The cold weather has returned.  The  60 degree weather we enjoyed so much last week has been replaced by bitter cold.  This morning the temperature is a chilly 12 degrees.  

I am sitting here at my desk trying to work but I can't keep from gazing out the window.   I've noticed the cattle are laying in the pastures warming themselves in the morning sun.    Once the temperature beings to rise, they will be up and active.

Our son Jack resides in one of our  farms houses on the ranch.  The pipes in his house froze up and he is working to thaw them out.  The older farm houses do not have adequate insulation and are harder to keep warm.  

Storms and Fences

To a grass farmer raising cattle, fencing is a primary interest. Fences are absolutely necessary to effectively manage cattle. All rural people know and understand this, but for some of the city-folk this may seem contrary to "the open range" idea.

Fences keep cattle off the highway, out of your neighbor's pasture, and on the grass you want them to be eating at that particular point in time. Fences allow a grass farmer to manage the animals, the crop of grass, and the environment in the most sustainable manner to the benefit of all. A cow may be raised its entire life on open pasture, never confined to small spaces, and eating the diet intended for it to consume and still be within the boundaries of a fence.

At AmericanGrassFedBeef.com our finishing pastures are under movable, electric fences which allow the animals to be rotated to clean pasture daily. The other groups are in 120 acre pastures bound by barbed wire fence.

It is this barbed wire that we seem to constantly attend to this time of the year. Rain Crow has miles and miles of barbed wire and before a group of animals can be rotated the entire perimeter fence of that pasture has to be ridden.

Spring storms often bring trees or limbs down on the fence and it has to be repaired before a group of animals can be moved into the new pasture. Some of our cow hands laughingly call it "job security". It is a constant of our life.

Hauling Cattle

We are loading 4 steers this morning to transport to the processor. We try to make the 2 hour trip as early as possible in order to minimize stress due to heat, traffic, etc.

Our final finishing pasture is located in an adjacent lot to our loading pen. We bring the selected animals into the pen the night before loading. It is a simple and quiet routine to walk them in.

Since we are constantly rotating our cattle to fresh pastures, they are very used to the action of us walking out and opening gates. We only transport about 4-6 at a time to minimize stress and to keep a steady flow of beef. This means we end up making the trip quite often.

Happy Birthday Pete and Trent

We have 6 children and 2 of the boys share the same birthdate of June 4. Peter is 19 (born in 1984) and Trent is 10 (born in 1993). Chores, and cake, and presents.

Happy Birthday boys, we love you!

Cattle to Swiss

We are loading 3 cows this morning to transport to Swiss, Missouri to a processor who will be trying a new product for us.

We are a small enough company that we have gotten to know our customers pretty well and listen to what they say and their requests. Sometimes it is just not possible to work out, but other times it has resulted in some great new products. Our beef jerky and bratwurst came about in this way.

We have been talking to this processor about developing a grass fed beef, all natural hot dog.

Swiss is a good 4 hours away, so we have to leave early.

Rotating

By this time in the season our cattle have been rotating pastures long enough to have learned the procedure. I can remember 11-12 years ago when we first began practicing rotational grazing our ranch hands thought we were insane. They felt it would be entirely to stressful to move large numbers of animals so often. When practiced correctly it is the most unstressful situation possible and is far better for the animals and the land.

I believe that we have discussed this previously, since it is at the heart of every grass farmer. But, as a reminder, grass is at its peak nutritional value at a height of 10-14 inches (depending on the grass). When allowed to grow taller it begins to lose nutritional value and becomes less palatable to the animal. Shorter grass is "weaker". Not only is it lower in protein and nutritional value, but to bite it at a younger stage invites die-off as the grass stand itself can be injured.

When animals graze continually in the same pasture you will notice some grass grows very tall. From the animal's standpoint, tall grass has become tough and bitter tasting. When ingested it is harder for the natural flora in the stomach to breakdown the cell wall of the plant to allow the nutrition to be available to the animal, so it is of lower nutritional value. Other areas will become bare because of repeated "bite". The new growth is young, tender, and tastes really good so they return to the same spot to feed again and again until that area of grass actually dies out.

