Holistic pasture management/farming.....

[Beekissed]

Here's one of the weirdest new trends in farming I've seen of late and I can't even imagine how they think this will be sustainable in a crisis or how this will affect the cattle down the road. This is sort of like raising meat chickens in an industrial farm setting wherein they never live a normal life out under the sun, but it's cattle. Weird.

 

[Beekissed]

prohibitively expensive. Using the uneaten, trampled hay may take longer to improve the soil, but that I can do.

We spent hundreds on 3 different types of clovers and Kentucky 32 non endophyte fescue 3 years ago.

Was wondering, Bay, if the hundreds you spent on seed could be used to buy round bales to roll out instead? The rolled out hay contains the seed and also the mulch that could start you a soil layer you need on top of that sand. If there is no soil, sowing seed in sand isn't going to yield much, surely?

I'd do an experiment and roll out your hay, a bit at a time, mind you, as you feed your stock, instead of feeding it in stock rings. It's out in the weather anyway, so why not turn it on its side and just roll out fresh hay each day instead of letting them eat holes in it until it's gone? There's going to be waste either way, but at least that way the waste, manure and trampling are being moved a little each day and you are getting more bang from your buck and letting the animals move your waste hay instead of you having to do it.

That's how I'll be doing it here in the future for winter feeding....just drop my bales in the paddocks I'm going to be rolling them in, tarp them until used and roll them into a new paddock as I move the wire along. Keeps the weathered hay on the bottom of the strip, which they wouldn't eat anyway, and the fresh hay exposed daily. With the polybraid up, they won't be able to eat on the bale itself but only on the strip of hay I left in their current paddock.

Works well if you have level ground but I'll have to do some creative rolling on the steeper areas, like rolling across the slope instead of down.

 

[Baymule]

I'll stick to what I am doing. The hay gets eaten, the waste goes to good use. The seeds in the hay are rye and some clovers. It is mainly Bermuda hay and it is not in seed when cut, so there isn't much in the way of seed to work it's magic on the seed bank. I am building my own seed bank of the grasses and weeds I desire. I know the rye won't reseed well if at all, but it is not expensive and provides good winter/early spring grazing. If I buy seed once a year to spread, as it builds up, I can rotate the species of grass until I get a good seed bank going. The fescue will reseed and come back, plus nobody here bales fescue, so I have to guy the seed. Much of the clovers have reseeded and come back, also the chicory. I will be making weed pastures with cow panels this coming year so the sheep don't eat it all up so that the desirable weeds and grasses can't reseed. They love the poor joe, lambs quarters, vetch and ragweed! Just look at the diversity in the pictures I posted, that was at zero level not too long ago!

 

[Beekissed]

Just look at the diversity in the pictures I posted, that was at zero level not too long ago!

Yes! And many folks are getting that without rolling out bales at all, just by running stock into silvopasture and feeding them there, which results in more of the native species getting to express themselves due to the fertilizer from the animals and the sunlight from thinning the trees.

That's what I'm going to have to do in my silvopasture as well, as there's simply no WAY to roll out a bale in these woods. We aren't clear cutting but selective timbering, so will still have LOTS of trees in the pasture....can't roll out one of those big bales in something like that.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I don't know about ya'lls round bales - but there's no way that they could be rolled out without using a tractor to move them. A 1000-1200 lb bale of hay is hard to move by hand!

 

[Baymule]

The ones we buy are 5 1/2 feet tall and 4 feet wide. They are big and heavy. Not going to unroll them by hand without busting a hernia. LOL LOL

 

[Baymule]

My bale in the horse ring is working. No need to roll it out, they waste, pee and poop on the hay quite a bit as it is. Every time we get a new bale, we move the hay ring.

Then the horses stand in their favorite shady place and poop. Here’s Joe, full belly, relaxing and pooping. He’s a bit thin, he is 30 years old, has Cushings disease, has good days and not so good days.

 

[Beekissed]

The ones we buy are 5 1/2 feet tall and 4 feet wide. They are big and heavy. Not going to unroll them by hand without busting a hernia. LOL LOL

Uh....we buy the same kind/size and I roll them. I even roll them sopping wet and half rotten, with a flat bottom from sitting a long time and rotting in place. I struggle sometimes to swing them around to roll them in another direction or to roll them uphill, but haven't gotten a hernia yet. And I already have herniated discs.

Some folks hammer a fiberglass rod through the middle, hook logging chains to them and pull them with a 4 wheeler or truck.

 

[Beekissed]

My bale in the horse ring is working. No need to roll it out, they waste, pee and poop on the hay quite a bit as it is. Every time we get a new bale, we move the hay ring.

View attachment 67404

Then the horses stand in their favorite shady place and poop. Here’s Joe, full belly, relaxing and pooping. He’s a bit thin, he is 30 years old, has Cushings disease, has good days and not so good days.

View attachment 67405

That's a nice, good scattering of hay! How long does it take for them to go through a bale normally?

 

[Baymule]

It usually takes a couple of weeks for them to go through a round bale.