The Case for Paddocks

Winter in Texas is so much easier than what I had grown used to in Idaho. That said, things do slow down here with the lack of sunlight and cooler days. Last year I went through 10 round bales of hay with 5 head of cattle, this year we've doubled the herd to 10, but since 4 of them are calves I only bought 18 rounds to try and make it through the winter.

In the interim I'll run the cattle through each paddock for 1-2 days, versus the week or so they cattle get to spend there during the growing months. It's not a real supplement, since the grass is only 6-8 inches tall, but based on their reaction they enjoy the change of pace from hay, and I'm sure there are nutrients available in fresh grass lacking in the baled hay.

Depending on how hard the next two months of winter are I might be able to cycle the cattle through twice. My focus is on taking care of the soil in the paddocks and the main pasture. The main pasture will get turned in to paddocks soon, if the time affords itself.

Putting Your Free Range Chickens to Work

Cow Patty

So the basis of Permaculture is minimizing inputs, and maximizing outputs, while improving the earth, and giving a reasonable . Joel Salatin routinely says that his egg laying tractors and broiler chicken tractors following his cattle grazing are there to spread cattle manure, add chicken manure, and lightly turn the soil, the eggs and meat are just a bonus.

Chickens at Work on a Patty

It's just been the last couple of weeks that the Ideal 236 layers have really started to go to work on the cow patties, but it's been a revelation. The cow patties within a couple hundred feet of the barn have all been reduced to the photo below.

Fertilizer and Soil Amendments 

It seems that each day the range of the layers increases a bit. We're doing our best to minimize predator pressure, and though I'm sure we'll lose some to hawks and feral dogs, I think that we've finally got things figured out to be sustainable moving forward. Right now the 27 chickens we hve on site are being fed roughly 3 pounds a feed per week, in a mix of cracked grain/corn at night to encourage them all to come to the coop daily, and a bit of the feed that I had left over from the FrankenChickens.

All in all I'm really excited about the layers coming online in early February for the eggs, but I'm also trying to find a couple of broody bantams to raise replacement chickens moving forward. The tractored chickens next spring will continue to help spread the manure and improve the soil on the homestead.

Paddock Shift Rangeland Management

So the paddock on the right had the cattle on it for 4 days, the paddock they're being moved onto on the left hasn't had any cattle on it for just over a month.

It's interesting to watch from one paddock to the next what the cows eat versus what they leave untouched.

The new 1.0 joule, 25 mile Zareba energizer has done a great job in teaching the cattle to stay off the fence. Our herd bull, who has figured out, to my chagrin, that he can pretty much walk through 5 strand barb wire doesn't want anything to do with the electric fence.

This paddock shift has a two fold purpose, first to rest the main pasture for a month going into fall and second to give the Belties and Arial as much good grass as we can before they start calving in October. I can't quantify it, but I expect the manure run off into the swales will also encourage the trees' growth. I'm hoping in the future as we free range the chickens they'll help with spreading the cow paddies.

We've seen a continued improvement of the grasses in the paddocks, and hope that continues on in the future. We'll probably run them through one last time in November, then let the ground rest until March.

I've attached a lot of pictures below of this paddock shift.

Rib-Eye Super Hero or Dinner?

The Belties and Dexters should start calving in the early part of October. Between the birth of the new calves and the two years it'll take to get them ready for the plate we needed something to fill the freezer. Enter Rib-Eye.

I found him on Craigslist from a farm that I've seen selling livestock pretty consistently over the two years I've been hear. They do a great job of telling the story of their animals, combined with good photos they got me to their farm without too much hesitation.

Their farm was spotless. I don't know how they do it. The grass was manicured, the stock yard did not have the multitude of cow patties that you can see in the picture above, and the house looked like sane people lived there. :-)

Rib-Eye will have until early December next year to roam the paddocks, munch on native Texas grasses, and enjoy being a steer. We went with a full size breed to fill the freezer and maximize the fact that we only have 5 cows on the pasture right now. Should my Belted Bull keep walking through fences, he may wind in the freezer first...

Adventures in Paddocking

Before on top, 3 days later on the bottom.

So last year, before my lovely bride got here I tried to throw together some paddocks, and shift the cattle by myself. To be honest it was a failure. I didn't spend enough time researching best practices, but I learned a lot from that failure. Not running a ground wire allowed the cattle to walk through the fence when the ground got too dry. I didn't have a strong enough shock even when getting a solid ground from the .5 Joule charger. The fence is always going to be way longer than you think it is.

So this year, new start, lots of reading about how to build a fence that will work when it's super dry. I settled on more grounding opportunities. I broke down and bought the three galvanized, 6 foot tall rods that were recommended by Zareba https://amzn.com/B0079GH4HU on the 25 mile charger. Those were grounding rods were banged as far into the ground as I could, then an additional ground (-) line was run in the middle of the fence giving the opportunity to shock the cows twice, from both completing the circuit through the grounding rods if the cattle only tough the top or bottom wire, or if should they grounding rods are too dry to complete a ground if the cows walk into either top of bottom wire and the middle wire, they should, and so far have, receive a healthy shock. So much so that after just a few encounters with the wire, they're giving it a healthy respect.

11 days into this experiment, and I couldn't be happier with the fences, and ease of moving the cattle. After the first shift, they've figured out that the grass is always greener on the other side of the electric fence and run through the gate as soon as they're lowered. 

If you're thinking about buying the polywire, stop thinking and do it if you can afford it. So much easier to work with and visible to the cattle. And after buying 3 rolls at $44 at Tractor Supply of the 1310 foot variety, I found this deal on Amazon:  https://amzn.com/B01BQB5S8A which works out to $40 for the first 1310 feet and 2620 feet free. Best deal I've found.