The Thinking Grazier

As On Pasture begins to head off into the sunset, I wanted to be sure to leave you with some of the most important lessons about successful grazing that I’ve learned while writing and publishing articles for you over the last nine-plus years. To help me, here is the Thompson family from McLaughlin, South Dakota. […]

Last week, I wrote about how tarweed showed up on my ranch a few years back, and how the management that had worked so well in the past seemed to fail me. In the end, I realized I needed to know more about my opponent. So here’s what I learned. I hope you’ll use it […]

Three weeks ago, I got a lesson in context when I helped my dad into an ambulance because a sudden stomach bug left him so weak, he could barely function. I reluctantly left my mom at the hospital, like so many others these past 2 years who were not allowed to enter, and drove away […]

This months’ Grazier’s Focus was inspired by some very fascinating ideas from rancher Richard Moyer. Richard has been thinking about the problems associated with finding, buying, and affording the hay he needs to keep his cow herd going. The roadblocks Richard sees are expensive fuel, expensive fertilizer, and just plain scarce supplies of hay (caused […]

Have you downloaded your grazing chart? Have you started looking at the list of questions that will help you get your planning underway? Do you have estimates for forage production and for how much forage your livestock need? With all that, are you still a little unsure of what the next steps are? Well, never […]

John Marble and Troy Bishopp have something in common with many On Pasture readers. They expanded their grazing operations by renting pastures and grazing more cattle. John owned only two of the 11 properties where he grazed cattle. Troy rented 5 properties plus his home farm where he grazed cattle for his custom grazing business. […]

On Pasture’s New Year’s Resolution is to help you develop a business vision and goals that ensure a happy, healthy life, and a grazing operation that gets you there. Creating a vision and goals, isn’t something that’s natural for most of us. So, to make the process easier, we’ll be providing lots of examples, like […]

Because this topic is so important, I’ve made this article free to everyone. I remember it well: sitting on the veranda with my wife and two bottles of wine from our favorite winery, contemplating our future life and goals as we prepared for my brother’s funeral in 2017. This was a decision day for the […]

Making more money from your pasture is not just about soil fertility, it’s about management. Darrell explains how much more weight his herd gained on a shorter sward, and how he managed the pasture to get from just grazing to GRAZING.

In this month’s The Thinking Grazier, we’re looking at some research that might challenge some of our preconceived notions. I’ve included questions we can ask ourselves as we consider what to do with this information. You can also download the paper with the link to the right. Preventing animals from taking that “second bite” or […]

Last month in The Thinking Grazier, John Marble got us thinking about our relationship with our animals and how behavior (theirs and ours), along with our fence and infrastructure, factors into getting them to do what we want them to do. Then last week, he concluded that leading was more efficient and cost effective than […]

Editor’s Note: John Marble runs a seasonal grazing operation. That means he doesn’t over-winter cattle, and,each spring, he’s working with a new batch of cows, calves, and custom grazed steers. Because these animals are unfamiliar with managed grazing, he’s developed techniques that make it easy to work with and move them. This month, we’re taking […]

Editor’s Note: I just got back from 5 days in the largest 2C hot spot in the Lower 48. Grand Junction, Colorado is in the middle of a 30,000 square mile region that has warmed as much as 3.5° C (5° F) above pre-industrial levels. The result, in addition to hotter summers and warmer winters, […]