Helpers

I’ll bet you wish you had helpers like these to mow your yard and improve your grasses! With the mix of sunshine and rain that we have been enjoying this month, the grasses in our pastures are shoulder high. We are grateful when we can count on our animals to eat it down.

Here at Wild Edge we practice rotational mob grazing where we mimic wild herds of animals who move quickly through an area eating everything from weeds to choice grasses. The benefits are great for the animals as well as the grasses because the animals enjoy a nutritious and varied diet, and the grasses are offered an abundance of fertilizer, the reduction of weeds, and the stimulation of the grass roots so that they grow deeper and stronger and send up fresh grass.

Here is an example of our pasture grasses fresh from the cattle’s grazing. You can see the frequent distribution of manure, the trampling down of the grasses, and the mowing of the entire area. It’s a pretty picture when you imagine the results in a few more weeks. What you can’t see here is the root’s response to this style of grazing by pulling down carbon deep into the soil, and pulling up other nutrients.

After a few hours of eating, the cattle are in leisure mode, calmly chewing their cud as they enjoy that grass a second time. Relaxing!

In the meantime, on another part of the farm, we’ve got three kids and a dog working together to spread straw mulch on our garden beds.

Many “hands” get the jobs done.