From bar_e_feedyard at yahoo.com Mon Aug 2 15:11:23 2021 From: bar_e_feedyard at yahoo.com (Mary Tucker) Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2021 14:11:23 -0700 Subject: [soilforwater] introduction Message-ID: Erik Tucker from Ordway Co My wife and I bought a small ranch 4 miles west of Ordway and lease another small ranch 1 mile north of Ordway Colo. Both places are degraded formerly irrigated farm ground growing lots of “weeds”. This soil tends to be very bacterial and not much of a fungal presents. With high stock density planned grazing we have been able to start the change and see more grasses coming in and as the soil improves the grass will increase. Bare ground has started to decrease and other forbs are taking those places up, having mostly Kochia, knapweed, Russian thistle and some bindweed we can use them all for grazing and get good value from them. Also we are learning more about soils and working to learn more about what the different plants mean and what I could do to move to higher potential grasses. Moving toward the use of compost and compost extracts to build soil health faster along side of better grazing. Stockmanship and proper marketing are a great benefit to what we are doing here. Cattle are a great tool and we have in the past worked with sheep and goats and planning to have them back in the future. I am a soil health enthusiast and want help people who would like to become more aware of the great things for soil and livestock and how it might all work together. We are using Holistic management for making our decisions as it pertains to our goals and we keep on track. Looking forward to working with others who would like to do more to get more soil health on there property’s. This area has some specific challenges and I have decided to take them all on. With Low rain fall 9 to 11 inches with some snow in the winter it can be very brittle at times, with poor soil structure not much can be planted with out an above average rain fall. Due in part to a very low microbial population, getting something to germinate is very difficult. We have done some cover cropping not very good results, have seen some benefit however just not that encouraging. So we are looking deeper in to what could become the tipping point and that is the life in the soil and how can we do more to provide for them and to make more life. My goal is to restore this ranch to perennial grassland and learn all I can in the process. Erik and MaryBeth Tucker 14060 rd G Ordway Co 81063 719-980-3745 Sent from Mail for Windows 10 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karak at ncat.org Mon Aug 2 08:53:33 2021 From: karak at ncat.org (Kara Kroeger) Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2021 14:53:33 +0000 Subject: [soilforwater] HMI Low-Cost Low Risk Grazing Workshop in CO Aug. 12-13 Message-ID: Hi Folks, Our friends at Holistic Management International are hosting a grazing workshop in Beulah, CO on August 12th and 13th. Here is the link to learn more. Hopefully, some of our Colorado members (or others) will be able to attend. Have a great week! HMI Low-Cost Low Risk Grazing Workshop in CO In these times, finding a way to de-stress a land manager’s job can feel impossible. If you have ever longed for easy-to-use, practical tools that help you better understand the relationship between elements such as the condition of animals, the health of the land, and managing drought risk, then this workshop is for you. On August 12-13, industry expert, Wayne Knight will take participants to the field at the award-winning 3R Ranch of Beulah, CO with practical trials to explore exactly how they can quickly measure and monitor key indicators that lead to less risk, stable production, and less risk for the rancher and the systems they manage. This HMI opportunity is one you won’t want to miss. Kara Kroeger Sustainable Ag Specialist 479-587-3479 https://attra.ncat.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lindac at ncat.org Mon Aug 23 12:38:35 2021 From: lindac at ncat.org (Linda Coffey) Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2021 18:38:35 +0000 Subject: [soilforwater] Hello from Arkansas! Message-ID: Soil for Water members, My name is Linda Coffey, and I am a new member from Prairie Grove, AR, in the northwest corner of the state. I am an NCAT livestock specialist, and will coordinate efforts in Arkansas as Soil for Water expands in our state. My husband and I have been raising sheep on our small farms (in KS for 10 years, here for 25) and enjoy grazing our sheep. I have some great advantages; we get rain, and my husband enjoys building fence! Our 50 acres consist of about half woodland and 24 acres or so of pasture. While we get good rainfall, it's not predictable and doesn't always come when we need it. The summer slump is a challenge every year. So I wanted to just share a photo of a practice that we tried first last year; growing sorghum sudan grass to provide really good quality summer forage to keep our lambs growing. I'm attaching a photo that I took yesterday as we turned 25 ewes into a pasture that hadn't been grazed for a few weeks. The sorghum sudan grass recovers amazingly well, even with no rain. Last year, some of the pastures were grazed 7 times during the season; it's a highly cost-effective practice, and so satisfying to have excellent forage in large quantities to feed our stock. Ken established it by lightly discing the pasture (bermudagrass and some crabgrass) and then broadcasting the seed. Then, wait till it gets tall; 2 feet or so at least for the first graze, and concentrate animals if possible so they graze fairly evenly. I like to see some leaves left for faster regrowth, but even where we left them a day too long, the forage recovered. The sheep love it, they are growing well even in the heat, and I think the shade provided by tall forage is helpful. Total spent: about $60. Planted about 5 acres, I'd say. Hardly any disturbance of soil structure, there is grass underneath holding the soil in place, and having this much forage on four pastures frees him to clip the fescue on six others to get set for stockpiling. Grazing tall keeps our sheep from taking in internal parasite larvae. I would like more diversity and welcome your tips about that. I'm interested to know how you all remember what you've done. Are you using fancy pasture records? Or an app? Or a calendar? For myself, I'd like us to improve in that area. I look forward to hearing from you all! Sincerely, Linda Coffey, NCAT Livestock Specialist, and Maple Gorge Farm Prairie Grove, AR www.attra.ncat.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: sheepsudangrass82221pasture5.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 3396332 bytes Desc: sheepsudangrass82221pasture5.jpg URL: