# Rotational Grazing on Poor Pastures



## subiej (May 11, 2015)

Hi all,

I am new to cattle, and new to the forum, trying to do my research, and I am stumped by one particular problem. Hoping someone can help.

I am in Vermont, and planning to bring a 4-year old Jersey ox onto the property later this month. I have been studying rotational grazing, and believe this is definitely the way to go... eventually. 

The problem is that we live on an old farm with a small amount (3 acres) of very poor quality pasture. In the summer, it is covered in goldenrod, milkweed, various grasses, and patches of brambles. But when a path is mowed, grass quickly grows in, so I am hopeful that the pastures can be brought back into decent condition, with some effort.

I know that I will need to feed the ox alot of hay in the first year or two (or 3?), while I take measures to bring the pastures into better condition. We plan to lime, fertilize, possibly frost seed, and run chickens behind the ox, to help spread his manure and to deposit more.

*** My question is this: should I attempt to use a rotational system during this first year or two, when the pastures aren't providing much in the way of feed anyway?*** 

Or will that just create extra work (i.e. fence-moving) without any reward? Wondering if I should make larger, more traditional, long-term paddocks during this period, since there's not a lot to eat right now anyway....

I am ordering electric fence this week, and it would be helpful to know now, rather than find out the hard way... Please let me know if anyone has any thoughts on this. Thank you so much, in advance!

Susan Johnson


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## wannabfishin (Jan 31, 2014)

first thing i would do is bushhog as soon as the golden rod comes up and before it goes to seed. then i would put in three one acre paddocks and bring the land up to snuff in accordance with a soil test. unfortunately you probably wont be able to get rid of the golden rod if there is any on the neighboring land, the seeds will just keep blowing onto your land.


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## subiej (May 11, 2015)

Yes, I definitely plan to be doing some bushhogging! Thanks for the advice. 

Does this mean that you would rotate through only the 3 larger, 1 acre paddocks? And how long would you leave him on each of them? 

Since I will have just the one animal, I had calculated that, under ideal conditions, I would probably need much smaller paddocks&#8211; maybe 1/4 acre each&#8211; and would more intensively rotate through those until the first has sufficient regrowth. However, since there is so little good forage out there, I was planning to do all of this with the addition of supplemental hay. 

I guess I'm wondering if I should even bothering with all of the paddocks, etc. in this first year. It sounds like you are saying maybe not. Any more details or ideas would be very helpful. Thank you!


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

When cows are turned loose, they naturally start grazing. When I am turned loose (on a pasture) I naturally start management intensive grazing. I love to temporarily divide and watch cows go to work. Good luck.


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## Gravytrain (Mar 2, 2013)

The smaller the paddocks the better. Too large of a paddock and it will allow the grazers to be overly selective in what they eat. If you have time to move twice/day it will improve your pasture more rapidly. Mow within a few days after grazing to clip any undesirable uneaten weeds. Do NOT allow overgrazing to occur. If your forage is being grazed below 3-4", you are not moving them fast enough. 

I too went from goldenrod to lush grass and clover in less than two years. Other than adding lime and mowing, the cows did all the work. Best of luck to you.


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## TheFarmerMommy (Mar 21, 2014)

Bret said:


> When cows are turned loose, they naturally start grazing. When I am turned loose (on a pasture) I naturally start management intensive grazing. I love to temporarily divide and watch cows go to work. Good luck.


I had a trying day yesterday. And this made me lol. Love it!


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

I second the mowing behind the animal grazing each of his fields. You want to mow high and often. Mowing too short will cause grasses to not have enough protective length of leaves, exposes the roots to sun drying, sunburn, not enough leaf length to feed the roots well. I don't mow below 5 inches. I also mow if grass is getting taller than 8 inches or going to seed, so I keep the new growth coming on.

If you are going into a drought condition, don't mow, just rotate the animal often. You could have 6 each 1/2 acre paddocks, which he could probably spend a day or two on in drought times. 12 each 1/4 acre paddocks sounds like a lot of work. We get dry times in July and August some years, so you have to consider the possibility of needing to rotate often. Still lets the grass regrow some in the 5 day rest times. 

