One rainy Saturday morning after visiting one of my custom baling clients I decided to stop and visit with two brothers and their sister who have a ranch on the other side of the river from mine. I've known them casually for a year or so but they have a reputation for being "distant" with newcomers.
We sat and talked a while and they seemed very interested in my custom baling activities....as a lot of folks seem to be in the area. Their place is quite large....something on the order of 7500 acres with a couple of thousand head of cattle....mostly sebu. Of course, I also knew they had a good bit of bermuda planted (over 200 acres) though I'd never seen any of it. These folks have plenty of equipment on hand, including an Italian round baler though it appears they don't have to put up much hay for dry summers. They certainly don't have a need for someone like me to work on their place, but, what the heck, there I was.
Anyway, when the timing seemed right I broached the subject of custom baling any "extra bermuda" they might have as I've got plenty of clients for small squares. One of the brothers asked if I'd like to see some of their grass and, of course, I did. We headed for the river and about 8 gates later finally got to the end of that part of the ranch that borders the river. I saw a total of 5 large pastures planted in bermuda, the others were planted in guinea.
When we got back to the house the other brother asked what I thought. "Impressive", was about all I could think to say. He then asked when I could have my equipment there to start cutting and baling. Like a kid I blurted out, "this afternoon". :lol: We've been working there since.
Here are a few shots I took on the way to the pasture we're working. I still have seen only a small part of their place and hope I'll get the time to see more soon.
This first shot is a pasture of guinea grass that's planted directly behind their house. They use guinea extensively and in the bit of research I've done it seems to be an excellent grass for most livestock......fairly high in protein when properly cared for and very fast growing.
Here's a shot of one of their bermuda pastures. Most of it was really clean though there were some areas I noted that the bermuda had not populated and they were infested with extensive broadleaf.
In the foreground is another bermuda pasture with heavily-grazed guinea in the background. A day or so after this shot they pulled the cattle off the guinea. I should have gotten a decent photo of this bermuda pasture as it's really pretty and will be the next one we harvest. We sprayed it with herbicide a couple of weeks ago and the bermuda really took off afterwards.
Here's another bermuda pasture where they were grazing some cow/calf pairs.
Check out this interesting grass....Elephant grass! They also call it king grass down here. They use a forage harvester to cut/chop it and feed it to nursing cows and young calves. The elephant grass in the foreground was cut several weeks before this shot was taken and is already chest-high on me. The bright green pasture is "estrella" or star grass, not bermuda.
This is a shot of the pasture we've been harvesting. It borders the river as do most of the pastures I photographed.
And finally, the fun part.
We sat and talked a while and they seemed very interested in my custom baling activities....as a lot of folks seem to be in the area. Their place is quite large....something on the order of 7500 acres with a couple of thousand head of cattle....mostly sebu. Of course, I also knew they had a good bit of bermuda planted (over 200 acres) though I'd never seen any of it. These folks have plenty of equipment on hand, including an Italian round baler though it appears they don't have to put up much hay for dry summers. They certainly don't have a need for someone like me to work on their place, but, what the heck, there I was.
Anyway, when the timing seemed right I broached the subject of custom baling any "extra bermuda" they might have as I've got plenty of clients for small squares. One of the brothers asked if I'd like to see some of their grass and, of course, I did. We headed for the river and about 8 gates later finally got to the end of that part of the ranch that borders the river. I saw a total of 5 large pastures planted in bermuda, the others were planted in guinea.
When we got back to the house the other brother asked what I thought. "Impressive", was about all I could think to say. He then asked when I could have my equipment there to start cutting and baling. Like a kid I blurted out, "this afternoon". :lol: We've been working there since.
Here are a few shots I took on the way to the pasture we're working. I still have seen only a small part of their place and hope I'll get the time to see more soon.
This first shot is a pasture of guinea grass that's planted directly behind their house. They use guinea extensively and in the bit of research I've done it seems to be an excellent grass for most livestock......fairly high in protein when properly cared for and very fast growing.
Here's a shot of one of their bermuda pastures. Most of it was really clean though there were some areas I noted that the bermuda had not populated and they were infested with extensive broadleaf.
In the foreground is another bermuda pasture with heavily-grazed guinea in the background. A day or so after this shot they pulled the cattle off the guinea. I should have gotten a decent photo of this bermuda pasture as it's really pretty and will be the next one we harvest. We sprayed it with herbicide a couple of weeks ago and the bermuda really took off afterwards.
Here's another bermuda pasture where they were grazing some cow/calf pairs.
Check out this interesting grass....Elephant grass! They also call it king grass down here. They use a forage harvester to cut/chop it and feed it to nursing cows and young calves. The elephant grass in the foreground was cut several weeks before this shot was taken and is already chest-high on me. The bright green pasture is "estrella" or star grass, not bermuda.
This is a shot of the pasture we've been harvesting. It borders the river as do most of the pastures I photographed.
And finally, the fun part.
