Greg Judy details simple steps for healing an overgrazed farm.
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- čas přidán 10. 02. 2020
- Greg Judy details simple steps for healing an overgrazed farm. Check out my book No Risk Ranching to learn more about healing soil bankrupted farms, available at greenpasturesfarm.net.
Animal impact + carbon source followed by full recovery period. Feeding soil biology with a carbon source stirred and trampled by a group of ruminant animals is the gold standard for building healthy soil.
Maybe you 70% unsubscribed folk forgot that it was FREE! Greg's videos cost less than a subscription to the Stockman Grass Farmer. This is a deal of a lifetime!
My wife and I bought our farm two years ago. It was overgrazed for a long time. I had no experience (which was probably a good thing) but I started raising cattle here. I am on my way to healing this farm Greg and I am using the methods you are talking about and we are seeing results. Just simply rotating the cattle made a huge difference from us and everybody else around here.
We had a 3 month drought last year and all the neighbors were feeding hay in August and I was moving cattle into a paddock in October that hadn’t been touched for 90 days. I have a long ways to go but I am liking what I am seeing so far. I was out in the pastures today and here in February we have clover coming up where I have never seen it from unrolling hay. This stuff works but you have to get past what your neighbors think of you and be the weirdo that does things different.
Templar
Our farm is 257 acres but most of it is wooded. I have 30 acres of hayfield and 30 acres of pasture so my herd is small. But, I just leased up the neighbors pasture which is another 20 acres or so. I have some other plans to expand and I might be getting the neighbors on the other side of me which is another 17 acres.
Clutch Cargo after trimming out the cedars you could use your cattle to mob graze and by the next year it’ll have grass. Good luck!
@@lonely4wd Those end up being really nice spaces.
So you put Hay in an overgrazed field do you let the cows eat it and then that starts to grow the field back or do you just put the hay out without them eating it. also could a filed be so badly damaged that it just needs to be seeded with new grass
Ditto! Or 10 acres was lush dairy land gone fallow for 3 decades. EVERYTHING was desperate. We started fixing the house for a place to sleep and now are using regenerative techniques with sheep and already in 5 years things are looking up! We can support 8 horses and 20 sheep, 2 goats and 10 chickens that follow the sheep around.
Real world experience is an education that is priceless. The information you are giving away on your channel is also priceless. Thank you
I love how Greg understand the modern culture and how bad things really are. This rotational grazing stuff is no joke, we are saving lives in this journey everyday. Doctors can preform surgery but it takes a grazer to build soil and put food on the table so civilization can continue. The anti-human technocratic agenda ends here. Amen Greg.
Not really. We have a number of Menonite farmers around here and their land always looks over grazed and sickly.
Precisely why I have decided to start farming. My parents have some property I can get started on and from there I’ll start leasing and eventually buy land so I can build infrastructure to do as much as possible to heal the land around here in northern IDAHO.
@@AbandonedMaine that’s not the cow’s fault. That’s the farmers fault.
I used to work for a really smart grass farmer when I was in my teens. One year we had a really bad drought in the spring and the grass was green, but it did not grow until the rain FINALLY started about six weeks behind schedule. The farmer I worked for fed more hay at that time than he had all winter, because he had to keep his cattle off the grass at all costs. If he’d not saved his hay all winter (he was a devout stockpile grazer) his pastures would have been hammered and it would have taken a long time to recover.
You're talking about me Greg... 42 yrs old. It'll Be a dream life to be a grazer. Doing something for environment and creating clean nutritional food.
Do it mate. At least we can die in peace knowing we did what was right. Money, women, and fancy cars won't save billions from starving when this commodity cropping nonsense fails as in inevitable the more time goes on. It might go on for 50-100 years but at some point commodity farming will end in a terrifying fashion if we dont wean off of it.
I bough 80 acres of abused over grazed weed infested land last year, this is exactly what I am going to do this winter ( in Australia )
Good luck and let everyone know how you're doing!