The constant mowing will keep the weeds down, prevent them setting seed. Also is letting the grasses spread thru root shoots to take back the weedy areas. Keeping leaves shorter, makes the plant really put the roots down deeply, making the grass a tougher plant for hardiness and survival in droughts.

I have to say the soil testing, then applying the correct amounts of needed fertilizer minerals, plus the mowing often, really improved my field's grass crop beyond belief. I did some light discing to open the ground after it was packed with horse hooves over the years before. I didn't have a plow or drill, to get new seed into the prepared ground properly. I did some hand sowing, covered with straw or old hay, on the bald spots to improve growth. Did it early so it got good rain to grow. Mowing often is your best method of improving the grasses available, if you have no other machinery to work the land.

Read the grass seed labels, you want mixed Perennial grasses and plants to in your pasture. With mixed seed you should have something growing all season long. Not a monoculture planting of one type seed that only grows well at one part of the season. Read the labels to insure that is what you are getting. Perennials will come back year after year. Annual grass seed grows and covers the land fast, but is only good for the year planted. It dies in the winter! So don't buy annual seed that won't return! Good seed is expensive, so I take the time to makes sure it has the best chance of growing for me, with roughing the ground, then covering the seed, proper timing so rain helps it grow. Both spring and early fall are good times to plant grasses. I use a push drop spreader, seed is right where I want it, as thick as I want it laid down. I have not had good luck with broadcasting seed to add grass. I had poor results, no really visible results. So I consider it kind of wasted money to broadcast seed, makes expensive bird food!.

Limit the Ox's turnout time on nice pasture, if he hasn't been grazing before he comes there. Cattle can founder like a horse, when diet is changed to grass to quickly. Stomach can't handle the load because it has no grass digesting flora yet. So limited turnout for a while, to get him used to grazing after winter on hay. Founder can really mess up his hooves, sore or lame him and I expect you want to work him eventually so some attention is needed on this transition time.


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## subiej (May 11, 2015)

Thank you so much for all of the helpful and encouraging information, Gravytrain and goodhors. Yes, I definitely plan to be mowing quite a lot this summer! Hopefully, that is temporary.

It sounds like the answer is yesâ limiting overgrazing through rotation is definitely a good idea, *especially* when you're trying to improve your pasture. 

I have to say, I am a little worried about the amount of work involved, since I'm planning to use moveable/temporary electric fencing like this: http://www.premier1supplies.com/fencing.php?mode=detail&fence_id=119

You're right, goodhorsâ even though it's probably not the worst chore in the world, I think that moving this fence every 1-2 days is going to get really old in a hurry. I DO have the option to install more permanent, electrified fencing for six 1/2 acre paddocks, thoughâ if you think these would be small enough, perhaps that is the way to go? Could possibly subdivide these if necessary, as you mention, in times of drought.

I think I will definitely need to experiment and keep an eye on the grass, but want to make sure I have the right infrastructure from the start, which is how this question originated. 

So, what would you doâ movable electric fence to allow for smaller (1/4 acre) paddocks, or more permanent, 1/2 acre paddocks? Thanks again!!!


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

For interior dividing, it is easy and fast to use the pigtail step-in posts and the black and yellow poly wire at TSC and other places. The plastic ones break too easy. 

I wrap the ends of the wire around a hot wire a few times and knot it back on itself a few times. I keep polywire on inexpensive blaze orange cord reels from Lowes. I have serveral.

Don't leave the reels in the sun or the UV will make them brittle and bleach them fast. I cut and knot wire so it makes a good electrical connection when I need to.

If deer break a wire, I knot a new piece from a four foot splice section that I keep near by. When I get too many knots (your call) I take out some sections to reduce the number of knots, or a I start with a new piece altogether. 

It takes minutes. I put dividers up in the spring and take them down in the fall. 

