The Scoop View All →
Happy!
This weekend my kids and I got to spend time with my Mom and Dad, siblings and their families in Maryland. One of the highlights was a visit to Prigel’s Creamery for some ice cream. If you’ll remember, we highlighted the farm in an article about successful dairying on pasture. The flavor of the day […]
Read More →Mud Season
This is the season when spring, long-awaited, reminds us that with every season there is some discomfort. So, though we may damn mud when we’re stuck in it, here’s a poem to remind us why we love it too.
Read More →Which is the April Fools’ Story?
I LOVE April Fools’ Day and all the little jokes that come with it. One story I remember most vividly is one about Compost Tea done by National Public Radio back in the 90′s. Only Compost Tea wasn’t something you sprayed on pastures. It was something people actually drank! They called it ComPostum, and it […]
Read More →A Moving Experience
On Pasture is headed to Tucson, or at least one of On Pasture’s editors is! My husband, Peter Williams was selected as the Director of the Udall Foundation’s U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, and will be beginning his new job the end of April. Moving wasn’t even on our radar 2 months ago, and […]
Read More →The First Ever, Fun-to-Read Annual Report
Hey! It’s On Pasture’s Birthday and we’re celebrating! From 0 to 326 articles in just 12 months, here’s a review of what we’ve accomplished with your help.
Read More →Poetry to Get Us to Spring
From a good friend, Rebecca Haskell, who expresses what we’re all feeling about this winter. Feel free to download it, print it, and post it in an inspirational spot, like your refrigerator, milking barn, or calving/kidding/lambing barn.
Read More →Better Than Kissing A Pig.
We’ve been working hard to make On Pasture something you’ll enjoy and something we can be proud of. Here’s what you’re telling us.
Read More →Do you believe in Santa?
Santa can help us figure out if we want to believe, or if seeing is believing. When it comes to information you’ll see in On Pasture, here’s where we stand.
Read More →Grazing Management View All →
Are You Over-Grazing: What’s in Your Plan?
These conversations between an Advisor and a couple of graziers are great for insights into what you might be getting right or wrong.
Read More →How Mob Grazing Works for Dairies in the Northeast
Dairy farmers wanted to know how to implement this practice on their farms the authors took on the task of checking out how it works for farmers using it in Pennsylvania and New York.
Read More →More Cows + Confusion and Disarray = Better Landscapes and an Improved Bottom-line
It isn’t easy managing cattle to rehabilitate landscapes because mother nature is chaotic. Here are Bob Budd’s philosophies on making it work.
Read More →Grazing Profitably With A Cherry on Top
Bobby Prigel smiles a lot. He’s a guy you’d want to sit down and have a drink with while you swap stories. He’s fun, and kind, and friendly, and, well, just that kind of guy. He’d probably even smile as he told you about the six figure lawyer bills his farm has racked up, or […]
Read More →Twenty years of grazing profitably, inside and outside the box
Ron Holter is one of the smartest farmers you could meet. He thinks things through to create the life he wants. Now his dairy cows eat no grain, aren’t high producing, and he has time to take a nap just about every day. Here’s how he makes a good living in spite of (or because of) all this.
Read More →Successfully Making the Switch to Pasture-Based Dairying
Twenty years ago, two Maryland dairy farmers started grazing when no one around them was doing it. Here’s how it worked for them, and their suggestions for those considering the switch.
Read More →Cattle Without Legs?!
Meg Grzeskiewicz is back with a two part series on genetics and forage for raising great beef. Here’s Part I – Animal Genetics and Management. (Meg’s own legless cattle will be born this coming June!)
Read More →How We Turned the Cattle Industry Into an Unsustainable, Artificial World
Trying to beat mother nature with technology is an expensive proposition. Sometimes it’s better to work with her than against her.
Read More →Pasture Health View All →
What to Do About Your Broomsedge Now
You can make headway and it’s not that hard. Go for it!
