Cattle, FARM, Grass & Forages, Total Grazing-Real Wealth Ranching

Let’s Talk “Total Grazing”

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As i listen to podcasts and videos of various producers, hosts, and grazing gurus, i’ve found that there is a misunderstanding of the term “total grazing” as to be expected since at the front of it, simply implies grazing all the forage in front of the stock with little to no regard to forage recovery, soil, water, animal, wildlife, air, and human health or harmony. As taught in the Real Wealth Ranching program, this is not at all the definition but instead may be more aptly described as managed nonselective grazing or high harvest efficiency. 

Far too many seem to get hung up on the 4x daily moves as if that’s all they hear and summarily dismiss all the concepts. As part of a complete program, “Total Grazing” is a systems approach of directing life, land, and livestock which enhances and builds all those important aspects. I’m in my 6th year (2024) of total grazing/real wealth ranching and enjoy the improvements even though life has thrown some curves which have seldom allowed 4x daily moves. Remember the harmony part which includes less labor.

Although the understanding of the system is simple, the application of dynamic aspects of genetics, weather, people, animals, forage causing management to sometimes be quite challenging – it’s an art and science melded into a constantly changing symmetry in which the manager must be watching and shifting. Anyone involved in agriculture needs to be flexible and able to make quick and correct decisions. Too often, we become stuck in what we think is right (paradigms) and promote wrong understanding. This only works to set back newcomers and next generation. 

So what is the program often labeled as “Total Grazing”

As taught by Jaime Elizondo, who owns Real Wealth Ranching, it includes four pillars of focus which are integrated into a whole, but also includes harmony (including profitability) of the owner/operator’s life. Based on well over 30 years of ranching experience and a great deal of plant and nutrition science, he has discovered that some of the old ‘science’ has been refuted and needs discarded as new information has been brought to light. It’s a program - not a one-off.

The Four Pillars

1) Grazing – it is not leaving animals in a paddock or pasture until all the forage is destroyed and animal health is wrecked.

2) Calving Season – calving or lambing in the correct season for your area may be the low hanging fruit and quickest way to profitability.

3) Adapted Genetics & Selection – keeping replacements from your own herd may be a slow way to grow your operation, but it is the best (imho)

4) Nutrition – don’t skimp on nutrition and quality pastures for various classes and types of livestock.

Jaime is just now launching a quick start version (Ranching Made Simple) of his in-depth teaching. I recommend the whole online Total Grazing Academy, but this new program with its lower up-front cost will help introduce more producers seeking to explore options and opportunities.

“Fat Roots, Fat Land, Fat Cows, Fat Wallet”

Jaime Elizondo

FARM, Cattle, Total Grazing-Real Wealth Ranching

Feeding Calves Through Winter

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So many variables need considering before deciding whether or not to feed calves through the winter – especially in super cold areas like ours in north Missouri. Profitability is very important, but it’s more than a dollars and cents decision; it also must include quality of life and harmony.

Consider reasons for feeding calves:

  1. weaning calves off young heifers early (before winter) so the pregnant young cow has time to recover before calving again in the spring. 
  2. buying calves at a traditionally (late fall) lower price in hopes of adding value and gain before selling
  3. custom feeding calves and being paid by the owner
  4. Selling the cows and keeping calves.

In our case, the first and last ones are why we have calves this winter (2023-2024) to feed. With only 50 or so, I’ve decided to hand feed purchased alfalfa pellets in bunks which at the rate of about 1 lb per day, that’s quite doable. This gives them necessary added protein since our stockpiled forages through the winter is typically 7% to 9% protein. Good enough for cows, but not for growing calves.

I did go ahead and sell off about 12 calves that simply won’t match the others weaned or those still on the cows through the winter. They were smaller or rough haired and a few were steer calves showing a lot of Corriente – those will make excellent ropers since i left on the horns, but won’t match anything we will sell later in the spring or fall. 

The cows were sold because i’ve planned to retire and lease out my farm since early last year. It takes time to organize that since i wanted to join cows with bulls much earlier than i typically do. Many producers want to calve in the winter, so to make the cows more desirable for that market, i did that. By weaning the calves earlier, selling the cows was easier since i didn’t have to mess with loading and hauling them. As it turned out, it seems the market in Dec and Jan would have been favorable to split the calves off anyway, so it was a good decision. Plus, i’m planning to keep as many replacement heifers as possible. (Wait! wasn’t i talking retirement? :-)) The steers will sell right with the calves weaned in April.

Since we sell only grass raised stockers and weaners, i chose to feed alfalfa pellets. 

