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# of livestock per acre
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Author:  RGilbert [ Sat Jan 10, 2004 9:38 pm ]
Post subject: 

More like Hayfield grass. A lot of milk weed late in the fall. The front part has some great bermuda grass that grows about 12 inches tall. Most has a hodge podge. Thistle and an orange colored grass that is a clump and is about 3 feet tall.
The roots that were left, after the burn, are about the diameter of your little finger and are assoc. with a center clump.

So maybe I should lightly disk and spread a coastal bermuda sprig in the spring??

And keep mowing!

Randy

Author:  Robert D Bard [ Sun Jan 11, 2004 10:08 pm ]
Post subject:  live stock per acre

Sprigging "ain't fun". You need to to go deeper than light discing. You have to have right moisture or the sprigs will die. Ater the sprigs are spread you have to roll it with something heavy to get rid of air to reduce drying. If you choose sprigging then you need to look into Tifton and not coastal. Try the Nobel Foundation in Ardmore Ok. These people are the pasture - grass -specialists in this area. Also consider Red River Crab grass that they developed. I tried this last summer and in a drought it did very well and the cows loved it. If all else fails then broad cast common bermuda grass. I like it a lot better than coastal - not as talll but thicker with less fertilizer.
Robert D Bard

Author:  user_48634 [ Mon Jan 12, 2004 11:12 am ]
Post subject: 

What are you calling weeds? One man's weed is another man's forage.

The time honored solution for clearing brush and weeds is goats and sheep mixed right in there with the cattle. Or you could run the goats and sheep in first to clear the land. This is what the early Spanish did and it still works. The goats and sheep will clear the land up to about 4-5 feet above the ground - whatever they can reach. This opens it up even under the trees for more grass and legumes.

Author:  user_48634 [ Mon Jan 12, 2004 11:36 am ]
Post subject: 

What are you calling weeds? One man's weed is another man's forage.

The time honored solution for clearing brush and weeds is goats and sheep mixed right in there with the cattle. Or you could run the goats and sheep in first to clear the land. This is what the early Spanish did and it still works. The goats and sheep will clear the land up to about 4-5 feet above the ground - whatever they can reach. This opens it up even under the trees for more grass and legumes.

Author:  RGilbert [ Tue Jan 13, 2004 10:51 pm ]
Post subject: 

Manure,
What do you guys do with it? I had an idea, after passing a farm with cows that has plenty of it just laying around. I've given some thought to contacting the owner and see if he'll let me bring my tractor and small trailer and shovel some in to take home.
I want to spread it over a lot of acres over a period of time. Is it feasible to just chop it up and spread it across some of the acreage I have? How much coverage, etc. I'm thinking I need to improve the soil since I have so many weeds.
Surly this is too valuable a commodity to not use. But how would you on a Ranch for soil conditioning?

I know, if I had some cattle, I could be doing two things at once. Making beef and improving the soil. :cry: But I don't have any animals at the moment.

thanks,Randy

Author:  user_48634 [ Fri Jan 16, 2004 10:59 am ]
Post subject: 

This probably should be a new thread, but here goes...

If the manure is fairly fresh, you should mix it with a carbon source like sawdust, wood chips, old phone books or paper, or something like that. If it is aged (that means it smells fantastic right in front of your nose), then you can spread it right away.

Apply at a rate of 1 cubic yard per 1,000 square feet. That would be 43 cubic yards per acre. Use more if you have it and want to.

Author:  RGilbert [ Fri Jan 16, 2004 4:06 pm ]
Post subject: 

Thanks David, I also found a bunch of good info on the discussion board "help the new guy".
The more I take the time to read this stuff, the more I pick up. Stay dry this weekend. But be glad it's raining !
RG

Author:  Gar [ Fri Jan 16, 2004 6:32 pm ]
Post subject: 

Rg,
Keep reading buddy. Everytime I read a new post, I learn something new.
I feel with all the people that post we are all learning to be better organic and out environment is improving as well. At least I hope so.

Author:  user_48634 [ Fri Jan 23, 2004 2:41 pm ]
Post subject: 

I just read a post on an oxen forum (don't ask :? ) about stocking rates. The guy said a rule of thumb was 1 animal per square mile per inch of rain. They were not talking about oxen at the time (I don't think).

I'm kind of an Excel meister and ran some calculations. That rule actually seems to work in part of Texas. For those of you getting 20 acres per animal unit in Central Texas on 30 inches of rain, that fits perfectly. For some of you getting 10 acres per animal in the same area, it is like you are getting 60 inches of rain instead of 30.

But when you come down toward the gulf coast, they get more like 12+ animal units per square mile per inch of rainfall. There must be a temperature factor in there or something to account for year round grass growth down there.

Author:  Robert D Bard [ Sat Jan 24, 2004 12:58 am ]
Post subject:  # per acre

There is a east west rule in Tx that has to be considered. A cow in east Tx can go to west Tx and survive, but a cow from W Tx can be moved to east Tx and she will die of starvation. The reason is that grass in W Tx maybe limited in volume but it has more nutrition than E Tx grasses because E Tx land has been farmed out and the trace minerals and other nutrition has not been replaced. We have a mini cow from the Davis Mt region of W Tx and she is healthy and the vet says she is ok but she is still not bred. She has been here for 2 years next month. She had better produce a calf soon or she will be "hamberger".

The stocking rate maybe related to water but the nutrition of the land is important. In this area when the pasture is top notch you can get two min cows per acre.
Robert D Bard

Author:  dustoff79 [ Mon Feb 09, 2004 12:34 pm ]
Post subject: 

RGilbert wrote:
Manure,
What do you guys do with it? I had an idea, after passing a farm with cows that has plenty of it just laying around. I've given some thought to contacting the owner and see if he'll let me bring my tractor and small trailer and shovel some in to take home.


RGilbert, I think David has a great Idea. When I was living in Germany, they had a trailer that was used to spread manure. It had a conveyor belt on the bottom tied into the wheels, and on the end what can best be described as a flinger. yes it just flung the manure around. Funny thing about this is, my grandfather died several years ago and I was walking around his "bone yard" (an area that many farms have, where old machines, cars, trailers etc.. are placed because they may be used for parts, or just needed), here in the good ole US. Anyway, guess what I found, yes the same type of trailer, old and unfortunately broken. I asked my dad about it and he said that yes when he was a kid, they would gather the manure in piles from the pens etc... which was mixed with anything they happened to also rake up, straw, hay, feed, ect...and when the piles were large enough (I later found out they composted some) it was piled on the trailer and spread over the fields. Cow Manure is great fertilizer, and if I could I would have piles and piles of it composting (currently, limited to one pile or horse manure/grass/leaves) and use that for everything.

Author:  user_48634 [ Mon Feb 09, 2004 3:42 pm ]
Post subject: 

Now I know I'm off topic, but here goes anyway. A year or so ago I read a book by a guy writing about his grandfather and his farm. He apparently kept animals in the barn and had a conveyer belt that ran through the barn. Every morning they would turn on that belt and flip the manure onto it to travel outside and get dumped. They had a special area where they dumped it. The area was divided into four quadrants. Every year they would dump into one quadrant and excavate from another. The next year they would dump into last year's excavated quadrant and excavate the next oldest quadrant. So each quadrant filled for a year, sat for two years, and got dug out for a year. The composted material was then flung onto the farm. The author said they always had several earthworms in any handful of soil they dug up from the farm.

Just thought I'd share.

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