When you think about it, the best method to utilize the grass would be to evenly crop it at a height when it is at it's maximum and most optimal level of nutrition. This would be similar to mowing our lawns each week. That is the aim of rotational grazing. You place a large number of animals in a pasture where they can graze evenly the top part of the grass and then move on to another pasture where they can do the same.

At Rain Crow we have 22 pastures that are roughly 120 acres each. I have always been fascinated by how easily the animals train themselves to rotate. On the morning of the intended move the animals are usually waiting at the gate leading to the next pasture. A pasture may have 4 or more gates, but they are standing by the one particular gate leading to new grass. If for some reason we need to move them in a different direction (out a different gate) my husband describes it as, "trying to push a chain". They know where to go next and they even know when it is time to go.

The animals in the breeding herd and in the yearling herd rotate through these pastures at a rate which depends on how fast the grass is growing. If the grass is growing fast you rotate faster, it the grass is growing slow you rotate more slowly. The animals in the beef program are on finishing pastures and rotate daily. You see, we truly are grass farmers who simply use our cattle to harvest our crop of green grass.

The open range idea is romantic in what it conjures in our minds. However, when the "range" was not traversed with fences and private property the animals rotated themselves as they migrated across the land. Open range today takes on a different meaning to grass farmers. It is the idea of best utilizing the resources of a particular environment to best suit the entire system of land, water, minerals, animals, and the stewards who shepherd it. This is at the basis of what sustainable agriculture should consider. That "open range" out west may take waste amounts of acreage to sustain the herd. It may take 50-60 acres to support one cow. In Missouri we think in terms of one cow per 3 acres.

I would like to continue thoughts about rotational grazing later. But, I need to be off and working.

Dr. Patricia Whisnant
Veterinarian and grass farmer

GREEN IS MY FAVORITE COLOR

There is something absolutely wonderful that the color of green does to the spirit. Maybe the rest of the world who might be somewhat insulated in a city environment can't relate. We are tied to the grass and as spring brings its annual renewal our spirits soar.

Winter pasture of wheat and rye grass does a fine job to keep our finishing herd going. Yet, our mamma cows have been on alfalfa hay and as the hills have come alive so have the spirits of this group of cows. There is no prettier sight in this world than a mamma cow chewing green grass as her new calf kicks up its heels in gleeful enjoyment of the environment.

Working cattle

It goes well that it is so wonderful to be out-of-doors this time of the year. We would like to clone ourselves and go in multiple directions at the same time. We have pasture to renovate, electric fencing to revise, cattle to rotate, water gates to repair, and we "work" all our animals.

Twice a year we bring our cattle up and separate them into the appropriate group. Calves to wean, cows to put with the bulls, yearlings to select for the beef operation, and those animals that we choose to sell. We tag all animals and place in their respective pastures.

This time of the year we are truly grass farmers as we are in the process of establishing some more summer pasture. July and August can get very dry around here and our typical grass base is a cool season grass. We are attempting to establish Eastern Gammagrass and some more Bermuda to use as finishing pasture in the summer heat.

Raising a Barn

A century ago, neighbors and friends would gather to "raise a barn" in a day. We had the American Grass Fed Beef version of this event recently.

We all have our unique talents and skills. I have a way with animals and luckily some experience and education in that area. Mark has been in marketing all his adult life and has an intuition with numbers that rivals a computer. Neither of us are carpenters but we have neighbors.

Neighbors we have helped with animal health and husbandry issues. Neighbors that we have helped with the marketing of their herd. Neighbors who know how to build.

So yesterday, we had a barn raising over our new walk in freezer. We pooled our energy and constructed a simple pole barn over the freezer so it would be somewhat protected and insulated. It worked out to be a learning experience for my son, a time to visit with neighbors, and a great time to get a much needed project done before the spring takes over with everyone busy in different directions.

