Rural Heritage October/November 2025

Grazing Cattle HPD 2025 Seminar

New Energy and New Thoughts go together. Stagnation. The first three years of rotational grazing are good, but you plateau after eight years and start going downhill. Buying inputs will not fix grazing problems. Observation is important. Sometimes we don’t realize what we’re seeing. No one size fits all. Flash grazing. This is fast and throws one or two hayfields off schedule. It must be dry. You put the cows in to eat the first cutting when it’s still softer feed. This takes the toughness out of first cutting. Don’t park them in there. Eat it and leave. In 2019, we got 11 inches of rain in one night. We continued grazing even though it was wet. Lost a lot of soil structure. Gave it a long rest. We repaired some of these soils with tillage. You can actually build organic matter when plowing. Our best gains were in fields that were tilled. Feed has a tremendous amount to do with success. Went from daily moves that were trampling too much organic matter to weekly moves. In the same day, we got three companies’ soil tests on the same fields, and they were all different. In the grazing world, the environment changes every year. Don’t get stuck in one system. It used to be that the week of June 20th was the week to make first cutting. That’s now moved back to the week of May 10th. If I put dry hay to cattle, they won’t eat grass. If you buy dry hay, your winter woes will go away. You get better rumen function with a mixture of dry and wet hay, High energy feed is not a good feed. Take it out and put a bale of straw with it and you’ll be better off. Graze shorter and harder some of the time. Knock down your fears and try something new. Shorty has run into a brick wall innumerable times, but he picks himself up and tries something else. Ag universities present farmers as dummies who farm because they cannot do anything else. This is not true. What is a farmer? • A geneticist to know what to breed with what. • An agronomist to know about crop production and soil management.

by Mary Ann Sherman S horty Hochstetler, farmer, mentor, advisor and speaker, discussed the do’s and don’ts from 20-plus years of grazing cattle. He started out by saying that being 50 miles from home makes him an expert. When you go wrong, you also become an expert. Being an expert gives him a huge opportunity to learn. Then he asked, what do you want from life? During the last 18 months, he has seen a lot of older fellows going to the grave. When you think about it, we want the next generation to take over from us. First off, make a farm name that means something. He chose the name Schwarzerde which means Black Earth. Agriculture is the most exciting industry to be in. Why? Because we experience God’s power every day. Watch for “out of the box thinkers.” They are the innovators. Don’t worry about what the neighbors will think. Involve yourself with people who are better than you and learn from them. He mentioned Allen Williams, a sixth generation farmer and leading expert in regenerative grazing and soil health. Gabe Brown owns a 5,000 acre North Dakota ranch that practices Holistic Management and no-till farming. David Kline offers more common-sense advice than anybody else Shorty knows. Louis Bromfield said that the health and goodwill of the family, herd and soil should be our aim. You farm because of the pleasure and satisfaction of it. Profit follows. If somebody says there’s no money in farming, that person’s experience shows that the saying is true. Fortunately, that saying is dwindling. Two successful models show that low-cost production and purposeful differentiation both work. Read a lot of articles about 300 acres or more. Successful farming takes a burning desire to achieve. Good luck equals good management. If you have an idea for something new or different, try it. Don’t be afraid.

Rural Heritage

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