharing this amazing information from your experience. We are thankful that with all the experts out there this is not a one size fits all deal and you are willing to tell us what didn't work for you. Blessings
Thank you!
Great info and video setup. No information left out.👏 Hes not even selling us a member only section like justin rhodes. Keep it going sir !! this channel is underrated.
Another great and very informative video. My take away is we need to optimize the grazing and cutting hay and the timing will vary depending on where you live, the types of grass, soil condition, weather and the ratio of cattle to size of pasture.
Pete is such a great educator! Some of these videos Pete you should have on the home page with the title "professor Pete from Just a few acres farm, and the university of TH-cam!"
Wow..... Nicely done. I agree
50k/acre per day works best for us as well. Our system is 99% like yours. Differences are 1.) We clip before grazing. We don't allow grass to reach mature or phase three. Consider your lawn. We clip about once per month june-aug. Huge results.plus helps with pinkeye.
2.) We import hay. We can graze about 300 days a year if we don't cut hay but graze. Plus we're importing another farms minerals onto farm. Love the vids. Your true calling.
wow! always impressed bt \y your knowledge!
Great video. Great channel
I agree , on the haymaking. We do our own also. I put 4000 pound of chicken litter per acre, we know for a fact its triple 60 in fertilizer. Plus the added calcium content. I also have 30 acres or so of dedicated hay field that i can graze if needed. It gets the chicken litter and i use commercial fertilizer. By soil test recommendations. I don’t sell hay. That hay gets fed on the same farm. Those cows spread those nutrients back out. I live in Northeast Arkansas. So winter snow is not a issue usually. We have mild winters for the most part, but grass still goes dormant. I put my hay in the barn, and feed accordingly. We also rotational graze. In my Bermuda grass hayfields this fall i will drill in rye grass and double crop them. Im looking into oats also.Thanks for the videos, i enjoy them and gather information. Like you i read publications and watched you tube videos on this subject, just know getting the puzzles to fit.
This makes a lot of sense to me. Very good points about making hay on your own property and snow cover issues on pastures in the winter.
Super cool video Pete. Just discovered your videos and excited to see more videos.
I farm up here in southcentral Alaska where we can get 14 feet of snow during 5 months of winter. If I relied on stockpiled forage and didn't feed hay my cattle would be the compost come springtime! Your words about each farm being different is so true and the faster each farmer understands that and ignores the "conventional" wisdom the better their farm will operate.
haha i had to watch this one over and over. too much info for my tiny brain to consume quickly. it is good info though. thank you . this is one of my new favorite channels to watch.
Before finding your channel I thought I had done a lot of research. Your videos have had info I’d never thought of. Thank you!
i agree with this method that you have laid out....this is very similar to what we are doing on our small farm here in south Mississippi. The so called mob grazing does not work for us either. We are more of a what i call rotational grazing....one difference we do is that we over-seed our pasture with winter RYE grass so that our cows have the lush green rye grass that they get turned out on for a few days a week during the winter months and get barn stored hay daily and we supplement a little commercial feed to the cows also (mainly because the cows love it and it definitely makes them easier to handle, bribing them with feed instead of forcing them to do....another benefit that i think we see from this is not keeping the cows in a small paddock that gets real muddy and the cows get to stay on the cleaner pastures thru the winter months, helps keep them a little healthier in my mind at least. i agree with you the hay is much better than old summer grass during the winter, our cows will starve to death eating the old grass thru the winter and get thin. Glad to hear someone that doesnt think that we are all doing it wrong by doing it "our" way. No mob grazing for us, thanks and good day.
Excellent info as usual. Thankyou.
Well that a book full of knowledge. It really seems to take time to really get to know your land and soil. I am seeing the improvements i have made on my small plot this year. You can really tell when the land is depleted and needs help renewing itself and getting rid of weeds. This year was full of activity from birds to insects. My pests also seemed less this year. This is the year I am not able to plant it like normal. It turned into more of a pollinator/habitat. Think there is alot to what they also say about keeping habitat in hedge row for insects birds and pollinators. You have really brought a lot of great concepts that i will employ this fall to help the nutrients again in the soil i have. Will you have to turn your pasture in and reseed to start over at some point. With the fall seeding will it continue to rejuvenate to be lush replacing the old plants keep the quality at your expectations for nutrients? I really like the plan replacing the nutrients you need for the next year and so on for the growth of the pasture. I think you have really unlocked the cycle of the plants and great technique. I knew i needed a cow in the formula of my plot would help. just didn't realize how much. Keep up the great work! I enjoy your passion for farming.
