I hope everyone is having a good summer. It has been really dry here, so we are hoping for some rain soon.
After haying we start to mow the pastures right after they are grazed. The cows do a good job of eating or trampling the vegetation, but there are still a bunch of weeds that need to be mowed. If we never mowed, the woody weeds like multiflora rose and hawthorn would take over the pasture over time. The mowing also helps the grasses remain vegetative and more nutritious for the livestock. It also looks nice.
Some of the sheep have been busy doing their own mowing at a solar farm in Geneva. We are hired by the solar farm owners to graze the sheep under and around the solar panels to keep the grass and weeds from shading the panels. Here they are enjoying the shade the panels provide.
The grass at the solar farms is pretty nice. Here is some good-looking clover and fescue before being grazed.
Here are the cows enjoying the shade one of our partially wooded pastures provides.
Thanks for reading,
Leith, Mary Kate & Norah MacKenzie