My wife says there are only three seasons in Ohio… Summer. Winter. And Mud.
Summer lasts 20% of the year, Winter about 15% and Mud makes up the rest.
Thus, this is the beginning of the difficulties with non-farmers/homesteaders.
We love sharing our life and beautiful farm with others. Often, cars stop while driving past our pastures just to get a glimpse of our sheep grazing. It looks calm and peaceful. The problem is the people in those cars come from a place where the streets are blacktopped, there are concrete sidewalks, pretty sod lawns and highly maintained parks and athletic fields (increasingly these are artificial turf).
There are four seasons in suburbia – just change their jackets and they are good to go. The dog has a cute sweater and boots for his feet. No mud. No mess. The snow may get slushy, but the car is parked in an attached, heated garage.
Coming to the country / farmland for a glimpse of a life they fantasize about exposes the reality of homestead life. It is muddy. It is messy. It is real.
No artificial turf here.
Homesteading and Farming go on no matter the weather or outdoor temperatures.
These casual visitors wonder how we let the farm livestock live in muddy pastures and unheated barns. Horses are outside with only a shed. The cows aren’t wearing blankets. The sheep should have down-insulated jackets, wool socks, and muck boot. Never mind that all the animals are wearing leather, fur, thick wool, or a fuzzy undercoat to keep them warm.
I am against animal abuse and misuse. We are to be stewards and care takers of the animals in our care. The good shepherd. Our animals are vulnerable and have no resources themselves other than what we provide.
That being said, I have a nice, heavily strawed sheep barn with feeders and hay, however my sheep are out roaming the pasture every day by their choice. Even in the snow, ice, and rain – the animals would rather be outside.
The city dwellers need to study nature and see how animals really adapt to and live in the harsh environment. It’s time to realize that Bambi was a cartoon movie and Peter Rabbit is a child’s storybook.
Why am I writing about this? Because I was at the local feed mill last week and a farmer was beside himself. Someone called the humane society because his horses were outside during the snow storm. He has a barn which the horses have access to and they chose to be outside. The horses have their heavy winter coats and were perfectly able to stay outside. Now, the farmer will be dealing with ‘officials’ who may have an agenda. He faced possible fines and even the confiscation of his animals. Just the hassle involved is enough to turn a farmer’s hair white.
As a retired Agriculture teacher, I have dealt with students, farmers, and wannabees during my career. The phone would ring in my office and the conversation would go like this, “My horse is sick. I think it has a fever and respiratory problems. I don’t know how it got sick. I locked it in the barn and closed off all the drafts.”
After telling them to call a Vet as soon as possible to get the horse treated, I would explain that the real problem is that the horse can’t get away from a moist environment, causing it to come down with pneumonia. It would turn out that the neighbor had his horses outside with a shelter the animals could use and, though these horses were always outside, no matter the weather, they were healthy.
Why? Animals adapt, doing best when they can have fresh air and are outside as much as possible.
The point of this tirade is I am going to share some good, old-fashioned farm knowledge that those city folks don’t understand.
1. Wild animals live in Nature. Horses, deer, elk, etc., use hills and valleys to block the wind, snow, and rain. Evergreens (pines) form shelters from inclement weather. Smaller animals snuggle under bushes, creating their own little safe space.
2. Animals grow a hair/fur undercoat to protect them in Winter. If you gently lift the straight, stiff top hair, you will find a fuzzy downy undercoat. This is insulating.
Our Jersey has a nice undercoat of downy fur. The stiff, straight hairs help rain and snow run off her back while the undercoat acts as insulation. Even our farm dogs develop an undercoat in the Fall. So do rabbits, goats, horses......
3. Horses, cattle, sheep, and goats will use their hooves to dig up to 6 inches into the snow to find grass to eat. Frozen snow packs cause trouble, which is one reason farmers hate ice storms and ice/snow mix.
4. Orchard grass in pastures and hay fields will continue to grow under a snow pack as long as the soil isn’t frozen.
5. Tree bark and branches don’t provide any nourishment even though animals will eat them. The tips of some branches and shrubs may provide a little nourishment, but not much.
6. Poor quality hay, if that is all you can get, is still better feed than ‘snow-balls’. You can always supplement with grain and protein tubs (available at farm and fleet stores).
7. An intensive grazing system still works in the winter.
8. Livestock has a tendency to walk down and lay down on pastures and forages, so when intensive grazing, limit access to new pasture to reduce waste.