Two thumbs up. You are so on-target. Principles to guide decision making. What a concept!
Fanctastic information!!!
Pete it sounds like you did some research along with combining some of what you used in the past and have come up with a plan. A farmer should always look at other ideas and tweak their plan for the maximum good for them and their cattle.
Pete don't get angry at anybody that might recommend a website, we all want to help each other.
Maybe one little thing can make the difference in success or failure. Now go out and visit your Dexters. Have a great day and thanks for another good video.
Hi Larry, I never get angry at helpful comments. I do get angry when people watch another channel and tell me to do the same thing the other guy is doing without trying it themselves or knowing the details of our situation. That "advice" is not helpful. I never feel that way about your comments, incidentally.
@@JustaFewAcresFarm thank you and you have been helpful to me. Enjoy all your videos.....🐃🐂
Great video this gives me some things to look at with my 15 head of dexter's. Just starting them on some leased land and having to use them as clean up as the grass is matured too much and the old fences have collapsed making cutting for hay a dangerous job until I can get it all cleaned up.
Next season things should be better as I will have gone over the fields and removed most of the objects that could quickly make a nice mowing day into a nightmare :)
Thanks for your time making these videos! It sure helps seeing what you've learned so I can avoid learning the hard way!
Great video, thanks for all the well thought out advice.
Another phenomenal video! I really appreciate you making these educational videos.👍👍👍
Absolutely agree Pete. The area you live plays a big part in your grazing method. I have noticed it takes a lot acreage to mob graze. Especially when the season turns dry here in South Central VA as it is now and will continue until September and sometimes longer.
Great job
I love the video.. thank you for sharing
Right on Pete. I got stuck in the same rut trying to figure out how I could follow someone elses model to the T. And wonder why it didn't work. It took me a couple years to realize exactly what you are talking about. Thanks for passing on your wisdom!
Good video Pete,
I think the idea of buying in hay vs making your own hay is to replace what is being lost from your farm in the form of produce sold, making your own hay and putting it back in the form of compost is great but you are still mining your soil if you are selling produce. The only way to get around that is buy hay/feed of some sort and put it out in the form of compost or apply purchased fertilizer onto the paddocks which you plan to cut and then that will be evenly distributed over your pastures in the form of compost. You may already buy in enough feed for your other animals which is added to your compost to offset the produce exported from your farm.
Hi Jamie, thanks! The only thing that needs replacing are the trace minerals leaving the farm in the meat. Everything else is replaced by the life in the rhizosphere with the addition of sunlight & rain, constantly producing organic matter. New minerals enter the soil cycle by being taken up from the deeper portions of the soil via the action of microbial life and plant roots, but if your farm is deficient in some minerals then supplements are required. We do that by feeding trace minerals, salt, and kelp to our cattle, and most of that passes through them and onto the pasture.
well done very informative thank you
Thank you this is very valuable
Thanks Pete! Great video as always...
I love how you're willing to try other's methods but not become religiously attached to them.
I'm hoping to start growing vegetables for market next season and much like grazing, there are a dozen different strategies that claim to be best. I can't wait to try them all out and find what works for me! I love your videos, and your attitude!
Hi Alexander, trying new things is what keeps farming interesting! There's always something new to learn and always some new method being hyped as the best, and you get to test it for yourself and blend many together to create your own unique system.
Got a bit ramped up about the hay vs. stockpiled grazing. But you make sense. Thanks for the food for thought. I've got a lot to learn for sure. I just don't know about how to get the cattle to water and have all the small paddock sizes. I understand using electric fence but to configure it for our farm. I just don't know. We have woods and hills and rocks with 3 ponds over 250 acres. Some areas pretty lush, some pretty misserable. Out of that 60 acres of hay field. We are running just shy of 50 cow calf pairs and a couple of bulls.
Mike Bloomberg approved this message.
Best laugh of the day!!!
Just brilliant!
Great video Pete, I'm currently trying to figure out what's best for my small farm. I have 15 acres with 3 brood cows currently and 4 feeders. I am able to take the brood cows to a different pasture for the spring allowing me to make hay on some of my pasture. I hope to be able to increase to 4 or 5 brood cows in the future. I plan on running some layers behind the feeders next year to help with pasture growth. Thanks for all the information and advice I really enjoy your videos.
