Thursday, March 28, 2024

Monthly Archives: January, 2016

Surfing – With Goats, Pigs!

This time of year, we all might be thinking of surf and warm beaches. Our livestock might be also. We're guessing they are thinking...

Good Animal Handlers Have the Right Attitude

Have you noticed that we're running this Low-Stress Livestock Handling series under "Money Matters?" That's because we know that better animal handling saves time and money and makes animals more productive. It also improves the quality of life for us and everyone around us when we're working your stock. We hope that by running this series through the winter, when the grazing season starts up again, we'll be able to practice in pasture what we've learned in print.

Does Compost Tea Improve Pasture?

You may have heard of compost tea and theories that it can be used to improve pastures. With little research done on its benefits, one group of Indiana farmers decided to do their own tests to see if this treatment was as good as its claims.

How to Manage Pastures When Winter Isn’t Wintry

It's been a pretty mild winter for most of the U.S. and Canada. With that in mind, here are two perspectives on what's up with your pastures, and the management implications.

New Vaccine May Control Cattle Ticks

This story comes to us from the USDA Agriculture Research Service's AgResearch Magazine by ARS's Sandra Avant. The economic impact of cattle fever ticks, including...

Knowing When to Keep Your Money In Your Pocket

After years spent going to conferences and workshops and working with farmers and ranchers all across the country, I noticed two things. First, while...

How Do You Know When It’s Time to Move the Cows?

Editors' Note: This is part 3 of a series on Jay and Krista Reiser's pilot project to use mob grazing on a larger landscape...

Protecting Your Forage During and After Drought

Editors' Note: This article is the first in a series  about managing through and after drought. This one is all about the importance of...

Low-Stress Livestock Handling – It’s All In Your Head

The right mind-set can really improve your chances of becoming a good livestock handler. It starts with thinking about livestock in a new way.

USDA Revokes Grassfed Label Standard – NOT!

Sometimes headlines are misleading as they were when we were told last week that Grassfed labeling was being revoked in the U.S. Here's what's really going on.

Teaching Cows to Eat Weeds – A Farmer’s Perspective

Editors' Note: Don and Betty Ashford of Ethel, Louisiana shared their experience teaching cows to eat weeds as part of Kathy Voth's presentation at...

Great Uses for Duct Tape

People are very innovative, and cheap! Maybe you'll be able to adapt these ideas for your place. 🙂  

Beginning Farming at the Dixon Place

Sometimes farming doesn't make sense from the outside. But if it makes sense from the inside, that might just be what counts.

The Case for Low-Stress Livestock Handling

In my first article, I introduced stockmanship as an under-appreciated and under-utilized component of operating sustainable livestock operations, and argued that its one essential...

Some Thoughts On Keeping Chickens

I don’t claim to know all there is about keeping birds. Heck, I don’t claim to know anything at all. This is a post...

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