The downside is now it’s -14F and bitterly cold wind causing -37F windchill. Keeping the water open for another group of animals is very problematic as well in this weather. Typically, we do not have weaned calves, so we are not set up as well as we could be, so we’ll slog through this year.

Going forward, as we work through my husband’s health issues, me not wanting to work quite as much physically (trying not to break down my body), and rebuilding the herd as quickly as possible (or selling completely out and quitting), we need to decide whether or not to breed the heifers as yearlings or 2-year-olds. (Compare 2-year-olds vs 3-year-olds) An update on the previous link is that now i’m selecting ONLY my home raised, adapted cattle, the yearling heifers getting bred on grass is 67%.

There are plusses and minuses to each scenario. One of which is addressed here in having the added trouble of weaning calves early. It could be that once weaned, we could just go right ahead and sell the calves before winter, thereby eliminating feeding. However, should we decide to keep them and there were more calves to feed, we could purchase large bales of alfalfa hay to unroll which would be much easier than hand feeding in bunks. Also, address the watering issue!

Many options, we simply need to choose which direction we want to go.

Create something beautiful today!

Shalom,

tauna

For who of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has the things to finish; that having laid a foundation, and not having strength to finish, all those seeing begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and did not have strength to finish.” Luke 14:28-30 HRB

Cattle, FARM

Polar Vortex

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Wintry blast of arctic weather across the entire United States hit north Missouri early Friday (12 Jan 24) and temperatures have continued to plummet. This morning was -14F with a windchill of -34F. Well above any record cold, but mighty uncomfortable at best. Grazed pastures are now well frozen even under the 8-12 inches of snow. 

Although, we have plenty of standing forage for grazing, my husband has been keen to unroll big bales of hay to the cattle. If he wants to do it, that’s fine by me. It looked last summer that there would not be enough grass for winter, so he had baled up and purchased a lot of big bales of hay and since we store most of it outside and directly on the ground, right now is a perfect time to feed it up. No mud and the cows do appreciate it although with the extreme temps, they quickly adapted to it being substitutionary feed vs supplemental feed. Once the weather breaks, though, they’ll go back to grazing that green grass under the snow.

It is good for Allen to get out although he is mask wearing and son, Dallas, goes as well to get the gates and to take off the net wrap. Although he is in remission from his AL Amyloidosis cancer, he is not out of the woods yet and must still limit exposure to dust, dirt, livestock, large groups of people, young children, and pets. 

These young long time weaned calves are experiencing their first harsh winter without their mums. Since i ‘retired’ the pregnant cows were sold mostly last year (2023) and carry over the calves and the remaining cows to sell in January 2024. We’ve had too much income due to drought sales and that Allen sold all his fall calving cows because of his cancer and he has no help to manage it all. I can handle the 350 or so spring calvers, bulls, and replacement heifers, (with some help from my sons) but the task of calving out that many fall calvers with Allen’s weekly trips to KU Med for treatments, then the 2-week hospital stay followed by 2 weeks at Hope Lodge near the hospital (i had to stay with him as well) was just going to be too much. 

Cattle, FARM, Total Grazing-Real Wealth Ranching

The Rains Came

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A couple weeks ago – about mid-July – it started raining. We’ve had some 7-8 inches of rain in a month and what a blessing, especially made so by having it come in increments instead of all at once. Our properly grazed pastures had mouths wide open backed up by spongy soil to absorb nearly every drop. The ditches barely got wet, however, with several acres of watershed area, our ponds did catch some drain although they weren’t super low.

Although Linn County, Missouri is still considered in a drought, (D1-moderate) it’s hard to tell now.

Before I left for Hungary and Scotland on May 30 (returning June 30), i asked my neighbor to brush hog about 140 acres. It may seem counterproductive to mow during a D3 drought, but the brush had encroached to the point of being out of control. My cows had grazed the full season tall forages during the past winter, so all plants had deep roots, though very little growth by late May so i knew i wasn’t going to hurt it by mowing. Athough, i was surprised that it didn’t grow back as i thought it would (due to deep roots), once the rains came, the forage production is phenomenal. Anything along a ditch (good soil and higher water table) was already 2-3 feet tall despite the drought. These acres will be grazed during the winter again. It is not the right order for #totalgrazing, but with inadequate grazing pressure, i simply have nothing to graze it. It will be very high quality and quantity for winter.

