@@zhostetler3 With favorable weather it’s possible.

@@runningtfarmsnc still trying to figure out what that cow days/acre tells you? Do you shoot for 365 or more to get through the year with no hay feeding or what is your target? Maybe I’m overthinking it..

@@zhostetler3 A couple of things. 1 it gives you an idea of production per acre so you can compare year over year to see if you are improving your land base. Of course there will be variations between years due to weather conditions but it is one of the single best metrics of land improvement. 2 We know that most winters we can only average around 200 cow days per acre harvested on our stockpiled areas due to our wet reasonably mild winters so we know how to adjust our stocking rate once the growing season is over to make sure we have enough stockpile for our cattle. We have a goal to be able to graze 1 animal unit per acre with no winter feeding in order to do that we need to average 365 cow days per acre across every acre of the farm for an entire year. We are getting closer to our goal.

@@runningtfarmsnc ok so the green season grass should be 500 or more to make up for the stockpile that’s around 200 to get an average of 365? That’s an awesome goal hope to see you do it! Would that be around 1.5 acre/cow calf pair?

@@warrenmaker798 Yes but your guys forages and management should be used to a semi arid or seasonal rainfall environment. We usually get 3.5-4 inches of rain every month of the year it’s what our forages have evolved for. So yes 30 days of no rain and very hot windy days put us in severe drought conditions. The grain farmers in our state experienced 90% crop failure on their corn crops. Very unusual for us.

I’m an American all the time.

Welcome! Thanks for watching

@@runningtfarmsnc thank you

Welcome! Thanks for watching

Stockpile had gotten super ugly here too. I'm loving watching the green stuff come up thru. Perfect poo piles regardless of what they've grazed thus far. Much to my surprise.

@@bradharris2503 are you on your stockpile right now?

@@tickcreekranch I am not. Won't be on it til this Fall/Winter. Being truthful, I'm always grazing stockpile. But the full-season stockpile is gonna go full season.

@tickcreekranch it's super ugly though. Hoping cool seasons come up thru. Horsenettle has dominated the full-season ground this summer when the red clover laid down a second time. Hoping it's serving a function. Everything is thriving back there though. Soils is super soft where it's usually hard.

@@bradharris2503 I’m in some really nice cool seasons right now and they’re vegetative. Wild

@@hubbsfarmvt yes sir I just finished setting up a 3 day grazing cell and we will move the cows into it first thing in the morning for the third grazing this year.

@@zhostetler3 We will get 4 most likely this year possibly 5 if we have perfect weather and good moisture. Usually between 3-6 very dependent on moisture of course.

@@runningtfarmsnc how many days rest did that paddock have?

@@coyroberts8356 Full blood Mashona bull 266 (Zimbob)

@@runningtfarmsnc see a lot of people going that direction.

We do both. We usually synchronize and do timed AI and I will beat spot for a week or two afterwards. When I get tired of breeding or we get to far from the barn I put the bulls in.

Yes sir! We were sure glad to get it.

We just mow it post grazing if we think it needs it. Mid August is supposedly the best time to mow when it is blooming. I think as your soil improves it just can’t compete with the other better forages.

Yes initially we have selected a couple half blood bulls from our best cows that we will be using as clean up bulls post AI. We will eventually stop AI and select and use only our own home raised bulls.

I just want to know thinking about trying to find half Mashona half Black Angus sometime

@@timshirk6261 We only bush hog behind if needed which isn’t to often some paddocks that have blackberry require mowing behind. And yes the cow that looked a little rough just isn’t genetically equipped for Nonselective grazing. She will likely come up open at preg check and be culled when she’s weaned her calf.

I doubt it, just grazing with high utilization.

I would have to say probably Eastern Gamma. But so far we don’t have any Big or little blue so I don’t have much to compare it to.😂

@@runningtfarmsnc we’re in the exact opposite situation. We have lots of big and little blue coming in, but no gamagrass. That being said I probably won’t even graze it this season and just let it establish since 90% is freshly germinated. I thought it was massive stands of new broom sedge for the longest time. I almost cried lol. It’s hard to distinguish the two from each other when juvenile, well at least to the untrained eye.

There’s likely some the cattle eat marestail very well. Most of what was there that resembles marestail was goldenrod.

@@runningtfarmsnc I guess both are Forbs which I understand are what is needed for deep soil aggregation as they put most of there sugars down there and very little sugar above the soil as above the soil is mostly minerals like you had mentioned. For this reason I try to direct my fat cattle on heavy grass for higher energy.

Deep soil aggregation loaded with humus should be everyone’s goal as then during the rainy season it will hold tremendous amounts of water and will percolate it back up during the dry season. Josh what you are doing will achieve this probably in just a few years

We have them trained now and they walk under the wire very well. They are a great tool to get your stock density up.

Can be issues with both quality and quantity. I have a large amount of stockpile due to being under stocked currently so rather than supplement some protein or energy that it would take to fully utilize the stockpile I’m opting to allow the cattle to graze a bit more selectively at the moment to favor performance, and mow behind the cows if necessary. If we were fully stocked a little supplemental feeding of say some very high quality alfalfa hay maybe only 3-4lbs per head per day would allow us to fully utilize the stockpile while maintaining good body condition.

​@runningtfarmsnc thank you for this information

@@runningtfarmsnc understood. Needing more cows in a drought is a good sign that I find myself in the same situation. I haven’t dipped into stockpile yet I am making a second pass or starting to with my groups. Everyone around us complaining about the weather but we have months of forage. East coast could deff use rain from what I hear tho