Oogie,
I fully agree with Dick Conklin.... I wouldn't hesitate to clip excess
growth in order to get the pasture "under control". I suppose if the grass
is very tall & thick & you are using a sickle-bar mower, there may be some
concern about "smothering" the regrowth. But if using a rotary "bush hog"
type of mower, the clippings should be shredded fine enough for regrowth to
come through just fine. In fact, it may even enhance regrowth if you're a
bit short on moisture by providing a mulching effect. Just my 2 cents
worth.
Best wishes,
Bruce Gerloff
Circle G Grassfed Beef
P.O. Box 105
Marengo, IL , USA 60152
----- Original Message -----
From: "Oogie McGuire" <oogiem@desertweyr.com>
To: <graze-l@taranaki.ac.nz>
Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2003 8:27 PM
Subject: [Graze-l] New Grazier, Want ideas for multispecies grazing of
excess grassin good years
> Hello,
>
> I'm new to this forum and am hoping to brainstorm some ideas.
>
> I am in Colorado, with mixed grass legume pastures all irrigated. We
> have had a severe drought, but this year we have enough water that my
> pasture is getting way ahead of my sheep. I graze about 70 ewes under
> an old apple orchard on about 7.5 acres. My last paddock was 150 ft
> square and 65 sheep were on it for a week and still didn't eat
> everything. I have 7 sheep plus lambs on about 3/4 of an acre and
> the grass is so high the sheep can't be seen. I really need to move
> them every 3-4 days to keep my forages in good shape. My next paddock
> will be 150 ft by 60 ft to see if I can get it small enough so they
> eat things down appropriately in the time I need them too.
>
> Most MIG info suggests adding more animals to deal with excess
> forage, but we are in a federal scrapie program , in year 4 with a
> closed flock, so adding sheep or goats is not possible. Cattle are
> right out, they destroy the irrigation ditches, we tried that and it
> was a complete and utter disaster. Geese might be an option, but we
> have no way to get them processed into meat locally once their
> grazing time is done. I'm working on that but for now I could pasture
> the geese but then have a bunch of geese with no way to get them
> butchered easily. Since I'd need 80-100 geese to harvest the excess
> grass in a year like this one, that's way more than I can reasonably
> do by hand. However, I am ordering 16 geese to see of they would work
> and trying to locate a processor for them so that might be a long
> term solution.
>
> Pastured pigs are also a possibility, but finding pig genetics that
> adapt to outside pasture situations is difficult and never having had
> pigs I am really unsure of my ability to use them in this situation.
> Stories I hear from people doing it are very mixed.
>
> I can't easily make hay in my extra paddocks in a year like this one
> where I have more grass than I can use. The reason is my "paddocks"
> are less than an acre so I need to be able to do nearly hand
> processing of hay. That's where a small set of equipment would be
> great, needs to be able to get in and say cut and bale a 150 ft x 150
> ft patch. Sure it won't make much hay, but the goal is to get some
> hay (I'd also consider haylage) and keep the pastures in a good
> vegetative state for best animal performance. We have to buy in all
> our hay, so even a small amount of production , if it stays here, is
> a good thing.
>
> It's too early in the season to consider stockpiling forages to
> extend my grazing.
>
> Info avail here from the extension service says that just plain
> mowing and leaving the clippings on as mulch will hurt pasture
> performance so I haven't considered that but maybe I should.
>
> I'm trying to brainstorm possible solutions and getting stymied. What
> do other people do or is the small size of my area a unique problem?
>
> BTW after the last few years it's nice to have the problem of too
> much grass, last year I got a whole 2 months grazing out of 10 acres
> and we had to start winter hay feeding in June!
> --
> Oogie McGuire - oogiem@desertweyr.com
> Weyr Associates - Multimedia and Web Authoring Services & Consulting
> Desert Weyr - CMK Arabian horses and Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
> http://www.desertweyr.com/
> Paonia, CO USA
>
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