Dr. Patricia Whisnant
Grass Farmer and Veterinarian

Planning for Spring

Though winter still has a hold on us we have experienced just enough warm to begin to turn our thoughts towards spring. We will be renovating some finishing pasture and are researching a new grass (new for us) Eastern Gammagrass. This grass is supposed to be a great warm season grass. We think it might fit into some of our grazing cells that are along a creek bottom.

As environmentalists, we will utilize no till methods which minimize erosion and are good for our land. As grass farmers, we focus on growing the finest grass for each season and our cattle harvest our crop.

Dr. Patricia Whisnant
Grass Farmer and Veterinarian

Calves in the Bathtub

This winter is proving to be colder and bringing more snow than our average. The old timers around here are saying it is more like the way winters used to be. Personally, I do not remember it being this bad since 1993. We had moved from South Florida to Missouri and I had told my husband that he needn't worry because the winters would be mild (I had grown up in Tennessee and he was from So. Florida). Up until 1993 winters were mild.

We were in the process of building a herd and had used AI (artificial insemination for city folks) to breed about 300 first calf heifers (no one in their right mind would do this). We did not want to purchase older cattle to build our herd and prefered to start with healthy, young heifers.

Only problem is a heifer will run the chance of having a dystocia (difficulty calving) a lot more than a cow. Hence, they have to be watched more. We breed our heifers to calve about a month earlier than the rest of the cow herd (gives them more time to recover before trying to rebreed). That puts these heifers calving in Feburary where the rest of the cows start the calving season in March.

Heifers are a bit goofy as mothers the first time around and sometimes just don't know what to make of that new calf. They don't always have a strong enough instinct to do what they should.

I have seen them run off and just leave the calf or look at it without a clue as to where it came from. That and the likelihood of problems calving (dystocia) means we watch our heifers every 2 hours (day and night) while they are calving. We alternate this duty during the night.

In '93 we had 300 head and along comes a whale of a snow storm. It was bitter cold and over the course of the day and night we got over 14 inches of snow.

Since this is extremely unusual in our area, we do not have indoor calving facilities. As we checked the heifers through the night it became increasingly difficult to do so and finally had to resort to using nothing but the tractor as it was the only thing that would go through that much new snow. We had moved all our "girls" into the front pasture so they would be easier to check.

It is always best for a newborn calf to have its own mama clean it up and prompt it to drink its first milk (colostrum). The maternal stimulation is actually necessary.

As luck had it, this particular night was a birthing bonanza. We had 8 or 10 calves born that night. We would typically observe that the calf was born . . . yet wanting to give the mother time to clean it up on its own we would check the other heifers then come back to check to see that the calf was up and nursing.

It was cold enough that if their mama had not gotten them up right away they would already be suffering from hypothermia (low body temperature) by the time we got back. In a couple of the cases the water from the placenta had actually frozen to the ground and the calf had to be pried free.

Several calves succumbed to hypothermia and needed immediate help or they would be dead in a short time. Sometimes you can put these little fellows in the pickup truck and use the heater on high to warm them up in the floor board.

But this night we had too much snow to use the truck and by the time we got them in from the pasture they were in pretty bad shape. We needed some heroics to pull these calves through. So, we brought them in to the house and filled the bathtub up with warm water. We submerged these nearly comatose animals (weighing 60-80#) in the warm water and would leave one of our boys with them.

The boys kept the calf's head out of the water so he could breathe as they poured cups of water over the newborn. It is the neatest and most miraculous experience. As these cold and near dead animals began to revive . . . they would start to suck on your finger.

In a short time, they would be struggling to get out of the tub. We had spread out quilts and these newborns who had never yet stood up would wobble to their feet and another boy would begin to dry him with a hair dryer.