Thanks for all your information, Greg. My brother, I, and our wives have started out on a small farm in East Texas. We've got three over-grazed pastures that we're trying to rebuild with ruminants right now. I often feel like I don't know what the heck I'm doing, and your videos go a long way toward helping light the way.
Hay bales-“Put the darn thing up on poles” ..so simple. So genius, Greg Judy. Conserving carbon. Awesome.
Greg Judy, the voice of knowledge, reason, and common sense based on practice and experience.
I wish we had you tube when I was on the farm, sure would have changed some stuff up. Thanks for the info Greg.
Don't thank us Greg, we can't thank you enough! I've been subscribed since I found you, I've learned so much, and someday I'm going to do it myself.
Damn didn't expect that great life advice in the last minute of the video. Thats how you know Greg Judy is the real deal.
I know. Wish I had got into this as a young man!
I grew up in coal country. There's huge acreage in strip mined land that could be reclaimed with Greg's regenerative approach.
We are starting tiny with 5 feeder lambs on a free lease. If this works we will get breeding sheep. Thank you for painting the picture of how to start.
Thank you for posting these informative, uplifting videos! Please include a video on electric fence grounding in your upcoming ones. Thank you again for sharing your knowledge AND experience!
That’s me, 47, working in town while my heart and soul yearn to be doing what you’re doing.
I learn something every video.
Thanks so much for taking the time to post each day!
Another great video. Greg thank you. For everything you do. The passion you feel for your land and animals is a beautiful sight. Your videos always make my days better.
Best content on the internet, thx Greg!
I had 40 acres of land full of weeds and young cedars. Dozed the cedars and tilled the soil to plant grass. Before I had time to plant grass, the soil disturbance activated a native grass (King Ranch Bluestem) I didn't even know I had. Now, the pasture is covered in grass.
I can't wait to trade in my "town job"!
i am ranching in Hawaii and i watch everything you put out. also a subscriber. ive learned alot from this channel. we have a dairy farm on the big island of Hawaii. i brought my cows over from Utah when we moved here.
i forgot to mention, we used to have snow to deal with in central Utah. now its 275 inches of rain a year. here in Hawaii
I have been there, it is a beautiful island. That is a ton of rain you get!!
@@TheCodesearcher 275 inches! Grow Moringa forage HIghest volume tropical forage...but maybe it's too wet for it! It ought to be great for rotational grazing. It produces the most when it's cut back regularly.
Thank you Greg!! Another great video!
I’m 34 years old. It’s my goal to be a full time grass farmer by 40!!!
Tellin it like it is .
Thanks Greg
Thanks for all of the Videos Greg. I am SO looking forward to all of the content and topics you are working on.
Again, many thanks! I agree with everything you say.
Great video Greg, well said!
Great conclusion for your video. Regenerate the land, no matter whom it belongs to, but first renew the connection with the family, which is the fuel for every thing else.
We are learning a lot from you. Great videos.
Amazing material
Thanks Greg
I blocked up my pasture so I could rotate and rest my pastures more; and kicked up my Ca/Mg etc and doing much better. I cut all my own posts from hedges to save.
Thank you, and yes please share out the good word folks!
as always, thank you for inspiring us all :)
Love your videos Greg. Been subscribed for a couple months yet I learned so much from your channel as well as other channels like yours. Thank you for the knowledge wisdom and inspiration. Soon enough this city boy will be in the country on the farm implementing all that I've learned.☺☺☺
Love your videos.
Hooked up with you from Josh. You are great. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge. It appreciated!
One of my fave videos.
Greg I'm now just getting the fence going. Thanks to you I'm spending a fraction and will be putting up a better fence than I would have. Thanks again
Was there one particular video that Greg did that helped you with your fencing??? New to this channel, thanks
@@larrymoore6640 Start here and go from there. CZcams search is pretty awesome. czcams.com/video/ozfStB1Ytdw/video.html
Orders from Powerflex come quick.
Great video. Thank you!
What amazes me is how few people are mob grazing. Here in Western AR, i see overgrazed fields in May! Plus there are a lot of weedy underutilized grazing.
