Real Wealth Ranching

Transcript.

Hello, welcome to the first episode of the Fat Cows, Fat Wallet Podcast. I’m your host, Jim Elizondo.

When I’m out in the world and I’m speaking with other ranchers or farmers and they ask me what type of grazing I do, and I explain to them, the looks I get from them are very entertaining and show a lot of confusion.

Sometimes they just change the topic or they’ll say something like, “Oh that’s cool”. But all in all, I usually have to explain what I mean. And I thought, you know, I bet others of my Total Grazing students deal with the same thing. So why not start this podcast with an episode to help all of us to better explain what we do, because it goes beyond an isolated grazing event. It’s more advanced than that, it’s more detailed than that and it’s part of a bigger picture. So in today’s episode, I talk in detail about what exactly Total Grazing is and how it works within a ranching business. And I’m going to give examples of ranchers practicing Total Grazing an...

The main problem when selecting for maximum EPDs is that it will shift the size of our cattle to larger animals, and this goes against low maintenance which is so important to achieve profitability on a ranch or farm.

We can recognize that there must be a limit to the size our cows can be imposed by the environment on which they need to grow and function.

When should we stop in our search for higher and higher weights at weaning, at a year of age, size of carcass?

We must remember that high weaning weight has a big component of high milk production which goes against low maintenance cows.

Could it be that the larger frame and late maturing cows ensuing from this are what we need when selecting for larger weaning weighs?

Could the environment play a role in determining which size of cow is more efficient to maximize pounds of weaned calves sold per year?

We need to ask ourselves: what is my goal

Is it converting your forage produced per year into more pounds of weaned calves i...

As we know, the leaf to stem ratio determines the level of available energy for growth in the plant and how much energy can be used to feed soil microorganisms by root exudates.  These soil microorganisms, in return, make nutrients in the soil available to the plants.  It is a virtuous cycle that depends on the leaf to stem ratio.

This is so due to the leaves producing energy through photosynthesis and the stems consuming energy by respiring.

We also know that leaf has higher digestibility, 60-70 percent while stems only have around 30-40 percent. This means your cattle will have better nutrition when they consume more leaf.

Now, how can we quantify how much leaf, by weight we have in relation to stems?

We need to remember that stems weight much more than leaves.

1.- Cut one square yard of grass flush with the soil

2.- Weight it on a scale

3.- Separate the green leaves from the stems and brown leaves

4.- Weight them each in their own separate bag

5.- Divide the weight of the...

Silvopasture in my opinion is having edible trees that we can also use as forage, as shade and to improve our environment by bringing more biodiversity.

Watch the video as we discuss the benefits of silvopasture and different examples as well as how to manage very palatable trees which can be damaged by cattle if not managed properly.

To be happy we all need to have peace, and harmony is needed to be able to have peace.

I have visited many farms and ranches where the owner is burdened with too much work or debt. This is not fun!

On one farm, the owner was trying to raise laying hens, chickens for meat, pigs, and beef cows.

I suggested that we do a return-on-time analysis of those different enterprises and found that they spent more time on these side businesses and much less time on the beef cows that generated most of their profits as they sold their meat direct to the consumer...

When we calculated the return to their hours worked, we found that they were losing money with the laying hens and with their broilers, and earning a little with pigs, but most of their income came from the beef cows to which they allocated much less time.

We have all made this mistake, of trying to do many things without taking a break for our family or our own needs.

We must work intelligently and not make life difficult; ensuri...

Many times, we can profit from overseeding higher producing annuals or perennials on our pastures in different times of the year.

While tilling the soil or using herbicides may give a better stand or an earlier and higher yield compared to no till drilling without herbicides or tilling, you can still benefit from this practice by timely severe grazing and or mowing.

No till drilling Sudan grass in cool season forages to get higher forage production in the summer slump is one example.  Another could be incorporating new herbs, like Chicory or plantain, into cool season forages for better drought resistance in milder environments.

Another could be no till drilling of tall grass prairie species into cool season forages.

In all these cases we need to consider two things:

1.- The allelopathic effect of the established pasture

2.- Good seed to soil contact

For the allelopathic effect we can play with the season to make sure the established pasture species are dormant or weakened whe...

Overgrazing happens when an individual plant is re grazed before it has fully recovered from the previous grazing. It's not the same as severe grazing where if adequate rest is given, promotes leaf production and a better leaf to stem ratio that allows the plant to be more productive.

Under Total grazing we strive to harvest as high a % as possible and in practice we usually achieve 80-90% harvest efficiency. This is very high as when machine cutting for hay harvest efficiency is usually lower.

Under Selective grazing cattle harvest, by definition, a lower quantity of forage than under Total Grazing, usually 30-50%.

Let’s think about the consequences of this.

Under Selective grazing, where they harvest only 30% of available forage means that only one third of the available cow/days is harvested by the cattle.

The cow/days harvested per acre determines, in a given area, how many days pass between grazing and the herd returning, which is the rest period.

Harvesting 90% of availab...

Today we will talk about C4 or warm season grasses.

Like: Bermuda grass, Bahia grass, Vasey grass, Guinea grass, Kikuyu, Pangola, etc.

C4 grasses, in general, are lower in protein and energy than cool season or C3 forages, plus they are higher in fiber.

To get better animal performance in your animals; daily gain or milk production you need to graze these species in a younger stage as when they mature their protein and energy diminish while their fiber increases.

The advantage these C4 grasses have over C3 forages is their much higher production per year and their higher water conversion rate into tons of forage dry matter per acre, besides being the perfect complement to C3 forages when they are together in the same pasture.

As will be seen in the Total grazing online course, the best way to manage them is with Total grazing, but at a younger stage.

It is important that the grazing be Total so a shift to undesirable species does not occur, under selective grazing your animals ...

Today I am going to talk about C3 or cool season forages.

Conventional nutritionists, in general, balance rations on net maintenance energy, net gain energy and net lactation energy, this does not help much when we need to make the best decision to determine the stage of maturity of our forage to graze it, and most importantly how to graze it, as selective grazing can cause health problems. For example, they tell us that a young C3 grass is higher in energy and protein with low fiber content which leads to higher daily intake, but they cut machine cut it and use it on a total mixed ration in a corral! If we take these recommendations and graze our cool season or C3 forages: alfalfa, ryegrass, clovers, orchard grass when very young we will have health problems in our livestock: bloat, diarrhea, nitrates, caused by excess protein in relation to available energy and a very low fiber content. This can also happen in very young C4 grasses.

We need to know that a protein excess in the da...