By the end of the night, we had repeated this procedure 4 times and by daylight the bathroom was becoming a bit cramped so we also blocked off an area in the kitchen to hold them. At daylight we walked the mama heifer/cows into a stall in the barn and took their babies back to them.

All accepted their calves and they received a full warm belly of mama's milk. It had been a long tiring night for the entire family,but good tired when it ended with the saving of 4 newborn calves who would have otherwise been dead by morning.

It was a memorable evening for our family. One that we often laugh about now and yet not one I would want to repeat. On cold winter nights, I can still see those gangly calves in the bathtub.

Dr. Patricia Whisnant
Grass Farmer and Veterinarian

Winter Hits Southern Missouri

In Southern Missouri we are usually blessed with mild winters where our highs average in the 50's. Not mild enough for my born and raised So. Florida husband . . . too mild for my snow and sled enthusiaist kids. Yet, every winter we get a touch of Artic chill and on a grass farm that puts us into a winter emergency mode.

This time of the year our cattle are grouped by age and function. We have a small number in the beef herd grazing on winter wheat. We have momma cows in the third stage of gestation who will be calving starting in early March. We have momma cows with young calves, and then the weanlings and yearlings. Each different group has nutritional needs inherent with their age and stage of production.

Our winter worries have to do with the well being of all these different groups and the unique needs of each. Snow followed by bitter cold has found us in it's path and frozen all our ponds.

Most our pastures have access to fresh running creeks which do not freeze, but they still have ponds which do. This morning we went out to the pasture with the yearlings and there stood several out on the ice.

These ponds have only been frozen a short while and the ice is not thick. Very gently, without spooking the animals we rush to get them off the ice before they can fall through. We carry an axe in the truck to break the ice to try to prevent this from happening again.

A calf weighing 450 - 500# may walk out on the ice and it doesn't break until he gets to the middle. When it breaks, he can easily drown.

With the warnings of approaching winter storms we try to move all the momma cows with babies into some of the most sheltered pastures, where natural draws between hills and trees offer protection from snow and wind.

Dr. Patricia Whisnant
Grass Farmer and Veterinarian

At War

Each season brings its own unique challenges to raising cattle. This winter we are having a significant problem with coyotes. We have not hunted or trapped them in 4-5 years and the numbers have greatly increased.

Though some grass ranchers out west tolerate a predator problem, we take a different philosophy. We consider ourselves shepherds of the cattle in our care and no shepherd allows a wolf to carry off the young ones and just consider the loss a part of life.

We have lost 3 calves this winter already and each night you hear the eerie howling of the pack. When the number of coyotes are few, they seem to resign themselves to preying upon smaller mammals (rabbits, mice, rats). When the numbers increase they begin to "pack", traveling and hunting as a group they bring down calves easily.

Two of my sons were checking a group of cattle just after daylight and found a calf that had been caught, but was still alive. They figure that it had just happened and that they scared the coyotes off. We are stepping up our watch, but with every howling session you feel alarm.

The boys look at the problem as a challenge, even an adventure. A real excuse to prowl the hillsides at night with a spotlight and gun. They have invested in calling equipment and my house is full of them practicing wounded rabbit, and distressed bird calls.

For all their efforts the coyotes are currently ahead. Though they have managed to call in some coyotes you only have an instant to get off a shot.

If they are not successful in these endeavors we may have to call upon a trapper. Though that is also quite difficult. These animals are truly wily and are difficult to handle. Coyote hunters in our area use dogs to run them, but we do not like the prospect of letting dogs chasing a coyote run through our cattle.

I'll let you know how the "war" goes.

Dr. Patricia Whisnant
Grass Farmer and Veterinarian

Rowdy Calves

4:33 am As a veterinarian, a cattle producer, and mother of 6 children, I have often been known to lump animals and kids into one group. We are dealing today with a group of rowdy, rebellous teens who just happen to be of the bovine variety this time.

We generally wean our spring calves in October. They are approximately 8 months old at that time. The momma cows are bred back and it is time for the weanling to shift from depending on Momma for the calves' nutrition to standing on their own. This transition has actually been going on since the calf was born.