I have trouble seeing how it's optimal to not do some hay. In the warm months you have way more grazing than you can use. Even with stockpile, how can you rotate enough in the dormant season? Also, in many areas, there is enough rain to leach nutrients below the reach of grasses. Alfalfa is very good at recovering deep nutrients.
Years ago, I heard of a guy who experimented with planting Honey Locust in his pastures. The canopy is thin and doesn't prevent the grass from growing close to the tree. the pods provide a surprising amount of forage and the cows LOVE them. They are a deep rooted tree and recycle nutrients to the surface
You have so much practical knowledge it amazing! Thank you for taking the time to share such in depth practical tips to help build confidence.
Thank you!
We need to get more people in this movement to form a lobby to promote this. State politicians are missing a huge oppertunity to bring money, agriculture, rural development , health, environment, conservation and wildlife, etc to their states. It's all right there and all you have to do is promote this stuff, help make it easier for young farmers , or old farmers to do this type of thing. And start letting people that know about this stuff, help with designing public land use. Lots of mismanaged public land that could really make a difference if it were under better management. This movement is a politicians dream if only they would figure that out.
This is what I’ve been waiting for-Jerry
Hey Greg I like how you are preaching keep it up it may sink to some of us people.
Thanks Greg just started watching your videos and I'm hooked, went straight out to our cows and put 2 herds in to 1 could see the regrowth difference next day 😊
That’s awesome !!
Appreciate the videos. Subscribed
I literary love you :D
6:40
No, u know it by experience
Hopefully i ll be a half of a farmer u re one day
Best wishes from very very far away :d
Something we have done for decades is planting several different maturities of corn in ungrazable fields and green chopping it in late summer/early fall to wean calves off in the fall. A cheap pull type chopper & 4 green chop wagons keeps a lot of cattle fed & makes it much easier to wean. Cattle get nice flesh before going into winter during a time when grass levels are at their lowest. This enables us to give pastures a rest in late summer to build stockpile for winter. We then plant cover crop rye on these fields & green chop it early so that we allow pastures to get good growth on them before turnout. Pastures last longer, cattle are healthier, & cost is minimal
The professors who write these articles are probably in the south and don’t deal with snow. I’m always careful to see who these people are and where their located. In Virginia, we get very little snow now. I make and store indoors 4000 bales a year and sell 8000...our winters for the last few years have been very mild, making hay almost unnecessary. My personal opinion on fence, spend the money on woven wire for borders and electric for interior. Your videos really intrigue me, I spend 100k a year on lime, fertilizer and herbicide just on pastures. Getting to a point where these things can be done naturally seems impossible but you’re doing it.
Hey Tim! I shared this to you through text. You better be watching this video 😁🤣
Mr. Judy...thank goodness you are letting people know it is possible. So many channels only talk about how there is no money and it is super super hard work. I hate that! I know it is. But I am trying to convince my husband and all that talk gives him all the evidence he needs to deny me. My relatives openly mock my desire to farm. It actually makes me very angry.
There is a really good living to be made on the land with ruminate animals. It has to be structured correctly. Don't let anybody steal your dream!!
I live in northern Wisconsin. Please do a video on how to "stop haying your land".... I would love to move my hay field into pasture paddocks but the truth is that my cows need winter feed. Hay on a cheap year is $65 (4x5) on the average year $80. Last year $100+
When we can have 2+ feet of snow on the ground, freezing ice, etc we can barely unroll a bale
Greg I have to say I’ve farmed all my life yet I admire how well you take care of the land. I wish we had the acreage you have to run on.. it just simply isn’t available here. I like your methods for sure.
Wow, just love your videos and the message. You are describing our operation. I just purchased multiple solar chargers and fence supplies. We are weekend ranchers, so I’m going to try weekly rotations. Not ideal, but will it work? Any advice?
Inspiring
If you have a big snowstorm coming, I would think about getting some hay, (as much as you calculate based on forecast), out to the Pastures where you figure the cattle will be when it hits, and when you need it.
We have no problem getting hay out with our ATV bale unroller.
