Here on Rudy Lane, we grow more than just flowers and little girls. ☺️ We also have, corn, beans, hay, pasture, and cows. The flowers are gone, crops have all be harvested, so we are primarily just tending to cows this time of year.
Winter feeding of cattle can be accomplished a multitude of ways, depending largely on the weather and the operation itself. For us, we utilize hay rings, bale unrolling, and stripgrazing. Feeding in hay rings and bale unrolling requires getting bales from the barn and taking it to the cattle either in pasture or in a “sacrifice field”. I’ll share more about these two methods when we come to them. But for now, we are stripgrazing our stockpiled forages.
In August, we start setting aside several acres that we will not graze until mid-November or later, thus creating our “stockpile“. Once mid-November arrives, we start ”stripgrazing”. Since the sun sets so early now and Layne is working four 10s, that leaves the chore of moving cows to the girls and I. Luckily for me (and for Layne 😏), moving cows is my favorite farm to-do.
The girls and I load into the Mule, with our step-in posts and polywire reels in tow. We make quick work of setting up a stretch of fence that will give the herd about 1-2 acres, which will last them about 1-2, respectively. By putting so many animals in such a small area, it forces them to graze more uniformly, thus cleaning up the pasture before going into winter. Now typically, after we spend 15 or so minutes getting the new fence up, the cows are anxious to move into the new grass. I simply feel up the previous day‘s fence and they move in. In total, this maybe takes 30 minutes. Its a good opportunity to get the girls outside for a bit and if I can, I get them involved in pushing in posts or stringing wire.
Our stockpile is quickly diminishing, and soon we’ll be on to the next winter feeding method. But that‘s okay, it’s getting a bit too cold me (I’m a wuss) anyway!
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