From the Pastures

Seems like our pasture went from a dormant brown to lush green overnight. The spring rain was timed perfectly to spark the growth. The sheep took off running through the tall grass as soon as I opened the gate.

Hello from Graze-N-Grow. This past month has seen, as usual, a frenzy of farm activity with most farmers finished or nearly finished planting. But not here at home. Our organic corn and beans are still in the bag.

Well, it’s shearing time and this year has been the hardest one I’ve ever had. When my regular shearer retired two years ago, he gave me a list of names of five guys that sheared.

Nice to see the pasture turning green. We recently returned from northern Georgia, where they have already planted sweet corn. They were also ready to cut the first crop of hay. Strawberries were ready for picking, which my granddaughter really enjoyed.

I started to graze the cereal rye that is in the field that will be planted into beans this year on April 15. We had a lot of planters planting on April 13 and 14 and I was wondering if I should be planting beans or grazing the cover crop.

Hello from Graze-N-Grow. The beautiful weather the second week in April saw a lot of field activity, not only planting and working ground for planting, but harvesting all the debris from the three storms preceding.

Surprise, winter is not over. Tonight as I write, the snow is coming down hard and blowing a lot. Looks like we have 3 inches already and it is supposed to snow all night. I may be working from home tomorrow. The grandkids are hoping for no school.

Hello from Graze-N-Grow. It was a lot warmer March 1 getting the clover frost seeded this year, but that weather has disappeared lately.

This year, I used a spreader truck instead of an airplane to apply the nitrogen and red clover seed over my dry wheat ground. The next day, I got a 2-inch rain, so I hope it didn’t wash the seed and fertilizer too far.

Happy National Lamb Month. February has been designated as a time to celebrate all things sheep related. I am not sure why February was chosen. Maybe it is an encouragement to all the shepherds spending long nights in the barn with lambing.

Hello from Graze-N-Grow. It sure is great to see the sun stay up until almost 6 p.m. now and I like even more getting an early start with daylight. I feel a case of spring fever coming on.

Well, with this mild winter weather and missing the two rain events that have been forecasted for my area, it has been pretty uneventful. The flock is eating unrolled hay and silage bales on the ground.

Wouldn’t you know after all these years of January lambing we switch to an April drop and we enjoy the mildest January, so far, I can remember. Not complaining, though, since it is nice chore weather, especially when ground turns to winter’s concrete.

This year’s meetings start Jan. 26-27 with the Driftless Region Beef Conference and then Feb. 2-4 with the Grassworks Grazing Conference at the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin.

I reviewed my article from one year ago and read that I started to graze my eight-way annual cover crop field in the middle of November and it lasted until Feb. 1. This year I’ll be done grazing the annual field by mid-December — what one year and a slow lack of rainfall can do.