We’ve had our farm for 4 years and cows on it for 2. I wish i would of found this video earlier. We have 30 acres, During the summer we have ok grass but in the winter we have dirt. next week I’m going to start unrolling our hay
Thanks so much for your videos. We are hitting 60 and are trying to grow things in this awful Oklahoma soil so that we have more control over our food and health. We have a bunch of chickens for eggs but would love to expand to meat animals. We would definitely need to lease land for cattle but what do you think about sheep maybe to start?
You'll save even more hay, Greg, if you line up those bales end to end, tight together. The ends will be protected and less rot and bleaching.
We do stack them end to end on most of our farms.
Greg, don't you leave space between the rows to get the bale cart in? We have a length of pvc we use to measure when we set the bales so there is room to get the bale cart in and grab a bale.
@@rockinghorselivestock2491 We have a sharpened fiberglass post that we push into the center of the bale. We take a log chain and hook to the fiberglass post and pull the bale out. We sometimes just push them off the posts if we have have gravity working for us.
Hay is drought insurance! We raise sheep in Canada and we never go into May without having enough hay for another month.
It looks like you have your bales stacked 2 bales deep, how do you go about getting the first one loose with your bale unroller?
Amen and Amen
Wise words, focus on the important things each day. Honer your family, honer your land, but don't forget to honer God first cause He gave you all of the above
Absolutely!!
Honor
Greg do you have any experience with small square bales? Any advice on how/what to do?
Love watching these videos. I’m a hobby farmer I could care less if I make money. I don’t want to loose money but any profit I get it’s a bonus to me. I have a small farm and use cattle to grow a beef a year and help keep the farm grazed off some. By watching these videos it has helped make my farm much better looking and have much greener grass to look at. If I were to ever seriously try and raise cattle and expand to make a profit I’d follow everything in these videos to a T.
Good evening Greg
Another interesting film, thank you.
Leaving hay outdoors; it's obviously staying good enough for the cattle to eat. In the UK hay is usually stored indoors.
Do you find any challenges with outdoor storage like that..?
Do you ever buy haylage/plastic wrapped hay?
Thanks
Peter
We do not use haylage. Keeping the bales up on poles really preserves the bales as long as they are net wrapped.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Ok, thank you.
Hi Greg, Do you ever use any kind of fertilizer other than what cows produce?
1-3" of snow again...ugh...I've never been more ready for winter to be over. I'm so anxious for spring greenup I can't stand it.
I'm with you Brent on the snow, another day closer to spring greenup though!!
Yea winter sucks on the farm XD. I have no motivation until to gets above 40 degrees honestly haha.
We are on month 4 of our usual 6.5 months of winter here in Canada. 4 feet of frost frozen ground. No body is more anxious for green forage then us lol
@@primrosefarms6938 I don't know how you folks up north deal with that..I just can't. It's 8F here this morning and I'm thinking of moving to Texas.
@@brandonkrause6401 ... I'm with you on the 40 degrees. It seems that in Ohio, the last two months of fall and the first two months of spring is a very large part of winter.
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If you have pressured water are microtroughs a good way to start?
How would you start mob grazing on a larger farm that’s scatter over several different properties. 450 mamas in 60-70 cow bunches?
Greg, thank you for all you do and the free information you provide. This next spring I will be starting my grazing operation (and will see you at your September grazing seminar).
But here’s my question, you said the pasture was overgrazed for 47 years. After that you said you rested the pasture for a year. Then you went into your hay bales, sitting on posts, polywire, etc. that is in other videos - so you lost me. Why did you go into the hay? Was it because as you were resting the pasture you spread hay on the pasture during the winter to build up carbon? Or did you not do anything at all and just have the cattle come in 1 year after the rest period?
I’m not being critical - no way, no how. It’s my not understanding your process because it seemed like you went from rest, to hay on posts, hay around the pasture for insurance, to not feeding hay early vs. forage, to water, polywire, to how you went from not being profitable to turning a profit. ALL OF THAT IS IMPORTANT - just please let me in on the way you revitalized the pasture a little more.
Thank you for all you do!
Hi Greg. Have you released an audible book?