Though the baby calf relies mostly on the cow's milk, it very quickly begins to pick at the grass and gradually relies more and more on grass. The milk is not the main source of nutrition anymore. However, the bond between cow and calf goes beyond nutrition.

It always amazes me how when we move a large group of cattle and the cow and calf become separated they "bawl". They recognize each other out of hundreds of other bawling cows and calves. No wonder when you have a group of mothers and children together and the kids are noisily playing, a mom can pick out the hurt cry of her child above all the ruckus.

When we wean the calf from the cow it is necessary to break this bond to allow for the new calf that will soon be born. Otherwise the older cow will continue to suck the momma and will "steal" all the colostrum that is vital for the survival of the new calf. This is a stressful time for both cow and calf and we try to provide as little stress as possible.

We wean "nose to nose". That is where the cow and the calf are separated by a wire fence and can still stand together, but the calf cannot suck the cow. After several very loud days the process is completed and they each go their separate ways. Actually we place them in separate pastures with their agemates.

However, there are always some clever weanlings that defy all odds and somehow end back up with the momma cow weeks after weaning has taken place. When you enter the pasture you can almost see them "hiding" because they know they are not supposed to be there.

In November, we rounded up some of these rascals and put them back with the other weanlings. Well, sure enough some ended up back with momma. Today it is time to get "tough". These soon to be yearling calves will have to be separated and put in a pen to hold until the momma cow can be rotated to pasture much further away.

In years past, we have had some calves that have been such clever escapees that we have actually had to sell them to another farm. The worst that can happen is for these yearling calves to get back with the momma cow who has a new calf and the older one gets all the milk. Some momma cows do a good job of kicking the older calves off, but some will allow it to continue to nurse and the little one will starve.

So today we will round up these rebellous teens and put them on "restriction."

Dr. Patricia Whisnant
Grass Farmer and Veterinarian

Providing Winter Grass for our Cattle

8:00 a.m. Our first order of the day usually involves rotating the cattle from one pasture to another. This is becoming critical this time of the year. Our primary grass base is fescue which is a cool season grass. That means it grows best during temperature ranges where the highs are in the 60's or 70's.

Though there are many things I do not like about fescue, I appreciate this last growth spurt before winter sets in. We will move some cows to the last of the alfalfa today to use up the last of this forage for the season. Alfalfa is a wonderful forage that once established will come back year after year. Since this is what we use to finish our cattle in the warmer seasons we take good care of it. This rotation will be the last alfalfa grazing of the season and then it will be allowed to go dormant until the spring.

We have no-till drilled winter wheat and very soon it will be ready to graze. We try to let it get up to at least 8-10 inches before we let any cattle on it. The no-tilling method allows us to go into the existing pastures and actually drill the wheat seed into the ground without disturbing the surface of the soil or the existing grass in that pasture.

In our hills this becomes very important to use in the prevention of soil erosion. No-tilling is the least invasive way to establish grass on a grass farm. We purchased a seed drill years ago and frequently lend it out to our neighbors who are now using it to improve their pastures. We also use this method to drill clover in with the fescue for warmer season grassing.

When we drill the winter wheat we often include cold hardy oats and rye grass at the same time. This combination of winter forage seems to tolerate our relatively mild winters and it produces lots of growth. It would be like going to a salad bar and selecting from the varoius kinds of lettuces available. We are doing the same with our cattle. In fact, we consider feeding our cattle very much the same as building a healthy salad, and since we are what we eat -- our cattle are what they eat -- so we are what our cattle eat. Healthy and green makes for health!

I have even taken this same wheat grass and juiced it. I have enjoyed the benefits of wheatgrass, but have had somewhat of a problem convincing my family. They would prefer it as cattle feed so they get benefits from beef !