It is fun to watch the cows come when they see you moving the wires to give them fresh new grass. 

My temporary posts are often 20 good paces apart.

It will be fun for you.


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## Gravytrain (Mar 2, 2013)

subiej said:


> I have to say, I am a little worried about the amount of work involved...
> You're right, goodhors&#8211; even though it's probably not the worst chore in the world, I think that moving this fence every 1-2 days is going to get really old in a hurry.


Normally, my daily moves are a 5 minute job for each herd (I keep brood cows, bulls and calves in one herd, steers and heifers in another). I set up several paddocks at one time, so a daily move involves walking or riding to where the cows are, yelling "C'MERE COWS!"...they come running and line up at the front line (soon to be back line), I remove the handle (tied to my polywire that I hook on my hi-T perimeter fence) creating an opening for them to enter the new paddock. They run in, do the happy dance and start blissfully munching away.

Honestly, this is the best part of my day.

Every other day I have to drag my 100 gallon trough the width of two paddocks to the dividing line between paddocks so it can be used on either side of the polywire (todays paddock and tomorrow's).

Make sure your perimeter fence is solid and forget the netting polywire...

Get 3 of these:
REELS

3 or more of these:
Gate Handles

One of these for each reel:
Poly twine

...and 40 or 50 step-in pigtails. Make sure you have water in each paddock, and make sure your fencer is HOT and now you are in business.


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## subiej (May 11, 2015)

Thanks so much, Bret and Gravytrain. I'm actually looking forward to this, now! Probably more the cow-moving part, not the fence setting-up part.

Gravytrain, just a couple of follow-up questions:

You say "Make sure your perimeter fence is solid and forget the netting polywire"â this is interestingâ do you use the polytwine for *all* of your fencing, including the perimeter? Perhaps you have something more permanent/secure for your perimeter?-I'm not sure if you meant this to be used there.

Also, why not use the netting? I realize that it's overkillâ I probably only need 1-2 horizontalsâ but I've heard that moving the netting stuff is much easier than setting up/taking down the reels. I'm sure you know, but here's a video of how it works: http://www.premier1supplies.com/videos/player.php?video=installing_electronet&size=small Does this look like a time saver to you, compared to the reels?

Thanks so much, once againâ this stuff is expensive, so-I want to make sure I get the right thing the first time around.


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## Gravytrain (Mar 2, 2013)

subiej said:


> You say "Make sure your perimeter fence is solid and forget the netting polywire"&#8211; this is interesting&#8211; do you use the polytwine for *all* of your fencing, including the perimeter? Perhaps you have something more permanent/secure for your perimeter?-I'm not sure if you meant this to be used there.


Sorry, No. I have 5 strand Hi-tensile around the perimeter of my pastures. 3 of those strands are hot. To run my interior paddocks I simply hook the gate handle onto the top hot wire on the Hi-T and walk to the other side of the pasture, where I hang the reel onto the same wire on that side of the pasture. Then I grab a handful of pigtails. The number of pigtails I use depends on the width of the paddock as well as how flat it is. Usually ten or twelve is plenty. As fast as I can walk I can hook and push them into the ground. 

If your 3 acres were subdivided into 1/4 acre plots (12 paddocks), the whole pasture would be (hypothetically if square) roughly 120 yards long by 120 yards wide. Each paddock would be 120 yards wide by 10 yards deep. That means as fast as I can walk 120 yards across the paddock and back I can have a paddock set up. No muss, no fuss. Of course, that assumes you have a robust hot perimeter fence. It doesn't necessarily have to be Hi-T, but it should be a physical barrier or a combination of physical and psychological. You could install some treated posts or t-posts with insulators around the perimeter and run 2 or 3 strands of polyrope. Once they know what it is they'll treat it as if it WAS Hi-T. I run some semi-permanent divider fences and my winter paddocks like this.



> Also, why not use the netting? I realize that it's overkill&#8211; I probably only need 1-2 horizontals&#8211; but I've heard that moving the netting stuff is much easier than setting up/taking down the reels. I'm sure you know, but here's a video of how it works: http://www.premier1supplies.com/videos/player.php?video=installing_electronet&size=small Does this look like a time saver to you, compared to the reels?