Read More →Grazing to Grow Better Pasture
Though you may not have the same grass species described in this article, you’re sure to get some information about how grazing affects plant rooting depth, shading, and nutrient distribution and some good ideas about how to manage your grazing to get the results you’d like.
Read More →Samsung Electronics Announces Availability of Eco Trees
Samsung Electronics announced Eco Trees, a smart, eco-friendly air purifier that runs on solar energy, for a richer, sustainable, healthier life. Air Fresh SMART Eco Trees intake CO2 and release oxygen to support a healthier environment. In the process it also uses a natural filtering system to eliminate pollutants. Eco Trees also help keep the humidity […]
Read More →What Should I Do About My Pasture Weeds?
Those aren’t “weeds” you’re seeing. That’s great alternative forage! So why not take advantage of it this spring. It’s even on sale.
Read More →Grazing Profitably With A Cherry on Top
Bobby Prigel smiles a lot. He’s a guy you’d want to sit down and have a drink with while you swap stories. He’s fun, and kind, and friendly, and, well, just that kind of guy. He’d probably even smile as he told you about the six figure lawyer bills his farm has racked up, or […]
Read More →Weed-Training Frequently Asked Questions
Here’s where you can post your questions about training livestock to eat weeds. This is a great place to come if you’re just getting started or you’re in the middle of your own training and you’re not sure that things are going right. I’ll get you going with answers to a couple questions I frequently […]
Read More →Cattle Without Legs?! Part II – Forage Recovery and Allocation
In Part I, Meg described how breeding for stocky cattle makes sense and dollars. Now she describes the forage part of creating legless cattle and a better bottom line.
Read More →Intelligent Groups Make Innovations Easier
When it comes to trying new things, being part of a thoughtful, supportive group can make it easier, and help you be more successful. Here Chip Hines describes how it worked for his “Bull Session” group in Southeast Colorado in the 1990s.
Read More →Livestock View All →
Build a “Bud Box” to Make Livestock Handling a Breeze
The term “Bud Box” describes the kind of handling facility preferred by low-stress livestock handling expert Bud Williams. By moving animals quietly and standing in the right spot, you can quickly and easily move animals into a chute for treatment, weighing or loading. Here’s information on how to build your own, including a video showing how it works.
Read More →Got Pigs? Take Precautions Against PEDV Now!
Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PEDV) has been found in many states. Here’s what you need to know to protect your pigs and profits.
Read More →Using Livestock Behavior Makes Improving Landscapes Easier
In Part II of this series summarizing Bob Budd’s lessons learned, he describes how understanding and using an animal’s natural behavior makes it easier to move them and use them to improve landscapes and create habitat.
Read More →Laying Hands on Them – How to Tell When Your Lamb is Finished
You’ve got the tools right there are the ends of your arms to help you figure out when your lamb is ready for market. Here NCAT’s Dave Scott tells you how to use them.
Read More →Cattle Handling Pointers
Rick Machen and Ron Gill of Texas A&M share 5 basic principles of cattle behavior and turn them into ten handling pointers to help you become a better low-stress cattle handler.
Read More →The Cost of Thin Cows
Skinny cows may look better in bikinis, but in the beef business that’s not really how we measure success. Economic losses from thin cows can be substantial. As the graph below shows, the thinner the cow, the less likely she is to become pregnant. While weaning weight may not always be a good measure of […]
Read More →Ron’s Nurse Cows
Using nurse cows can be a money saving way to raise and feed dairy calves. Here are some tips for making it work at your place.
Read More →Twenty years of grazing profitably, inside and outside the box
Ron Holter is one of the smartest farmers you could meet. He thinks things through to create the life he wants. Now his dairy cows eat no grain, aren’t high producing, and he has time to take a nap just about every day. Here’s how he makes a good living in spite of (or because of) all this.
Read More →Money Matters View All →
Ten Tips for Making Tax Day Easier
Yes, it’s that special day of the year: the deadline for signing on the dotted line and sending off your paperwork to the IRS and your state department of revenue. If you’re like me, every year, you say “Next year, I’m going to be more organized, so that this isn’t such a pain in my […]
Read More →Low-Stress = More Forage and Higher Weaning Weights
Faced with a reduction in grazing use along streams and riparian areas, a rancher implements low-stress herding and finds the effort is well worth it.
