At 08:25 PM 3/25/04 -0800, you wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Misty Ridge Farm" <mrfarm@mwt.net>
>To: <graze-l@witt.ac.nz>
>Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 12:57 PM
>Subject: RE: [Graze-l] When to start?
>
>
> > Jim Cropper wrote:
> > > Where is grazing not permited? Why?
> >
> > I think I have talked about this before, but as the farms get larger, they
> > reach a point that it is no longer possible to graze due to practical
> > limitations. From what others have said in past years, such as Micheal
> > Murphy, well known grazing dairyman from Ireland, is that 400 cows or so
> > seems to be around that limit. The 1,000 cow farms, of which we have now
> > have one here in Vernon County, are restricted on what they can do in
>order
>
>
>I have to disagree, we currently graze 250 jerseys and if we had enough
>pasture and was located around the barn we could easily graze 1000 or 1500.
>split up in to 4-5 strings. the whole key is to have your barn in the
>middle of the pasture, so to limit the distance the cows walk.
>
>
>Mike Holmgren
>
>Holmgren Dairy
>
>Myrtle Point OR
>REPLY: Mike,
I agree with you. It is a matter of having the farmstead or at least the
milking parlor set up so that pastures can be readily accessed from where
the cows are milked. Ideally, it would be nice to have the farmstead or
milk parlor central to the pastures, but it is not required. In western WI
and much of the eastern US that is hilly and cut up with ravines,
"hollers", and valleys, it is a challenge to layout paddocks but not
impossible. I have been on some grazing dairies that ran big herds and as
you say they had strings rather than trying to graze all the cows
together. Some of this was due to just the logistics of having farmland
that were separated from each other by neighboring farms or whatever. One
farm had 500 head all in one herd though so it is mostly a matter of having
an efficient milking parlor setup and wide, well thought-out laneways and
sufficient pasture acres to rotate through so you have enough grass by the
time you get back to the first few paddocks in the grazing rotation. The
efficient milking parlor setup is necessary whether the herd is confined or
on pasture so there is no difference which way you go there. The other
half is deciding what you would rather do the most - ride a tractor all day
to harvest stuff the cow could have done herself most of the year, or spend
some time with the gals as you shift them about on the pastures. I get
tired of the first, but relate well with cows and grass and find them
always interesting. With that said, I wonder why I am sitting here doing this.
Jim Cropper
James B. Cropper
Forage Management Specialist
Pasture Systems & Watershed Management Research Unit
Curtin Road
University Park, PA 16802-3702
814-863-0942
814-863-0935 FAX
jbc9@psu.edu
