As I write this we are entering another new year and have another chance to resolve to achieve lofty goals. I love the holidays, but after they are over I look forward to every day getting longer, and spring getting closer by the day. Warm days cause a green up as occurred this week. We had a very cold December which was hard on our annuals and new fescue plantings, but a week of warmth and a good shot of rain in early January (which we badly needed) and things really greened up this week. Our novel endophyte fields have very good stands and are starting to tiller well. Our late planted annuals are just now germinating, and it is encouraging to see those seedlings finally emerging.
We have been busy getting the breeding season started. We turn bulls out on January 1, and breed our heifers as close to that date as we can. This year we synchronized and bred 27 heifers on January 7 and 8. We will be watching these to return to heat three weeks after that and we will rebreed any that we see in heat. Again we will not use a clean up bull this year and all the heifers that come up open will go to the beef program. This system has worked out really well for us in recent years, and you can really see the impact of the better genetics on our cattle.
The big news for us is that we are completing the construction of our new house to replace our old farm house that burned last December. This was a very traumatic event for us, and I have had my head spinning dealing with the insurance, finding a builder, and acting as the general contractor. My spouse, Jeannette Moore is the project manager and she has been staying busy getting all the materials bought and in place when they need to be there. We got the roof and siding finished this week, so I was excited to show a photo to our readers. Many of them had expressed their concern for our family after the fire and I am very thankful for that.
I really miss the old house sometimes, especially the many memories that were so thick in there. But time heals our sorry, and I have gotten used to the idea of adapting to a new house. When I realize I will not have to deal with a leaky roof, plumbing prone to freezing up, and in general the drafty nature of an old farm house, I really warm to the idea. The new house is a single story and considerably smaller than the old house, but it is what we can afford with the insurance payment. It is a case in point for everyone; check the insurance on your house and make sure it has increased enough over time to keep up with the cost of new construction! We were very underinsured and when we checked on our primary home we found that we were in the same shape on that one.
We are still grazing stockpiled fescue with the main cow herd, and are going back to grass with the first calf heifers this week. We have enough stockpiled novel endophyte tall fescue to get the heifers to spring. We are going to settle into about 60 more days of hay feeding for the main herd. We will be using the bale grazing technique again to reduce damage from vehicles and to help with our labor availability. We really like this practice and have adopted it across the farm. With the main herd we will be using bale grazing some medium quality hay combined with unrolling one good quality bale with cottonseed poured on top. This has worked exceptionally well for us and effectively combines the benefits of bale grazing and hay unrolling in one system.
Finally, I will be gone from the farm a lot over the next several months due to our active schedule of educational programs we participate in. I am glad to have good help at home that understand our long-term strategy of building soil health and producing a healthy food product. I hope the new year brings you hope for better weather, more grass and productive livestock!
~ Matt Poore, NC State and the Alliance for Grassland Renewal
The Alliance for Grassland Renewal is a national organization focused on enhancing the appropriate adoption of novel endophyte tall fescue technology through education, incentives, self-regulation and promotion. For more resources or to learn more about the Alliance for Grassland Renewal, go to www.grasslandrenewal.org
The Alliance for Grassland Renewal 