M.I.G. with ONE COW & CALF?

Most people who are trying  to live in a more agrarian organic lifestyle have heard of M.I.G. (Management Intensive Grazing) when it comes to cattle, sheep, or goats.  But, when your just starting out, can you accomplish MIG with just one or two cows?  I decided that I would find out and see how it affected my pasture and cow & calf.

I still don't understand everything behind MIG, it seems like there's a lifetimes worth of knowledge to learn about it, but the basics of it just make good sense.  The oposite to MIG is continouous grazing.  The two systems work like this:

Continuous Grazing - This is what is generally practiced by just about all cattle farmers that you will see because it's the easiest.  You just turn the cows into a pasture and let them graze.  The downside to continuous grazing (just letting them roam free) is that the cow can pick and choose what they want to eat.  The result of this is that they don't eat the weeds at all and generally skip over all of the more mature forage and just eat all of the young tender grasses.  This will eventually leave "holes" in the grass where the cow keeps the grass eaten down while allowing the weeds and other not so palatable grasses to grow uncontrolled.  Here is a picture of what I call a "hole" in your forage where the cow keeps the forage eaten down so she can just have the tender forage while the grass around it grows up.

Also, the cows will have their favorite places to shade, lay down, and go when it rains which will lead to those areas being impacted much higher than anywhere else and usually turning to dirt with no forage at all.

The alternative is:
Management Intensive Grazing - M.I.G. is where you split your pasture into small sections and keep the cows together in very tight areas moving them often to fresh grass, preferably  moving them every day.  There are many benefits to M.I.G.  that I have read about and seen work myself:
1)  Instead of the cows being able to pick and chose what they eat they will have to eat everything in their small pasture and the forage will be harvested much more evenly.  This in turn will discourage the growth of weeds and encourage the growth of good grasses and legumes.
2)  The stock should get better nutrition as they are getting a much better variety of forage.
3)  Ideally, the cows will be confined close enough so that they trample down about 40-50% of the grass so that when they are moved the forage that was trampled will mulch into the soil greatly enriching it and in turn causing it to be of better quality as well.
4)  The manure of the cows will be much more concentrated and evenly spread.  I think this is one of the greatest benefits as it fertilizes your grass wonderfully and reduces one of most farmer's greatest costs; fertilizer. 
5)  The pasture that does not have cows on it will have a chance to grow to maturity and grow to a seed head which will give you more and thicker forage as well as you will have more seeds hitting the ground.

There are a great many more things that are beneficial about MIG and many great books written on the subject.  Everything I have read however, is always in reference to a "herd" of cattle.  Well, I'm just starting out and don't have a herd of cattle or even room to have more than 2-3 cattle.  So can it still work for me with just one cow & a calf?

I decided I would give it a try and have been experimenting with MIG for about 3 weeks now.  I bought a 10 mile solar powered electric fence charger,

1/2 mile of electric fencing wire, and about 20 electric fence poles.  I have been making large rectangles with metal t-posts at the corners about 20'x300'.  I run a wire across the width of the rectangle which confines the cow and I move the wire every day so she has access to new grass.  As I am working with a milk cow I have to keep the calf away so I just put him on the other side of the wire that keeps her in a tight space.  There is no need to put a wire across the back behind where the cow has eaten as the cow isn't interested in eating what she has already eaten down.  I move the entire rectangle about once every 7-10 days as it takes the cow about that long to work her way through.

Here you can see the rectangle, and the pole in the middle of the rectangle behind the cow is where the wire that keeps her from getting to the new grass is. 

I must say, I have been very happy with the results so far.  The pasture had been staying about 6-10 inches high and there were many "holes" in the forage with the cow just running free but now with her confined in the electric fence the remainder of the pasture has all grown up to about 1&1/2-2&1/2 feet and the grass has gone to seed heads.  The grass has also gotten much thicker in a few places and the few rectangles that I have already moved her off of have started to grow back nicely.  Also, even with one cow the manure has been much more concentrated (a cow drops 50 pounds of fertilizer ;) per day).

Here are some photos of how it has been working:

Here you can see the difference of where the cow has eaten down the forage on the right, while on the left the forage has been left to grow. 

Here you can see where the cow was for about one week working her way down the 20'x'300' rectangle.  She has been moved to another rectangle on the right now.  Notice that the forage was harvested pretty evenly. 

Here you can see all the manure that was left behind after just one week.  Black gold!

The forage that has not been harvested and left to grow has really taken off in other sections of the pasture.

Here is what the forage looked like after the cow had been on it for one day.  She wasn't able to eat it all down but she did trample a small amount of it.  I think the trampling would occur much better with more cows.

Here is a section where the cow has not been on at all and it has been growing up for about 2 weeks. 

 I had wanted to do like Joel Salatin advocates and run chickens behind where the cows move off of as the chickens will go through all of the cow patties and spread them out so that the manure fertilizes much more evenly.  However, I don't have any chickens right now so I drag a cattle panel behind the four wheeler and spread out the patties.  It works pretty well but I try to make sure I do it before a rain so that the nutrients won't be baked by the sun when I spread them out.  If you've never been plowing for cow patties your missing out.

