Soil Cover - An Important Consideration in Soil Health

Covering the soil is one of the most basic things you can do in soil conservation.  If you walk in the woods, you always see the ground covered with decomposing logs, leaves and understory.  Small trees thrive under the canopy followed by grasses.  Bugs and worms thrive beneath the rotting organic matter as rich moist topsoil is being formed.

The photo below just west of our barn was taken five years ago.  There is one tiny patch of grass seen on the bottom right.  What Happened?!  This entire area was once covered with bahia grass and bermuda grass and now this...  It's all dirt.  In the summer, the sun heats up the dirt and dries it out.  When rains come, the soil is washed away.  When winds blow, the dust (our topsoil) is blown away.

In trying to figure the genesis of this problem out, I think it all started with bonfires.  When winds would blow limbs out of the trees, I would stack up a big burn pile.  The pile would continue to grow, and when it got HUGE, especially in the winter, I would light it up and we'd sit around it and enjoy its warmth.  The fires were so big, one time the neighbors called the fire department thinking that our barn was on fire!

I love sitting around a fire, staring into the coals, but the fires killed the grass, exposing the dirt.  The chickens scratched holes in the exposed dirt to take their dust baths.  When tiny grasses started to grow, they dried up quickly in the heat and chickens plucked out the grasses to eat.  The situation went from bad to worse.  I had to change this!

A barren wasteland

We have cows, goats and chickens all grazing on 3 acres.  Soil health aside, this barren wasteland needs to have grass growing on it to feed all the hungry barnyard critters.  I stopped burning the big bonfires and then planted sprigs of bermuda grass in the dirt taken from cuttings.  Our chicken population, due to the minks, was cut in half, taking pressure off of the barren area and allowing the grass to take root and grow.  Moreover, and I can't quite explain it, but for some reason the spring after a very hard freeze, the grass started coming back - first gradually and then quickly.

I took a photo of the same area yesterday.  Although there is still work to be done in bringing this area back to its former glory, a good start has been made.  Grass almost completely covers the old desert-like area.  The animals and the humans are happy with the progress.  Imagine how it would look if we hadn't been in a drought!

A return of our grass pasture

The grassland now gives additional grazing capacity to our animals.  The roots hold the soil together, reducing erosion.  The grass keeps the soil cooler, and gives bugs and worms a place to hide and do their work.  As organic matter decomposes, the soil and its microorganisms thrive, doing their job.  We'll continue to do our part to rehabilitate the area that I negatively affected by unwise choices.  More work to do, but I like before/after photos that show evidence of good stewardship of the land.

A Manicured Lawn

Someone showed me a funny meme the other day that showed a manicured lawn as compared to a beekeeper's lawn.  The manicured lawn was immaculate - not a blade of grass out of place, cut short.  Then the beekeeper's yard showed tall weeds and wildflowers.  So true!  We put off mowing our yard for a plethora of reasons.  First, the white dutch clover is flowering along with many other wildflowers, and the bees love them.  Second, our bees don't like the sound and vibration of the lawnmower.  They chase me and sting me.  Third, my lawnmower is broken and I need to try and figure out the electrical issue that won't let the mower blades engage.  Finally, we always like to wait and rotate the cows through the yard and eat the spring grass.  I think the record-setting year was one year when we didn't mow the grass until May!

For some of our long-time readers, I apologize.  This is a redundant post as we seem to make this post each and every year.  We have a Gallagher solar fence charger with some temporary step-in posts.  I break up the yard into different paddocks and unroll the poly wire using a ratchet reel.  Over the years, the cows have learned the sound of the reel clicking and, like Pavlov's dogs, they begin mooing LOUDLY when they hear the clicking of the ratchet reel unrolling the poly wire.

 And so it begins...  I moved Rosie and LuLu into the first paddock.  They excitedly run around, scoping out the various types of grasses, like you and I might scope out a buffet table.  They settle for the white Dutch clover first.  It's a favorite of theirs.

The cows have learned to have a healthy respect of the one strand of wire.  The solar powered charger pulses electricity through the line.  You only have to be stung by it once and you learn to avoid it.  I trust the charger, but I'd never leave the house with the cows in the yard.  I've learned to keep checking on the cows every few minutes.  One time after church, we were having pot roast and rice & gravy when someone came knocking on our front door to warn us that the cows were out!  Not good.  

