Steve,
I think your definition of rotational grazing is a bit restricted. Even
two rotations are better than one. And three or four or five that much
better. We have about 30 paddocks, although some can be made larger or
smaller as needed. We also have different groups, dairy heifers in a
breeding group, young heifer group, larger group of steers and misc
heifers, etc. So it is not unusual to have a few paddocks that are
rotated for that group. We are a small farm with only about 100 head
during the summer grazing period since we primarily contract graze dairy
heifers with some direct marketing of jersey beef steers.
The F&G Council seems to be very representative of farmers and ranchers
throughout the U.S. We have an affiliate here in Wisconsin.
The Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative is alive and well and has many
stakeholder groups including the main ones such as NCBA and American
Farm Bureau Federation, Soil and Water Conservation Society, National
Farmers Union, with representitives from the sheep and dairy industry too.
If you support the democratic process, there are a lot of voices that
need to be heard, not just taken over by one special interest group of
grazing, but all farmers and ranchers. We all are special interests one
way or another. It is pretty neat to see such partnerships in place and
sustaining themselves.
My biggest disappointment is that except for some selected watersheds,
there is not much happening with the Conservation Security Program since
money has been diverted for other things such as payments to farmers in
severely impacted areas.
Grazing, like any other farm and ranch practice, needs to be practical
for those same farmers and ranchers. If they don't support it, then it
is difficult to ram it down their throats. If it really is a good
practice, and I am sure most of us on this list think that it is, then
it will be adopted over time by those who want to do it. While not all
that common here in our area, due to dairy farming being the main
agricultural activity, it can work for small farms, perhaps under a few
hundred cows. When you get to the larger size farms, it becomes
increasingly difficult due to nutrient management issues.
One of the larger farms in our county milked a few hundred cows and was
the major grazing farm, but when they decided they wanted improved
lifestyle changes and went to 1,000 cows, they could no longer meet the
nutrient management requirements and had to have a tighter closed loop
on their nutrients.
For these larger farms, and within limits for smaller ones, we can
expect even more increase in control of nutrients and within a few
decades, required composting and perhaps energy production.
In the meantime, we see more of a push for grazing (finally) in our
county as the concepts filter down to the local level. But most of those
who attend pasture walks tend to be small holders and don't really make
up a large percentage of the agriculture in our area.
Sincerely,
Rick Williams
Viroqua, WI
Steve Lucas wrote:
>
> Like FW, I am grieved that we let the promises of the grazing
> revolution come to nought. We had the momentum, but we needed
> more than a voice crying in the wilderness, or even two or three
> voices. Forage and Grassland Councils were hijacked by special
> interest groups. USDA/NRCS had a grazing lands initiative that
> appears to have turned into an entitlement program. It is always
> easier to try to spend your way out of a problem than it is to
> manage your way out of a problem. It is always easier to tell
> people what they want to hear than to tell them the truth. I
> became so frustrated at "agency experts" presenting programs
that
> called a four or five paddock rotations "rotational grazing"
> simply to get program sign-up that I started writing a research
> paper to dispute the idea. It is siting on my hard drive
> unfinished, and I see little benefit to pulling it back up and
> spending three or four hours to get it done. It has lost it's
> relevance.
>
> Yet, as long as I am here in Virginia raising cattle we will
> manage the grazing.
>
> On to another subject: Richard wrote:
>
>
>
> Kindest Regards
>
> Steve
> Steve Lucas
> Mountain View Farm
> Louisa, Virginia
> www.ibiblio.org/farming-connection/ruralwri/lucas/home.htm
> <http://
www.ibiblio.org/farming-connection/ruralwri/lucas/home.htm>
>