New sub. We’re ab to make the move to raising grass fed cattle on some of our farms bc row crops just loses money nowadays. Good info and will be digging into more. Thanks
Realy nice piece wig advice
If there are critics, it is they, not you, that need to re-examine their beliefs. I see you being completely in line with the best thinkers out there. Allan Savory would say that what you are doing is exactly holistic management; neither prioritizing the animals nor the forage, but managing for the best outcome of the entire farm as an ecosystem. Many northern latitude grazers use hay, especially prominent names like Gabe Brown who grows hay on land that he can not use for grazing. Those who try to make it through the winter on stockpile do not have the snowfall that you do in NY.
Wonderful validation J Horvath! Thank you so much!
I'm confused. But I guess when I finally have a farm, a lot of this will make more sense.
Excellent 👍
How about calling it "Pete's Pasture Principles"? I think this is one of your best vids. What works for Judge Judy won't in NY or New England. It's not just the snow but what would happen when that snow turns to ice? Your right about the trimester of the cows. Better nutrition will result in a stronger calf.
Thanks GWC 3! Common sense always carries the day.
Hi Pete, I found your channel a few weeks ago and I've watched several of your videos more than once. I like the fact that you are honest and are willing to adjust if things aren't working the way you want them to. What I've seen locally with people who try to use some of these "systems" is that they seem to think that they can double the number of head if, they move them around in separate paddocks. Once the cattle cut all the grass down to the dirt in all their paddocks they wonder why rotational grazing isn't working! It seems they haven't given any thought to how many animals per acre or what the total capacity is for their acreage. We purchased 25 acres about 5 years ago, (it was all pasture with exception of the buildings). We have put in perimeter fencing and some cross fencing. We have made hay on some sections but we're still working on bringing some of the areas up to better quality. I've done some research, read some of their books and watched hours of youtube videos! The concept sounds great but I know I'm not ready for or set up for mob grazing and I wondered already if it could even work on our small acreage. Thanks for another very informative video and reinforcing the fact that nobody's "canned/patented" system will work for everyone. Your No Nonsense grazing principles make lots of sense to me and I plan to use some of them in adjusting what we're doing at our place. I also agree that good hay is just as important as good forage and stockpiling and forcing cattle to eat poor quality feed all winter is not for me. BTW, your channel is one of the very few that I've subscribed to.
Thanks for subscribing Steve! I read and researched a lot when we were starting out, and I think one of the fun things about farming is being able to blend different techniques to develop a system that works best for your situation. I run into folks I call "farming fundamentalists" quite often, who say you have to follow someone's system exactly in order to be successful. Very few of them have ever farmed themselves.
Thank you for that I only have a 40 acre place in northern mn and it’s 100 percent forest. But have heard that dexters are my best bet if I want a couple beef cows because there not as picky eaters as some cattle. Thanks for the great advice.
Context is so important!
You got it Elizabeth!
We really enjoy your videos. We have a small dexter herd in NC and are trying to figure out the best method and timing to switch from open grazing to a hybrid rotational grazing. I’m just not sure how to start without over stressing the first few paddocks. I appreciate any advice. Thanks for the great information for small farms!
Liked this video. Just out of curiosity have you considered spreading rock dust on your fields to increase the micronutrients. I'm not sure how good it works, as I just watched a video on it. But the idea has merit, at least on the surface. Basically the microbes break the dust down and feed it to the plants increasing the micronutrients in the plants and thus the animals. Further, it's supposedly really inexpensive, the dust is cheap from the local quarry, $2 to $4 dollars a ton, but getting it to the farm is the most expensive part, renting a dump truck. Supposedly it only requires a 1/4 ton per acre to really increase the nutrients of the plants. Just a thought. Again thanks for an informative video.
Wow, thanks!
