Out To Pasture...

Out to pasture...

That phrase could mean a number of different things...but in this case, it means exactly what it says.

This week we put the cows out to pasture for the first time this spring, and they were thrilled!  I think they can actually smell spring in the air.  They can feel the warmer air, see more activity going on outside the barn windows, and maybe they even notice that we've put away our winter attire.  (except we did have to pull it out again for a few days.  Brrrr...)  Could they be that smart?  Well...

We put the cows out for a few hours here at home on Monday, and we put the heifers and dry cows at the other farm out this afternoon.  It looks inviting, doesn't it?

On a side note...the other farm is along a very busy road, which is being widened. The state workers who are doing the roadwork took down a big section of that nice white PVC fence that runs around the meadow.  They replaced it with temporary fencing, and we think they did a nice job.  However, there's something reassuring about a solid fence, when it comes to cows.  Hopefully they respect this temporary fence as much as they did the old one!  When the roadwork is done, the PVC fence will be replaced...

Anyway...Jim decided to section off the meadow for now.  The grass in the northern part of the meadow is higher than the rest of the meadow, so we made a temporary fence this morning.  I put in the fiberglass posts while he fed the heifers, and then he ran the wire....

The animals will have this large section to graze in for now, and after a while we'll give them the entire meadow...

They know something's up...

Here's just a short clip of them as Jim opens the wire to the barn yard...

We watched them for awhile to make sure that they knew where their boundaries were.  The temporary fence wasn't super visible, so we tied bright blue baler twine to each section so that it would catch their eye.  It's always good if one of them gets a little too close and gets shocked, just so they know it's a hot wire!  None of them did today though, and when we left they all seemed to be behaving.  There were a few that kicked up their heels and ran in circles, but for the most part they were too busy eating to be rambunctious...

If you click on the picture, I think you'll be able to see the bright blue twine that we tied to the wire...

What a life.  If I were a cow I'd think I was in heaven!
(Linking up a little late to Good Fences!)  Thanks TexWisGirl, for hosting!

Fall Grazing...

The cows have been getting a little antsy.

The nights have been too cold for them to go out...and the last couple of days were either rainy or muddy, so they stayed inside.

The grass in the waterway has also been growing.

Solution?

This morning Jim put in fence posts along the waterway and across the corner of one of the hay fields, and a rye grass field...

Here he's dragging the wire that is attached to the tractor up across the fields to the furthermost fence posts, under those far away trees...

My camera just snapped this picture for fun.  Three lonely round bales, along with about a half dozen corn stalks that were left by the chopper.  It was kind of him to not hit the bags as he went by!  :)

The cows were watching from the meadow, and they knew something was up...

I got closer, and I knew exactly who I'd see on the other side of the wire. #314 didn't take her eyes off of us the entire time we were working on the fence.  She just knew there was something greener on the other side...

I love watching the cows get so excited when they're left out into a new area to graze!  They kick up their heels and run like little kids!

( Please excuse the shaky video.  I wasn't doing a very good job of standing still!  It was also pretty windy, and there's a lot of noise in the back ground )

Standing guard at the top of the water way, just in case anyone gets unruly...

Meanwhile, Murphy and Snickers stole an ear of corn out of the truck and entertained themselves.  What is it about ears of corn that dogs find so appealing?

Grazing cows...

We just brought the cows back into the barn, and their bellies are full of grass.  They'll be contented tonight!

Cows in Heaven...

Jim put the cows out on the meadow last week, and they were delighted to be further out of the barn than the barnyard, to kick up their heels a bit more and to chew on the tasty young, green grass.

A few days ago, he fenced off a portion of the rye grass field behind the barn, and gave the cows a fresh field to chew down.  That electric fence is all that keeps them from the even larger field beyond, but they've learned to respect a hot wire.  Usually...

They go to the far end and put their heads down. Ahh...

As a "thank you", there was more milk in the tank this morning...maybe they think they're in cow heaven?!

Linking to Good Fences #7 again this week.

Ahhh...Rye Grass...

Yesterday, we put the cows out in the rye grass to graze for a little while.