Good Lord...No. That's an absolute nightmare. By the time he had the bundles unloaded and unwrapped, I'd have the paddock set up. Take the time to set up a robust perimeter and keep the paddock dividers simple and easy...trust me you don't want to have to move that netting daily.


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

Weeds are tough and your property likely has 10 years worth of weed seeds in the ground waiting to sprout over this decade. Pasture grass and clovers are somewhat less tough. The ox will eat the tasty freshly planted grass down to nothing before going after a few weeds. There is no way to have the ox in a new seeding and not have it destroyed by repeatedly eating it to the ground. IMHO
In a perfect world, you would till up the soil, lime and fertilize, cultivate/disc the new weed plants as they sprout, then before mid summer plant the pasture and keep the ox out of it. Then next year, you can wait until the pasture is off to a good start and run the ox on a single acre, rotating through the summer. You'll want to be pulling weeds early and spraying herbicides on the weeds through the summer. 
I am assuming the soil type is even suited to pasture. I guess I'm also assuming the 4 year old ox is fully trained? But that's a topic for another time.


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## Gravytrain (Mar 2, 2013)

haypoint said:


> Weeds are tough and your property likely has 10 years worth of weed seeds in the ground waiting to sprout over this decade. Pasture grass and clovers are somewhat less tough. The ox will eat the tasty freshly planted grass down to nothing before going after a few weeds. There is no way to have the ox in a new seeding and not have it destroyed by repeatedly eating it to the ground. IMHO


Her challenge will be, since she is running a single animal, that there will be no competition between herd animals to gobble as much forage (including "weeds") as quickly as possible. With only 3 acres of marginal pasture, she doesn't have the option to run 3 or 4 animals. It's hard to mob graze without a mob. However, rotationally grazing will benefit her pasture much, much more than a continual grazing scenario, which would most definitely result in selective grazing and ultimately spot overgrazing and weed dominance.


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## kareninaustria (Dec 22, 2008)

You might consider adding a few goats or sheep to cograze with your ox. We are doing exactly what you are doing with our six acres that were very overgrown when we moved in last summer. The land was bushhogged once a year by the neighbor for about 20 straight years, but that was it. It was full of poison ivy, sumac, etc. etc. We have no tractor or any other way to mow; we just rotated our jersey cow and some Katahdin sheep all around last summer. The sheep will happily eat what the cow will not, and kept our lone cow company to boot. Our pastures look 100% better this year.
If you do not want to "keep" sheep or goats you could get a couple of cheap dairy whethers or lambs to graze for you all summer and then butcher them in the fall. Goats are maybe better browsers but are harder to fence; two strands of polywire will probably not keep them in. The hair sheep do pretty darn well clearing brush and are much easier to contain. Either one will help a lot.
As to ease of setup - I use a polynet for my rams and it is pretty easy to set up, but containing the animals inside it while setting it up in a new spot can get complicated. With the polywire and stakes you can set up the new adjacent to the old and just lift a fence side so they go into the new one. They figure out the system very quickly. Setting up the polywire can be a little challenging at first but after awhile it will only take a few minutes, as others have said. 
Good luck, and it really is a lot of fun moving the animals around!


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

I would agree with putting up the good perimeter fence and dividing it into 6 paddocks. You can cut it into smaller pieces with the step-in posts if you want to later.

I am big on perimeter fences, do not EVER want an animal getting loose to be on the road and hit. 

We also have the high tensile wire, but it was professionally installed, and we have 8 wires with 4 hot. This was how the Salesman said the "System" was designed, using numerous strands of wire. Husband saw the fence being put to the test at a local cattle farm, weaning calves. Those Mama cows hit the wire, bounced back, NO INJURIES. They had 14 strands, the cattle requirement, not sure how many hot ones. Our fence is the horse design with only 8 strands, but has been used for our cattle, though they were not trying to get back to their calves. Our fences makes a good physical barrier as well as an electric barrier. The animals don't test it with so many strands. Good for if the electric goes out, which has happened the last couple winters with power outages.

