(STEP-BY-STEP) BUILDING PASTURE FROM SCRATCH | SOIL COWS Cover Crops TOPSOIL Grazing Cattle ranching
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0:00 Introducing Ethon
1:25 Why did you quit row cropping?
2:39 Row crop land after 3 years of cover crop and grazing.
3:21 WHAT TO SOW AS A COVER CROP
5:34 HOW TO PLANT COVER CROP
7:25 WHERE TO PURCHASE COVER CROP SEED
10:50 WHAT TO PLANT FOR POLLINATORS
11:00 SOIL IMPROVEMENT AFTER 3 YEARS
13:48 PORTABLE SHADE FOR CATTLE
15:43 COST PER ACRE FOR COVER CROP SEED
17:17 WHEN TO PLANT COVER CROP
17:55 WHY YOU SHOULD NOT PLANT ANNUAL GRASS ON POOR SOIL
21:23 WHAT IS ADAPTIVE GRAZING
26:56 WHAT KIND OF FERTILIZER WAS USED TO RESTORE PASTURE
29:45 WHAT BREED OF COWS IS BEST
35:09 HOW MANY ROUND BALES DO YOU COWS NEED
39:54 HOW CAN YOUNG PEOPLE GET LAND ACCESS?
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About this Channel: This channel chronicles my journey as a sheep farmer from the very beginning. My primary occupation is in business management. In 2020, I discovered the principles of regenerative agriculture and embarked on a journey with the end goal of building a profitable small farm on 23 acres by 2027. Thank you for joining the journey!
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I am 18 and started managing my grandpas cow herd around 3 years ago. At first he was reluctant to let me have any control but he has started to realize that I know what I am doing and is giving me more control. Over the past three years I have gained a lot of knowledge from experience but also from the internet. Rotational grazing has been one of my most valuable tools and has helped me bring the operation a long ways.
Great job well done @how can I get in touch with you for more knowledge
Gabe Brown From North Dakota May have some information you would be interested in.
Wow right around the 9 minute 30 second Mark he explains that regular sorghum is not good for livestock because during drought conditions it builds up a lot of a certain type of acid that turns into arsenic in your livestocks blood and explains why it's better to plant Sudan sorghum if you're going to be planting it.
The pictures of this guy's cows are beautiful. They looked washed, buffed, and polished but they aren't, its just healthy coats. Amazing!
Excellent!! You're doing an awesome job educating and helping young people establish their own farming enterprises!!! I am cheering for you!!!
I am intrigued with this! We purchased 10 acres in Arkansas and its very rocky and hilly...but I am trying to stop soil erosion and planted the hill in front of our house with chicken friendly plants so they can forage...the roots will help and the decay each year should rebuilt the soil. even this first year, i saw a population explosion of crickets, bugs etc...I started a compost area to bring back worms.
So interesting! I’m sitting on my couch, knitting with wool, deep in January, just wishing to be a farmer! I would marry one!
Ethon might enjoy Gabe Brown's multi-species mixes. Gabe is in North Dakota.
Amazing interview. This video is a wealth of knowledge and experience, all in one place.
Great info, Ethon!!! Happy to hear you’re keeping the family farm alive and growing back! 🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸
Wow. Learned ALOT!!! We just turned our row crop 6 acres into pasture and of course didn’t do it correctly. So I will be taking this knowledge and do better this year.
I'm really enjoying your book. I can tell it will be a big help as I'm starting to build my flock.
Thank you so much!!
I’m amazed at how many stories I’ve heard from people that got started with Joel Salitin as an inspiration.
What he preaches just seems to make sense. We bought land and are in process of building, so no animals out there since we don’t have a water source yet. But I plan on following his techniques for moving the cattle daily (less than 12) and following them with chickens. Going to try to work in lambs and pigs, but still learning.
@@firehorsewoman414 i started with chickens. Now I’ve been raising pigs and cows. Always learning and enjoying every minute of it
@@jeffhuntley2921 yep that is where I am going to start too probably. I want to jump right in and go for the big guys, but I will cool down and come to my senses soon hahaha. I am so ready to try it, but we aren’t moved yet. Was at Tractor Supply picking up some things - husband takes off to get what we actually went for while I wander over to the baby ducks and chicks. He comes walking by and says “not yet” and starts moving me to the register. It was like I was a little kid staring at puppies in the window LOL What breed of pigs are you raising?
@@firehorsewoman414 it’s good to have the whole family on board when taking on a new farm addition. We’ve had great luck with our yorkshire duroc mixes. If you’re keeping a boar for breeding I would suggest putting a ring in his nose. Mistake I’ll only make once:)
Any ideas for west texas? I just purchased 20 acres and unsure what to do with them ?
