The Scoop View All →
How Do You Do Restoration on Bare Soil With No Water?
Restoration and soil health look a lot different in Tucson, Arizona than in the other places I’ve lived. Here’s a project that I’m working on. I’m sharing it with you because it’s interesting, you can learn a little more about me and where I live, and maybe you’ll have some ideas to share too.
Read More →A Visit With Greg and Jan Judy
I (Kathy) got to spend a couple days with Greg and Jan Judy at Green Pastures Farm last week. I had so much fun! I got to see how he’s working with another young farming couple to grow their pastured hogs and egg-layers business on the Judy place. We checked out his flock […]
Read More →An Invitation to Collaborate With On Pasture
Thanks to your support, On Pasture is what it is today – a source of great, grazing information with over 1800 articles in our archives, AND a community where we learn from each other and the many mistakes we’ve made and the successes we’ve all had along the way. As we head into our sixth […]
Read More →Have You Seen On Pasture’s First Video?
Mission statements can be dry and boring. So, five years ago, when we were developing On Pasture, we decided to explain our goals with this little video. What do we do? We sift through information so you don’t have to, turning “blah blah blah blah” into “This is what it means and how it can […]
Read More →Two Things On Pasture Needs to Keep Going
The week is On Pasture’s 5th birthday, and look how we’ve grown! When On Pasture was just a twinkle in the eyes of farmers, ranchers and agriculture professionals who thought it would solve problems graziers had, we had no idea that it would grow to what it is today – the most read grazing publication […]
Read More →When Scientists Argue
About a month ago we ran “What If the U.S. Got Rid of All Livestock?” describing the findings of two scientists, Robin White and Mary Beth Hall, who tried to answer that question. Their conclusion was that without livestock, the U.S. would not be able to meet its population’s nutritional requirements and the reduction in […]
Read More →Let’s Share Our Stories in Reno!
December is a long way off, but we know where we’ll be December 2 – 5: in Reno for the National Grazing Lands Conference! This gathering happens once every three years, with farmers and ranchers sharing their experience, researchers describing how their latest discoveries can improve success, and conservation organizations and land management agencies offering […]
Read More →Goodbye to an On Pasture Author and Friend
We’re sad to announce the passing of Bob Parsons who wrote for On Pasture and was a great supporter and friend to us as we started up this publication. He was also a great example of what we hold most dear at On Pasture – using science for the benefit of farmers and ranchers. This […]
Read More →Grazing Management View All →
Grazing Around Streams – Three Examples of Trying to Do the Right Thing
With growing concerns over riparian management and its effect on water quality, farmers and ranchers are facing tightening regulations and restrictions on grazing next to streams and water bodies. In his first article on this topic, Troy wondered if we, as graziers, are doing all we can to protect water quality and our grazing future. […]
Read More →Intentional Management: Matching Needs With Resources
Thanks to Jonathan Rupert of Smith Seeds for this piece. A number of years ago, I had the privileged of visiting one of the many cattle ranches operated by Lykes Brothers in Florida. If you’re not familiar with the name, Lykes is one of the top five largest cow-calf operations in the nation with over […]
Read More →Schooley Ranch Conservation Planning Makes for the Cleanest Water in South Dakota
Last week Troy Bishopp wrote about some of his frustrations with riparian grazing management, wondering, “Can We Just Do The Right Thing?” Well, here’s an example of a ranch in South Dakota that has worked hard on providing the folks downstream with plenty of good clean water. Chad Schooley of Schooley Ranch in Castlewood, South […]
Read More →Riparian Grazing: Can We Just Do The Right Thing?
With growing concerns over riparian management and its effect on water quality, farmers and ranchers are facing tightening regulations and restrictions on grazing next to streams and water bodies. Here, Troy wonders if we, as graziers, are doing all we can to protect water quality and our grazing future. At this year’s Northeast Pasture Consortium […]
Read More →When Can I Start Grazing Mixtures?
