Saturday, June 11, 2011

Mowing

Today Kris spent a lot of time mowing our pastures.

Sounds funny, doesn't it? Why would one mow pastures when the cattle are supposed to be eating it?

Here are the reasons:

It grows fast. Especially this spring, with all the rain. As a result, the cattle can't keep up. The good news is, it grows back really quickly.

The cattle don't like it when it's tall and headed out - meaning the grass has seed heads on it. You know, like when you know it's REALLY time to mow your lawn. It pokes them in the eyes, and it's tougher and drier. I'm guessing the cattle don't know this, but it's also lower in nutritional value.

So Kris took the discbine and cut the grass. Then it has to dry for a few days, then we'll rake and bale it. In the winter we'll feed the bales to the dry cows.

It takes a lot longer to cut pasture grass than to cut a field of alfalfa, because of the fences and the triangular shape.

I used our push mower today. I was wishing we could just bring over some cattle to trim up my lawn. It'd be worth the manure.

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