We frost seeded half of our pastures this spring. The results were amazing! We have received our seed to frost seed the rest this fall.
What seed did you use? How much coverage did the seed offer?
I really enjoy watching how so many different farmers and ranchers manage their animals. Of course down in the Southeast it's a lot different than what we have here in Northern california. So, it's achievable in certain respects even though we have a different climate different soils we need to adapt to where we are. I don't have the benefit of being able to irrigate and most of my grazing is on slopes so even doing cover cropping or supplemental seating is extremely difficult and near impossible. However I do agree with being able to move the animals around more often has improved the soils most measurably.
Greg Judy is the man
To test for grazon you can have your animals eat some of the hay and use some of their manure mixed in soil and try to grow a dicot. The most sensitive wants to graze on I believe are beans and if it's sprouts and then later in early development the leaves begin to wither you will know that it's contaminated with grazon. Might be able to test by soaking some of the hay and water and using that to wet your growing medium to see if it contains grazon but I'm not 100% sure of that way but it might work. Grass is a monocot and plant with two leaves starting out are dicots and that is what Grazon glyphosate kills. To remediate your soil you can plant sunflowers and then when they're done growing they will have sucked up the gray zone from your soil and do not throw them into your compost bin you need to throw them away to make sure your soil doesn't get re contaminated. Do that for a couple years and it will really remove it.
Great video, but I think most folks don't have the luxury of starting with row crop land--rather the only option is forested woodland for most new farms as it's basically impossible to find productive pasture or row crop fields for sale, and if you’re able to find good fertile tillable farmland the price is astronomical compared to uncleared woodland.
🥩Actually an advantage if developing Silvopasture especially in hardwoods & want have toxic issues related to crop land🌾 🕊
@@whitefarms3274 very good point. I don’t have any direct experience with Silviopasture but I’ve been very intrigued with it and would like to try it on my property, at least at a small scale at first.
@pacodefrancis7235 Shade improves the animal's efficiency quite a bit, not sure the exact numbers, something to look into. Anywhere from 5-20% improved efficiency is the average I got from chat.openai for chickens, sheep, cattle, and pigs. God bless
Certainly was a hobby for personal consumption, but I used electric fencing in a narrow cleared path to get my sheep eating undergrowth. Then cut and burned the trees. Not fast, but it worked
So true - all we could afford was woodland, but that's okay! We have no shortage of wood, so lots of free heat and free building materials. Forest is also perfect for raising pigs, which clear, till, level and fertilize the earth so it can be be cleared afterward and then used for plant crops or whatever ;)
Danny from South homestead is where I learned how to remove grazon from the soil on their channel.
I love your content!!! Always great info! Growing soil, hay, and grass fed beef in Northern WI. 🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸
This was very helpful information. Thanks for always putting out great content!
Appreciate all the information
Such great questions being asked. Very grateful for all you two are sharing
Before & After....I like it..!!!. Prove it does work..thanks.
Sleep well. Night everyone, loved the wisdom shared.
I am John Simeon Barkar, commenting from Sierra Leone west Africa. I am amazed by your video and i have learnt a lot from your video. I am planning to start livestock farming in my home town as i already have a land.
watching from the philippines soon to be working abroad and be able to take care of a good breed of animal and be able to get experience abroad happy farming and God bless😊.
Great guest. Great Interview.
9:11 Not super important but sorghum does not cause Arsenic poisoning. Arsenic is an element and can’t be created, but prussic acid can cause cyanide poisoning (HCN).
That's what I'm looking thru the Comments for, to see if anyone corrected the prussic acid error. Thank you. I wish they would have put up a text bubble correction. Makes me wonder what else is incorrect
LoL I just posted on another video about my plan and here we are thanks again
Anyone have good practices for planting annuals into dormant land that wasn't necessarily crop land without using herbicides? I'm working to reclaim some old hay ground that has been neglected for many years. I grazed hard and unrolled hay on it in the spring and then used an overseeder to plant Sorgum Sudangrass. It kind of worked, but the weed pressure really stunted the sorgum so I didn't get a lot of tonnage. It came in great where the soil was bare.
❤ amazing informative 👍🏻
Marvelous. From Botswana Africa
My question is, where do you keep your cattle when your pastures have to rest. Like if you‘ve moved through your pastures and they are still growing back. In the early days of your rotational grazing, when your pastures are still developing, do you just paddock the livestock and feed hay until it‘s time to put them out again, so the grass has a chance to grow?
Do you have too many cattle for the land you have? You could have 100 acres but if it’s poor quality, you may have too many cattle grazing.