We generally leave the cows in the paddock in the yard for a full day.  At the end of the day, they have the yard clipped down pretty good.  They we'll put them back in the permanent pasture, roll up the fencing, pick up the posts and set up another paddock right next to it.  Over the course of a week, the grass will be all eaten throughout the entire yard.  It won't look like the putting green on a golf course, but much better than before the cows grazed all day on it.

First Frost 2025

Sometimes the weather forecast is right on the money.  And then other times, they totally miss it.  I can understand.  Weather has a lot of variables and conditions that affect it.  In planting crops, I like to have a pretty good idea of when to plant things in advance of a rain, so that the crop will be watered in.  It hasn't rained in several weeks now, so I'm a little concerned about the crimson clover that I planted.  The ground is as hard as a basketball court.  I don't know how the crimson clover will germinate and grown on that!

I also like to know when high winds are coming and, of course, when a freeze or frost is coming.  We have lots of tomatoes on the vine that I'd pull if a freeze was coming.

But frosts...  What about those?  Frost won't damage most of the stuff still growing in the garden from the spring, like tomatoes and peppers.  I looked up the Farmer's Almanac for the first frost date for our location.  I put in our zip code and it said: "The average first frost date is November 9"  November 9th came and went with no frost, but...

We woke up on the morning of November 11th to this:

It was a good first frost.  Not enough to damage anything in the garden, but enough to slow down any new grass growth in the pasture.

The cows, goats, and chickens will continue to clean up the last remaining grass and then it will be time to start supplementing with hay.  Last year we rolled out the first round bale on January 1st.  I'm thinking this year will be sooner to hay the cows.  At the bee club meeting, some of the beekeepers were saying that the bees were completely stopping up all the holes in their bee boxes with propolis, and they are reading that as a prediction that a cold winter is on the way.  Who knows?  Weather forecasters, Farmer's Almanacs, and beekeepers can all be wrong.  We'll have to wait to find out.

First Round Bale of the Year

Normally, we start feeding hay around Thanksgiving, but not this year.  Somehow, the pasture has held up and allowed the cows and goats to continue feeding on the grass.  I think the rains coupled with moderate temperatures (no freezes as of yet) helped the pasture grass provide some forage for the livestock.  Perhaps the hay lasting longer was The Good Lord allowing things to last longer than it ordinarily does.  It wouldn't be the first time:

Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. So you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of streams of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without shortage, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God by failing to keep His commandments, His ordinances, and His statutes which I am commanding you today; Deuteronomy 8:4-11

The Providential grass ended toward the latter part of last week.  All the animals' heads were down, and they were finding things to eat, but they were looking for more.  Sort of like I do when I eat a meal, but am looking around for a little something sweet like pie or ice cream once the main course is gone.

January 1st seemed as good a day as any to roll out the first round bale for them to eat.  These are bales that I purchased back on March 29, 2024.  It is good quality hay, but cost me $40 per bale delivered.  I think that is a very fair price.  We kept it covered by tarpaulins, so it is still in very good shape.

A couple of things to notice in the photo above.  LuLu is in the barn being milked so she hasn't seen the bale yet.  Rosie and Elsie are eating a little sweet feed.  You can see their rear ends at the barn.  They didn't hear me as I stealthily pushed the bale out.  The goats are in the corral and the bull is in a separate pasture.  It would be only a few short minutes after this photo was taken that all the livestock discovered their New Year's bounty.  

Cows and especially goats waste a lot of hay.  I'm going to experiment with something this year to mitigate that.  If you look to the right of the barn in the background, you'll see a cattle panel.  I'm going to allow the animals to eat the hay in the morning, but in the evenings, I'll run the animals out of the hay area and close the cattle panel behind them.  If you leave them all day, they begin "playing with their food," stepping on, and pooping on the good hay.  We'll see if that works.

