Angus Cattle

[AGeese]

You are correct there are only 2 breeders of Red Devon in Iowa so they are not very common, it looks like both are near Bellevue.

Oh really? I had no idea. Never been there myself. Do they have websites?

 

[Down Under]

Unfortunately not Upper Midwest Devon Exchange has them listed on their website though.

The two are:

Sheldon Headings - Eckstein Devons
17088 317th Ave, Bellevue, IA 52031
815-499-1332
[email protected]

Rolling Meadows Devon
18113 362nd Ave, Bellevue, IA 52031
815-718-5610
[email protected]

 

[AGeese]

Thanks, well won't be this season. But I'll keep those in mind.

 

[Down Under]

Hi AGeese,

This may interest you too, a while back I was looking into alternative grazing methods and stumbled across something that I can only describe as 3 dimensional grazing that is slowly gaining attention. The idea seemed to be an extension of rotational grazing but they plant hedges of tree lucerne and willow as their fencing for their cattle to graze on and for shade they plant walnut trees and fruit trees which drop feed in the form of nuts, fruits and leaves for the livestock as well. As there were different farmers practicing slightly different ways of this type of grazing all around the world the information is spread across the internet and requires a bit of searching about different avenues that come up but here is a link on the hedgerow side of it:
https://chaire-bea.vetagro-sup.fr/e...of extreme,temperature at an acceptable level.

 

[AGeese]

Hi AGeese,

This may interest you too, a while back I was looking into alternative grazing methods and stumbled across something that I can only describe as 3 dimensional grazing that is slowly gaining attention. The idea seemed to be an extension of rotational grazing but they plant hedges of tree lucerne and willow as their fencing for their cattle to graze on and for shade they plant walnut trees and fruit trees which drop feed in the form of nuts, fruits and leaves for the livestock as well. As there were different farmers practicing slightly different ways of this type of grazing all around the world the information is spread across the internet and requires a bit of searching about different avenues that come up but here is a link on the hedgerow side of it:
https://chaire-bea.vetagro-sup.fr/en/hedgerows-are-essential-for-the-welfare-of-free-range-animals-true-or-false/#:~:text=Similarly, in case of extreme,temperature at an acceptable level.

Thanks! That's good info. I have hedges, not sure what they are. Will have to figure that out. I do have walnut trees too. Lucerne looks like something I would definitely be interested planting.

 

[Down Under]

A couple of other things that I just came across is that the Trees as Fodder articles are saying that the copper in hazel trees have been shown to protect agains bovine TB and hazel can also be grown as a hedge as well. Selenium, magnesium and zinc contained in willow help important physiological and metabolic functions.

Someone on the familycow forum was saying that their cattle steal all of the peaches that fall off of their peach tree, they chew them up and spit out the pip. Most of them were saying that their cattle went crazy for apples and pears too. Most seemed to say that the fruit trees need protection so that the cattle would not eat the actual tree though, one was saying that the method used in Florida was the best... "they use a 3-sided wooden fence (triangle shaped) and it is taken high enough that the cow can't get her nose over it and the slats are close enough together that the cow can't get her head through" (Ann B's post on familycow).

These 3D farmers that I am talking about seemed to be more interested in animal health and welfare with better nutrition and conditions for their animals so they select plants accordingly where as the Agroforestry and Silvopasture farmers seem to be chasing more profits and select plants based more on what would be profitable.

 

[AGeese]

Pretty interesting. I do have apple trees as well. I just had to protect a young tree from deer scrapping their antlers on it. Just wrapped it in welded wire though.

 

[AGeese]

Made up some Angus tips, but they cook through pretty quickly.

 

[Down Under]

Yeah it looks a little well done, the bits at the back look like they might be medium rare (but that might just be the photo), how was it ?

 

[AGeese]

Yeah it looks a little well done, the bits at the back look like they might be medium rare (but that might just be the photo), how was it ?

Nothing a little soy sauce can't handle