All in all, I am enjoying M.I.G. so far and I think it will be very good for our land.  I am hoping it will cut down on hay consumption this winter and will let you know how that goes.  If you are already using M.I.G. let me know how it has worked for you.  If anyone has any advice on this system I would love to hear it!

As a side note, we also got a new puppy recently.  Marshall loves him and he has affectionately named him "Buppy".  I think the name will stick.

"Buppy".  Our little Golden Retriever puppy. 

Happy stewarding!

-The Farmer

Coming Full Circle

Well time has flown by this summer.  It has been a very busy and blessed few months since my last post here and much has transpired and developed since then.  We have had some set backs, encouragements, discouragements, unexpected blessings, and some new determination in the weeks that have passed.

A lot of thoughts and ideas have been brewing as well....

A farmer....that's what I wanted to be....I thought.  I wanted to see my family working beside me in the fields, see my son learning to be a man doing real work, see my daughters (future tense, hopefully) becoming wonderful women of God learning how to run a household from their mother, and be the most hospitable family this side of the Mason Dixon line. :)  However, my shortsighted doubtful self has a hard time staying focused on those things sometimes.

Is being a farmer really God's plan for my life?  It will take years to get to where I want to be and I don't have enough to do anything now.  Wouldn't God want me to do something that I could accomplish now and not have to take half of my life to work towards? 

These thoughts have been running through my mind and frankly, they have kept me so preoccupied, along with discussing them with my wife, that is has kept me from writing any posts for the past few months.

We have taken several trips this summer and one of them was to the Vision Forum Reformation of Food and The Family Conference.  We had a wonderful time.  The speakers and vendors were excellent but I must admit that these thoughts were running weighing on my mind heavily at the time and it probably deterred me from making all of the conference that I could.

What is God's plan?  How do we know what he would have us do when there seem to be so many options as to what path you can take.

I have also recovered a long lost interest that I have somewhat had in the past which is videography/cinematography. 

Does God want me to make documentaries that will bring glory to Him?  Should I advance the cause of Biblical food awareness through being a producer of God glorifying food or through showing His wisdom through film?  Does he want me to be a part of on of the most fundamental reconstruction works of our time which is reforming how the people of God and the country think about food and their relationship to it and the world?

 Questions, questions.  In the midst of asking these questions I realized that there was a common factor in all of them that was really why I didn't think I could decide on any of them, that factor was discontentment.  I was not content to wait on the Lord's timing for my businesses.  In my finite mind, if I can't do it now, then God must want me to do something else; when the truth of the matter is that He is trying to teach me to trust in Him and be faithful with what I have.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."  Matthew 6:33

This verse has come to mind many times in the past few weeks and I believe it has a new hold in my life.  Whether I'm a farmer, cinematographer, or insurance adjuster (which has been my full time occupation for a while now), I have to seek to do it for the purpose of building the kingdom of God, not for myself.   It's not about doing whichever job will bring me what I want the fastest, it's about HIM.   

"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."  1Corinthians 10:31

It wasn't that I didn't know these things, or that I have just discovered them; but in my hustle and bustle trying to get the right start, and figure out what I needed to do before I get any older, I think I lost sight of them and they weren't my staying power in making my decisions.  I am ever grateful to our heavenly father who brings us back to His word by His grace and forgives us (ME) in our shortcomings towards him.  

So.....this still didn't solve the problem of WHAT to do.  But it did get my attitude back to where it needed to be in making the decision. 

One thing that helped me in deciding what to do was reading Noah Sander's book Born Again Dirt
(buy the book, it's worth it). I had spoke with him about it before and his thoughts were very helpful in that he talks about not getting in the mindset of "just being a farmer" only.  Farming may be what you want to do but if you can't do it right now, then do whatever God has given you now, and farming on the side.

It was in doing what God has given me now that I realized that what I want to be IS A FARMER!  I am very thankful for the occupation that God has given me as a property insurance adjuster, but I have realized that I do not want to spend my years sitting behind a computer looking at a screen. I believe that God has put in me the desire to be a husbandman of His creation and that He would not have given me that desire if He had not wanted me to pursue it.  Does he use different occupations to mold my character to be more Christ-like before He gives me my hearts desire in an occupation?  Yes, but that doesn't mean that I do not still strive for the ultimate goal of being a Christian farmer.

And cinematography, use it to promote farming!  I have learned that in a family economy God gifts each person with different strengths and talents that they can channel to promote and help the family business.  Just because they have an interest that is "different" from what the family business is doesn't mean that they have to strike out on their own and pursue that one thing.  That may be appropriate at some time but they should use that interest to help promote the family business as long as they are a part of that family.  SO....if God gives me different interests besides farming that I want to pursue, why not use them to promote the business that I believe He has called me to. 

