Figuring the dollar value of fodder and pods

Trees can offer much more than shade

By Austin Unruh

In looking to add trees to a grazing operation, the first thing on most people’s minds is shade.

Shade helps growing animals gain weight faster, give more milk and conceive at higher rates. The value of shade is quite well established.

Yet a grass farm needs more than just shade. Among those needs is supplemental feed at times of year when forages are in short supply. For most folks that means winter and the peak of summer.

For summer, tree leaf fodder can be an alternative to hay. Leaf fodder can come from trees that have nutritious, palatable leaves, grow back readily, and put on a lot of leaf biomass. Mulberries are probably the best at this, followed by willows, poplars, black locust and others.

December 3, 2021July 12, 2022

Relaxed intensity works for this grazier

Greg Nowicki manages well, but doesn’t push too hard

By Joel McNair

Athens, Wisconsin — When it comes to direct marketing his grass-finished beef, Greg Nowicki says “that’s just not me.”

Each year Greg does sell a few wholes, sides and quarters to local folks. Marketing much more than that from this rural north-central Wisconsin locale would require more sales effort than he is willing to expend. Slots at local processing facilities are booked up many months into the future, thus providing a major hurdle to growing any direct sales venture.

So Greg chooses to ship at least 80% of his cattle through the Wisconsin Grass-fed Beef Cooperative and its Wisconsin Meadows label.

August 10, 2021September 1, 2021

Who will reap carbon market rewards?

By Joel McNair

Imagine if someone offered you $150 an acre just to keep doing what you’re already doing. No doubt some of you would turn away due to philosophical reasons, and at least initially quite a few of you would view the pitch as just another dose of snake oil.

But no doubt many of you would be intrigued.

Intriguing indeed is the concept of being paid for ecosystem services. And it’s happening. Specifically, private enterprise is offering payments to farmers who are either judged or proven to be reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

August 1, 2021October 19, 2021

Why you should avoid grazing coarse stems

Neither animals nor soils will benefit from the practice

By Janet McNally

Recently I heard a fellow grazier advocating that we should be grazing the stems of pasture forages.

His reasoning is that with the leaves gone, the stems pull energy from the roots. With no photosynthesis from the leaves, the plant cannot replace that energy. So the plant is better off with the stems gone. He admitted he was in the minority with that opinion.

November 3, 2020March 8, 2021

Taking research with a grain of salt

All of it is anecdotal

By Allen Williams

The British statistician George E. P. Box stated that “All models are wrong, but some are useful.”

This has become an oft-quoted statement in scientific circles. Box was referring to the fact that in science there is a growing trend to develop theoretical models with the purpose of predicting some type of behavior or outcome based on data assumptions used in the model.

While no model can predict the exact outcome of any singular event, models can be useful if the assumptions are good and the output is close enough.

Having been a scientist and a farmer for more than 30 years now, I often hear people talk about “anecdotal” research or data. Their point is that if the research was not peer-reviewed and published, it has no value. This is particularly insinuated with observational data.

June 1, 2020July 12, 2022

Ten tips for summer grazing success

Planning, observation and keeping soil cool are among the priorities

By Allen Williams

By the time you read this we will be fully into summer 2020, and full bore into the grazing season. Many of us had a cool spring season, but who knows what’s to come?

Here are my “Top 10 Tips” for grazing success, no matter what the weather throws at us. The first two offer advice for spring planning and grazing, so save those for next year’s planning.