This one acre field was used last winter for the steers.  I fed hay and bedded them down with straw.  Once I turned the steers out to pasture, I loaded the manure which had accumulated over the winter and spread it on the rye field which was then tilled and planted to corn.

After allowing the soil to dry, I tilled this field and then planted barley and rapeseed on April 27th.  The field doesn’t look like much now, but it will be beautiful in six weeks when its ready for grazing.

The unfortunately named rapeseed also produces a beautiful yellow flower.  Rapeseed has two leaves with two segments each, which almost makes it look a 4-leaf clover.  This is the same plant which Canola oil is made from.

Five days after turning the cattle into half the winter rye field.  They ate it down to nothing.  And I have a round bale of hay available at all times.  But they want the green stuff.

When I turned them into the field five days ago, they did some running around, feeling their oats.  This time they were all business.  They knew what rye was, and they wanted it.

I love turning cattle into a new field of luscious forage.  Imagine tucking into a really good meal, and you won’t run out of food, and you won’t lose your appetite for about four hours.  I imagine this is how the cattle feel.  Nice.

Happy Easter!

I planted winter rye after corn silage harvest last fall.  I spreaded the bedding pack manure from one hoop building evenly over the field, disced the field lightly, and planted a bushel of rye per acre with my drill.

It came up nicely and gave me a few days of grazing last fall.  The real beauty of winter rye is that it stays green all winter.  When the snow isn’t too deep, it’s nice to find a sea of green in a dead and dormant winter landscape.

Winter rye also takes off growing in the spring faster than anything.  It has an alleopathic effect, meaning it’s competitive with other plants.  A quick glance in the field found no weeds.

In the photo above you can see the cattle in the rye, kept in  with a single electric wire.  The field with the ATV is alfalfa/grass.  The dead area is where I concentrated the driving of machinery, keeping the compacted/damaged area in one place, rather than scattered throughout the fields.

In the photo below you can see the saying is true, “grass is greener etc,” even when it’s not.  I’m amazed at cows’ body knowledge.  They will reach under an electric fence, mere inches from being shocked, and rarely get shocked.

A warm winter followed with record high temperatures in March, finds me in the fields earlier than ever.

I fed round bales of hay in a feeder to my fall-calving cows on a field which was corn last year and will be oats and new hay seeding this year.  I moved the feeder every time I fed a new bale so the manure would be spread across the field, pictured below.

The cows had to walk across a hay field to get to water.  Any time the ground wasn’t frozen resulted in damage from the cows’ hooves.

I dragged the damaged areas with a chain harrow pictured above.  I also spread some oats on the worst areas, using the silver seeder located on the back of the tractor, pictured above.  The oats will give some ground cover and forage.

I also fertilized last week.  I put 100 lbs of gypsum and 100 lbs of ammonium sulfate on every acre.  Gypsum supplies Calcium and Sulfur, while ammonium sulfate supplies Nitrogen and Sulfur.

I decided to not add any Phosphorous or Potassium.  My soil tests showed high levels of Phosphorous in the soil.  My forage tests showed high levels of Potassium in the hay.  These two elements, along with Nitrogen are considered the primary macro-nutrients.  Another reason I decided not to fertilize with Potassium is “luxury consumption.”  If potassium is readily available, plants will suck up more than they need.  This is one of the reasons I prefer to fertilize with Potassium in the fall.

Secondary macro-nutrients include Calcium, Magnesium, and Sulfur.  My forage tests were lower in Calcium than I liked.  So I decided to add gypsum which is 22% Calcium.  I could have added  lime, but that would raise the pH of the soil, which is already high at 7.4.

My soil is high in Magnesium because the rock underlying our soil is dolomitic limestone, which is high in Magnesium.

Needed Sulfur was supplied from the polluted atmosphere in acid rain for many years.  Now that the air is getting cleaner, there is less Sulfur available to plants, and plants deficient in Sulfur are being seen.  Gypsum is 17.5 % Sulfur, and Ammonium Sulfate is 24% Sulfur.

I didn’t add any of the micro-nutrients.  I plan on soil testing in late summer and fertilizing in the fall if my budget allows.

Product:     2012 Price  2011 Price  % Change

Urea            $650           $462           +41

Am. Sulfate $418           $343           +22

Potash        $620           $537           +16

MAP            $640           $673           -5

I took three cutting off this hay field, and it’s ready to be cut or grazed again at the end of September.  I’ll wait until after a hard frost, but before the snow gets deep, to graze this field with cattle.

