Sometimes the Grass ISN'T Much Greener on the Other Side

There are times when you make plans and put in the work to bring those plans to fruition and things just don't work out.  This was one of those times.  In the fall, we mowed a section of the pasture, purchased rye grass seed, used the fertilizer spreader to broadcast the seed in the paddock, and then put up an electric fence to keep the cows out.

Then we wait for the rye grass seed to germinate and grow.  And we waited and waited and waited. We drove past other people's rye grass fields and looked with envy at their lush, dark green rye grass waving in the wind as if to taunt us.  When we look out over our rye grass pasture, all we see is a slight tinge of green.  You almost need a magnifying glass to see the rye grass.  I decided to go ahead and open the fence and allow the cows to go ahead and graze on what little was there.

It's not easy being green...

When they saw me opening the fence, they RAN to where I was, playfully jumping around, all excited that they were going to get to eat in an ungrazed pasture.  I felt sorry for them and tried to tell them not to get so happy because there wasn't much for them to eat.  As I opened the paddock up, they rushed in and greedily gobbled up what little they could find, running from one place to the next. By the time that the sun went down that night, what little rye grass there was, was eaten down to ground level by the hungry cows.

Where the Green Grass Grows...

I have never had much success growing rye grass, but I'm not going to give up.  I'll get a better spreader next year and mix the rye grass with some fertilizer and increase my seeding rate per acre to put more seed on the ground.  Maybe that would make a difference, I don't know.

Fortunately, they have plenty to eat with round bales of hay always at their disposal and some good bermuda square bales to eat as we milk them each morning and night.  With temperatures projected to be in the 70's this week, maybe the rye grass will grow.  In the meantime, I'll throw them some turnips and turnip greens that I planted just for those greedy girls.