It finally rained on September 4^th and 5^th breaking a seven week dry spell on top of already dry conditions. Amazingly, the three to four inches of rain brought considerable growth and thickening to our pastures. At the end of August, the beginning of our breeding season, we moved the girls to some rented land with the herd bull. Hopefully the herd will continue to graze off farm until mid November. I expect this extra rest period will benefit our pastures even more.

I have to admit that back in the early summer, when the four of us laid out temporary water pipe on this rented pasture, I was disgruntled at the inconvenience. Not to mention the one hundred degree temperatures, little to no shade and the walking up and down rolling hills made my work boots feel as if they were filled with lead. When all is said and done though, that morning of labor will have aided in giving us four months of extra grass. Sure we paid some cash rent as well, however that coupled with a little labor was considerably more cost effective than purchasing, transporting and feeding hay. Don and I are grateful that, to date, we haven’t had to feed any on-hand hay reserved for the coming winter.