Thanks to Tim Fritz, of King’s AgriSeeds Inc. for this helpful information. Mixtures bring yield stability to a forage field as each species and variety has its own strengths and weaknesses. These factors include: soil adaption, climate adaptation, disease resistance, harvest timing, yield distribution over the seasons, nutrient needs and contributions to soil health, and […]
Read More →Managing Grazing Means Managing for Rainfall
As you think about how you’ll manage forage this season, keep in mind that your grazing management has a lot to do with how your soil captures and holds water – its hydrologic functioning. That function is crucial to determining how well your soil will provide water during dry periods, as well as how well […]
Read More →Managing Mud
NRCS’s Victor Shelton is in the middle of a wet and muddy spring in Indiana. He tells us, “As much as I like the warmer days right now, I probably wouldn’t turn down some frozen ground to reduce mud and the impact of very saturated ground. One guy told me that if it were just […]
Read More →Ranchers Love Calving On Grass in Pasture
From our friends in Alberta Agriculture in Canada, here’s a 5-minute video of ranchers describing why they prefer May calving on grass. Jess Hudson of Hudson Ranch in Bashaw, Alberta describes it like this: “The grass system for me, with good weather, works really well. The cows will spread all out have their calf, mother […]
Read More →Pasture Health View All →
Let’s Waste Grass With Jim Gerrish – Part 2
This piece is drawn from a presentation Jim Gerrish did in 2015 sponsored by the Iowa Beef Center. We’ve embedded the 15:20 video of the presentation where Jim talks about the benefits of “wasting grass.” We’re also summarizing it in two bite size articles to make it easier for all you farmers and ranchers on […]
Read More →Let’s Waste Grass With Jim Gerrish – Part 1
This piece is drawn from a presentation Jim Gerrish did in 2015 sponsored by the Iowa Beef Center. We’ve embedded the 15:20 video of the presentation where Jim talks about the benefits of “wasting grass.” We’re also summarizing it in two bite size articles to make it easier for all you farmers and ranchers on […]
Read More →When Does Fertilizing Pasture Pay? – Part 2
Last week, Bruce Anderson shared information about break even points when it comes to spending money on nitrogen fertilizer for pastures. This week, we get some additional information to consider from Sid Bosworth, Extension Professor at the University of Vermont. Grasses have a high demand for nitrogen (N). Grass hay trials have shown that some […]
Read More →When Does Fertilizing Pasture Pay? – Part 1
Thanks for this article go to Bruce Anderson and Jerry Volesky of Nebraska Extension, University of Nebraska, Lincoln and to UNL Beef Profit Tips. If you’d like to listen to this as a podcast instead, click here. And let us know if you like listening to podcasts. We can find more for you! Pasture and […]
Read More →How to Establish and Manage Red Clover
With the discoveries that red clover can increase weight gain and prevent fescue toxicosis, we thought you’d like some info on how to add it to your pasture. Thanks to Genevieve of Kings Agriseeds for helping us out with this! Not only does red clover boost a pasture’s quality, diversity, and even yield, it’s also […]
Read More →When Can I Start Grazing Mixtures?
Thanks to Tim Fritz, of King’s AgriSeeds Inc. for this helpful information. Mixtures bring yield stability to a forage field as each species and variety has its own strengths and weaknesses. These factors include: soil adaption, climate adaptation, disease resistance, harvest timing, yield distribution over the seasons, nutrient needs and contributions to soil health, and […]
Read More →Different Cover Crops Release Nitrogen at Different Rates
Even if you’re not growing cover crops to feed your cash crops, this is great information because it gives us more insight into the mystery of how plants add nitrogen to our soils to help us. Thanks to the Soil Science Society of America for sharing this with us. A circle of life-and nitrogen-is playing […]
Read More →First Steps to Pasture Improvement
This article comes to us from staff at the Noble Research Institute in Oklahoma. I recently went on a consultation visit to a producer’s farm near Noble, Okla. The last time I had been on his property was 2004. Some of his bermudagrass pastures were infested with threeawn, but for the most part, they were […]
Read More →Livestock View All →
Practical Advice for Dealing With Parasites
A note from the Author: I’m not much of a scientist. While I was trained in science, I am, for the most part, just an observer of nature. I see things in the world around me and make up working hypotheses that appear to fit. The solutions I present here are not proven; they are […]
Read More →Breeds for Changing Climates
Don Ashford thinks about how we should manage our herds in a changing climate. Is it time to switch breeds?
Read More →Livestock – More Dangerous Than Mountain Lions, Poisonous Snakes, or Stinging Insects
Cattle and horses account for 90% of all animal-related deaths in the United States, and that number hasn’t changed since the last time researchers collected this data in 2007. Jared Forrester, M.D., the lead investigator for the study covering fatalities from venomous and nonvenomous animals from 2008-2015 says that learning more about deaths due to […]
Read More →Training Cows to Eat Weeds – Even in Very Large Pastures
It’s that time of year again when those special forbs start poking their heads up in your grassy pastures. That means it’s also the time of year when I remind you, “Those are not weeds. That is good forage!” And then I remind you that it only takes 8 hours spread over 7 days to […]
Read More →Can Red Clover Cure Fescue Toxicosis?