Greg, do you have any tips on speeding up the rehab of pastures? Lime takes years to move ph. Rolling out hay works but it will be take a season change. And neither address hard pan.
Focusing on feeding the soil tons of trampled carbon throughout the season will put you years ahead in land recovery.
Deep rooted cover crops will address hard pan. Grow 'em up and graze 'em down.
While doing soil samples this year I found I could not push the soil probe much deeper than an inch in most places. This is the most current research on using annual ryegrass as hard pan mitigation. pss.ca.uky.edu/news-story/researchers-believe-fragipan-breakthrough-horizon my major limiting factor is this hard pan at the moment. It being so close to the surface is also limiting ryegrass growth. The researchers state that there will be no major breakthrough in the hard pan for many years. I have been growing a mix of ryegrass, black oats, crimson clover, and tillage radish with lackluster results. The clover being the only thing that gave even mediocre returns. I'm just looking for a faster return without plowing. My property has a lot of topology and I do not want to risk washing away what topsoil I have.
Living away from the property, I pulled grazing, let it rest for 2 years, prescribed fire, and rested for 2 years again, then will run a prescribed fire back through in the next few months. I am slowly converting back to native prairie, though, so I’m not concerned with grazing recovery.
I’m guessing the fires every couple years are also keeping the small sprouts from taking over your pastures?
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher some of them are getting through, but I plan to control non-desired woody vegetation individually with herbicide. My area had a mix of prairie, cross-Timbers, and Oak Savannah… I’m okay with encroachment of those tree species that would have originally been on the landscape. Timing fires in the winter, most of the undesired saplings get top-killed and make excellent deer cover and browse. The oaks are fire tolerant and survive at higher rates.
@Isaacmantx sounds like you have it figured out. Good job sir!
Greg, I have a hay field that i'm putting fence around this spring. The last 2 years have been so wet that nobody has mowed this field. Do you recommend mowing the standing dead grass from last year or just put the cows on it and hope they trample it? Thanks
Rotate the animals across the land trampling the rank forage on the ground.
About how long can you expect a Haybale to last outside like that?
I'm eager to see that banding video. Do your steers finish out in 24-30 months?.. I probably wasn't paying attention enough regarding the bulls you save, do you fear inbreeding?
Spreading out hay the way you do does two things cows a full stomach and soil replacement to make the cows 🐄 😃.
Greg, what would you do in southwestern SD, where we get below zero and the grass turns brown and the protein drops dramatically in the grass. I supplement with cake. They will not gain like yours do on just grass.
AcesUpOffroad look up Gabe Brown. He is from ND and he can address all the concerns that will affect you. He doesn’t have a channel but there are videos of him speaking.
Thanks I will check it out.
Do you ever graze stalks?
Take your bails of hay 20 times 2 = 40 post for your 5 1/2 long.
I have to admit, the whole, "Get your cattle out on the road to walk to the next grazing point," makes me nervous. I imagine getting them out there, then some kid in a goat, (GTO), or a yuppie in an Audi, blasting through, scattering the cattle, and three days later I STILL haven't gotten 'em all back.
SIDEBAR: hay, like a flat tire, it's only flat on one side.
I say feed them what green alive is available, until it isn't, then turn to hay. "Hay is for horses, and not for men, they say it'll kill me, but they won't say when... "
You mention 5 strand high tensile strength wire for sheep or goats. Is that electric fence or would you recommend high tensile woven fence?
Both are effective if built properly. Choose the one that fits your pocketbook.
Hi Greg, I emailed you today, sounds like a hair-brained idea, this fresh fodder concept. I look forward to hearing from you on this. It wouldn't hurt to crunch the numbers, figure what is possible.
It is a waste of time trying to grow fodder in the winter for 300 head. I don't even want to think about what it would cost to scale that up for that many animals.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher I agree philosophically. I have been following people with massive grow-light operations in basements. Feel free to 'round file' the link I emailed you...
How long will it take for earthworms and other biology to return to a pasture after cattle who had been treated with Ivermectin have been removed from the pasture? Thank you in advance for your reply.
What about over seeding? Good idea for healing an overgrazed farm?