I just now (mid-August) had him mow another 80 acres. I was getting a little nervous because he didn’t get to it quite as quickly as i would have done, but it will be okay. Again, the brush and sprouts were out of control on only one paddock, but i had him do the whole place anyway. The grass had already started growing substantially these past couple weeks, but there is plenty of time to grow before a killing frost.

When i’m home, I ‘ve been able to strip graze 3-4 times per day and cut hedge and locust sprouts in the grazed areas right behind the cows. However, once again, i had to be gone and now it’s forecasted to be about 100F for this coming week, so once a day and cows walking a lane to water and shade. It’s all working very well. However, in about 10 days, i will have to be gone again for 2 weeks, so I’ll move the cows across the road to the Bowyer Farm and start grazing it so that paddock sizes can be increased to moving them only every 3 to 4 days.

I had just about 10 days ago moved the cows to a very tiny segment of the Bowyer farm to graze around all the tornado damaged barns so as to make it easier for cleanup. However, now that it’s going to be sunny and 100F for the next week, i’m sure not going to be loading old tin into the trailer. Anyway, it’s no big deal to move them back – just a bit extra time spent. I’m very thankful for cows which are easy to handle and eager to cooperate. (training is important)

We lost 4 barns (this one was the least damaged) and two corrals in the 8 May 2023 EF2 tornado. Last tornado was 24 Oct 2021. This is getting old. However, compare to the ’21 tornado where we lost 20 cows and calves, this time we only lost 2. Incredibly, despite the amount of damage done to homes, timbers, fences, and the town of Linneus, no one was hurt or killed in either tornado.

I have to express great appreciation for Yah bringing Jaime Elizondo into my sphere of grazing schemes. This drought really showed that Real Wealth Ranching protocol of total grazing shines after only approaching my 4th year of grazing in this manner. Previously, MiG was moving me backwards from my goals.

As I transition to a sort of retirement by leasing out my farm to my cousin who lives much closer to the farm than i do, i hope to impart what i’ve learnt through the years. It will give him the opportunity to learn about proper grazing and build his own herd. It will give me a much-needed break from so much driving and hard labor. Will i completely quit? Unlikely, to be sure, but life is pretty janky right now, so it’s hard to know what the immediate needs will be.

Create something beautiful today.

Here is what total grazing protocol looks like at the end of 3 months of D3 drought! Wow! Look at the grass. The cows are fat with plenty of forage ahead of them. Now that it has rained, I’m looking at having about 200 acres of quality and quantity of winter stockpile for strip grazing.

Missouri claims the mantra of being only 2 weeks from a drought – that is because when the rain turns off, the clay soil turns into concrete. Impossible for short roots to grow or even stay alive. Proper grazing creates deep roots, giving native and desirable species the best opportunity to thrive as well as give safe harbour to wildlife.

Cattle, FARM

Drought Management Ideas

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North Missouri, along with some other states and areas, are experiencing deepening drought. (Currently in Linn County, MO, severe drought 6 July 23 according to US Drought Monitor).  It is important to initiate protection of future grasslands production and health, so destocking those areas sooner rather than later is imperative.  Each ranch or farm is unique with differing missions and goals, so there is no silver bullet with which animals need to go first and how to plan ahead.  However, like many decisions to be made, there are principles to follow.

  1. Immediately take full accounting of current inventory of forages.  This includes grasses and hay.  Of course, we don’t know when or if it will rain again, but at a certain date – say July 1 for us, we definitely know how much forage is available now and what will be available for winter grazing. 
  2. If there are some tax helps from selling due to drought, contact your tax man or read up to see what the rules are to take advantage of any tax strategies which may mitigate the increased income from sales. Be careful not to offset income with unnecessary depreciating assets considered ‘monuments to tax avoidance.’
  3. It’s easier to sell dry bred stock vs those with young calves just from a logistical standpoint.  Any bred stock calving out of season (late calving or fall calving) without calves are good candidates for shipping. Often, too, fall calvers may be easier to sell than the May-June spring calvers unless you can find a specialty market. Most ranchers want Feb-Mar calving cows.
  4. Yearlings or stockers could be sold immediately if you need to maintain a quality cow herd.  However, selling cows (depreciating assets) first may be preferable – especially if you haven’t been culling and have a lot of poor producers, bad dispositions, bad bags, or other nasty qualities. 
  5. Sell pairs. This is difficult if you have been carefully selecting quality cows for years, but it may be that it must be done.  The mantra to sell ‘old, open, and onery’ is a good guideline, but old may be your best cows – keep the calves – sell the cows.  Otherwise, it’s easy to pull off the bottom 30% to 50%.  It’s been said that everyone has a bottom 30% and that’s likely very true and those are easy to identify.  Check the forecast and hopefully find a cool day or start early and walk the pairs into the corral.  Plan ahead so that the cows are near the corral or in a large holding area the night before to simplify this task.  Tag the calves and pair them with their mums.  Cows, by and large, will depreciate in value – they’ve reached their limit, but do bring in a ticket.  It had better be a good ticket.
  6. If possible, cull down to the number of mouths which can be fed through the winter without substitutionary feed (IE hay, grain, etc) 
  7. In regards to replacement heifers – many experts will say to sell them, take the cash or send them on to feedlots.  However, if these have been carefully selected for decades and represent the future (after the drought), then I question selling them out.  You cannot buy better or more adapted genetics for your operation.  Same goes for replacement bulls.  They eat half as much feed as a cow and should be appreciating in value vs decreasing. 
  8. One herd is preferable to multiple.  This is one of the best strategies for managed grazing hands down, drought or no drought.  If you are still chasing around 4 or more pastures with a few cows everywhere, this is a recipe for disaster for the pasture, cows, and labor (huge lack of harmony).  Stop it. Going a step further, identify the pasture which potentially can produce winter grazing as close to your headquarters as possible.  This may mean shifting around animals, but long run will be easier to feed hay and check/chop water through the long winter months if closer to home.