I only know of our farm and the cattle place with so many strands of wire, but both of us also have not had much in injuries on the fences, over MANY years of tough use by the animals. 

You will probably hear a LOT about injured animals and Hi-Tensile wire, but when you ask, look at the installation, they never do the fences like ours. They don't have enough wires, don't check the fencers to know they are working and have too many animals in too small of spaces, so there is no place to get away from others chasing them.

Cattle need HOT fences, they check them regularly! One heifer we had would put her whiskers on the wire, test for electric jolt, sigh and move off. She never DID anything, but was willing to check daily just in case the power was off. I DID have her trained to come when called, always given a treat, plus wore a collar with a bell. All for helping me find her and catch her easily if she ever did get loose! Best to be prepared with one like that. She would RUN to me, so that was GOOD.

Having a friend for the Ox is a good idea, they are herd creatures and usually like a friend. We had sheep mixed with the cattle, all 4-H projects. They got along pretty well, though our cattle were hornless. A large plastic barrel in the field with Ox, might be a good play toy to roll around, rub on, if he wants to use it. Our plastic barrel got a lot of mileage with the cattle pushing it about, both steers and heifers.


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## subiej (May 11, 2015)

Thank you, everyone, for all of the great information. Re. the fencing, that's exactly what I needed to know, plus thanks for all of the additional thoughts on companion animals and fence-testing. I have a lot to learn.

I agree, he's going to need some companionship, other than chickens, and it would be great to have companions that eat weeds.  I don't have a lot of land, but maybe having a sheep, at least for a while, and supplementing both animals with hay will help bring the pastures back into production more quickly than having just the ox. 

If I can remember, perhaps I'll post a photo of Kai (the ox) in his new, hopefully well-fenced home when he arrives in a couple of weeks. Thank you!!


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

subiej said:


> should I attempt to use a rotational system during this first year or two, when the pastures aren't providing much in the way of feed anyway?


Yes. Rotational grazing will improve the pastures. It takes time and is worth starting now.

We're also in Vermont so similar climate. We're in USDA Zone 3 mountains.

I would suggest getting a soil test so you know what you're working with. Selenium levels is one of the issues. We're fortunate to have complete soils but some areas are lacking one thing or another and low selenium levels are common - this can produce white muscle disease. Supplementing with minerals solves that.

Lime maybe if you can. We're on steep, stumpy, rocky land which is not very lime-able as the lime spreading trucks can't get out on the pastures. Not even the big monster tire ones. In our case the extension agent suggested just pasturing and said that in time the grazing would cause the pH to rise. She was right. Liming is a faster solution that can also add other nutrients to the soil but costs more and is not always possible.

Start by setting up a very good perimeter fence. This is the place to put money. You don't want your animals getting out and you don't want predators considering you to be the local caterer.

Then sub-divide to _*many*_ small paddocks faster rotated better than large slower. You can start out by simply subdividing in half and then keep subdividing as you have time and money. Keep at it. In time you'll find the number of paddocks that is right for you with your animals. It depends a lot on animal load (pounds), season and forage growth rate. 

If this is a permanent setup then high tensile wire is wonderful, especially for the perimeter but if temporary then polywire works. Power out on the top line of the fence and drop power to lower lines in sections. This conserves power on the lines and acts as a voltage divider that delivers a better shock all around the system. Power off sections that aren't in use. As winter snows build up we power off areas and power off lower lines.

Get a good energizer (2.5joule or stronger) and setup a good ground rod system, lightning protection and surge protection. I would suggest AC power rather than solar if at all possible because you'll get more bang for your buck. Energizers die. Lightning is the chief cause even with good setup and protection. Kencove.com is a good source.

