Forage fed sows

A long term goal here at Pastures is to get the sow herd to maintain partly on perennial feeds.  They are shown here eating baleage out of the new feeders built for us by a neighbor.  In summer, they graze the permanent pastures with the cattle herd. 

Winter cattle feeding

Spreading manure on cornstalks for the next crop.  It is easier to move hay than manure!  Hay feeding rings are moved toward the forground at each feeding.  The cow herd will cover about ten acres by spring.

change

Change is constant they say and it is evident on the farm.  At the New Year we stopped providing extra light to the hens, signalling them to take a break from laying.  Birds are daylength sensitive and egg production had been sloping down even with the artificial light.  They need a rest, to replenish their stores of calcium and other nutrients and we will start the lights again in late February to encourage production back to good levels. 

Another change is in our sow feeding.  This year we have been able to start the sow herd on wet bales of hay, the same ration the grass fed beef are getting.  Our goal is to push up the perennial plants like grass in their diet to mimic pasture and push the corn and soy down somewhat.  So far we have succeeded in keeping them on the summer ration plus the hay, which is a decrease in grain from other years.  We know perennials in the diet are good for the sows, and we believe that kind of production to be good for the earth as well.  It is exciting to think about how far we may be able to push this new system.  Change is constant!

Jim

This year we had an extensive mud season just ahead of winter; two plus weeks of warm wet weather which filled all the lots and lanes with deep cattle and hog footprints just in time for freezeup in December.  With the annual spring mud season there is hope for dryout and a leveling of the bad footing as the season progresses, but for this fall event, we ended up ordering two loads of gravel to dump on top of the ground, giving the cattle decent access to their drinker and enabling us to actually drive our skidloader and even the loader tractor across the lane to get to the hay and bedding bales.  The first time ever for gravel in the winter.  Forty years of farming and no two years alike!

Jim

Christmas

It was my pleasure and privilege this morning after Christmas to step out into the unspoiled snow blanket covering the yard.  Only the overexcited dog skittering ahead marred the scene.  My feet soon found the ruts left there by tractor use in the overly warm December and I slowed down into old man gear, afraid of a broken leg or nose or worse.  It wasn't always like this.  I used to tell my wife that I made my living by bouncing up off the ground after falling.  She reminds me that this is beginning not to be an option, which I of course do not want to hear.

It is also true that back when I could bounce I did not properly appreciate all that the natural world constantly laid at my feet.  Then I would have been full of the need to get the snow bucket on the tractor, and push it all into piles, after which the livestock would mostly need bedding,  providing me with a long day's work.  This is all still true, but I have come to the time when I can put things in their proper order.  First awe and wonder and the awakening of the inner child.  Then work. 

Jim
 

ready for winter

Four inches of snow on the ground this December 1st and more on the way.  Time to finish buttoning up for winter.  Andy brought twelve big straw bales up and stacked them to close up the ends of the finishing hoops against the northwest wind.  Jacob and I moved the boars out to dirt and rebedded the sows.  We hope for a little mild weather yet so we can clean and rebed before putting the big gates on the west end.  Josh cleaned the outside drinker area near the old pole shed before it froze us out until spring.  Now to enjoy the new snow for what it is.  And it is beautiful indeed where it hangs in the lilac bushes reflecting LeeAnn's early Christmas lights.  There is something wonderful about clean white snow under a full moon in early winter. 

Jim

soil

I talked to a conventional farmer recently and he told me of spreading the residue from the Fibrominn electrical generating plant as a soil amendment.  His goal, beside the trace elements and a bit of phosphorus in the product, had to do with getting the cornstalks to rot, thus making the soybean year to follow easier.  This appears to be a matter of concern, though it is never an issue for us.  Our local co-op has started in the liquid 28% N business and this is the reason for it.  Fall application is thought to accelerate the decay of the corn stover.  We bale most of our corn residue for bedding and let the cow herd at the remainder.  Also, of course, we do not use the bt hybrids, or other forms of bioengineering in the corn seed we plant.

Lime from the sugar plant is also coming into favor.  The thinking is that it helps against compaction in the field ends where the end rows are planted over all the tractor end turns.  Again, we don't see an issue, probably because our rotation is nearly fifty percent hay(alfalfa-clover-grass)  This spring I walked the entire farm with a penetrometer and could not find serious compaction anywhere.  We formerly had a problem.  It is the changes that have brought about the improvements in our soil.   

Our farm is alkaline, with severe 'alkali' rims consisting of limey salty soil.  We have trouble with growing beans, or would have if we were interested in doing so.  It seems merely logical that this kind of farm needs fertility provided by acid livestock manures and not salty commercial fertilizer products.  It also needs the kind of farmer that does not think exclusively in terms of tractors.