The Scoop View All →
Let’s Not Just Talk About Making Money – Let’s Do It!
We’re doing something new here at On Pasture. After years of conversations about how hard it is to make a living as a farmer/rancher, we want to do something about it. And that’s why we’re working with Charlotte Smith at 3 Cow Marketing. Farmers and ranchers have to have a whole host of skills in […]
Read More →Six Steps That Will Make You Money On Your Farm
In April, when I was at the “Our Farms, Our Future” conference, I had a “straw that broke the camel’s back” moment. For years I’ve heard from farmers and ranchers how little money they make. But at the conference, sitting in a room of about 1000 people, listening to a panel of young farmers say […]
Read More →How to Get City Folks to Understand and Support Farmers and Ranchers
It’s a common complaint among ag producers: “Those city folk don’t understand us and they don’t even know where their food comes from!” We all talk about it, but, what are we doing about it? In this week’s issue of On Pasture, John Marble shares what he’s doing about it. I REALLY want you to check […]
Read More →Ag Policy is Being Written. Does It Reflect What’s Important to You?
According to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), “The farm bill connects the food on our plates, the farmers and ranchers who produce that food, and the natural resources – our soil, air and water – that make growing food possible. [It can have a] tremendous impact on farming livelihoods, how food is grown, and […]
Read More →Start Your Farm
New York Times Best Selling Author Forrest Pritchard’s latest book “Start Your Farm” will be hitting bookstores soon. Here’s what you need to know about the book and how to pre-order your copy.
Read More →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 →Grazing Management View All →
Managing to Prevent Grass Tetany
Is grass tetany a threat to your herd? It could be if you’re dealing with cool conditions and lush spring forage growth. It is what we call “washy” grass. This new growth is very high in water and nitrogen. It can also be fairly high in potassium. Fields that have been fertilized with nitrogen may […]
Read More →Back to Grass – Turning Marginal Cropland to Pasture For a Diverse Sustainable Operation
Darin Michalski’s direction in life was influenced by his father. “Dad didn’t like farming much. He was more into cattle. He always cussed some of the land we farmed. It was pretty marginal land and said that we should sow this down to grass.” So when he got his first 80, that’s what Darin ended […]
Read More →How to Graze For Water Quality and Quantity
“Healthy watersheds through good land management, that’s what we work on,” says Robert Potts, President and CEO of the Dixon Water Foundation. “Managing the land is the critical component in making sure we have enough water and the kind of water we want going forward.” Their success in meeting their goals is the reason the […]
Read More →Wait! A Test to See if Your Grasses Are Ready to Graze
Bethany Johnston of UNL Extension tells us what leaf stages look like and what that means for grazing. Take her picture test and see if you pass!
Read More →Creating Resilient Soil With Cover Crops and Integrated Livestock
Thanks to Kara Pugsley, the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition and the Natural Resources Conservation Service for this profile in soil health. If you’d like to virtually visit the Reimnitz farm, check out the 4:46 video at the end of this article where Jordan describes his farm and work. Farmer and livestock producer Jordan Reimnitz has […]
Read More →Grazing Around Streams – More Ways To Do The Right Thing
We can graze around streams and avoid government regulations if we choose to do the right thing. Troy Bishopp is busy collecting examples and sharing them with On Pasture so our community can be a good example to all graziers.
Read More →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 →Pasture Health View All →
Is Seeding for New Forages in Your Future?
Are you thinking about seeding for improved summer forages? Are you wondering what to seed, how much to seed and how to prepare the seedbed? Here are some tips to think about from Ed Rayburn, West Virginia University Extension Specialist, and a few good places you can go to get advice that’s right for you […]
Read More →What Kinds of Forages Are Good in Grassfed Systems?
This article comes to us from the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SARE) and Jan Holder’s book, “How to Direct Market Your Beef.” Jan and her husband took over management of their family ranch in 1992. Their plan was to “whip the ranch into shape in a few months and then spend the next […]
Read More →Wait! A Test to See if Your Grasses Are Ready to Graze
Bethany Johnston of UNL Extension tells us what leaf stages look like and what that means for grazing. Take her picture test and see if you pass!
Read More →Diversity in Pasture Plants Has Big Effects on Herd and Flock Health
Before I began farming, I was an oceanographer. I used to study tiny, planktonic crustaceans called copepods that feed on microscopic algae, at the base of the food chain, and are themselves consumed by fishes. Some 70 percent of all fishes in the ocean eat copepods at some time in their lives. So naturally, oceanographers […]
Read More →Moderate Grazing Repairs Soils
Thanks to Dennis O’Brien and researchers at the USDA Agricultural Research Service for their assistance on this article. Decades of plowing throughout the Piedmont region of the United States have degraded the soil, allowing much of it to be washed away, and robbing what is left of nutrients and organic matter. Sorghum, cotton, soybean, and […]
Read More →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 →Livestock View All →
Sassy Calving: More Fun ~ Less Work
Over the past ten years or so I have read many, many articles encouraging ranchers to calve in sync with nature, to calve when the other ungulate-ruminants calve. In other words, suggesting we calve in the spring rather than winter. The basis for most of this writing has been economics: a discussion of costs, inputs, […]
Read More →Selecting for Heat Tolerant Cattle Using Coat Shedding Scores
Scientists and the Farmer’s Almanac agree: this summer is going to be hotter than normal all across the U.S. and Canada. In fact, many farmers and ranchers I talk to agree that they’re seeing a trend of hotter summers over all. Everyone also agrees that heat stress reduces cattle weight gain, calf weaning weights and […]
Read More →Black is Only a Color
In a market that seems to tell us that we can only make money selling black cattle, Don Ashford has a different story to tell.
