Greg Brann
Articles
Grazing Newsletter, September Pasture Walk – October 15, 9 am to 3 pm
Sep 16, 2026 I’m excited to invite you to this year’s Pasture Walk! For 27 years, we’ve gathered here to share what really works for our land and livestock. We hope you’ll leave inspired, with a few new ideas, meet some amazing, like-minded farmers, and join a…
Winter Hay Feeding and Seeding
STRATEGIC HAY FEEDING Managing livestock costs and nutritional needs is a critical aspect of successful farming, especially when it comes to hay feeding. As hay makes up a significant portion of the total annual expenses in keeping cattle, deciding whether to produce,…
July Timely Tips Preparing your pastures for winter, in July
Preparing your pastures for winterIn South Central Kentucky, we are getting plentiful rain, and the grass is growing wonderfully, but the weeds/forbs are growing too. The following are some things covered in this note to consider this time of year. · Mowing to…
September 2022 Timely Tips
As a consultant, I am often asked, “Do I need to reseed.” Many times, the pasture is fine; they just need to manage what they have. My recommendation is always to evaluate your management before you reseed. Consider whether your nutrients are balanced, have you…
June Timely Tips Summer Mowing, Controlling Flies, and Pasture Condition Scoring
Summer Mowing, Controling Flies, and Pasture Condition ScoringGREETINGS Weather conditions vary a good bit across the region, but rain is always welcome in summer, and luckily, we’ve had just enough every time it’s been needed. Although moisture is needed to grow…
Timely Tips – February 2022 Winter Grazing, Mud, and Seeding
Winter Grazing: Mud and Seeding It’s been a long, cold, wet winter in Tennessee/Kentucky, and this inevitably brings on the potential for lots of mud. Hay feeding strategies and maintaining cover are crucial to reducing mud and compaction. Seeding areas denuded…
Timely Tips – September 2021
Fall Hay Feeding Why in the world would you feed hay in the fall when you could be grazing? Fall hay feeding may be counter-intuitive, but the benefits can be advantageous, especially if your pastures are already grazed to a minimum grazing height (3” for tall…
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
Hay Feeding 101, 201, and 301 Here is where Debbie lets me nerd out about hay feeding. In this post, you’ll find tips for hay feeding in fall, winter, and Spring and why, if the conditions are right, I prefer to feed in the fall and stockpile my grass while it’s…
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…
2020 Pasture Walk at Big Springs Farm
This year’s pasture walk will be held on October 16 at 10 AM central time. Every pasture walk, for the past 21 years, has been a great success because every event has been energized by the people who attend, discuss, question, and brainstorm. We expect this year’s pasture walk to be a time to convene […]
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…
Managing Pastures for Horses and Mud
Living in mud creates an unhealthy environment for a horse. Mud harbors bacteria and fungal organisms which cause diseases such as abscesses, scratches, rain scald, and thrush. Mud is also a breeding ground for insects, especially filth flies. Insects are annoying at…
Cowboy Math – Acres per Paddock
This table assumes 5 inches of growth at turn in and good to excellent forage weighing 300 pounds per acre inch. Livestock numbers are based on 1,000-pound animals with a calf up to 300 pounds. Consumption rate is based on an average of 2.6 percent of body weight…
Reasons for Rotational Grazing
Livestock Calmer livestock– having control of animals is a huge part of overall management. Reduced hay fed– a 12 paddock system vs. continuous resulted in 31% less hay fed Carrying capacity is increased– typically moving from a monthly rotation to a weekly rotation…
Indicator Plants
Indicator Plants are plants that, by their presence or abundance, provide an assessment of the quality of the site. Past soil management has a dramatic effect on the plant community and the plant community doesn’t change quickly so some indicator plants may…
Silvopasture
Pasture to Silvopasture Silvopasture Plan Goal: Managing timber and grass to the advantage of both. Light Management and Tree Planting: Harvest salable timber or perform hack and squirt technique to remove low grade trees providing light for…
Timely Tips – January
It is hard to believe but it’s time to order seed for frost seeding in February. Producers should inventory fields and determine legumes and grass needed. Seed that are suited well to frost seeding: red clover, white clover and annual lespedeza (on thin less…
Timely Tips – January – Forage
Planning: Winter is a great time to reflect on our management this past year and what changes we plan for the upcoming year. Stocking rate, feeding, sacrifice area, culling, grazing management, seeding, etc. Stocking rate has the biggest impact on resource management…
Fertilizing and Nutrient Cycling in Pastures
As I drive across the state I see a lot of broomsedge an indicator plant of low fertility. However it is not always lime that is lacking. It is often times P2O5 or even K2O. Bottom-line is take a soil test, even if you don’t plan to apply nutrients now. A soil test…
Timely Tips August – Cool Season Planting Mixes
Good to have rain over most of the state. It is time to start planning for winter: seeding, stockpiling and managing grass for the transition of seasons. The normal recommended seeding date for most cool season forages is August 15 to October 1. Yes, I think it is…
Dealing With Drought
During droughts it is tempting to graze all pastures and to graze them short, however, short grazed pastures provide almost no feed and leaves many plants dead and others in such a weakened condition that they cannot respond well when conditions return. In the long…
Alternatives to Help Stretch Forage Supplies
Maintain a 3” minimum grazing height Inventory Animal Demand and Forage Supply Animal demand per 1,000 lb cow is roughly 20 -30 pounds of forage per day, 750 – 900 pounds forage/month or 9,000 – 10,800/year demand will be somewhat less for non-lactating animals and…