So in short, my family and I have a much stronger determination than ever to be Christ-honoring farmers after these few months of questioning.  I believe my wife and I have grown closer and we are getting a better plan for the future as a result.  Isn't God wonderful.  What I thought was a season of trouble and anxiety, was actually a tool he was using for growth and shaping us more after Himself.  Praise HIM!

In all of these questions and thoughts my wonderful wife has been nothing but encouraging through these past few months of me wrestling with what God's plan for our lives is and I am ever so grateful to my creator for giving me a help-meet that fits me so well.
 

So, we are back on track and headed for a farming future.  Or farm is a little downsized right now with only a milk cow, calf, and garden due to how busy my adjusting job has been, but I hope to have some posts even about these things and what we are learning with them in the near future.

 
We are having a problem with flies on Truly (the milk cow) right now and are experimenting with some garlic/vinegar sprays to keep them off.  I'll let you know how it goes, seems to be working so far.   :)


In conclusion,
It feels good to be back,

Signed,
The Farmer

Update on the Farm

Our empty chicken pens. 

Well, we are now chicken-less.  We had a very successful batch of broiler chickens this year thanks to the goodness of our Lord. We had minimal loss and the cluckers turned out really big!  They averaged between 4 & 5 pounds this time.  Much larger than last time which I believe is due to ordering them much earlier in the season and them not having to deal with the heat of Alabama summer.

God was so good to us and taught us much through this batch.  The new hoop-house pens were a blessing beyond compare as we didn't have to crawl around with the chickens.  And my favorite thing about them is that you can see the chickens when you move the pen so you don't run over them.  Heh...yeah, that happened a few times last year.  So far everyone is very pleased with our product and we had a few new customers this time as well.

Something God has really been showing me this year with the chickens is that there is an interesting relationship between farmer and livestock.  We order them knowing that our purpose is to kill and eat them.  Some people would think that that is cruel and that you have a mean spirit towards animals but this could not be further from the truth.  I find that when I know that an animal is going to be used to sustain life by being part of the groceries, I have a special respect for it and want to make it's life as good as it can be.  I don't want it to have stress and difficulties as the sacrifice of it's life is for my family to survive.  There is an amazing principle in life that it takes sacrifice for life to continue.  We have to kill animals and eat them, we have to pull plants out of the ground and eat them, even in growing trees it is in pruning the trees, which is taking away from them, that they produce the most fruit to sustain us.  It took killing animals to cover the sins of Israel and it took the shedding of Christ's blood to give us life.  Without sacrifice, there is no life.  God is so good and I love the principles that he teaches us in his creation. 

Aside from the chickens now being gone, Truly (our milk cow) has almost become a top notch milker.  We had our bouts in the beginning with that leg of hers that always wanted to connect with my arm, but she has calmed down and has the routine down pat.  Granted it took a few training sesssions to accomplish this i.e. *cow kicks....I "tap" cows leg with stick*.  :)  But she is quite the milk cow now.  I can walk up to her and milk her in the pasture...while keeping an eye on her horns.  heh.

We were able to build a nice stanchion that REALLY helped too.  It only cost about $100 to build and took about a half a day working by myself.  Here are a few pictures of it.

Truly walks into the stanchion...sticks her head through the head catch to get to the feed on the other side, and we lock her head in so she can't go backwards. 

Next the right side, which is on hinges, gets swung around so she can't move side to side.

Then the chain that is attached to the right swinging side is latched to the stationary side.  This not only helps keep her from backing up...but keeps her tail pinned down so you don't get a face full of cockleburs! 

With this system we have been very successful with her.  Taking her from straight off the pasture never being touched to hand milking was a little challenging but she is worth it now.  Below is a picture of one day's worth of milk.  Those are 1/2 gallon jars and we get that everyday.  2&1/2 gallons and sometimes 3 gallons per day.  Needless to say we drink a lot of milk and have found many interesting things that you can do with it.

Our cup overfloweth with milk!  And next year we should hopefully be Biblical and overflow with milk and honey.

One thing I have noticed with having different people come over and milk with us is that most people don't have a clue how to milk a cow.  Not that that's a bad thing...it's not common practice anymore.  So I decided to make a really short video on how to milk a Bessy cow.  You'll have to forgive the quality...my cinematography is still in training.  I thought the music was appropriate.  :)

May God bless you in you farming ventures!

The Farmer

A farmer's wife....first cow experience

Hi it's me Brittney, the farmer's wife here blogging today. I will also be posting my new experiences about sustainable healthy living and farming here at generation acres. A bit about me..... I am married to the most amazing, hardworking, loving, god-fearing man I know, getting to work along side him, furthering the vision the Lord has called him to. I love my role as wife and mother (to our precious baby boy Marshall) and learning new skills in homemaking and farm-life. I have always dreamed of living in the country and my wonderful God has saw fit to give me my Ben-Charming to make that dream come true.
Come along and read about my adventures in farming (not to mention a few blunders along the way ; ) ).