Read More →The Easiest Way to Treat Pink Eye
When visiting Greg and Jan Judy a few weeks ago, I asked Greg “What do you do about pinkeye?” “We don’t treat it,” he said. “We found that if we treated it the cow got better in 2 or 3 weeks. If we didn’t treat it, the cow got better in 2 or 3 weeks.” […]
Read More →Why Red Devon?
We all have reasons for the choosing the breed of livestock we raise. Don explains why Red Devons work for him.
Read More →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 →Money Matters View All →
Great Marketing Advice Part 2: Three Steps That Will Get New Customers to Your Farm
Greg Judy turned On Pasture onto Charlotte Smith, saying hers was the best marketing advice he’d heard. Last week we shared her first article covering six steps for getting started making money from your farm. This week she takes a deeper look at one of those steps: Attract your dream customer. I work with thousands […]
Read More →Greg Judy Says: “This Is the BEST Marketing Advice I’ve Ever Heard” – Part 1
Greg Judy introduced Kathy to Charlotte at the April “Our Farms Our Future Conference” because he’d heard her talk and knew that she had a lot to offer On Pasture and its readers. She has been kind enough to provide us with this first in a series and we’re working on ways we can provide […]
Read More →Everything You Need to Include in a Farm/Ranch Lease Contract – Part 2
Over the last few months, my Boneheaded Beef Business Blunders articles have related how I’ve been burned by ineffective land lease and custom grazing contracts. As a result, I’ve changed what I include in contracts. Here in Part 2 I share the rest of the topics I am now including in my lease contracts along […]
Read More →Everything You Need to Include in a Farm/Ranch Lease Contract – Part 1
Over the last few months, my Boneheaded Beef Business Blunders articles have related how I’ve been burned by ineffective land lease and custom grazing contracts. As a result, I’ve changed what I include in contracts. Below is a complete rundown of all the topics I am now including in my lease contracts. I will do […]
Read More →Stock Tank Adventuring – A New Business Opportunity?
Looking at their natural resources in a new way helped this family find a new, money-making enterprise.
Read More →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 →Consider This View All →
The Best Farm Girl Birthday Party Ever!
Doug Ferguson’s daughter wanted to have her 6th birthday party at the sale barn. It took some creativity to turn her wish into reality. But, not only did Doug Ferguson pull it off, people are still talking about what fun it was a year later!
Read More →A Major North American Climate Boundary Moves East
The 100th Meridian is one of only two climate divides in the world. (The other divides the Sahara Desert from the rest of Africa.) Now scientists have found this line is moving east, and that could impact how we farm and ranch in the future.
Read More →Walking the Walk, Talking the Talk: Our 2018 Ranch Walk-About
A lot of folks talk about how non-farmers need to understand where their food comes from and what farming and ranching is all about. Here’s how John Marble is actually doing something about it.
Read More →Grazing is a Win-Win for Ranchers, Salamanders, Frogs and the Community
This story was drawn from a piece by Ashley Spratt, a Public Affairs Specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Ventura Field Office in Ventura, California. It was edited for content and length. See the full piece here. Amid the rolling grasslands and oak woodlands of Santa Clara and San Benito counties […]
Read More →Listen to This – A Conversation With Greg Judy and Adam Saunders
“One of the questions people ask me is what’s the most important lessons I’ve learned in farming, and one is invest in livestock, not machinery. That’s a huge one!…Because how many tractors have you see that had a baby calf?!” That’s Greg Judy talking with Adam Saunders in the latest “Our Farms, Our Future” podcast. […]
Read More →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 →The Classic by NatGLC View All →
Look at Your Cows to Figure Out If They Need New/Bigger Paddock
Do you know if your cattle are getting enough forage? Are your paddocks big enough or is it time to move your herd to their next pasture? These tips from Jay and Krista Reiser will help you answer these questions and more. In addition to improving the soil and forage health, Jay and Krista were […]
Read More →Shade – Livestock Do Better With It – And Here’s How to Add It
In this week’s Livestock article we talk about how to start down the road of raising more heat tolerant cattle. But what can you do in the meantime? For this week’s Classic by NatGLC, we’ve drawn on two articles we’ve published in the past to give you some ideas for adding shade to your pastures. […]
Read More →Ideas for Mob Grazing Paddock Design
Think you can’t mob graze on 2700 acres? Jay and Krista Reiser describe the paddock design that works for them in North Dakota. Don’t have 2700 acres? Their design ideas will work for you just as well.
Read More →Parasite Control Silver Bullet
We first shared this in March of 2017. It’s good information about managing parasites no matter what kind of livestock you’re raising. If you’d like to know how to reduce deworming and still have healthy goats or sheep, you’ll want to check out the the ATTRA/NCAT publication “Managing Internal Parasites: Success Stories.” It includes stories […]
Read More →The Easiest Way to Monitor for Tracking Pasture and Rangeland Changes
Spring is a great time to set up pasture monitoring. All you need is your smart phone, maybe a shovel or fence post from the back of your truck, and the willingness to take a picture and email it to yourself and you’ve become a monitoring master! Here’s how, from August of 2017. Enjoy! Would […]
Read More →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 →The Funnies View All →
Chickens Are More Impressive With Arms and A Superhero Theme
Add a little excitement to your barnyard!
Read More →Are You Having a Bad Hair Day?
We all have bad hair days. We hope yours aren’t this bad.
Read More →New Cross Breed Dogs
There may be some excellent reasons to get one of these new breeds!
Read More →Homemade Eye Protection for Cows
Farmers and ranchers are full of ingenuity when it comes to solving problems with whatever they have lying around.
Read More →
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 →
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