A city girl's explorations into sustainable living

Recently I found myself unemployed, pondering what I should do with my life next. All the career books say, do what you love. Find your passion. Follow your bliss. As if there is an answer -- a solution that will allow you to make money doing what you were meant to do. Help the world, help yourself, and make money!

For me, it's not so easy. I'm interested in a lot of things, but nothing that I am willing to invest in enough to turn it into a career.

I'm what Barbara Sher calls a "scanner," or what Margaret Lobenstine calls "the Renaissance Soul." At least that's what these self-help books for the career-stunted tell me.

What I tell myself is that I'm a learner. And what I want to learn about right now is sustainable living. I have a feeling it's what I'm supposed to be doing -- even if it doesn't pay. Even if it COSTS money to do.

I am meant to be a student right now, exploring peak oil, the economic crisis, climate change, sustainable agriculture, community building, permaculture, natural capitalism, Transition Towns, rural sociology, and my own spiritual growth. I honestly don't know where it will lead, or what it will amount to, but I invite you to share my journey.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Grazing Cattle

Today in my grass-based livestock class, we learned how to calculate the size of paddocks for specific herds. We also watched videos of cattle in different grazing situations.

I realized just how much I've learned this year when I could identify Jerseys and Holsteins in the herd. These are common, easily-identifiable breeds to be sure -- no farmer would be impressed that I could identify them. But for a city girl who one year ago didn't know what a heifer was, I think it's an accomplishment.

It's amazing to me how much knowledge I've gained in the Sustainable Food Production program -- knowledge that many rural folks take for granted and that most city dwellers don't know exists.

For example, figuring out how to feed cattle (in a grass-based system) is tremendously complex. If they are being rotationally grazed, you have to factor in the weight of the cattle, their nutritional requirements ("dry cows" don't have as many needs as lactating cows), the forage species on your pastures, and the state of growth of your pasture's species.

A herd of 25 stocker calves, we figured out, might need about 2/3 of an acre of pasture per day in June, while in August, they might need two times that amount of space, depending on how tall the grass is.

In addition, before you can "re-graze" a paddock, you have to allow for adequate rest. How long of a rest period is needed? Well, that depends on the species you have, the time of year, the weather, the health of your soil, etc.

Calculating how much pasture a herd of cattle need (and where to put up the temporary fences) reminded me of math problems on the GRE and SAT. (Good math skills are critical for a grass-based livestock farmer!) I can't imagine doing these types of calculations every day, not knowing what the variables will be tomorrow or next week.

Take-home lesson: managing a herd of cattle on pasture is far more difficult than most people can imagine. Now I understand why the farmers we've visited said it takes about 3-5 years to learn how to graze successfully!
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