9. A good source of winter forage for livestock is corn stalks. One acre of harvested corn stalks will provide 60 days of pasture per cow. For example: a 4-acre field of harvested corn stalks in the field will provide 240 cow days of grazing. {240 cow days ÷ 12 cows = 20 days-worth of grazing.} This same 4 acres will give you 1200 days per sheep. {1200 sheep days ÷ 30 sheep = 40 days of grazing.}
10. Don’t have a corn field? Does your neighbor? Ask him if you can run electric fence around his field and agree to bush hog down the remaining stalks in the Spring. He will get free fertilizer on his field. You feed your animals.
11. Wheat or oat stubble hay is good source of feed. Farmers will Spring top-seed small grains for a hay field the following year. When the grain is harvested, usually the straw is cut high to encourage forage growth of the next year’s hay crop. Many farmers cut the stubble hay mix in late August/early September. Most farmers use this for a combination feed/bedding source.
12. When I was a kid, farmers planted winter wheat or small grains in September. When the forage reached about 6”, the farmer grazed the vegetation down to 1” before removing the livestock. Triticale is another forage grain that is excellent to plant using either till or non-till methods in September or even later. It can be grazed in the late Fall and is one of the first and fastest forage to grow in the Spring. (Generally, not causing bloat)
13. Stockpile grazing: Leaving a hay field and/or a pasture to rest from early August to late November is an excellent way to have a source of fresh forage for December and later.
14. Discing a field or pasture in mid-August and allowing the weeds to grow can produce excellent sources of forages. Yes. They are weeds! Lambs quarter, foxtail, and ragweed are excellent livestock forages in their tender stage. Also, each have protein levels in the 20% and higher range, better than clover or alfalfa. The best thing is the seed is already in the soil and these ‘weeds’ grow well in drought conditions.
15. Goats, sheep, and poultry love to graze in pumpkin and squash fields and in garden leftovers.
16. Use animals’ natural breeding cycles for the best results. Cattle should calve in June. Sheep and goats deliver in late April. These dates are the most economical for producers, however I realize these don’t work with county fair schedules and ‘storybook’ farming. The reason these dates work best is that pastures are starting to grow and provide quality feed with little supplementation.
This little guy was born earlier than we like, in March, but calves come when they come. We strive for late Spring/early Summer calving when the pastures are becoming lush.
17. Attend an Intensive Grazing workshop and learn about cattle growth cycles. You will be amazed at what you learn and how to improve your livestock production with the least cost. For example, January ‘fair calves’ don’t match any growth potential standards compared to a calf born later and left at its mother’s side.
Stockman Grass Farmer magazine is a invaluable resource if you want to learn more about intensive grazing, maximizing profits while decreasing input (work), fencing, and so much more.
18. To increase and encourage egg production in chickens, feed oats. Sprouted oats are even better. Add electric lighting from 3am – 10am in the Winter.
19. Frozen Water Line. The standard rule of thumb in Ohio has been to bury water lines at least 32” deep to prevent Winter freezing. In 1978, during Ohio’s Blizzard and Deep Freeze water lines froze 40” deep! As I was making a farm visit, one farmer told me that his lines hadn’t froze though they were only 12 – 16” deep. I didn’t believe him, but his barn water was running. In the Spring, he invited me to check out his water lines. Sure enough, the lines were only 12 – 16” deep. However, each line had a 6 – 8” board about 1 inch above the line. The secret to his success was that the boards above the lines reflected the cold frost upward and reflect the earth’s natural heat down, keeping the lines from freezing. I have tried this with success however, we haven’t had a major blizzard or deep freeze since.
20. Hayfields and pastures need maintenance. Plowing and seeding a new hayfield or pasture costs over $250 per acre. There are ways to improve these areas without starting over. You can ‘top dress’ a pasture in late winter with forage seed such as rye, orchard grass, or commercial pasture mix.
Hayfields don’t respond well to top seeding, especially to alfalfa and clover. Don’t waste your money because the established clover and alfalfa plants naturally prevent the seed from growing. However, top dressing with manure will increase plant growth.
One great way to increase the number of clover and alfalfa plants per acre is to use 2 – 3 year-old composted livestock manure, causing the seeds already present to germinate. I have increased my legume stand from the 30% range to over 75% by applying a heavy cover of composted sheep and cow manure.
We put sheep and cow manure in a large pile to compost for 2 years of more and then apply heavily in the early Spring. (This pile is far from natural water sources to prevent contamination during rains.)
The only cost is your time and labor and you will not have to wait a year for the forage crop to establish itself.
I hope some of these ideas can help your homestead. We homesteaders must be scholars of Nature and how it responds to our input.
Bob
PS: It’s time to prepare for Maple Syrup Season. We are going to re-post that article.
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