If I grazed this field now, the alfalfa may use most of its root reserves to initiate regrowth.  If a hard frost shuts down the alfalfa at this point, it may have a difficult time surviving the winter because its root reserves are too low.  Grazing or cutting after the plant has gone dormant has little effect.  The time I avoid cutting or grazing is from about September 15th to October 15th, for this climate.

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Justin, formerly of  Midwestern Bio-Ag, took two forage samples, one from first cutting, and one from second cutting.  The samples were taken from square bales, stored in the barn.  First cutting was baled June 1st.  Second cutting was baled July 8th.  The alfalfa was full-bloom both times.

I don’t understand forage testing very well.  If you want an in-depth explanation, check out this excellent article from the University of Kentucky.

These were the first forage tests I’ve ever taken on my farm.  I’ll share some of what I learned.

Even though both cuttings were taken when the alfalfa was full-bloom, 2nd cutting was considerably higher in quality than 1st cutting.  The cattle’s preference confirms this.  2nd cutting was higher in protein, (17.28 to 16.58), lower in ADF fiber, (31.96 to 37.23), higher in TDN total digestible nutrients, (57.06% to 51.13%), and higher in RFQ relative feed quality, (143.91 to 108.68).

I’ll summarize what these numbers mean to me.  Cattle can maintain their weight eating the first cutting hay, and gain some weight eating the second cutting hay.

Some other interesting findings, calcium was low, lending credence to the importance of added calcium, which I have not done.  Manganese was fine, which is strange because my soil tests show low manganese.  Potassium was high, which is also strange because I didn’t add any potassium in the spring, eliminating the theory of luxury consumption, and the soil tests show medium potassium.

If you have any thoughts about this, please share.

I enjoyed attending a Midwestern Bio-Ag field day.  Fertilizer is their main business, but they also deal in feed and seed.  Pictured is a large truck which is used to spread fertilizer, and a red buggy which a farmer can pull behind a tractor to spread fertilizer.

Gary Zimmer is the founder of Midwestern Bio-Ag.  I picked up a copy of his new book, “Advancing Biological Farming.”  He sold me in his introduction, when he wrote:

“So please, when you read this book don’t be too quick to judge.  Don’t read between the lines.  I’m sure you can find some details you won’t or can’t agree with, but remember, these are my thoughts, observations, ideas, and experiences up to this point in time.  Show me a better way and I’m ready to make changes and take on new ideas after they have been tested and their success demonstrated on the farm.  I want to know when it works, how it works, why it works or doesn’t work.  If a new idea makes sense, improves quality and/or yield, and is profitable, then let’s go with it.”

I always listen to a person who admits he doesn’t know everything.

I have a difficult time knowing if a fertilizer is real, or “foo-foo dust”.  There are so many variables in farming, it’s nearly impossible to know if a little something we spread on the fields has an effect.  Unless I correct a visible deficiency, fertilizer is almost faith-based.

That being said, I’m thinking about working with Midwestern Bio-Ag for my fertilizer wants and needs.  I plan to figure ways to test the effectiveness of their products.

Below is a picture of the Round Baler, unloading a finished bale.  Hay is picked up underneath the baler.  The belts keep tension on the hay as an ever-increasing amount is rolled up, resulting in a tightly-packed round- bale of hay.

Photo  by Melissa.

Each bale weighs about 1500 lbs. and feeds at least 50 cows a day in winter.  We feed the cows by unrolling the hay on the frozen ground so all the cows can eat at once.  They eat their daily allotment in a few hours.

The picture below is of our wheel rake.  Each arm of wheels moves up and down hydraulically.  When the wheels are down, they turn along the ground moving the hay into the center.

Photo by Melissa.

This was my worst field of down corn, Monday, after the severe storm.  We received close to three inches of rain in less than an hour.  Wind speeds of 70 mph were reported.

I was shocked when I looked out and saw the fields.  I examined it right away and figured it was a total loss, but held out hope because I only found one stalk snapped off.  Sometimes corn can pull itself back up if it’s early enough in the growing season.

And thankfully, that’s what our corn did.  The picture below is of the same field  on Friday.  The mud on the leaves shows how down it was.

Before me, Citygirlfriend had never known someone who actually talked about the weather.  I think she’s starting to see why we do.