Last year it took the animals 6 days to eat one round bale.  I have 9 round bales in inventory.  Those 9 should get me through the coldest of the weather.  I still have about 70 square bales of hay up in the hay loft to feed them and I have lots of turnips planted.  I feed them the roots as I'm not a big fan of turnip roots.  I do like turnip greens, however.  The cows will have to fight me for those!

The Fat Cows

It hasn't rained since September 11 and even on that day, it only rained 3/10ths of an inch.  It's dry.  I water the garden every single day.  The rain barrels that I sequester rainwater from are all dry and have been dry for several weeks.  The grass in the yard is dead or dying.  The pasture, up to this point has held up nicely, but when I walked in the pasture today, the bermuda and bahai grass is thirsting for some rain.

There is a chance on Thursday and Friday of this week for precipitation.  We are watching that very closely and praying for Showers of Blessing.  With the grass in the pasture on its way out and the onset of cooler temps of winter coming, we begin to think of the cows.  How will they fare through the winter?  We do give them a little sweet feed and alfalfa, but mostly they're on grass throughout the spring and summer.

For the fall and winter, we've put up 75 bales of premium bermuda hay in the hay loft.  We actually still have four bales of last year's hay that we're giving them each day.  We also purchase round bales of hay that we roll out and allow the cows (and goats) to eat free choice on.  We've found that one round bale will last about a week.  We have an inventory of nine round bales covered in tarps and ready to roll out when needed.  The cows have some grass to clean up in the pasture.  In the next few weeks they'll eat that all up.

It's important that the cows are in good condition going into the winter, and I have to say that this year, the cows are well fit, perhaps in the best condition they've ever been in at this point.  I really couldn't tell you what the difference is.  Here's Rosie.  Rosie is 15 years and 8 months old!  That's OLD for a Jersey cow.  She just went into heat last week.  We put her with the bull and witnessed her in standing heat.  We think he bred her, but we'll check in a few weeks to see if she goes back into heat.  We have the date on the calendar.  The bull is still young and he's short.  We don't know if he was able to reach.  Only time will tell, but it sure would be nice to get another calf out of Rosie.  She's been such a good girl.

And here's Elsie.  I don't have a way to show perspective, but this heifer is huge.  She's big and fat!  And she is rambunctious.  She runs around like her tail's on fire.  It's actually dangerous to be around her.  You have to keep your head on a swivel.  She did not get bred last year.  The vet found a cyst on her ovary and took care of it.  We are trying to have Nicky the bull breed her this year.

We put them together and hopefully it took.  We've been watching for her to come back in heat, but so far nothing.  Hopefully, that means she's carrying a calf.  That's good for a number of reasons.  First, we need calves and we need more milk as we're about to dry up LuLu.  Second, if she calves, we're hoping that will mellow her out and she'll stop being crazy.  Finally, if she isn't able to get pregnant, she's going to go into our freezer.  I hate to be so harsh, but we just can't have an animal unable to calve or give milk continue to just eat grass.  Elsie, you're on the clock!

LuLu, on the other hand is a little skinny (I don't have a current photo of her), but she's been in milk for over a year and a half.  It's about time to dry her up and allow her to build up again.  We put her together with Nicky when she came in heat and we'll see if she comes back in heat.  It sure would be nice to have 3 spring calves!

Grass Farmer

I've been told for a long time that if you're intending to raise cattle, or goats, or chickens, like we are, you'd better consider yourself a grass farmer first.  For grass is the one thing that you must grow in order to have healthy livestock roaming on your pasture.  While it might seem like an easy thing, sometimes it's not.  Our soil pH is low and this means that a lot of the fertility in the soil is locked up, unusable to the grass.  I really need to lime.

Sometimes you don't get the rainfall that you need.  Last year we got very little rainfall and the grass was virtually non-existent.  Sometimes you get too much.  The photo below shows a view of the pasture.  You can see the four boxes of bees and a dead willow tree that I need to fell before it falls over the fence.

You can also see the grass in various stages of growth.  The pasture is made up of a bermuda and bahai mix.  Much of the grass has matured and has seed heads on it.  The cows aren't fired up about eating that and it doesn't have the nutritional load that lush spring grass packs.  But they'll eventually eat it.