As part of his research into how an ingredient in red clover, biochanin A, improves feed efficiency and weight gain in ruminants (see last week’s article), USDA Agricultural Research Service scientist Michael Flythe did his due diligence, looking for other possible effects of this isoflavone. This extra step led to his discovery that biochanin A […]
Read More →Scientist Finds Secret Ingredient in Red Clover That Increases Weight Gain in Ruminants
A team of researchers at the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s (ARS) Forage-Animal Production Research Unit has found that an antimicrobial compound in red clover can increase feed efficiency in ruminants. Biochanin A could be an alternative to using antibiotics to promote growth in feedlots, and could benefit livestock on pasture too. How Antibiotics and Antimicrobials […]
Read More →Solving Roadblocks to Supplementing Minerals on the Ranch
I recently sat in on a roundtable discussion about using mineral supplements on ranches that are practicing managed grazing. It turned out that even though it is well known that our region suffers from some serious soil deficiencies, most of the people in the group had extremely modest mineral programs. The reasons folks gave for […]
Read More →Virtual Fence – Keep Livestock in Pasture Without Installing Posts or Wires
No Fence is a Norwegian Company that started ten years ago as a group of farmers and engineers working together to create the world’s first virtual fence system. Their goal: improve agriculture, animal welfare and the environment all at once. As they describe in the 3 minute video below, their technology is a GPS collar […]
Read More →Money Matters View All →
An Introduction to Conservation Finance
Thank you to the Western Landowners Alliance in partnership with WRA, Inc. for sharing this series on conservation finance with On Pasture. We hope it will help you understand and evaluate different approaches to your own property that take advantage of the ecological services you provide. Conservation finance is the idea that landowners can be […]
Read More →Can You Make Money Turning Cropland Into Pasture?
Current corn prices along with reduced availability of perennial pasture have some producers asking about the economics of turning cropland into forage for cow/calf operations. So three Nebraska Extension specialists. Jay Parsons, Mary Drewnoski, and Daren Redfearn, got together to answer these questions in a February webinar: “Will producing annual forages provide greater net returns […]
Read More →What Happens To Your Pasture Lease in Drought?
Do you rent pasture? What happens if drought lowers pasture production below expectations? Specifically, what does your pasture lease say about drought? It’s hard to think about drought in at the beginning of spring, but drought can play havoc on pasture leases. All too often, pasture leases fail to include an appropriate plan to adjust […]
Read More →Is There Drama in Farm/Ranch Land Transfer?
“It’s easier to talk to your children about sex than farmland transition.” – An Iowa farmer
Read More →Bone-headed Beef Business Blunders Part 3: Contracts – Go Ahead, Write a Book
For the third and final confession in my Boneheaded Beef Business Blunders series, I want to cover land lease and custom grazing contracts. I got myself into some sticky situations in my early years of ranching, due to assuming too much. In the past my land lease contracts have fit on one printed page with […]
Read More →Get Your Record Keeping Set Up Before Spring Hits
Going into the sciences, I discovered the value of writing things down – general advice being, “the more notes the better.” But, admittedly, this takes discipline and may be impractical. In my work I encounter many farmers whose main record keeping tool is their memory. I’m always impressed by the level of detail a farmer […]
Read More →Frugality is Not a Dirty Word
Now I know that I am fixing to age myself, but I want us all to think about being more frugal in our cattle operations. The reason that I say I am going to age myself is simply because folks of my generation knew what it was to do without. This is not to say […]
Read More →Calculating Meat Storage Costs for Chest Freezers
If you put the cost of electricity in terms of the number of chickens or pounds of beef you have to sell to pay for it you’ll have a better handle on making a profit.
Read More →Consider This View All →
Cattle May Be the Last Hope for Saskatchewan Sage Grouse
This 8:27 video takes us on a cattle drive with Miles Anderson, a rancher south of Fir Mountain, Saskatchewan, Canada. On this day, he’s gathering and moving about 100 cow calf pairs onto the neighboring Grasslands National Park so they can graze and create habitat for the endangered sage grouse. As we follow Miles […]
Read More →Can We Turn Cow Manure Into Toilet Paper?
An Austrian scientist has been looking at what comes out the back end of goats, horses, cows and even elephants because it has great potential to become paper.
Read More →Moore Land & Cattle Company – Profitable, Practical Resource Management
Greg Moore’s focus on restoring 25,000 acres of prairie grasslands and good habitat for wildlife has turned into more profit for his ranching operation, proving that ecological health and economic resilience go hand-in-hand
Read More →Less Lawn Mowing = More Bees
Sometimes bringing back the bees can be as simple as doing less, not more. Now scientists can tell you how often to mow your lawn to get the most bees possible.
