Back on Grass

With the rain that has been falling semi-regularly for the last month our pastures are starting to green up nicely, but not really putting on the height like they did in the spring. I am afraid we may have overgrazed them a little this summer. That’s okay. We are learning what the carrying capacity of the land is, and the reality may be that with our bi-seasonal distribution (no water in the summer, no sunlight in the winter) we only have the carrying capacity for one cow or two sheep, not two cows and two sheep. Time will tell. In the meantime, we aren’t going to sweat it. In the meantime, we are harvesting one great dividend:

Poop.

The whole project got started when we were pulling bindweed (convolvulus) in the orchard, and the kids started feeding it to the steers.

Angus and Fergus were interested, but not crazy about it. They had been in this half of the barnyard a couple weeks, and we decided it was time to clean up after them. While I don’t want them tearing up the pasture proper, yet, until the grass has had time to get at least 10-12 inches average height, the lane is fair game.

It makes a great sacrificial surface, and provides some treats while they are waiting for room service.

Then we moved the water and hay feeder back to the east side of the barnyard, and grabbed our trusty, much loved and badly abused wheelbarrow for the treasure gathering.

First we cleaned up all the remaining dried pats from the east side of the barnyard. Winnie wanted to help by putting handfuls of hay in the wheelbarrow (we had to have a talk about not picking up the cow poop with her hands).

Then we gathered up a bunch of the fresh stuff from the west side.

We only had time for one wheelbarrow load, but we did get it onto the compost heap, mixed in with straw and paper from the chicken bedding, soaked pretty well with the hose. There is plenty more where that came from.

The magic of cows. They literally poop out treasure!