All the cows and most of the sheep are out grazing some nice fresh grass. We still have some ewes in the barn lambing for the next few weeks. A few days after they lamb they are taken out to pasture with the other ewes and their lambs.
Here the cows are grazing after being moved to a fresh paddock. We rotate the herd to a new spot every day during the grazing season. Calves are born in the field on fresh, clean grass. The first calves on spring arrived just this week. They spend their first couple of days bonding with their mothers, nursing, and resting.
While it is ok to switch a cow's diet from hay straight to fresh grass, they really appreciate some dry hay to balance out the grass and help their rumens adjust. In the picture below, I had just moved the finishers to fresh grass. Most of the them ignored the grass and went straight to eating the dry hay.
But, after eating hay for a few minutes, they were ready to go after the grass.
Thanks for reading,
Leith, Mary Kate & Norah MacKenzie
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