The grass, looking back the other direction, is thick.  It has grown up also because it's gotten real hot.  Instead of eating grass all day, the cows lay up in the shade all day and only go out to graze in the late afternoon/night.  As you walk through the tall grass, mosquitoes, horse flies and deer flies hover around giving us and the livestock fits.

There's more than bermuda and bahia grass out there and I've always got my head on a swivel.  I don't want invasive weed species to invade.  This afternoon I looked around and saw some of this coming up.  We always called it bitterweed.  Supposedly, if your cows get into this and eat it, it makes their milk taste bitter.  For that reason, I don't want tot let it get a foothold.

I promptly pull this up by the roots, making several passes to ensure I don't see any more.

I'm okay with different grasses and even weeds growing out in the pasture.  It lets the animals free-range and eat what they like, but I'll always be on the lookout for those species of weeds that I don't want on the homestead.

A Rotation Through the Yard

It's that time of year.  Spring doesn't last very long in the south.  We enjoy it before summer hits.  Trees are budding out and, after a season of dormancy, a lot of weeds are coming up in the yard.  Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that "a weed is a plant whose virtues have never been discovered.  Our yard is primarily St. Augustine with a smattering of Bahia and Bermuda grass.  Right now, we're seeing a lot of White Dutch clover.  It's a lush beautiful plant and we see the honeybees flying to flower after flower.

When the White Dutch clover grows in patches in the yard, many people fire up their lawnmowers after a season of dormancy.  Not us.  It's time to get out the solar powered electric fence and portable step-in poles and reel of wire rope and put up temporary fencing in the yard.  We'll run the cows in the yard instead of the lawnmower and let them clean up all the weeds.

Here is LuLu excited about filling her belly with fresh grass.  In this instance, we can see what's on her menu.  In the foreground you can see that the first course is wild geranium, I think the Carolina geranium, to be specific.  

Here are all three cows, heads down, doing their best to obliterate the overgrowth of weeds.  I wish that I had taken an "after" photo to show you the before and after comparison.  The cows really did a good job knocking all this grass down.  To the right, you can see that I have a swarm trap up on top of a ladder.  I'll be baiting it probably tomorrow to try to catch a swarm.

Since I took this photo, I've moved the temporary fence and the cows to two additional areas in the yard.  By the time I cycle them back to this location in the yard, it will be grown all back up again.  Last year, due to the cows AND the drought, I only mowed the yard two times the entire year.  I'm hoping that if/when I need it this year, I'll be able to crank the lawnmower.  If not, the cows and goats are up to the task, I'm certain.

Fall At Last

September 23 marked the first day of Fall, but as that day came and went, it sure didn't feel like Fall.  It didn't feel like Fall two weeks after that date.  But on October 7th, we woke up to a north breeze blowing.  You can see the little garden flag by the live oak tree whipping in the wind. This morning, we had a low temperature of 58 and as far out as I can see in the forecast, I see no more 90 degree weather.  Hallelujah!

The heat was stifling this summer, but more than that, the drought really took its toll on us and the animals as well.  This drought decimated the grass in the yard.  It is starting to come back now after the 1 1/4 inch rainfall we were beneficiaries of last week.  I fear, though, that we lost two azaleas, two magnolia trees, and most of the monkey grass in the landscaping.  The lack of rainfall also meant that there's no grass in the pasture.  We've had to resort to feeding hay WAYYYY earlier than we normally do.  The condition of the cows and goats is poor going into the winter compared to other years. 

But Fall is here.  We can rejoice in that.  The live oak trees have produced a bumper crop of acorns and they are falling all over the ground.

This afternoon I watched two fox squirrels jump from tree to tree, with their bushy tails flashing in the wind.  They're no-doubt fat on this diet of acorns.  Squirrel season opened Oct 7th and runs through Feb 29th.  There's a daily bag limit of 8.  I think I could sit in the front yard with my 12 gauge and thin out the population.  I'll put some in the freezer for sure.

Because the grass is non-existent in the pasture, I've been stringing up the temporary electric fencing powered by the solar charger and rotating the cows through the yard again.  The crazy thing is, I only mowed the yard (by machine) two times this year!  That's good on the gas bill, but I'll need to crank it and run it.  Pretty soon the pecan trees will drop their leaves and it will be time to pick up pecans.