Rotationally grazing is key. There are lots of articles and books about how to do it. The basics you probably have read. Move animals in. Let them graze down not below a certain level and move them out within a certain time (e.g., max of 10 days but shorter is better). Don't return to that paddock for 21 days but longer rest times are generally better and can be a year. It is hard to do with just two paddocks so a minimum I would suggest is four. The homesteadingtoday thread below has a lot of info and you'll find more if you do a search on the forums. It is in the pig forum so it's pig oriented but the principles are essentially the same for other livestock species.
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/li...53-pasturing-planting-rotational-grazing.html

In terms of the weeds, mob grazing and seeding the day before moving works great. We can't machine work our land so we hand broadcast seed and then let frost, storm and rain drive the seed into the soil. Small seeds work better than large seeds but even large seeds work. This is highly effective for us - it does require some timing.

Goldenrod is especially easy to knock back. It is a fragile plant. So is milkweed and many other 'weeds'. The trampling of mob grazing takes them out. Mow if you can, if you have the equipment, time and land that will work with mowing but well timed mob grazing works if you can't mow.

We started with very poor quality mountain soil pastures and forest that we cut back to original stone walls. We developed it slowly through rotational grazing as that is the best tool we have. Rotational grazing produces money rather than costing us money. It does cost time. The vast majority of our stock's diet comes from pasture - We primarily raise pigs, about 300 chickens, some ducks and geese and sometimes sheep. These species co-graze well. I would love to do cattle but that's still a future addition to our mix. My cousin raised Highland cattle for about 50(?) years and did very well with them out on pasture this way.

Cheers,

-Walter


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## subiej (May 11, 2015)

Hi Walter-
My apologiesâ somehow I managed to miss this very helpful reply, almost a year ago! I checked back, and there it was. 

Many thanks for all of this information. Our first year of grazing went well, and the "pastures" looked so much better, just by the end of the summer. We did manage to lime in the fall, so I'm excited to see how they do this year. 

It's that time of the year (the depths of winter) when I'm thinking about how we can improve our system, so this information will be very helpful. We are planning the installation of our perimeter fence right now, which I'm HOPING will save us a bit of time, moving temp fences. 

Many thanks, once again!


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## Skip (Mar 13, 2008)

Susan did you ever post a picture of Kai?


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## masseyandy (Jan 26, 2013)

If you have a hundred hours or so read the rotational grazing sticky at the topof the cattle page


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## rosalind (Oct 6, 2014)

subiej said:


> We are planning the installation of our perimeter fence right now, which I'm HOPING will save us a bit of time, moving temp fences.


I'm coming into this conversation late, but if you're still in the thinking process, I recommend adding an alley to your plans. One main perimeter fence, one central alley (including water trough which gives water access to each paddock), and divided sections. The only moving you have to do is open a different gate each day. As you improve your land, you can further divide the paddocks into smaller ones by adding more gates and dividing the large sections. I love summer, because "keeping cows" in summer is practically no effort with this method. 









https://spiritedrose.wordpress.com/jersey-cattle/2b-feeds/rotational-grazing-pastures/


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## subiej (May 11, 2015)

Thank you, Rosalind! This map is fantastic. I am deep in the planning for our perimeter fence installation this spring, so this advice is actually very timely.

Athough my property doesn't lend itself to this setup as well as yours does, I had actually considered the alley idea, if only for the convenience with the water. Unfortunately, I have more like 3 1-acre pastures that are separated by treelines, but I might be able to find a way to join a couple of them with an alley. Thank you!

I did, by the way, acquire 3 Icelandic sheep to keep him company last summer, and that has worked out great. They do eat a lot more of the brambles, milkweed, etc. than does Kai. Seem to prefer it to the grass, actually! All were supplemented with a good hay last summer. I also managed to spread lime in the fall, so I'm hoping things will be more lush this year.

Thought I would also post a couple of photos of Kai from last summer, chest-deep in weeds . Thanks for the reminder, Skip. I realize now that this "grass" was wayyy too tall. Will be doing alot more clipping more this year, esp in the spring! These photos are probably our best paddock. Thanks again for all of the help!!


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