I need knowing my land for grazing system cattle, great 👍
It's always a question of priorities. You are optimizing for land usage efficiency. If you go to Greg Judy, he has 40 times your land (rented very cheaply) but only 10 times your headcount. He optimizes on labour costs so he doesn't bother with hay cutting and keeps stock for winter. And he's happy with his system, just like you are with yours :)
That's a very good observation. I'm also a big fan of Greg Judy and think his own methods work extremely well in the circumstances he's faced with. Not only is there much less snowfall in Missouri than in New York (making stockpile grazing much more practical), but his land is much more extensive and lower in cost. In addition to the labour cost savings involved in using his method, there are also savings in on-farm capital and fuel costs he achieves by not making hay. Cost reductions allow for lower efficiencies in some areas while still achieving high (or higher) profitability. Of course, the capital and fuel costs are still paid for by somebody, as well as those required for trucking hay, and Pete is right that those costs are lower when the hay is produced on-farm. Presumably all these costs are factored into the price of the hay that Greg Judy buys. It's again something that will be affected by local circumstances -- if there's a buyer's market for quality hay in your area, it's probably better to buy it rather than build it. A hay-producing specialist may also be able to grow and harvest hay with greater efficiency than the small livestock farmer due to specialization and economies of scale (larger, more efficient haying equipment).
One thing Pete said which perhaps was directed at Greg Judy that I thought unfair was when he said that farmers who are buying-in hay are _"stealing"_ from somebody else's nutrition bank. He's right that the overall effect on the farming system is zero-sum, but there's no theft involved. Those farmers who make hay and _choose_ to sell it may be degrading the level of nutrients in their own soil (unless they're adding their own external inputs, which is very likely), but it's a choice they freely make. The nutrients that Greg Judy adds to his livestock and soil from imported hay are bought and paid for with hard cash. It's no different than importing any other external resource, which almost invariably degrades a resource base somewhere else.
Wow quite a complicated system given the name haha. I think the key to what you are saying is that you have to think on your feet and not blindly follow a system. A lot of what you were explaining comes down to observation, adjustment, and learning from mistakes. I think this can be lost when you get a "system" to follow.
Also I am wondering why you dont cover your manure pile somehow (even with cheap straw)? I know you have read about nitrogen losses with exposed piles, maybe you just haven't gotten there yet.
Yes it's all about trying something , observing the result, and adjusting accordingly. When I did the earlier mob grazing videos, I got bombed with comments from armchair farmers saying "just use so-and-so's system," and I felt they were missing the whole point of grazing intelligently. And this whole love affair with stockpiled forage makes no sense to me. Regarding our composting method, it does need some work. We get a decent brown/green mix from hay, straw, and wood chips that are mixed with the manure, but we need to turn the pile more often because it gets anaerobic after a while, and it really should be covered to keep it from getting too wet.
@@JustaFewAcresFarm We just use a nice thick layer of straw to cover our piles, its not perfect either but I think it helps with shedding rain if you use enough.
Stockpiling has helped us get 2-4 more weeks of grazing in late october and november in a similar climate to yours, but otherwise I agree with you. I have seen greg judy raving about stockpiling as he stands over 1 or 2 inches of green and a whole lot of wasted forage. Works if your system involves renting massive amounts of extra of land, buying hay, and avoiding housing.
Pete, another great video. I'm glad you are passionate about your farm and cattle. I'm even more impressed that you are able to assimilate different philosophies and adapt them to your farm and not be another person trying to convince people that their way is the only way. So happy to have found your channel. Strong work.
This is closer to holistic grazing management, which is much more adaptive to whatever size of land or herd or whatever your local requirements. It's all about being mindful and using intelligent management 👌 When I was on Allan Savory's farm last year, it's even adapted to whatever areas of the farm need to be rested to allow nesting birds to be undisturbed at certain parts of the year, and avoiding some low lying areas during certain months because of tick borne disease risk being increased then. Being a good grazier is a real skill.
It's common to se a temporary drop in production when you change practices.
In the other video you were very optimistic about what mob grazing could do for you., and as you said, mob grazing improves the fields in the long run. Maybe you are impatient? I know I am.
I understand that this is not that easy to do on a small farm. Many things becomes harder, like for example adjusting stocking rate dynamically, maybe especially hard when you use a rare breed. I hope you find something that works for you.
I'd suggest investing in a wood chipper for the tractor, a proper one with hydraulic feed. Use this for deep bedding, and also see if there's ways to improve the way you later mature the compost. You can also plant woody species along access roads for coppicing or pollarding to make collecting of material for bedding easier, and reduce pressure on your forest.
The right species also has high feed value, ash elm and some legume tree species are right up there with alfalfa. And they are also a great mineral source. Can be fed directly in pasture to stretch forage in growth slumps. They do this quite a bit in Australia. But yes, it's a lot of work. If you're interested, then please join the group "Tree Hay" on Facebook.