Now that it has rained, I've been working hard to get the Fall garden planted.  I'll show the progress in a future posting.  October 1 marks the date that you can plant garlic in our zone.  I ordered some and it came in the mail.

I opened the bag.  We're hoping to have a good crop.  I had given up on garlic as the past several times we planted it, we had large harvests, but it was hot and humid and the garlic wouldn't cure.  It all got soft and rotted - even though we had it on racks drying by a fan.  This year I decided we'd give it another shot.

I broke the cloves up into individual pieces.

In the garden, I pulled back the wood chip mulch away, exposing the soil and then gently worked the soil with a garden hoe.  It worked up nicely.  I used a planting knife to dig 2" holes and planted the garlic (root side down) in the hole.  I spaced them 4-6 inches apart and watered them in.  When they sprout, I'll mulch around them.

Fall is nice time of year.  The mosquitoes are still pretty bad, but the mosquito plane was flying tonight.  Hopefully, that will diminish the population.  Looking forward to cooler temps!

Farewell to August

We're wrapping up August with a bow and saying so long.  What a long, hot, dry 31 days?!  We're glad to be putting this one in our rear view mirror.  My son, Russ, was over visiting today and when we passed by the rain gauge mounted on a post in the garden, he remarked, "That's a lonely rain gauge, right there!"  He's right!  It has seed not precipitation in a very long time.

How long, you ask?  Well, let's look at the matrix that we chart daily rainfall.  It has been 47 days since we've had over an inch of rain.  We've had NO rain in the last 41 days.

We have 10 years of detailed rainfall records.  Normally, in a year we average 65.9 inches of rain.  Through August, we have usually had 49.14 inches of rain.  This year we are only at 29.8 inches.  That's about 20 inches short!  Normally, in August we get 9.08 inches of rain.  This year 0.0 inches.  The grass and landscaping is dying.  

The grass looks like it normally does after a heavy frost.  We turned the water sprinkler on and the grass greened up under the oak trees.  Today, we put the electric fence up and let the cows eat the new growth.  They were happy.

There is good news, however.  As I look at the forecast, we have a 37% chance of rain on Sunday, a 53% chance on Saturday, and a 55% chance of rain on Monday.  Those are the best chances we've seen in over a month.

The other good news is this.  LuLu and little Nicky are doing well.  I have had the water sprinkler going in her pasture.  The grass is green and growing.  That's helped her.  She is not back to normal.  The heat has her stressed and I spray her with water daily to cool her down.  But she is getting better.  We thought we might lose her for a while.  Nicky is growing and he kicks his legs in the air and runs around the pasture with energy!

We welcome September.  A month that promises better chances of rain and hopefully cooler temps.

Moving Out on the Grass Three Days Later

I wasn't prepared for the chicks the day they came in.  I had my dates mixed up.  Normally, we'd have the brooder all set up and it would be a quick transition from the shipping box to the brooder.  Needless to say, that didn't happen.  Tricia had to pick them up, water each one, go to the barn, get the brooder, set it up, get out the heat lamp, pour feed for them, and unload them into the brooder.  The wife was not too happy with me!

One of the things we like to do is to get the birds out on grass as quickly as possible.  We find they are just more healthy and natural when they are out on the ground versus being inside the garage.  On the grass, in addition to eating feed, they forage for bugs and worms and eat clover and grass.  It's good for them.

Here is a glamour shot of one of the chicks.  Cute, but they don't stay cute for long.  This guy is about to transform.  You can see a white feather about to come out on his wing.  Pretty soon, he won't have any yellow fuzz.

Moving the birds out on grass is easier said than done.  We have a nice chicken tractor, but I had to get it and push it all the way to the house.  Then we needed to fit it out for the winter.  Chicks are susceptible to the cold and the rain.  We need to shield them from that, so we began affixing tarpaulins to the chicken tractor.

Once done, we have a tractor that is protected on the inside from cold wind and rain.  Those two weather events are chick killers, for sure.  We have one side not permanently attached so that on nice days we can roll up the tarp and let the chicks enjoy sunshine and clear skies.

