What a wonderful weekend! We attended a conference on raising grass-fed beef put on by Cornell Cooperative Extension, and were overwhelmed by the incredible speakers and information! It was also so encouraging to meet and learn from so many other small farmers...hearing their stories, challenges, and triumphs, and realizing that we are not alone on this crazy and wonderful journey!
I chose this picture to post as I think it relates to several topics we discussed this weekend...
1) I think this is a decent example of the difference in the pasture before/after the cows are rotated into an area. In this picture they have eaten down most of the grass fairly evenly, and are ready to move on.
2) There was some discussion about the "novel" idea of grazing the whole herd together, and the community relationships that ensued. Isn't it a bit counter-intuitive to think that the herd should be/would function better separate? In this picture we have a bull, three cows, a yearling steer, and a calf, with another calf and two more steers out of the shot. This just seems natural to us.....some people also suggested that there might be a minimum number (40?) required to achieve the "community", but it seemed to work with our small group as well!
3) There was a lot of good information on stocking density/mob grazing/maximizing animal impact to get the best results from both your pasture and your animals. Obviously we have not yet achieved that! I am anxiously waiting for spring to try some new ideas with our rotational grazing set up!
The only down side to the weekend was that we can't get moving fast enough! There is so much still to learn, to do, and never enough hours in the day!
Thank you to CCE and all the speakers at the conference; we can't wait for the next one!
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