Richard and I presented a 2.5 hour talk on stockmanship to a livestock behavior class at MSU this afternoon. Though there weren't many students, several seemed quite interested!

Since we have some old hay to use up, we decided to bring the cows up to eat some for the first time this winter. We’ve had an unusually mild winter, and this is the first real snow of the season. I videoed the move to share with you all!

Of course, like Neil Dennis said at the school we put on near Arcola, SK, this summer, using good stockmanship could lead to the economic downfall of the local florist shop because the fellas don’t need to buy "I’m so sorry I yelled at you" flowers!

This afternoon we decided to move our
small herd several pastures over.

First, Richard started them up correctly getting great movement.

He walked beside them to open the gate across into the next paddock.

Then he drove them straight across this field into the field we wanted them in. The walk took 14 minutes, the cattle were happy and totally stress-free when they (all) arrived, and we had an enjoyable walk.

Richard and I stopped by the Brown Ranch near Bismarck, ND to visit with Paul Brown on our way home from the Baker, MT school. We met Paul when he attended our school in Arcola, SK last August. He’s also setting us up with a two day stockmanship school in Bismarck November 16-17. I’ll post more information as we get it.

Paul and Richard discussing a new and better corral design.

Then we went out to see his cattle bale grazing.

They set up the bales in the fall so don’t need to fire up machinery during the (usually, just not this winter!) cold and snow of winter.

Richard stepped into the cows and got some good movement with just a couple of steps.

Here come more cows who had been at the water point.

Richard and Paul discussing the feeding system. Notice the mostly grazed bale spread over the ground feeding the soil microbes and building new and better soil.

Here’s a long view of the pasture filled with bales ready for the cows (you can see the cattle in the middle, the darker area).

Here’s the group at our school in Baker, MT.

L-R: Richard, Tina, Roddy Rost (supervisor), Dirk O’Connor (supervisor), Quentin Burdick (supervisor), Ann Fischer (NRCS), and Fred Houzvicka (supervisor).

The sponsors of the event were the Little Beaver Conservation District, Department of Natural Resources (supplied the 223 grant), and NRCS.

Click here for more photos.