We set up the brooder inside the chicken tractor and ran the extension cord and set up the heat lamps.  We moved the water and the feed inside.  Now, we are all ready to go.  Except, we need the birds!

We picked them up out of the garage and put them in a wagon for transport out to their new home.  I think they enjoyed the ride.

We put them down on the ground and they immediately began running around pecking at the grass - just what chickens are supposed to do.  As the birds grow, we'll extend the size of the brooder to give them more room.  In a couple weeks, we'll remove the brooder completely.

Enough on the chicks this week.  We'll have another progress report next week.

Firing Up the Lawnmowers

It is springtime in South Louisiana!  Everything except for the pecan trees are putting on leaves.  Winter grass is growing in the yard, along with white dutch clover, and all sorts of weeds.  Except, we really don't consider them weeds.  The cows don't at least.  Before I crank up our gas-powered lawn mower, I put our "grass powered lawn mowers in the yard!  I have a Gallagher solar fence charger, some poly wire on a reel and some temporary step-in posts.  I'll make several paddocks in our yard and cycle the cows through.  They are so happy!  You ought to see them go.  Heads down, munching grass.

You can hardly see the strand of electrified fencing, but it is there, and they respect it.  Neighbors have stopped to tell us that the cows were out.  Others have given us compliments on our lawn mowers.

They are pretty efficient at their jobs.  By the time they are finished, they've snipped the grass down to the ground.  Then I'll make another paddock adjacent to this one and move them a little farther until they've eaten all the grass in the yard.

Once done, this is all that remains, only live oak leaves litter the ground.  But wait, that will not be wasted.  It definitely won't be bagged up and thrown away.  No sir.

When I move the cows to the next paddock, then I will mow the section of land that the cows were just on and rake up the finely chopped leaves and grass.  I have many uses for this.  Just below you can see where I've mulched all around the potato plants with the chopped leaves.  As the potatoes grow, I'll work in more mulch.  This organic matter will increase fertility, make a great environment for earthworms, and eventually turn into soil.

Everything works together: grass, leaves, cows, and the people living on the land.  It is a beautiful system.

And Then There Were Two...

Now that Aussie and Clarabull are gone, that leaves only two cows left on our homestead farm - Rosie and Clarabelle.  For the past couple of years we've have five Jersey cows on our little pasture.  To be honest, that was a strain - a strain on us and a strain on the land.  By employing rotational grazing you can increase the number of head of livestock on a pasture, but we have learned that five animals is too much, especially when that pasture is also shared by a flock of goats and chickens.

Feeding time now is less of a 'rodeo,' trying to separate animals all trying to eat at once.  It is just the two old faithful milk cows, still bossy, but overall gentle and easy-going.

Both Rosie and Clarabelle should be bred.  We haven't had them palpated yet, but we're pretty sure that they'll both be dropping calves next year.  With fewer animals on the pasture, the carrying capacity will greatly improve, leaving more green grass for all.  Additionally, the animals won't eat the grass down as far to the ground.  This will reduce the parasite load and eliminate or greatly reduce the need for worming.  The pasture will be healthier and, as a result, the cows will be overall better conditioned and healthier.

Since November when we started feeding hay, the five cows and four goats were consuming a round bale of hay anywhere between 4 - 6 days.  Now, the bales of hay will last longer!  We buy a minimal amount of feed (just sweet feed - we buy no dairy ration when the cows are dry), but our feed bill will go down.  Overall, things will be more manageable, and for that, we are happy.

Pasture management is key.  We may like to think that we are raising animals, but what we really are, when you think about it, is grass farmers.  For the health of the pasture is what the health of the cattle is dependent upon.  This upcoming year, with fewer cows on the pasture, I want to aim to improve the health of the soil of the pasture so that we can grow better grass and sustain our animals.  I have got to figure a way to lime the soil.  

That'll be on the list for 2021.  I wonder how many other people have "Lime the pasture soil" as a New Year's Resolution?  Crazy, I know.

We Set a Record This Year

June 12, 2020.  I cranked up the lawnmower for the first time this season.  That is the latest that we've ever waited.  It required jumper cables to get the thing started, but I had treated the tank with fuel stabilizer over the off-season and in no time, it fired right up.  Most of our neighbors have been mowing for months, but we have been letting the cows mow.  It is quieter, peaceful and pastoral.  Instead of driving a lawnmower, we sit in the shade and have coffee and watch our lawnmowers work.

