Time To Start Mowing the Yard Again

The birds are chirping.  Flowers are blooming.  Pollen is in the air.  The live oak trees are shedding their leaves and quickly replacing with new growth.  Spring has arrived.  I would say that grass is growing, but it is not really grass.  Not yet.  First weeds grow in the yard.  A weed in this case is anything but St. Augustine grass.  Lots of people buy Weed and Feed which will kill the weeds in your yard while providing food for your real grass.  Those weeds, however, have a purpose.  The cows will absolutely devour them.

Before I mow, I'll let the cows mow the grass.  We do this each and every year like clockwork.  I have a Gallagher Solar Fence charger and a reel full of wire rope.  It carries a charge and has gained the respect of the cows.  I simply set it up in the yard with step in posts and bring the cows from the pasture and into the yard.  They look forward to this each year, believe it or not.

Harnessing the Power of the Sun

Clarabelle has found a tall patch of weeds growing near the air conditioning units.  She'll mow that all down in short order.  You can see the strand of electric fencing to the right of her head.  The cows, while certainly respecting the "pop" they get if they touch the electric fence, have figured out just how far they can go without getting popped.  You'll see them craning their necks way under the strand of fencing to get to some fresh grass.  Pay particular attention to the grass in the photo below as this is the "before" shot.

Here you can see Luna running to a patch of White Dutch Clover.  That is the cows' favorite.  They'll eat all of that first and then eat the other stuff.  White Dutch Clover is like Alaskan King Crab Legs at a buffet line.

This, my friends, is the "after" shot.  The cows have really cleaned up the yard!  They mowed down the tall grass.

I took this picture so you can see the difference between where the cows ate versus where I had the yard cordoned off by the electric fence.  If you look at the bottom left of the picture and run a diagonal line to the top right, you can trace out where the cows grazed.  I had to block them from the fruit trees as I've learned from previous years that they'll eat the leaves and break the branches.

I'd like to be able to tell you that putting the cows in the yard to mow the grass was positive since they produce no emissions.  That, however, would be a lie!

Foul emissions - You must be careful in the back yard when walking.  It is like a mine field.

Once the backyard was done, I moved the fencing to the front yard and then moved the cows to the front to mow.  They especially like eating right near the road in the front as that is where most of the clover grows.

I watched them eat while sitting on the front porch.  As cars would pass, they would slow down and stare, at first not seeing the strand of electric fencing.  They would think the cows were out!  Once I have let the cows cycle through the back yard, the front yard and the side yard, I get on my mechanical mower to cut down the grass the cows didn't eat and to mulch up the leaves that have fallen. 

The First Lawn Mowing of 2017

On March 4th it warmed up to 80 degrees.  Like clockwork I heard the neighbors, one by one, cranking up their lawnmowers and then weedeaters to get their lawns looking nice.  It takes a little work to get the winter grass and clover cut back.  Not to mention the leaves.  The live oaks are dropping the old growth leaves while putting on new leaves and tassels.

Pulling the lawnmowers out of the garage after the winter hibernation takes a little work.  Of course the tires must be aired up to the proper pressure level.  The changing temperatures always affects the air level in the tires.  I read that for every 10 degree Fahrenheit change in air temperature outside the tire, results in a 2% change in air pressure inside the tire, either up or down, depending on air temperature increase or decrease.

I'll clean the battery posts and connections with a wire brush after I loosen the connections to scrape away the corrosion.  I'll jump start 'Ol Betsy and run some Sea Foam fuel treatment through her until she purrs like a kitten.  Then she's ready to go.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First I "pre-mow."  I'm not going to just chop down all that white dutch clover growing in the yard without letting Daisy and Rosie eat it.  But first that takes some preparation by stringing up our solar charged portable electric fence.  During the off-season when the grass doesn't grow, I take down the cross-fencing paddocks in the pasture that I rotate the cows through.  Toward the end of the season I noticed that our old solar charger wasn't 'hot' enough.  The cows were going right through it without being shocked.

When I pulled it down, I had it shipped off to the manufacturer to see what the issue might be.  I learned, to my dismay, that it was more economical to buy a new solar fence charger than pay for the repairs needed to refurbish it.  The old fence charger had done its job over the years, but finally petered out.  I purchased a new one for a little over $154.  I sat it out in the yard and let it charge up for a while and then I strung the portable fence up, hammered in a ground rod, hooked up the wires, and went and got the cows.

Harnessing the Power of the Sun

Funny thing is, like Pavlov's salivating dogs, the sound of me unrolling the poly-wire rope on the reel, captured the cow's attention.  They remember that sound equates to fresh grass and they start lining up at the fence and mooing loudly.  One at a time I walked over, opened the gate and got the matriarch of our little herd, Daisy...

Followed closely by Rosie.  Poor Clarabelle, Luna, and Chuck have to stay in the pasture.  Daisy and Rosie are still in milk and we give them the best grass so that they'll produce the best milk for us.  If you notice both above and below, they both made a beeline for their favorite item on the salad bar - white dutch clover.  I left them in the side yard for about three hours and they manicured it nicely. Meanwhile, if you look below to the right of the live oak, you can see the John Deere lawn tractor warming up, ready for duty.

With the "pre-mowing" done, I put the cows back in the pasture, roll the poly-rope back on the reel, pull up the temporary step-in posts and get on the John Deere lawn tractor.  Nothing runs like a Deere - or our Jersey cows to white dutch clover.