Pasture Prep & Moving Days
Pasture raised, grass fed…. what do those terms really entail?
Hard work.
It would seem that you just put cows and their calves on a grass pasture and that is the end of it, right? I hope this post gives you insight to the work that goes in and a deeper appreciation when you hear those terms.
How do we even begin?
Fencing. We have several pastures that we use and each take a different amount of attention and care. Just like anything in Minnesota each time the winter passes we find things that need attention. One of our main pastures is about 10 miles away and is secluded from normal human interaction. We patch wire, replace posts, tack fencing staples to hold the wire down and make sure that the electric fencer is up and running. It can be days of hard work, while fighting heat & sometimes Minnesota’s state bird (the mosquito).
Up next, the load & haul. With the help of Willow, our blue heeler, we bring the cows & calves off of our grass at home and into the yard for sorting & loading. The cows are familiar with the song and dance of loading but with a new baby by their side they are not willing to load unless they are together. Interesting side note, we take the time to choose a bull for each pasture and then choose the cows to match up to get the desired genetics for our new babies. We also take into consideration the calving ease rating of the bulls and put our heiferettes on easier calving bulls. Once we have our choices made, we walk each cow calf pair into our holding pens until we have a full load sorted. Calves are loaded first into their own section of the trailer and cows eager to follow.
The unload & joy. Our favorite part of hauling to pasture is watching the cows and calves rut, snort and jump in the long grass. The minutes of standing in genuine satisfaction and joy can sometimes turn into hours.
The maintenance. Check the fence, check cow & calf health, count and count again. Those are just a few of the jobs that go into our frequent pasture visits. We call the cows, drive the pasture and wait for them to come and greet us. This continues all summer until we haul the herd home (That will be another blog to come!).
Our farm does not rely solely on pasture or hay to feed our cattle but this time of year give us joy knowing that our cows are grazing to their heart’s content.
(1) Miss M. supervising. (2) Jessi & Willow taking a break. (3) Jessi & JR getting exercise walking to the south side of the pasture.