Best wishes, and thanks for sharing, I especially appreciate that you dare to show your failures, very few do.
Well our situation is nearly 180 degrees different. 160 acre south facing property at over 5k feet elevation. Nothing Is flat and there are house sized boulders in most pastures. Trees over 100 feet tall were in all pastures before the massive California wildfire that destroyed more than half the property and burned through all of it. Now they are in about 40 acres. Humidity is in the single digits, usually under 5 percent. Soils are sandy loams or loamy sand. Rain occurs somewhere between October and May primarily from January to April. They can be torrential and actually wash cattle away if the are standing in the wrong place. Sometimes a few monsoon weeks in the summer, but this is completely unpredictable. We get snow in the winter but it can be 18 degrees in the morning and 70 degrees that afternoon. Snow doesn’t last long. The backbone of our pastures are deep rooted perennial bunch grasses. The main takeaways from this video for my area is to watch the brows/pasture and move the cattle before the favorites are destroyed -based on their seasonally regenerative potential. By the way, mob grazing has been shown to work in the arid west and to be questionable even under ideal circumstances in the east with its good rainfall from the studies I have read.
You know you are having an effect with your channel when the comments section has lengthy detailed questions and statements. It shows you are bringing in an intelligent viewership. My comment is short...so I'm the outlier. 🤣
LOL Light Ning! I am thankful for the thoughtful comments.
I don’t often comment on videos but I just came across your videos, and subscribed....first off let me say thank you, very informative and it’s always great to see other ways of thinking and options
(I don’t own farm land, but hope to some day, just researching and trying to figure it out)
I know for instance in Joel’s way he runs chickens behind his cows a few days after, wonder if you did the same, seems like the chicken are beneficial for stirring up the cow pats and as well as bug control and helps basically till the land, wonder if you tried running chickens behind your Hurd and if it would help more
Thank you !
Hey Pete! My name is Andrew. My wife and I have just purchased a property with about 10 acres. On that 10 acres there are 4 Springfed ponds. Now I know we’re 5 years out from having cattle on it so that why I’m doing my research now. So I have a few questions and maybe you can do a few videos on them (or not it’s your channel). Question 1 (well it’s more of a concern) now with the Springs and ponds on the property I know that the water table is fairly high(so high it’s above the ground haha) what can I do to keep the manure from (for lack of a better word) poisoning the water? Question 2. Now with only 10 acres I’m not sure I can make my one hay. In your opinion what’s the best way to give the cattle the best during the winter. Now I am in the Central piedmont of North Carolina so our winters are no where’s near as bad as yours. We still mow the grass in January some years. I guess that’s it just those. Just a few things about use though. We’re not into farming to make money we’re just in it for the love of the work and the enjoyment of raising our own food. I’m planning on building a chicken coop within the first weeks of being in the house and getting some laying hens by the end of August.
love farm love sheep love usa
this is a fuckton of information and frankly too much for me to digest in one sitting. thank you sir. im studying cause i want to start using sheep as lawn mowers but rotate pasture to reduce medical interventions and maybe regenerate my soil. im also incorporating sheep and fruit trees and some eucalyptus
hello. how good you are.
How much do you make per hour? It looks like you have VERY good management, but not enough "employees". :-)
The results look very good, but compared to
most 30-35 cow operations, there's a bit of extra work.
It would be expensive, but why not divide into 5 acre tracts with a system of automatic gates. subdivide with electric as needed during prime growing. For haying, take out the wire. Most days, the herd can be managed remotely with a drone for inspection. Instead of 20 minutes a day moving, maybe 20 minutes a week. I assume your not full time with this small a herd, so are pretty busy with the rest of your life.
BTW, I love the inside feeding. Even in a larger operation, inside storage saves a lot on quality. Extra covered space for feeding means even more efficient feed usage. Where I live, there's nothing to be gained by sheltering the cattle from the weather, but protecting the feed seems worthwhile.
Iam always looking to lower, not upper.
Experience has better then machine👍
U can farm goats and sheep's too as each requires different length of grass for grazing
Pete, I 100% agree with you. A person can watch and read all the info out there but it won't always work for you. But I have a friend that won't listen to anyone and his system is not working for him how do you help someone like that
Hi Thomas, I don't think there's any helping a person like that, just hope eventually they figure it out for themselves.
Hey Pete, great videos, would know of any Canadian Dexter breeders in Ontario, Canada?
