The Mob and Its Roots

Erin and Torray Wilson pasture walk, Friday, August 6th, 2010.

Above is Erin and Torray Wilson’s mob of sheep, beef cows, and dairy cows. These animals get new pasture twice a day. The dairy cows get to go ahead of the mob for 12 hours of every day, to get the best quality feed and to be separated from their calves before the once-a-day milking. Until they build up their dairy herd size, the Wilsons are spreading the milk on the fields as fertilizer. They milk in their mobile milking parlor, so the cows do not have to walk back to the barn every day.

Torray shows us the roots and litter that long rest periods and high stock density can help to build.

Erin (left) and Torray (right) Wilson at their pasture walk. In the background can barely be seen the hog pasture pens. Will the hogs be assimilated into the mob someday? We’ll see…

These layer chickens follow a few days behind the mob in their mobile chicken coop. (No, the mobile chicken coop does not look like a pickup). Sooner, and they may get the eggs dirty with fresh manure and there will be no fly larvae for the chickens to harvest from the cow pies. Much later, and the flies may already have hatched out.