@@ericedwards9658 They showed previous crop land with just bare dirt covered in hay. Then they showed it as lush grasses, and said they feed their cows on the ground so the seeds from the hay and the manure from the cows improves the soil. Then they use rotational grazing to improve the forage. At some point in between, the cows can‘t be moved because the forage hasn’t grown back enough to move them. Where do the cows go during that time? Or when it isn‘t growing season?
Ethan states he started with 1 cow calf pair and a bull on 10-acres. Depending on your land you might need to start with an animal like chickens and seeding after the chickens go through. If you've got lots of brambles or invasive maybe start with a few goats or sheep instead of cattle. He's also feeding hay throughout each field and the seed from the hay is going to help populate your pasture with desirables. Look up Jaime Alizondo's videos too as he goes into creating a winter stockpile pasture. He also works a lot in dryer areas in case you don't have abundant rains.
GOAT WEEDS?!?!?!?!?! Any one have guidance on how to begin removing these suckers and begin to crowd them out for the future? THANK YOU!
We plant cereal rye and buckwheat as a crop to broadcast perrrenial seeds into. Sometimes we roller crimp it afyer seeding but usual we let the cows/goats walk it in...works every time
Facinating.
Jacob and Dorper sheep, 11 mini cows, ducks , chickens, geese and some mini ponies on 70 acres in northern Wisconsin
What about planting acacia trees in the fields as it to is a nitrogen fixer.
Hey sis letting the ads place you can get that coin.🎉🎉🎉
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Wow thanks for the lead that some people call poor-quality hey the hey that wasn't spray for weeds we're to be the good stuff!
What types of grasses to broadcast/introduce in my fields for my dairy sheep?
The interview I just posted with Nancy has some great guidance. She plants turnip and ryegrass.
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Prussic acid yeilds cyanide not arsenic. Stressed plannts can be mowed, dried and used for hay. The prussic acid/cyanide will evaporate but arsenic is an element and won't evaporate. Some land has more than other, some plants take up more arsenic than others .
It is possible to have both present at the same time in the same plant.
If you look into it, ragweed may not be as undesirable as commonly thought.
Bought 8 acres 6 of it was tow crop land as soon as I could I planted peas clover wheat rye triticale let it go to seed to cut in this year before we got our cattle
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Morning. Just working out how to use this mobile /KZhead system. Sorry. Lol. I run a horse farm on 75 acres, but LOVE to be able to change my way for the VERY FERTILE land, to become very self-sufficient. ( Not sure what tho)
Smartmix at the green cover seed company. I want to increase my grazing pasture for cattle. What do I put as the termination date because grazing Fields don't have a termination date, right?
How is cereal rye for north central desertified texas? They don't have it at the local feed n seed so where can i get it if it's ok for my area?
Ok i just got to the part where he tells where to get it lol
My question is if you don’t have cows but have small acreage, should we covert lawns to these types of field grasses.
Has anyone here tried seed balls for those who don’t have access to drills.
How about raising sheep in West Texas on smaller acreage where there isn't much grass but a lot of rocks .
I build soil with goats and mowing
Isn’t cereal Rye a nitrogen scavenger? Wouldn’t you want more nitrogen fixers like alfalfa to enrich the pasture for a more permaculture pasture
Main concern is bloat with high protein and moisture. Especially when there’s more than 50% legumes. A quick google brought up these results from MSU Pastures are made up of 50% or more of the legumes listed above that cause bloat Hungry animals are first turned into a new paddock or pasture Pastures are wet from dew or from rainfall at turn in Alfalfas are in the vegetative stage and have not reached blossom Animals are given large areas to graze that take over a week or more to graze down Animals are turned into legume pastures after a frost When the animal’s diet is 100% pasture based God bless
@@TobyElGato thanks yeah that’s my next step is start reading college Agg edu pages, I’m in early research stage as well as I haven’t purchased. Moving accross the country with a bunch of kids as not cheap so saving for that as well, I’m blessed to have a Vererans loan for house and property so I can purchase with 0 down through VA loan. Thanks for the info
@@brentheltonj6308 I would definitely recommend looking at Oklahoma State University for anything on beef production, they are my go to source.
That’s where I’m thinking East Texas or southern Oklahoma
Where is this guy located? All soils are different.
Ohio
Is that broomshege
Where can I find a shepherdess? Lol
WA cattle sheep chooks
You can still get prusicacid poisoning from Sudan also
Now if you're in the desert you still need water 💦.🤔
Why do you use a photo from winter for before then a photo from summer as the after? makes no sense...
Can this still be accomplished without animals of any kind, tractor, seed, or to be frank ; money?
Probably not.
How do you get rid of thistle
Are you on Facebook
yes! Search HarmonyFarms.dorpers
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