Thanks
Thank you for putting this info out in a way that helps people realize a hybrid grazing system will work. I, like you, have a small farm and am doing a hybrid rotation grazing system that is starting to prove it is the way to go. I haven’t got the manure spreader and winter feeding all ironed out but I hope to have a spreader soon. What are your thoughts on a pasture drag made of back-hoe tires and dragging the pasture as soon as the herd has been moved out and onto a new paddock? Rather than clipping the pasture? Love your channel! Keep up the good work!
Hi Devin, it seems like farming is always a work in progress. I'm not sure how well a drag like that would work. There's not enough manure dropped to make it worthwhile to spread that out. As far knocking down seed heads some of them are pretty tough and I don't know whether it would keep them down. Clipping is just easy for me to do. I did 7 acres this afternoon in about 3 hours, and I won't have to do those fields again until next year. And all the fields don't need to be clipped, just the ones that the cattle grazed in after the forage started to go to seed.
Good video Pete. Our farm is smaller and we are raising Kiko goats versus cows. We recently went to a hybrid of rotational/mob grazing, which I will highlight in a video soon. One thing we do is take our bedding pack from the barn and put it into our chicken yard as a big pile of compost. We mix in other organic material and use the chickens to turn it for us. They help out with the work, keeps them busy and cuts down on food costs. It does seem to break down faster which means we get to use it quicker. Your compost piles are larger than mine, but I was wondering is you were doing anything similar?
We haven't tried that, but there's a farm in Trumansburg with a large youtube channel that has some videos on it. Seems like a brilliant idea for smaller operations. I am still trying to get a handle on how best to keep on giant piles aerated for better decomposition.
Just a Few Acres Farm. The best thing I've found is to mix it with a bunch of wood chips. This ads carbon and creates that air space. I typically layer chips, bedding and goat/chicken manuer. I have a local arborist that drops off loads of chips for free during spring and summer. It's just a matter of finding someone. It could be faster/cheaper for them to give them to you versus hauling elsewhere.
Ahh, you say you have the smarts to graze your farm but, Is YOUR Name Allen? :) (Just a yoke) Have you ever been an educator? Listening to some of your videos causes me to miss my college days, an interesting subject, well thought out presentation, principles to work with. Again, Thank you for your help. (BTW I am reading your book and it is great. Thanks for that too!)
lol, lots of Allens on that list.
Howdy Pete! Great video. I just bought a 56 acre farm in Virginia and the fields are in terrible shape...this video helps a lot! Question: how large is you hay storage barn and how many round bales do you need for your 30 cows to get you through the winter? Looking forward to more great videos...thanks!
Another excellent video that's jam-packed with many good points. You've really thought this through! I do have one question/observation about your system though that wasn't fully explained, and that's about the straw/wood chip bedding pack that you create in winter:
Since you're not cropping the land, it doesn't appear to me that you have the capacity to harvest straw, so I assume you're buying that from neighbours (?), or possibly have some source of wood-chips. Could you explain this in a bit more detail? One concern I have about off-farm straw is that most of what's available is from "conventional" farmers that use pesticides like glyphosate to "dessicate" (kill) grain crops prior to harvest, and I wouldn't want those pesticide residues added to my land. In theory, it would be possible to buy organic straw, but most organic farmers understand the importance of using any plant residues they have to help rebuild soil, so that sort of "safe" straw is either unreasonably expensive or outright unavailable. Non-organic, conventional farmers where I live generally don't seem to care about soil health, so they're more inclined to sell the straw, but perhaps it's different in your area. Could you explain what you do about this?
Hi Andrea, our town has wood chips from trimming the trees on the roadsides that are free for the taking. We borrow a neighbors dump trailer and the town loads it for us from their pile. The county also delivers wood chips to us from time to time if they are trimming trees in the area. But most of our carbon comes from hay in the bedding pack. Inevitably the cattle pull some into the winter pen when they are eating.
@@JustaFewAcresFarm Thanks for the quick reply. It sounds like you've found a good solution to the potential problem I've identified. I guess New York state is quite heavily wooded so that wood-chip resources are readily and freely available. That's sadly not the case where I live! I guess it would be possible to rely entirely on hay stems to provide the carbon, but this will require more hay overall and therefore a lower stocking rate for the farm. Culling/slaughtering as many animals as possible before going into winter is probably the best way to minimize the need for straw.