Chasing Grass

This is from last year but it symbolizes what I do this time of year

I chase grass. We first: pray for warm weather, then we fertilize the grass then we pray for more warm weather and rain. This year we got a lot of rain followed by some really nice weather. Needless to say we have an abundence of grass this year.

The idea is to get the cows and sheep to eat the grass but when there is a bunch of it they become rather spoiled and pickey eaters.

Like my son they eat what they want to and leave the rest. Once they eat the majority of th grass we move them to the next pasture. Some fields last a day or two some fields last upto a week.

Immediately after the animals leave a field is when I get to work on that field. The first step is to spray for weeds. Sheep eat weeds in fact some weeds they prefer over grass but some weeds they won't touch those I spray. Spraying kills the weeds and make room for more grass. A day or so later I mow the fields. As in the picture mowing makes the fields look nice but serves a greater purpose other then cosmetics

Cutting back the "stuff" the animals won't eat promotes new growth of young and tender grass. So my days are filled with moving fence and animals spraying weeds and mowing pastures. Somtimes it fells like more work than feeding hay but that is a whole nother post.