Turning the group into a large pasture with no mobbing will result in overgrazing and undergrazing on the same field. I recommend to the extent you can muster a nonselective grazing scheme as proposed by Jaime Elizondo. Other teachers hit close to the mark with once a day moves. One must remember that nonselective grazing requires a steady, stable, and somewhat uniform diet to keep the ‘bugs’ in the rumen intact and healthy. Observe manure for proper digestion of forages. It might mean feeding some sort of high protein if your drought or mature forage has lignified. In north Missouri, grasses will try to grow within three-four days of being grazed. Consider using a back fence to protect those tender plants from a second bite.

  1. Drought times or life changes may not be the best time to implement major changes in your operation which may cause excessive challenges.  It may be tempting to breed heifers as yearlings even if you haven’t done so for years so that you get a ‘ticket’ earlier after destocking, but remember that you may have calving difficulties that have not been an issue in the past – are you physically capable of dealing with that?  No one else wants to. 

What are your destocking strategies?  Drought is not the only reason for culling heavily.  Plan well ahead so life changes don’t sneak up on you and disaster looms resulting in a complete sell out.  Have an annual, month by month, schedule written down and have an exit strategy in times of turmoil so that difficult decisions are not made in the midst of emotional upheaval.  Recognize your own physical and emotional limits and start making changes.  In fact, reducing labor, unnecessary work, and expenses at any time is likely a good strategy even before you have to do it.  Mindfully, consider that no one else has your passion to micromanage livestock for no reason and little pay.  The management of 100 years ago, 50, or even 20 years ago will NOT work in today’s extremely tight margin economy.

Create something beautiful today.

Livestock and Pasture Resources:

Kick the Hay Habit – Jim Gerrish

Real Wealth Ranching – Jaime Elizondo

For giggles and a reality check!

Top Ten reasons not to cull that Old, Open and Ornery Cow

Cattle, FARM

One Calving Season? Or Two?

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Oftentimes, it is a practice to have two calving seasons – one in the spring and one in the fall. Dr Dick Diven gave thought to the idea that in north Missouri or other areas where the predominant cool season grass is the non-native toxic endophyte fescue, fall calving might be better than spring due to some believing the toxic effects would be reduced. The observed symptoms may be reduced since the outside temperatures are typically lower thereby giving the heat stressed cattle some relief from the vaso-constricting properties of the toxic endophyte. However, our extensive results on this practice show no advantage as far as reproductive improvement or increased production. Fall calving does, however, increase winter costs due to calving out of sync with the growing season. Keeping nursing pregnant cows in condition on stockpile grasses or hay is difficult and expensive. Additionally, having two separate breeding seasons adds considerably to the labor component.

Some ranchers choose to incorporate both seasons by allowing cows which come up open (not pregnant) in one season to dropping them into the following season vs selling her or holding it until the next spring calving season. On the face of it, this may sound wise.

