Using a well designed grazing cell & the right portable fence tools, I can generally feed the herd in about 25-30 minutes even with the ground frozen. No expensive machinery, No diesel fuel, No engines to start.
Here I am with 400-some cows looking for breakfast on a beautiful crisp winter morning in the Pahsimeroi.
Today’s feed strip was set up yesterday. Daily chores involve just taking down one temporary fence & leapfrogging it ahead for the next day’s move.
The cattle start moving into the strip as the fence is reeled up. They come in heads down and grazing. No running around the new paddock to see what’s there. They just get down to business.
After reeling up the 1000′ of polybraid, I walk ahead to where tomorrows lead fence needs to be & unroll it.
The reel can be hung on any type of hard wire fence. In this case, it is our 2-wire inner circle fence on the pivot. Always hang the reel near a post for stability. That can be a wood, fiberglass, Pasture Pro, or any other type of permanent line post.
I then walk back along the previous fenceline pulling the O’Brien step-in posts and reset them on the new fenceline. On our 300-acre pivot, the fence runs are just over 1000 ft and the entire process of taking down a fence and resetting it generally take me 25-30 minutes.
When I was a little younger, it was generally 22-23 minutes to do the job. I walk just a little slower now.
The cows say mmmmm… good!
Grazing winter feed or even swaths can work excellently with perennial grass, or even with cover crops grown on cropland. You can reduce the time even further with a pivot, especially if livestock water can be provided near the center. Set up a circular temporary power fence immediately adjacent to the last tower. Hang a power fence line from strusses from the pivot over the top of each drive tower, and simply advance the pivot 25 or 30 seconds to provide the next days forage.
A little more initial work in installing the circular fence adjacent to the last wheel track. No need to move the back fence since cattle will focus on each new feeding area adjacent to the pivot for the next day or two (during the dormant winter season). Feeding around 3 pm will allow snow to soften with warmer day temperatures. No need to pick up or step in the posts for the moveable fence. Be careful to avoid obstructions that are higher than the power fence, and carefully fasten insulators to keep from wrapping the polywire around driveline.
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