Next step on getting the new pasture fenced in is done! The 4 wires for the electric fence are up but I needed to clean up the sides by weed eating at the bottom. This side close to a large drainage ditch was growing up fast. Why is it that in a drought, weeds do just fine? Lol. I was able to walk the field this morning and weed eat before having to go to work. I still have the other sides to complete but its a big step to get to getting the cows in. Definitely looks a lot better right? Once the outside is cleaned up, I'll need to clear out paths for the paddock lines.

So... our lawnmower broke. While I'm waiting to save up enough money to get it fixed, the yard still needs to be mowed... and we came up with a brilliant idea! I've had this portable fencing unit that has stakes and electric line all in one unit on a reel. I can quickly set up a temporary paddock in the yard... bring our dairy cows in to eat it and then repeat the process. Its worked so incredibly well that I'm trying to figure out why I didnt do this before. 😆 🤣 Sure... there are some cow patties, but with a quick spray of the water hose... those disappear to fertilize the yard. This is a huge win! Might do this even when the lawnmower is fixed. If you want to see the Electric Fence Reel that we use... here's the link... https://amzn.to/43XVB76

Its crazy to me to see how the "before and after" looks when rotationally grazing paddocks. I often have some people say to me "rotational grazing isn't something new. People have been doing that for hundreds of years". However... they are wrong. Rotationally or "mob grazing" is a new technique where the cows stay on a partitioned space for a few hours up to a day before moving to the next "paddock". So a pasture of 3 acres might be split into 6-9 different paddocks that the cattle graze for a short time. Then they move to the next paddock and leave the other one to rest. This wasnt possible until the creation of modern solar fence energizer and flexible polywire. This is very hands on and requires constant moving, but it allows for better grazing management and better regenerative practices. Pushing the cattle forward constantly mimics a predator load and prevents the cattle from staying in the same space and interacting with their own waste. This cuts down on parasites and sickness.

If you've been following our posts over the last couple of weeks, youve seen us fencing in a brand new pasture/field. This morning before work, I was able to use the weedeater and cut paths through the newly fenced in pasture to put in the poly line out for the individual paddocks inside.

The mowed lines arent straight because the grass is 4 feet high... so I couldnt pull a string, but its close enough. I just picked a point on the other end walked towards it. The cattle will eat it and trample it so I can straighten it out later if it bothers me. I have the solar fence energizer ready to go, amd the poly lines are up...so I'll move the cows in soon. I'll probably get the drone up in the air and show some before and after they graze.

Yesterday we hit 101°F here in Eastern NC, with a heat index of 115°F. They keep saying 50% chance of rain but we've had zero in over three weeks now. These temps along with no rain have baked the ground. Most years, we start the spring with my father's pond overflowing with rain from the winter or at least near the top. After several years of drought, this is what it looks like. Its hard to see how low it is until you step inside. You can see the top "erosion" line where the water normally sits, and its down about 15 feet. That's a ton of water in a place thats not supposed to get dry. The pond is mostly fed through groundwater (vs surface water), and everything is just so dry that its seeping out into the surrounding soil vs seeping in. We're over a foot short of rainfall just this year alone. The pastures are in bad shape and we need slow soaking rain badly.

Woo hoo! Finally got the beef cows moved into the new pasture that we've shared so many posts about the fencing progress recently. Unfortunately, its not as lush of a grass that it was even a couple months ago when we had received a little rain. The last few months of high heat and no rain have really taken a toll on it. This is the first time its been grazed in the 2.5 years since we planted it. Last spring it was waist high with thick green leaves and clover that was 6-7 inches tall. Now its like standing hay with withered clover in it. Its something though and it accounts for days or weeks of not feeding hay. We need slow steady rain. Pop up thunderstorms that barely wet the top layer of sand wont cut it.

Check out the pictures of a single day in our grazing method from the ground and the air views. When I talk to a lot of farmers/ranchers about how we rotate paddocks in our adaptive multi-paddock (AMP) system , they think it's the same as how they rotationally graze. Its not. While admirable, most ranchers may rotate their pastures, but they don't do intensive grazing on small paddocks within those fields to force the cattle to graze/trample/deposit manure uniformly. Its also not the same as what shepherds did thousands of years ago for similar reasons. This AMP method is regenerative grazing that quickly adds value to worn out land and also keeps cattle from overgrazing their favorite forage. These cattle may be in a paddock for only a matter of hours before moving on to the next space. The sad part is that we have only received a few inches of rain so far this year, so the fescue and native grasses are very dry, but its helping us put off feeding hay a bit longer.

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A little glimpse of God in the everyday work. We're into our 4th week without a lawn mower. I had no idea how good our dairy cows would be at mowing the yard and also at trimming down over grown vines! I figured they'd go for the Bermuda grass first, but they love the vines! Thats great because I normally have to clean those off! It still amazes me that our beef and dairy cattle turn these plants into high quality food for us. How amazing is our creator? What a mighty God we serve!