For the past two weeks or so, I have had my cows, yearling heifers and this spring's calves on odd patches of grass. They are not really interested in hay any more and I have been waiting to finish calving and for the grass in my starting paddock to get to about 10" tall.

This paddock had little naturally occurring clover so I no-till drilled a persistent, innoculated red clover into the existing sod 3 years ago.  The clover has done very well and is ahead of the grass this spring. Maybe has something to do with the very cool spring weather. So I have been stalling putting the cows on it until the grass in the mix is 10" but the clover not over-mature.

My last cow to calve finally had her calf this past week while I was in SD and points west. A nice bull calf which I needed.  41 days from first to last calf this year. Was 21 days last year but I shared my bull with a neighbor last summer which evidently spread the calving season.

Here are some pictures from today. You can see the clover and the grass-only spot where I missed with the drill. The clover keeps coming back for summer grazing as long as I dont let it get too mature.

Even some of this spring's calves seem to like grazing the fresh paddock and clover. They should really start to grow with the calves and their cows on good rotated pastures like this.

Good persistent red clover seed is expensive but it looks like this stuff was worth it. Grass in the stand looks good but slower getting started. It was supposed to rain from about noon on but kept going around.

Here are the pictures.  Jim at Dawn

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IMG_0573_first_rotation_paddock_of_the_season_3rd_yr_clover_051010.JPG (80KB - 139 downloads)

IMG_0575_first_rotation_paddock_of_the_season_3rd_yr_clover_051010.jpg (81KB - 125 downloads)

IMG_0578_some_spring_calves_in_first_rotation_interseeded_clover_note_back_wire_051010.JPG (80KB - 131 downloads)