Grass finishing beef
Every year we finish a group of cattle on grass, I'm always excited to see how nature is going to put the year together. We saw a lot smoke in the air this year, whether it was a neighbour's hay field in flames after a baler caught on fire, a crazy run of forests fires started from a May thunderstorm or slash-piles burning in the fall, the grass still grew quite well and the steers were always eating mouthfuls as they grazed through the paddocks and underbrush. In a rural setting, we really saw the value of having an above ground pool with 4000 gallons of water handy when you needed it.
The spring came fairly early with a good amount of heat. The photo below is our group of yearling steers "first day on grass" sometime in late May. We like to let the grass grow a bit to make sure we aren't grazing last years stored reserves in the roots. It's probably a little excessive to wait until its scratching their bellies,.... but its always better to be a little late than too early.
