iPlod Shuffle
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Managed Intensive Grazing at the Wilson’s Farm near Paullina with Torray Wilson.
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On September 10th Dan and Lorna Wilson hosted nearly 70 people at their farm for a neighborly potluck and farm tour. Led primarily by the next generation farmer Torray Wilson and his wife Erin, the group was given an introduction into the guiding motivations for the farm enterprise – Holistic Management and Creation as a model for agricultural production.
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Folks learned about the enterprise budgeting for graziers “Animal Days per Acre” (ADA) and the profitability of different fields from permanent pasture to mixes of forage annuals and perennials. Torray also uses ADA because he can quantify the yield he gets off of his pastures more accurately even with a “mixed” herd of approximately 270 ewes, dozens of lambs, 50 cows and 20 yearling heifers. He says running the two species together presents its advantages and disadvantages, but after a season of grazing together the sheep and cattle were mixed in together well and had a good “herd” mentality.
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The MOB grazing or Managed Intensive Grazing systems attempt to leave greater habitat available for nesting birds as rest time between grazing is increased. Torray looks for signs such as earthworms, crickets, butterflies, and red-tailed hawks as indicators of more ecological benefits with this system than all permanent pasture or all rowcrop.
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The corral built to Artificially Inseminate (A.I.) the cows, treat them for sickness, and other general “owies” was shown as a good model to use for smaller grazing systems like the 50 head cow/calf herd. This design was modified from a Canadian extension website as many of the U.S. extension system serves larger scale feedlot producers with different objectives and definitions of success than the Wilson’s. Dan Wilson noted that they built this system with very little money and it works for their purposes. The handling facility is currently on a concrete pad, but Dan wishes there were a way to stake it down, as cattle move the fencing very easily.
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The field day ended with networking over Organic Valley® Milk, Orange Juice, and Cheese. Another great day out on the farm!