I feel I should talk a little about the "Grass" part of the Farmer title of the blog.
I'm sure many of you already know lots more than I do about Sustainable Agriculture and the like, but for those who may be not sure.
At first the animal and the animal care and health was the pervasive theme in my learning and reading. A little about pasture and rotational grazing in there as well. Until I attended a "Pasture for Profit" conference in early 2013. THAT changed everything for me. And thus the term Grass Farmer. because I've heard it said even years ago, that "if you are in the business of raising livestock for food, you're really a grass farmer" It's all about converting solar energy into a healthy, natural animal that will thrive.
The Basic recipe for healthy, thriving pastures that will provide incredible amounts of forage for the grazing livestock is Management Intensive Grazing, or MiG. And the big picture with that is wrapped up in an excellent quote from a presentation in that same conference back in 2013. "You cannot manage, what you do not measure." Measuring, monitoring, and recording everything that goes on in your pastures. Soil Testing, worm counts, Dry matter measurements using clippings throughout the pasture, and measuring forage amounts with a pasture stick, or even better with a plate meter. Keeping track of daily paddock rotations, and even weather conditions, like rain fall amounts and dates. And the list goes on!
So the bottom line is... the work is never done. However on the other side of the coin, neither is the pleasure and life gain that comes from working with the land, and animals. Doing the very thing that got you excited about everything agriculture in the first place!
SO that's my quick run down of the Grass Farmer title of the blog. There are volumes that I could have written in much greater detail. But that's what blogs are for.. all in good time!
God Bless
