where more organic matter and “You do need to be careful fertility is needed. that the quality isn’t too good “The primary reason most (too much alfalfa in relation people start to bale graze is to the grass) or the cattle will to reduce labor when feeding sometimes eat too much and cattle in the winter, but a larger won’t be as efficient. You need benefit is the soil improvement the right balance of alfalfa and and increased forage production. grass. We think our waste When you are factoring in the is under 10%, which is very costs of production or wintering minimal for bale grazing. We cost of the cows you really should make the cattle clean it up. deduct a portion of the cost of the The last few days in that area, bales—in terms of fertilizer and they are sifting through frozen improving the land. People need manure piles with their noses to also recognize that benefit,” and eat what they didn’t eat Arron says. before.” They are still quite full Winter bale grazing has proven to be an excellent way to winter cattle, lead“The way we do it now, our and content, but clean up most ing to better cattle health, less labor, and improved soil fertility. waste is minimal. We found that if of the hay before they are moved you do the bale grazing right, and to the next group of bales. balance it with the right type of cows and the right type of feed, they clean Over the years the Nerbas have made management decisions that up most of it. We experimented with green feed and more grassy type allow them to partner with Nature in a way that has led to increased hay, but found that an alfalfa-grass mix works best and they eat nearly all production and enough profitability for the next generation to come on of it. The green feed is stringier and they waste more. The bales tend to board and begin the transition of the business. The key to this paradigm pop and break apart more, and after the cattle have tromped, pooped and shift is the role of the cattle in this business. “We look at our cows as not bedded on that hay they don’t clean it up as well. The bales that are good just cows, but also as our machinery and employees because they harvest quality grass-alfalfa tend to hold together better and also the cattle eat the feed,” says Arron. With every mouthful of feed, we want to reduce the into them without pulling out so much hay, and the bale looks like an apple need for machinery as much as possible. Every time you put a piece of core. They eat in around all the edges, leaving sort of a muffin/mushroom- machinery between the cow’s mouth and the forage, it costs time shaped top, and then that falls down and they clean it up, too,” he says. and money.”
Blue Ranch—
Improving Pastures in the Texas Panhandle BY HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
The Blue Ranch is an historic ranch that has made great strides in restoring some of the native grasses of this area in a few short years, according to Mike Turner, the present manager. “The owners of this ranch are Rex and Susan McCloy. Their family had a farm and ranch in Moore and Hutchison Counties for about 110 years. They have also ranched in New Mexico for several years. They purchased the Blue Ranch in north Texas in 2013. Their manager who runs the New Mexico ranch had already had some experience with rotational grazing systems back in the late 1970s and early 1980s so he had a lot of input on developing the infrastructure for this ranch, along with some other consultants,” says Mike. With Mike’s background in Holistic Management and his interest in managing a ranch to improve land productivity and health, the change to manage the Blue Ranch was a dream come true.
Restoring a Ranch
“The owners also worked with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) on pasture designs and layouts of fences and water,” says Mike. “They started working on this project in late summer of 2013 and I came on board in 2015. My background was with NRCS; I had been designing grazing systems and conservation plans prior to coming
Ranch owner Rex McCloy and manager Mike Turner back into the private sector. I worked with HMI (Holistic Management International), on projects with the Dixon Foundation when I was still with the NRCS; my last duty station was in Cook County (Gainesville, Texas). “I worked with HMI and went through a couple of their training programs and worked on some of the Dixon Foundation ranches in Cook County, and saw how their practices and principles were put in place. I had also managed a ranch in south Texas with a grazing system that was initiated in the late 1970s and is still functioning. It was the old wagonwheel style rotational system on 6,000 acres,” says Mike. “When I got involved with the Blue Ranch I came up here and looked CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
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