Resources
Timely Tips – September 2021
Big Spring Farm Pasture Walk My annual pasture walk is Thursday, October 14, from 10 am ct till about 3 pm. I’m finishing cattle, sheep, and hogs for direct marketing now, so we’ll look at what it takes to produce high-quality forage for finishing animals. This...
June 2021 Timely Tips – Adaptive Grazing Management
Any quick search on Google or YouTube with the mention of grazing is enough to send you down an rabbit hole that can easily cause confusion and frustration as you try to plan your grazing management for summer pastures. Here are some of the different types of grazing...
Hay Feeding Strategies
Spring Hay Feeding I wanted to send out a Timely Tips to encourage everyone to feed hay a little longer in the spring to let the grass get a good start. Spring grass is washy with high water content and some hay fed along with it helps to slow the rate of...
Frost Seeding Legumes
When it comes to frost seeding, all you need is a good honeycomb freeze (a shown in the above photo) and an electric seeder on a 4-wheeler. This cold snap we’re experiencing is a perfect time for frost seeding. A layer of snow will help you to see your tracks and...
The Evolution of a Multi-Species Grazing Operation
The Goal of Big Spring Farm: "An easily managed, low input grazing operation that improves production and the environment while being consistently profitable” Greg Brann. Brief History of Big Spring Farm 2005: The Big Spring Farm is named for a boiling cold...
Monthly Browse Management For Goats
This is a timeless, indispensable resource that I put together a few years back for NRCS and Gallahger Fence. This calendar helps you to prioritize your grazing and forage management tasks for goats. With so many components within the wholistic management schedule,...
Monthly Grazing and Browse Management for Sheep and Goat
This is a timeless, indispensable resource that I put together a few years back for NRCS and Gallahger Fence. This calendar helps you to prioritize your grazing and forage management tasks for sheep and goats. With so many components within the wholistic management...
Monthly Grazing Management for Cattle
This is a timeless, indispensable resource that I put together a few years back for NRCS and Gallahger Fence. This calendar helps you to prioritize your grazing and forage management tasks for cattle. With so many components within the wholistic management...
Fencing for Serious Graziers
Electric fencing offers two major advantages over other types of fencing. One is cost. The cost to install a four-strand, barbed-wire fence is about $5,000 per mile. The cost to install a typical, single-wire, electric fence is about $1,600 per mile. If necessary,...
Water Points
Water the most important nutrient! It's the largest quantity requirement for beef and dairy cattle (e.g. 15 gal/day = 125 lb/day). Water is commonly the weakest link in grazing systems. Water placement impacts grazing (overgrazing and under utilization) and nutrient...
Timely Tips – June
We are at the change of seasons. A time to contemplate and plan for summer forage. Note in the graph above, as temperatures hit 80 degrees F. or higher cool season forage production decreases and warm seasons forages kick in high gear. I encourage you to make warm...
Grazing Annual Cover Crops
“Can we graze cover crops?” The answer is yes, with an “it depends” attached. It depends on soil conditions, the growth stage of the cover cro,; the reason you planted cover crops, and whether you're involved in a conservation plan or program that requires other...
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Greg Brann Consulting
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