Read More →Symptoms and Treatment of Tick Related Diseases
Since most of our readers spend a lot of time in tick habitat, we’re sharing these symptoms of the most common tick-borne illnesses. If you do get infected, getting treatment early is important, so we hope this helps keep you all safe. (And if you want to know how to prevent tick bites, check out […]
Read More →How to Remove a Tick and Prevent Bites
Tick season is on the way. As tick populations grow and spread across the country, their prevalence is increasing the public’s risk for some troubling diseases. Of these diseases, the American Academy of Dermatology says, Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever are among the most serious. “Although most ticks do not carry disease, it’s important […]
Read More →How Will the President’s Budget Proposal Affect Rural America?
Because your work and your success might be impacted by the federal budget, we asked Anna Johnson of the Center for Rural Affairs to share this information about the President’s proposed 2019 budget. The president’s fiscal year 2019 budget was released on February 12, 2018. This is an annual event, where the president formally […]
Read More →Facial Recognition Technology for COWS!
Coming soon – technology that looks at your cow, recognizes her, catalogs what she’s eating, drinking, and how she’s feeling so you can fix things fast if she seems to be ailing. What do you think of that?!
Read More →The Classic by NatGLC View All →
Treat Your Pastures Kindly This Spring for a Better Grazing Season
These tips from Troy were timely in 2014 and in 2018. They’re things we probably need to be reminded about every year! Enjoy! Believe it or not, sometime in the very near future you will be turning animals out to pasture. Some of you will have a plan and decide when it’s the right time […]
Read More →Good Soil Testing Is An Important Part of Your Pasture Management
If you’re looking at your pastures and thinking they’re missing something. The first place you might start is with a soil test. It can tell you if the pH is off – so your forage isn’t doing as well as it could, or if you actually need to add a little fertilizer. This article by […]
Read More →Be Safe Around Your Livestock By Understanding Signs of Aggression
From an August 2015 issue of On Pasture, here are some always timely tips for interacting with bulls as well as an “animal/English dictionary” of what your livestock are saying and what your response should be. We start with a list of from Joe Emenheiser of things to remember when working with bulls: 1. Appreciate […]
Read More →Take Advantage of Spring Green Up Without Destroying Your Summer Grazing
It’s that time of year, when we’re all thinking about grazing green grass. These tips from Greg Judy, first published in April of 2013, will help you control yourself and manage your grazing so that you have the best pastures possible through the summer. One of the toughest grazing management periods for livestock producers is […]
Read More →How to Write a Letter/Resume For Leasing Land
From August of 2014, this article is part of a whole collection on land leasing ins and outs. To see all in the series, just click on the graphic to the right. There is no magic recipe that will make a prospective landlord say, “Yeah! I’ll lease my land to you!” But knowing what a landlord […]
Read More →Figuring Pasture Rental Rates: Conditions that Affect Value
This is the fourth in a series on figuring pasture rental rates, updated with input from On Pasture readers. If you’ve missed the first three, here they are: How Much to Pay for Leased Pasture – 2018 Doing the Math on Pasture Rental Rates Part 1 Figuring Pasture Rental Rates Part 2: AUMs and Profit […]
Read More →Part 2 of Figuring Pasture Rental and Use Rates: Animal Units and Profit Sharing
We first covered this back in 2015. Here’s the third part in the series with some updates suggested by On Pasture readers. If you’ve missed the first two, here they are: How Much to Pay for Leased Pasture – 2018 Doing the Math on Pasture Rental Rates Part 1 Animal Unit Months Figuring pasture use […]
Read More →Doing the Math on Pasture Rental Rates (Part 1)
Running the numbers isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but we’ll try to make it a little less painful with some help from our friends.
Read More →The Funnies View All →
Excited For Spring? We are!
Unfortunately this is what spring has looked like so far for us….
Read More →Dangerous Geese and Roosters
Last week we reminded you that livestock are more dangerous than mountain lions and gave you some signs that show you when you’re in danger. Now, here’s a video to save you from geese and roosters.
Read More →
Know Your Livestock
Choose the species that works best for you! Thanks to Bill Fosher for this one!
Read More →James Taylor Has Updated “Fire and Rain”
Back when he wrote “Fire And Rain,” James Taylor hadn’t seen that many things. So he’s updated the lyrics to cover all the things he’s seen since 1970. (Like those pizzas that are folded over and the edges are crimped….Calzones?)
Read More →Get the Tuesday Morning Email!
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