Today on the farm we started harrowing pastures where we fed the cows last winter. A harrow is a very simple implement with steel tines designed to break up dirt clods and manure. This photo was taken on a rye pasture. On the farm I use Rye, Winter wheat, and sometimes turnips as a cover crop on land that I raised corn for corn silage. Cover crops are very beneficial and serve 3 primary purposes in my operation. Most importantly they cover the bare ground (henceforth the name) left from chopping corn silage for the winter.
By doing this I: 1.)prevent wind erosion of the soil (think dust bowl), 2.) Preserve soil nutrients by preventing them from leaching into the ground water, and 3.) Provide the cows with a very nutritious winter feed source that they can harvest them selves.
Because I had taken the crop of silage off of this field I intentionally fed as many cows as possible on it last winter to put the nutrients back on the field. The golden rule of soil fertility is “If you take something off you have to put something back on” By managing this way I am able to save significantly on commercial fertilizer. As long as I can have a high enough stocking rate in the winter and I harrow the ground to break up and spread out the manure the only inputs I need is usually lime to balance the PH in the soil.
Rye is a wonderful grass hat is very high in protein and produced excellent gains. More than likely I will be able to graze this in about 30 days and then put this field back to corn for a second year. After this I will rotate this field back to alfalfa for 4 to 5 years and repeat the process again.
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