cattle

 Today I must complete the temporary fence required to get the cow/calf pairs to the rest of the corn stalks and the bean stubble as well as the hay that is slated to be tilled and turned to annual crops next spring.  Due to the lateness of our season we decided that we would try to finish building our bedding inventory in the corn stalks in spring, which gives the cows the winter's time to finish their work.  The standing hay alone should feed the herd for several weeks.  Once again the perimeter fence earns its cost back.  It is expensive indeed to feed brood cows exclusively out of the hay stocks.

First step is to remove the line I put up in October.  Those fiberglass rod posts are frozen in and I have found it easy enough to pull them if I first use the drive cap and hammer to get them started down through the frost.  A few of them will need to be hammered in to complete the new fence, and then it is just reeling out the wire-poly flex-and hooking the runs up to the hot perimeter. 

I do not know precisely why it is that the land that is under a cropping scheme benefits so from cattle on it at the end of the season.  Unlike the situation in the pasture, where soil benefits are so easy to see-improved water holding capacity, mellowness, increased tilth-it is more difficult to suss out after the cropping season.  But it seems to be real.  Our soils, which are heavily clay, somewhat waterlogged and more easily compactable show benefits from cattle foraging in all those areas.  It takes a bit thinking and imagination to know where to look, but when you have been at it as long as I have, it is very real.