Here they come!

Food!  We stood near the wires that fenced off their grazing area, just to make sure they didn't run through.  When they see green, they go a little crazy...

(yes, I know it's a weed...but isn't it pretty?)

Here's Helen...she's one of the cows on the header photo at the top of the blog...about five years older, but still going strong!

I stood there and waited...and waited...trying to get a picture of a cow lifting her head with a mouthful of grass, to no avail.  They were too quick for me, so this will have to suffice!  :)

Once they settled down, their heads didn't come up for a while...

I love this sound.  If you turn up the volume the whole way, you can hear her munching...

Pure contentment!  A lush field of rye grass...and beautiful, cool spring day...and several hours of lounging in the meadow, chewing their cud and making milk.

What else could they possibly want?

Linking up to RURALITY blog hop.

Contentment...

Remember this field?

That picture was taken on September 22nd.

Here's what it looks like today...

Jim seeded this rye grass with the intention of baling it next spring for the cows. Considering how fast it's grown in the past few weeks, however, he decided to graze the cows on it some this fall, to keep it from getting so high that it lodges (falls over and gets damaged) this winter. The grazing will keep it a bit shorter for now, but will still allow for good regrowth in the spring.

It's a twelve acre field, so it took lots of fence posts to create sections for the cows to graze. The field in the left half of the picture is the old Sudan grass field that the cows grazed on this summer.  Jim mowed it off one final time earlier this week.  The brighter green field to the right is the rye grass...

This morning we left the cows out to graze in the first section. We fed them some dry hay before we put them out, because Jim didn't want them to fill up on that rich grass alone.

They had to walk around behind the barn to find their way into this field. They're still trying to figure it out here...some of them got sidetracked and are eating on the barn hill...

Once they found the grass, however, all heads were down...

If you look closely, you can see Jim sitting on a dirt bike next to the corn crib.  He's ready to do damage control if  "someone" gets a little rowdy and breaks through a wire.  I was supposed to be on a dirt bike too, but couldn't manage to keep it running.  Oh well...luckily they behaved themselves...

After a little while, they had spread out the length of the field and got down to business...

Pure contentment.

Happy Cows...

Yesterday it was the heifers' turn to go out on the meadow at the other farm, and today it was finally time for the cows here at home!


This morning we went around the meadow fence to check for spots that needed repair.  Jim decided that we needed to redo the entire section along the road, as the wire was rusty and sagging in spots.  It ended up taking longer than expected, so we decided to let the cows out in the meadow while we were finishing up.  I went back up to the barn to let the cows out, and tried to capture a video as they headed out to pasture.  It's just a short clip because my camera wasn't cooperating with me this morning...

You can see their excitement!  These cows that you are watching, are mostly the young, first calf heifers, kicking up their heels.  The older cows went out first, a bit more calmly, but once these girls were released, they wasted no time!

Once they were in the meadow, they were relatively calm...they were too busy eating to care about much else.  There were a few "fights", where they pushed each other around, head to head, establishing their pecking order, but mostly their heads were down, munching away...

 
After we brought them back in around 3:00, I was in the barn cleaning up, and the atmosphere was almost an eerie quiet. Typically at that time, they're bawling for their late afternoon snack.  Today however, they were contentedly laying down, chewing their cud.


Green grass and a meadow to wander around in...what more could they want!

Heifers on Pasture...

Today was the day!  

This morning Jim finished tarping off the silo while I repaired a small section of fence around the meadow at the other farm.  Then it was time to open the wire and let the heifers, dry cows and the new bull into the meadow...

They were happy to be out in the meadow, finally, but not nearly as excited as I thought they would be.  Now when it comes to the cows here at home?  When we let them out in a day or so, they will literally kick up their heels for joy! 

I don't think any of them lifted their heads for very long...

 Don't they look happy?!

It's Almost Time...

...to let the heifers and dry cows out on the meadow at the other farm!

Look at this luscious looking grass...

This morning, Jim walked around the meadow fence at the other farm, checking to see that it is secure and ready to contain twenty to thirty rambunctious animals.  He pounded in a few fence posts around the pond and repaired a few other spots...
 