We have a solar-powered charger with temporary fencing on a reel that we use to separate the yard into paddocks that we rotate the cows through.  This postpones actually having to mow, and this year we made it all the way until June 12th to have to mow.  No, even after the cows eat, it doesn't have the nice manicured look.  Additionally, the cows leave their "calling cards" that you must dodge as you are walking across the yard, but all in all, the benefits to me are enormous.  Of course, if we lived where there was an HOA, we would have been kicked out of the neighborhood long ago.  The cows are happy that I kept my mower in the garage for so long.  They eat to their heart's content and then Rosie sits down and chews her cud in the shade underneath the pecan tree.

Clarabelle, however, keeps on eating.  She'll graze until it's time to put her back in the fenced in pasture.  I trust the solar-powered fence, but not enough to leave them in all night or if we leave the house during the day.  One time we weren't paying attention and someone driving by saw our cows out and walking down the road.  The neighbors knocked on our door and told us, and we had to run down the road and catch the escapees.

In this last paddock or two under the pecan trees, Tricia would like me to never mow and allow it to become permanent pasture.  I'm mulling that over.  It would require new fencing.  The photo below was right when we put the cows in.  We left the cows in here all Saturday and Sunday.  They really cleaned it up nicely when they were done.  I don't have an "after" photo.  Can you spot Tricia watching the cows eat?

Here she is!  She's swinging right by the "hot" wire.  The blue bucket in the background is the water tub we drag from paddock to paddock as the cows eat.  This Saturday we sat in the grass behind the swing and enjoyed the view and the unseasonably low humidity.

So we set a record this year - June 12th for the first mowing date.  Now, I need to see if I can parlay that saved time into productive time to get some things knocked off my to do list AND some time to relax!

We Are Gonna Hit Our Goal

Each year we do the same old thing.  We are creatures of habit.  One of the things we do is try to see how long we can go before cranking up the lawn mower.  We've posted many times about our routine to avoid mowing.  It is not really that I dislike mowing - that would be weed-eating.  Man, I hate weed-eating.  I guess it is just a challenge to see how long we can go without mowing.

This year, I set the goal at May 1st.  For a couple of months now, I routinely hear the neighbors cranking up their mowers.  Mine is still in the garage, covered by a tarp.  I know I'll have to charge the battery to make the engine turn over.  Our secret.  The cows and a solar powered Gallagher Fence Charger with temporary poly wire and step-in posts set up in the yard.

Each day I move the paddock once section over in the yard.  After a week, the cows have rotated through the entire yard, and we start over again.  This, while keeping the yard trimmed, also helps the grazing pressure in the pasture down until the grass really comes in strong.

Cows grazing in the back yard

Now, the goats - they are not allowed in the backyard.  They are escape artists.  They don't respect the fence and would be eating Tricia's flowers down to the dirt before you could say, "Doggone goat!"  We leave them in the main pasture outside of the yard.  We do still have to protect certain plants.  As you can see in the photo below, I have our Anniversary Oak protected behind the electric fence.  The cows would love to eat those leaves.

The cows edge around everything.  While they don't exactly manicure the yard like a golf course, it does look neat and tidy when they are done.  They contentedly eat grass all day.  We do have water for them in a big tub that we put in a wagon and will pull it around so they have fresh, clean water.

Rosie eating in the backyard

Cows eating grass in the yard is kind of like a redneck Roomba.  You know, that robot vacuum cleaner that vacuums your house while you watch TV?  Cows do that too.  They walk around and scarf down every tall blade of grass.  Then they'll do it again.

Clarabelle did not get invited to the BBQ

Sometime next week or this weekend I'll likely fire up the lawnmower.  The cows won't like the competition, but once the grass in the pasture can fully sustain them, I'll begin using the mower powered by an internal combustion engine.  I will miss doing other things while the lawn was being mowed by the cows.

There are positives about mowing the yard with a mower.  Mechanical lawn mowers don't leave this all over the yard!:

After the cows mow, you gotta watch your step...