Dr. Patricia Whisnant
Grass Farmer and Veterinarian

The Big Day

When an animal in our beef program finally reaches finished weight of 1000 to 1100 pounds it is time to transport to the processing plant. We try to group these animals through the finishing pastures according to weight and when they will finish out. Here they have been rotated through the most nutritious grass available for at least 90-120 days. Given small slivers of new pasture each day and at times rotating to new pastures even twice a day . . . they have put on their maximum gain. Experience and personal evaluation tells us when it is exactly the right time.

Today we have a group of 9 steer that are ready to go.

Last night we moved these animals into a 5 acre pasture where they have access to fresh water and even grass. They spent the night there. Before daylight we begin the process of walking them into the loading pens. It is extremely important at these stage to cause as little stress as possible. Only 2 or 3 of us walk to the opposite end of the pasture and slowly move towards the pens where the gates have been opened. Cattle in groups like this usually move into the pens without any problems. From here they go through the loading chute and into the trailer.

We do the transportation ourselves since we feel this is such an important stage and want it handled with as little stress as possible. It is for that reason we typically only take 4-10 animals at a time. To get the animal excited at this time could result in a marked reduction in the quality of the beef. Highly excited animals can result in a "dark carcass" and the meat cannot be used. We feel that stressing the animals creates tougher beef. Most cattle operations ship animals by the semi-truck load and crowd them as tight as possible (less cost). They may spend many, many hours on a cattle truck before they reach their destination. Our cattle make a 2 hour trip and generally arrive around 7 am in Jackson, Missouri where our processing plant is located.

When we arrive at the processing plant, we prefer to handle the cattle ourselves to get them unloaded and in a holding pen. These cattle are used to us and we feel like this again causes the least amount of stress. At this point, we have put all our work as grass farmers, the animals have performed to their peak and we feel that it is attention to these small details that allows the final product (our beef) to be as fine a quality as possible.

Planning Our Day

6:00 a.m. Our upstairs sitting room is all glass windows on two sides facing East. Mark and I sit here and share a cup of coffee as we watch the sun come up and plan our day. Though the day may take us in different directions . . . at least we start out on the same page. We discuss the cattle groups to be rotated today, the routine chores, and our ongoing projects.

Dr. Patricia Whisnant
Grass Farmer and Veterinarian

Mornings on Our Grass Farm

4:00 a.m. Days begin early on the ranch. Yet, being a morning person, this is my favorite time. I settle with a cup of coffee in the office (located in our house) in front of my computer. In the next 2 hours I answer email, process orders for beef, and do office work necessary to make the ranch operate. It is not my favorite thing, but I get more office work accomplished in these two hours than I do the rest of the busy day.

Dr. Patricia Whisnant
Grass Farmer and Veterinarian

Tasmanian Grass Farmers Visit Us

5:00 a.m. There are people around the world who raise cattle as we do using intensive rotational grazing practices and finishing all on grass. The internet and our website has opened up a neat relationship with some of these folks and a chance to share ideas.

We had been contacted by a couple from Tasmania who were grass farmers and were going to be in the United States near our area. We wrote back and forth and so they stopped at our farm. It was a great experience. The farmers in Australia (or at least Tasmania) and New Zealand are way ahead of the majority of this country in the practicing of rotational grazing.

We shared some pictures and we were frankly envious of the island's (Tasmania) grass base, year round growing, and especially the picture of plentiful and huge lobsters caught by John, Angela and their children. They spent the day with us and provided some great ideas on grazing.

We shared with them some ideas on how to market their beef. They want to go direct to the public with Tasmanian Beef (grass fed) as differentiated from arid-raised and at times inferior Australian grass fed beef. Much of Australian beef is exported into Japan or Europe where they do not want the hormones and antibiotics so prevalent in American feedlot beef.

Australia also imports a lot of ground beef into this country. At any rate it was wonderful to meet John and Angela. We placed the Tasmanian memento they brought us to remember these new friends on our keepsake shelves.

Dr. Patricia Whisnant
Grass Farmer and Veterinarian