Consider:

  1. Without very careful written records, a cow can easily be rolled into each subsequent season without ever having a calf!!
  2. Replacement heifers or, worse, keeping a bull calf, out of a cow which has missed, but you don’t know it can lead to devasting long term reproductive problems in the herd at large. Cows that calve only every other year may keep her good condition and wean a nice-looking calf, but she is not profitable if given a pass every year or two or more!
  3. Having two calving seasons means two times of hauling the bulls out to every single cow TWICE! And getting them back in. Pregnancy checking then reveals, that there will be spring calving cows and fall calving cows in all the various herds. In our case, there are eight herds of cows!
  4. Cows will be sorted at preg check as to fall or spring calvers, then hauled to whichever location has that group. Labor, labor, labor. There is always the possibility of a mistake and a fall calver ends up with spring calvers or vice versa. Total pain in the rear.
  5. Two weaning times adds to stress and labor and incurs a less uniform calf crop.
  6. Does not result in fewer open cows, but it does allow slackers to slip through by giving them multiple chances to ever breed and calve.

Without careful records, regardless of how you choose to manage the seasons, the risk is great that a cow can grow old without ever bringing in a ticket. Cows often will preg check carrying a calf, but either abort or lose the calf at some point. Can anyone afford to keep such an animal? Flipping cows from one season to the next greatly increases the chances that a cow will slip through.

In my opinion, calving in one season only, spring (May-June) – not winter – and have all cows in one herd – two at the most. This drastically reduces labor and then number of bulls one needs to cover the cows.

In this day and age of huge expense increases, written records are key, making culling decisions based on those records, imperative, selecting only adapted animals to grow your herd is a must. (records should include observing and recording which cows pant or stand in the pond or ditch, don’t slick off in the summer, those which can’t take the cold and stress of mud, humidity, flies, or whatever challenges are in your environment). Many of these observations will be revealed by cows coming up open or dead. Better to minimize either by eschewing purchasing unadapted animals and hoping they will adapt. The vast majority will not.

Create Beauty and Harmony in Your World

Cattle, FARM, Grass & Forages, Total Grazing-Real Wealth Ranching

Combine Herds and Calve on Green Grass

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Combining here the first two points of profitability and harmony since, honestly, they could switch places. Both cut down on labor significantly and typically increase calf survivability.

However, after this entire year plus a few months of almost constant mud and having unfortunately purchased several unadapted cows, I’ve come to realize that if one is to combine herds into one mob, you must allow a great deal extra winter grazing forage to allow for substantial trampling waste to keep them out of the mud. It is true that there is some value to trampling, but feeding the microbes is more efficient by cycling it through the stock. It seems i can never learn all the lessons i need to in the course of one lifetime.

For reasons I’ve discussed before, my cows have been calving in mid-April – knowing that that can be a challenging time of the year. A real problem with calving out of sync is the problems continue through the year with breeding out of sync and weaning out of sync. This year (2023) my cows should start about May 1. Next year, i may move to May 15.

Your time is just as important as anyone else’s – be sure you are paying yourself and others a fair wage with benefits or your operation is a hobby and not sustainable nor regenerative.

Another issue is a problem with calving in a managed/movement grazing scheme is leaving calves behind. This happens all too much. Although it takes some planning, it may be best to not disturb the cows whilst calving and give them plenty of space. Sure, this will result in some loss of grazing efficiency, but having relaxed cows and heifers with better opportunity to bond will likely outweigh the loss of grazing best practice.

Cleanliness is paramount in a calving paddock as is being well drained with no ditches or draws. It may very well be that those need to be fenced out to avoid calves dropped into ditches and cows and/or calves smashed and killed in the mud. This has been a very expensive journey for me in that regard, even in the summer as cows are seeking cool.

Life is a balance. Harmony – Decide your goals, temper them a bit with time and grace to make mistakes. Learn from others’ mistakes since you do not have time to stumble over the same rocks. Do not forget your family and their interests and don’t underestimate how quickly the years will pass and your strength and stamina will begin to wane. Position your operation to handle the unexpected changes life will throw your way. Sharpen that pencil.

Dr Dick Diven (Low Cost Cow/Calf) suggested that in toxic endophyte country like ours in north central Missouri, fall calving may be a way to avoid the highest toxins during breeding season. However, that is completely out of sync with nature and results in huge wintering costs trying to maintain a nursing cow on winter stockpile or hay. The best time for cows to calve here is May-June – the same time during which bison have been naturally selected. Manage the toxins in your pasture and select animals which tend to thrive despite ingesting them.

Create something beautiful today!

Finally, my brethren, whatever is
true, whatever is honest, whatever is
just, whatever pure, whatever lovely,
whatever of good report, if there is any
virtue, and if there is any praise, think
on these things. Philippians 4:8 HRB

Faith, Family, Farm