New Cattle on the Farm

We recently got 16 yearling steer, 4 heifers, and the cutest little bull you ever did see named Woody. This will be a major jump in production for us, but now that we have fencing and soon will have water lines to the grazing pastures, I will be able to make big enough paddocks for this many cattle and I won’t have to haul water multiple times a day.

I was also pleased with myself that when we were putting in the fences last August I thought to add this smaller permanent pen up near the shed. It worked perfectly as a place to receive the new cattle, meet their new herd mates across the fence line, and settle down for a few days after what was a big trip from the farm where they were born. They are still young, flighty, and suspicious of us so it’s going to take some time for them to get used to me being around every day.

One of the great things about rotational grazing though is that the animals quickly learn that when I show up every day it means they get fresh grass and begin to associate me with something positive. This makes the rest of their lives so much less stressful than animals that rarely interact with humans until the days they absolutely have to.

So now we’re just waiting on the grass to grow and looking forward to watching how much the land improves now that we’ll have enough animals to stimulate more grass growth which will in turn feed the ecosystem in the soil.