Wet July

Well we've had an unbelievably wet July with a couple of rains in excess of 2 inches and one in excess of 3. The weather has been very hot with heat indexes in excess of 100 on multiple successive days. At this point, 10 acre paddocks in the Stocker Pasture are handling the mob nicely....600 cows and I'm guessing around 500 calves equates to a total mob weight of around 800,000 lbs....so a density of 80,000 lbs per acre. We will be working these cattle the first week of August and culling anything without a calf and early weaning around 150 of the heifers' calves. So the mob will get significantly smaller in a few weeks.

Stockman Grass Farmer

I truly enjoy reading the Stockman Grass Farmer, but a recent statement found in the current issue is part of the reason behind my starting this blog. In response to a reader (seeking to move to mob grazing) asking about weaning calves, SGF states "Weaning is done by putting the calves and cows on opposite sides of an electric fence where they can still see and call to each other. After about four days, the weaning is complete with no stress or sickness." Really? So it's just that easy? We fenceline wean during the right sign of the moon utilizing a very good woven wire fence with a standoff electric fence and we still get calves that end up back with their mommas. This advice very much reminds me of the advice I got from mob grazing proponents when I was having scour issues. "Feed zinc sulfate and zinc oxide free choice and scours will go to zero." Well, no they won't. I'm very much a proponent of mob grazing, but the information out there makes it sound much easier than it is.

Low Cost Producer

While being a "low cost producer" is an admirable goal, it's really pretty irrelevant. I would suggest that we all strive to be the "high profit producer". If I can spend $1 and get back $1.10, I'll do it. Concentrate on maximizing your returns, not simply reducing costs.

Seed Cutting

Fescue seed is selling for around 20 cents this year which isn't great. I jumped at the chance to get mine harvested and get the seed heads off the fescue. I'm guessing we cut around 400 acres, would like to have cut 700 or so but the seed just wasn't heavy enough in some of the pastures. All told, we netted $6600 on seed this year...$6600 more than we would have gotten had we not mob grazed.

It's hot and dry this summer. We've had a few .25 inch rains but that's about it. Each system that's come thru seems to dump a few inches to the north and south of us but we just can't seem to hit it. I guess it could be worse. It's interesting to look at the regrowth on paddocks we've moved thru. In the spring, after a week the grass has popped back up and looks green and healthy. Now, it's brown and ugly and I'm left wondering if it will actually regrow or just die. I'm glad each paddock will get 5-6 months of rest before we graze it again....they may need it.

Good news...and bad

Well I think I can safely say that we are finally finished treating for scours. I'm sure we may have one or two moving forward but we haven't treated anything for a few weeks and the bulk of the calves are getting to the age where they are past the major threat. The bad news is that we have lost around 10 head of calves to very quick, severe respiratory issues (6 this week alone). I have no idea if the stress from the mob grazing is contributing to this outbreak or not but would imagine it is playing some role. I do know that others in the area (non-mob grazers) are having some respiratory issues. It's been unseasonably hot here, well into the 90's the past few weeks.

After speaking with Hal, he's comfortable saying that he feels we had scour "issues" with 80% of the calves this year (yellow squirts, not all bad enough to treat). All told we've treated 117 calves, the bulk of those were the Charolais cross calves out of our older cows which number around 320 head. That said, he's not ready to give up on calving in the mob and points to a stretch of a week or so where we had no issues. It was when we were quietly taking down fences (instead of calling), leaving the 2 prior paddocks open and simply moving the mob up a few paddocks behind. I'm not convinced this is the cure. I really think we will move to a hybrid Sandhills System next year during calving. Both Hal and I feel introducing the pairs a week before we started calving was probably a big factor. We are hesitant to blame the mob grazing for all of our problems but we are both pretty hard headed.

Waving the White Flag....kind of

We continue to lose calves at an alarming rate. I'm guessing we've treated over 30% and have probably lost around 15% of our calf crop. I'm convinced the stress caused by the daily moves has significantly contributed to our losses. We've absolutely worked our asses off (and by "we" I mean Hal) to identify and treat sick calves. He's done a fantastic job. Three years ago we used the Sandhills System and weaned a 97% calf crop. I think we will move back to something like that next year, at least during our 45 day calving season. It will mean no mob grazing during a critical time of the year (May and June) but I just don't see any choice. We made a valiant effort to calve in the mob but I simply think that the drawbacks outweigh the advantages. I'm very disappointed.

The Savory Institute

The Savory Institute has a front page article and link to a 15 minute clip "We Are What We Eat" by Aaron Lucich. Here is my forum post to the Institute:

"I am relatively new to Holistic Management and the teachings of the Savory Institute, so please forgive my ignorance. After watching the 15 minute clip (linked on the home page) "We Are What We Eat" by Aaron Lucich, I am starting to have serious reservations about associating with the Holistic Management movement. Is the Savory Institutes agenda to destroy all forms of beef production that are not "grass fed"? The inflammatory comments by persons interviewed in the clip were exactly the types of comments generally reserved for the Humane Society of the United States. It's a shame that "grass fed" supporters have to denigrate and disparage other forms of production to promote their products and further their agenda. It's not enough to have to counter the attacks of the vegan radicals, but we also must counter the attacks of other beef producers as the"grass fed" group simply stokes the fires of the "anti-meat" crowd by claiming that a person is essentially committing suicide by eating grain fed beef. "They would spit out the bite of meat they have in their mouth if they could see what I see as a veterinarian." That quote could have come directly from the HSUS, but is instead found in the 15 minute Lucich clip. Is this truly productive? Is this the the true agenda of the Savory Institute? Would love to know the Institutes stance on "Food Inc.". As much as I respect Allan Savory and his grazing and management methods, I have to question the wisdom of aligning the Institute with this type of thinking."


I am awaiting their response. It's sad that the "Grass Fed" crowd stoops to such lows.