Did you notice he's back in his coveralls and knit hat?  It felt like true March weather out there today!  The wind blew hard, and it was cold!  We were glad that the warm clothes hadn't made it to the basement yet...the shorts and T-shirts might have to wait until next week!

In the mean time, the ducks enjoyed the solitude...at least until we came around...

Once the animals are left out onto the meadow, they will spend most of their time grazing, and won't be hungry for much else.  So this evening Jim tarped off the silo, to preserve the corn silage over there until we're ready to start feeding it again.

They will be so excited!  I'm hoping to take my camera over when we let them into the meadow tomorrow...it's that much fun to watch!

Fall Grazing...

Instead of trying to bale and wrap a sixth cutting of hay off our alfalfa fields here at home, Jim decided to graze the cows on them instead.

So, this morning, as the cows watched, (they knew something was up!) we fenced off the contour strip...

We gathered our fencing supplies...fiberglass fence posts...a hammer...and very important gloves (those fiberglass posts leave tiny, painful splinters in your hands)...

Pounding in a corner post...

Putting up the wire...

This 1958 Allis Chalmers D-17 has been around the farm since Jim's grandfather farmed.  Check out the handy "wire wheel"!  The tractor used to have a belt-drive, needed to run some types of farm equipment.  When the belt-drive was no longer needed, Jim's dad turned it into a handy "wire wheel".   Unwrap the wire when you're putting up a fence...wrap it back up again when you're finished...

We like to use this flexible but strong "Poly-wire" when putting up temporary fencing.  It's made of fiber and very thin metal, woven together...

Finally...Jim let the cows out of the meadow, and they meandered up the waterway to the alfalfa field...

That little speck in the alfalfa field is Jim...guarding the division wire that we put up.  The cows don't get the entire field at once...we'll move that wire every day to give them a new section.  That green field in the foreground is the barley that Jim planted about ten days ago.  It's really greening up nicely...

Munching away happily...

The cows were so happy to be grazing this morning!   We'll soon bring them inside again, where they can just lay down and make some milk! 

I don't think that's asking too much!

Cows + Rye = ....

Last week  I posted some pictures of the cows going out onto the rye field for the first time this spring.  They were beside themselves with excitement...yes cows can get excited!  They enjoyed several hours of grazing before we brought them back into the barn.

Then the rain came...

The ground became too soft to let them out.  Their hooves would have made horrible tracks in the meadow and rye field, destroying the tender new growth.  So...they were forced to be patient.

This is what they have to look forward to when it dries off...



Jim seeded this field of rye in the fall with two things in mind.  First of all it's a cover crop; it helps to prevent erosion and puts valuable nutrients back into the soil.  Second, we can graze the cows on it this spring until it's time to plant corn.  At that time, the corn will be no-tilled into the ground.

For now, he will section the field off into small areas where the cows will graze on a rotating basis.  I guarantee you...there will be no complaining from them on this arrangement!

Neither will there be complaints from the farmers!  After two short days of grazing on the rye, the volume of milk in the tank had increased by an average of four pounds per cow, per day!

COWS + RYE = MILK  !!

Loving it...

I'm so thankful that we live in an area where we notice the change of seasons!

I'm generally a fair weather fan...I like spring when it gets warm, and fall when it cools down...

And the cows love it too...

They enjoy being outside most of the day this time of year.  In the summer, they line up to come in after a short amount of time...they know we'll feed them and turn on the fans!  (are they spoiled or what?!)

This fall, Jim fenced off about half the farm, and allows the cows to graze the rye fields, the alfalfa fields, and even to glean the corn fields...  They would stay out there all day if we'd let them!

(Last week one day, he left the cows in the meadow, but not out into the grazing area...they stood at the wire, looking longingly at the other side of the fence and bawled...for TWO HOURS!  Seriously!)

Don't they look content?

. 
This is Belle...

She's the oldest cow in the barn ...the matriarch...the leader of the pack...at the ripe old age of 11...

Can you tell she's happy?

She's FAT from all that grazing...and she's loving it!