Gracias Greg. How about when you don’t have the luxury of a lot acreage and moving them elsewhere. When is grazing school this year?
Stock your land with the appropriate amount of animals that it will support. It does no good to bring in to many animals, over graze it to the dirt and have a health wreck. School is May 5-7th. Almost full.
It’s for a client. Horses. 6 acres total including house, barn . You taught me what to do. Hard to convince horse people to do things differently to decrease parasite load through pasture management and not over worming products
As a Veterinarian, I completely recommend your books. How to give veterinary management recommendations if you do not have a clue of updated farm management practices?As an agronomist before going to Veterinary school, your books, lecture and farm visit updated everything in terms of things changed in the last 20 years.
Greg, I live in Florida, but I'm tired of the heat and the crowds. I will be leaving the state to follow my dream of becoming a farmer. Where would you go, if you were me? There's good deals in Maine, but most of the land is heavily wooded and of course there are the long winters. Tennessee is a possibility, as well as your neck of the woods. Any thoughts?
Any place that has fescue and decent rainfall without brutal winters.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher You're the man, Greg. Thanks for caring so much about what you do. I hope I see you at your grazing school.
@@daves9452 see you soon at our grazing school, it will be an awesome 3 days of learning!
In Tennessee, if you have out of state plates, the police pull you over and rob you at gun point under the guise of civil forfeiture. You have to go to court in hopes of getting some of your money back. I wouldn't step a foot into that state.
Greg, is there any tips you would offer for the guys who are grazing in Minnesota.
If you have tons of snow, I would look at bale grazing. Place them on 50 foot spacings in your pasture and graze them in the winter. If you have 2-3 feet of snow all winter, makes it tough to graze grass.
Likewise I am in Manitoba. I ponder this question also. I just can’t take my beautiful alfalfa/grass stands and pasture them, I need hay every year and sometimes for 6 months straight I’ll feed hay. So I can’t buy all that hay that would leave me in the hole. It much cheaper to buy half decent equipment to make my 800ish bales a year than to spend $45k a year on hay alone. My mower and rake are my only two pieces of equipment I owe on, and the payments are less than $5000 a year for both.
Also if you are looking to spread hay in the pasture, shop for a used bale processor if you have a high enough horsepower tractor. For the most part hay can still be spread in 2 feet of snow with a processor
@@Amaranthian450 I'm been watching cover crop kings on here and he grows a cover crop that allows for grazing into the winter. Looks like an excellent system.
@@Amaranthian450 Check out Gabe Brown's book Dirt to Soil. He makes his own hay, and grazes through the snow and bale grazes in Bismark, ND. He only feeds hay for 90 days while most of his neighbors feed for 6 months. The guy seems to be making a very good living on the ranch.
So the professor gave a thumbs down 17 times I guess. Good info Greg.
Just recently have noticed that Pepperweed has taken over the pasture. Is there a solution to get rid of Pepperweed?
Most weed issues are brought on by overgrazing or soil disturbance exposing bare spots
Thanks for what you are doing ,take the Buffalo and how they grazed our land ,grass was higher than horse and rider.Check that out Greg,you may already know this.
👍
Your spot on about get bigger or get out with conventional agriculture - that all started with Nixon's Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz, in the 1970s.
There is now a growing need for farmers like yourself to implement regenerative farming - Wendell Berry has been advocating passionately for the return of the family-owned farm to help restore and reinvigorate rural societies. Keep up the good work in promoting this message / wwe.rainwaterrunoff.com
Thanks, we definitely need more people back on the land taking care of it.
In your area buying in hay may be ok. But it’s also poor practice to rely completely on someone else for feed. Which is why you keep so graze land obviously. However your tips work for you in your situation. Not all farmers ranchers have that luxury of having that much land to lease available. Keeping acres in a hay/graze rotation assures you know the source of your feed and can cut cost of hay in half.
Go and hire or borrow a direct drill look at Gabe Brown videos form North decoator get cover crops in and your set go do it
Do you fertilize
Sometimes if we have a solid stand of broomsedge grass on a new leased farm, we put down some phosphorus