Read More →Turn Cow Dung Into Vanilla
Yes, you can spread your manure over your pastures and create fertile soil. But if you’re thinking of diversifying what you produce, perhaps you want to collect a little for your own use, and turn it into vanilla!
Read More →The Cost of Thin Cows
Skinny cows may look better in bikinis, but in the beef business that’s not really how we measure success. Economic losses from thin cows can be substantial. As the graph below shows, the thinner the cow, the less likely she is to become pregnant. While weaning weight may not always be a good measure of […]
Read More →Building a Sustainable Business – It’s Free!
OK – we’ve covered business planning in a number of articles and from a number of perspectives. Why? Because we know that business planning is important and because everybody responds to different processes. So if we keep on trying, we’re bound to find something that works for you (and for us, frankly). With that in […]
Read More →The Value of Well-Managed Pasture in Today’s Economy
How much does your pasture add to your bottom line? It’s money in your pocket and free time on your hands.
Read More →Risk Sharing Implications for Today’s CSA Farm
Considering a CSA? Here, Mark shares different CSA options and how they distribute risk among the farmer and the consumer so you can figure out what could work for you.
Read More →Finding New Markets – the Imperial Ranch Story
You asked for more farmer profiles and examples of how other producers make things work. So here you go! This is a really great example of how to look at what you’re raising in a new way so that you can find and serve new markets. Regardless of what you produce, you can use their example to think of new ways to improve your own success.
Read More →Consider This View All →
Got Pigs? Take Precautions Against PEDV Now!
Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PEDV) has been found in many states. Here’s what you need to know to protect your pigs and profits.
Read More →Milk! For Strong Bones and Death
With the conversation about raw milk heating up recently (no pun intended), and more legislation being introduced to allow it to be sold at the state and local level, we’ve been wondering about the history of pasteurization and why it became legislated in the first place. Sometimes the reasons we do things get lost once […]
Read More →Excre-Meat: A New Use for Sewage Sludge
Japanese researchers find a new use for excess sewage sludge: they turn it into MEAT! Is this another option for how we might feed the 9 billion people who will inhabit our planet in the future?
Read More →Are You Kidding?
Here’s a Kickstarter project your On Pasture editors are interested in, so we thought we’d share it with you too. ”Are You Kidding” is a book and a stuffed toy dreamed up by Steph Alloso in response to her curious daughter’s questions about where babies come from, and inspired by the goats at their small […]
Read More →The Answers to the Questions You Ask This Time of Year
When should I turn my livestock into pasture? What should I look for in my plants to know when it’s time to move the herd to a new pasture?
Read More →Feeding 9 Billion People High-Quality Protein
There are lots of folks worrying about this problem, wondering how agriculture today is going to be able to feed everyone in the future. The solution may not be the agriculture of today, but something much different and outside our box.
Read More →How to Use a Paper Towel
We’re all interested in saving money AND our natural resources, so here’s a really good, and easy to do change we can make.
Read More →
The Funnies View All →
DIY Leather Sofa
Ikea’s instructions are always so clear that anyone can put anything together!
Read More →The Towel Dance
April Fools! Les Beaux Freres (The Handsome Brothers) currently perform with the Cirque du Soleil. Here you can see them dancing with towels, and not much else.
Read More →
Spring Has Sprung! Don’t You Feel Like This?
Thanks to Spud Edwards for sharing this video with us. It’s cows heading out to pasture after a long winter. They even dance to “It’s a Beautiful Day!” Hooray!
Read More →
Free Range Strauss From the Pitch Perfect Poultry
Bet you’ll sing this for the rest of the day! Here’s the link for those of you on tablets.
Read More →Support Our Advertisers
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Brewers Shirts - Fun for Home and Craft Beer Brewers
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