Hay season 2019

It has been a busy summer on our farm.  We decided to start baling our own hay this year so that we could control, as much as mother nature allows, the timing of harvest.  A hot dry stretch at the beginning of May allowed us to get the first cutting off much earlier than normal.

Growing orhard grass for our cows for many years, we focused on small paddocks with frequent grazing rotations.  High palatability along with its nutritional attributes make orchard grass an ideal feed for livestock.

Planting another orchard grass field mid May gave us enough hay for our growing Highland fold...and our daughter's expanding goat herd.  Many thanks to our family for their support and loaning of equipment!

We are now selling the extra hay and have met some great people; feeding lots of different types of animals including rabbits, alpacas, goats, sheep, and horses.  Keeping the bales smaller at 65lbs has been great...much easier for some of us, including myself, to manage.

The third cutting on our established field and first cutting from the Spring planted field are now in the barn.  We are hoping to squeeze in one more cutting before the Fall rains start!

Spring 2019

A busy Spring on our farm... they all seem to be!  We welcomed a nice crop of calves.

The steers got an invite to munch away on a nice nearby pasture.

A warm dry start to Spring had the pastures growing nicely, and we were able to get the first cutting of hay off extremely early for this area.

Which also meant irrigation season starting.

And lots of fat happy cows!

New wintering ground

We finished fencing some additional acreage this Fall, which included just over acre of thick trees that were getting choked out by ivy.

We moved the older cows down to the trees for the winter and they have done an amazing job of cleaning it up.  They love ivy... who knew?

Lots of small trees and old limbs still left to clean up, but it's looking so much better.  Our hope was to save the few large pines, which aren't common in our area, and the old firs.

My grandparents bought this property in the 50's, and my dad remembers this treed area from his youth.

The cows love their clover pellets to help supplement with their hay for the winter.

New pasture

Our cows got their first taste of the new orchard grass pasture that we planted in early May.  The majority of the new pasture will be baled later this month for their winter feed.

Farm pictures and happenings

The grass is growing faster then the cows can keep up.

The new chicks are getting big, and all the chickens are anxious to get out into their new run.  They've been cooped up for too long. 

We've created a new chicken/calf weaning paddock that's almost ready. The new grass is growing, and we just have to add a bit of chicken fencing to the gates so that they don't escape where our dog can play with them​. The chickens have a small door from their coop that opens up into a barn stall attached to the new pasture. 

Mama cow Agnes is enjoying the barn and fresh grass with her girls.  Fiona was born last month, and Emma was born in 2016. We decided to keep Emma as a replacement heifer and replace our bull this year. She has great potential, and her coat coloring is beautiful.

Irrigation season

Irrigation season has now officially started in Western Oregon.  We replanted half of our pasture several weeks ago, and it seems to be growing well with all of the unseasonably warm weather we have been having.  We are fortunate to have water rights to pump out of the local canal system, so we don't have to rely on our well for watering the pasture.  Hopefully by late summer this pasture will be established enough for some light grazing.  In the mean time, all the cows are getting their fill on fresh grass in the other pasture.

Pasture rotation

When we got our first cattle, we really didn't do any rotational grazing.  It was just a few cows, and we had installed a nice 10 wire New Zealand style perimeter fence with an electric wire inside.  As our herd grew and we experienced growing pains we realized how important it was to rotate and utilize smaller pastures.  The cows always have their favorite areas they would overgraze and others they wouldn't touch.  

We have two main pastures separated by a fenced run (and our house/driveway).  We utilize this separation when the boys need to be kept away from the girls.  Within each pasture we have created many small paddocks, just enough for a few days grazing for the whole herd.  The paddocks are created using hot wire and fiberglass posts.  Yes... there's the occasional fence jumper, but for the most part it works good (as long as the charger is working and wires aren't grounding out).  



This cow made it through the hot wire used to separate paddocks, and was patiently waiting to be let 'back-out' when I got home from work one day this winter.  I guess the grass isn't always greener on the other side in January... when the rest of the cows have nice hay to eat in the barn!

We had contemplated installing t-post fencing before we invested too much in the fiberglass posts, but I like our 'temporary' fencing system when it's time for pasture maintenance.  I can drop the ends of the hot wires from the fiberglass posts and drive over the wire to fertilize everything at the same time.  Last year part of our pasture grew faster then the cows could graze, so we easily removed all of the inside paddock fencing so that we could hay the pasture.