Category: Today’s Paddock

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Pasture Posts #235

Here’s the weekly roundup from Watson Farms and your direct connection to your farmer. Enjoy the latest edition of Pasture Posts!

Today’s Paddock

Good morning!

For this week’s edition of Pasture Posts we wanted to offer the kind of transparency that only comes from knowing your farmer.

For years now, we’ve taken you to the specific paddock that a given set of livestock are in through our blog series called Today’s Paddock. The purpose of these blog posts are to peel back the curtain and show you how high quality pasture raised meats are produced day in and day out.

In this edition, you’ll see 106 head of heavy stockers / finishers moving into an approximately 2-acre paddock consisting of pearl millet, crabgrass, and various other native grasses and forbs.

These cattle receive no grain ever which is extremely rare in the U.S. beef industry where it’s estimated that upwards of 96% of cattle are grain finished.

Take a look at the video that Noah helped me shoot, and be sure to get your freezer stocked with Watson Farms grass-fed beef!

Answering Some FAQ’s

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Pasture Posts #216

Here’s the weekly roundup from Watson Farms and your direct connection to your farmer. Enjoy the latest edition of Pasture Posts!

Today’s Paddock

Every so often we feature a group of animals in their paddock that we have set up for them for the day.

For our cattle, we can vary the paddock size based on grass volume, growth rate, weather conditions, and other variables to get the exact impact that we need. The whole idea is to mimic nature’s large herbivore herds like the millions of bison that moved across North America in centuries past. They were always moving, mobbing, and mowing.

If this sounds interesting then make sure to attend Spring Farm Day which is coming up soon where you can see this in action! Scroll down for more details!

Here’s a look at our cattle herd’s current situation.

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Today’s Paddock (3-16-24)

This is a fun blog series where we show you exactly the paddock that our animals are enjoying on a particular day. All of our animals are raised in their natural environment and the common denominator among them all is PASTURE ROTATION! So take a look through these blog posts to see where the animals find themselves on a given day.

Our pasture is in a growth spurt right now and the cattle are extremely happy! They’re gaining well and in fact there’s more grass than they can eat. We hope to be purchasing more cattle soon to take advantage of this annual glut of forage.

  • Size: 3.42 acres
  • Number of head: 110
  • Class of livestock: feeder and finisher cattle
  • Type of grasses: rye, ryegrass, clover
  • Grazing duration: 24 hours
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Today’s Paddock (9-17-23)

This is a fun blog series where we show you exactly the paddock that our animals are enjoying on a particular day. All of our animals are raised in their natural environment and the common denominator among them all is PASTURE ROTATION! So take a look through these blog posts to see where the animals find themselves on a given day.

We are now grazing some of the best grass we’ve had since May, and the cattle are loving it! Here you can see them coming from a paddock around the layer hens to a brand new paddock with some fresh crabgrass and foxtail!

  • Size: 11.92 acres
  • Number of cattle: 140
  • Class of livestock: feeder cattle
  • Type of grasses: crabgrass, foxtail, ragweed, other forbs
  • Grazing duration: 24 hours
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Today’s Paddock (9-9-23)

This is a fun blog series where we show you exactly the paddock that our animals are enjoying on a particular day. All of our animals are raised in their natural environment and the common denominator among them all is PASTURE ROTATION! So take a look through these blog posts to see where the animals find themselves on a given day.

Here’s the herd on the move to a small transition paddock where they’ll spend part of the day while they graze this small paddock until we turn them out into a larger paddock for a full 24 hour graze.

The grasses are healthy, lush and growing well after some desperately needed rain.

  • Size: 4.41 acres
  • Number of cattle: 140
  • Class of livestock: feeder cattle
  • Type of grasses: crabgrass, foxtail, ragweed, other forbs
  • Grazing duration: 8 hours
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Today’s Paddock (9-3-23)

This is a fun blog series where we show you exactly the paddock that our animals are enjoying on a particular day. All of our animals are raised in their natural environment and the common denominator among them all is PASTURE ROTATION! So take a look through these blog posts to see where the animals find themselves on a given day.

With some recent timely rainfall, our grass has once again found new life, and the cattle are enjoying this short, tender, sweet crabgrass pasture!

  • Size: 14.45 acres
  • Number of cattle: 140
  • Class of livestock: feeder cattle
  • Type of grasses: crabgrass, foxtail, ragweed, other forbs
  • Grazing duration: 24 hours
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Today’s Paddock (7-26-23)

This is a fun blog series where we show you exactly the paddock that our animals are enjoying on a particular day. All of our animals are raised in their natural environment and the common denominator among them all is PASTURE ROTATION! So take a look through these blog posts to see where the animals find themselves on a given day.

Before this past Sunday, our farm had seen almost no measurable rainfall for about a month. Thankfully we received a good rain Sunday evening which has prevented a lot of our grass from dying.

Our flexible-paddock grazing system plays a critical role in maintaining our cattle herd performance and pasture recovery during these dry spells. Instead of concentrating the herd on a small paddock where they would perform more disturbance, these fragile times call for a larger paddock.

This does two critical things:

  • It saves grass by allowing the cattle to spread out thereby trampling less of the valuable forage.
  • It allows the cattle to maintain their rate of gain through their selection of only the best portion (the top third) of the grass plant. We allow them to “top” the paddock then we move them on the next day. This also is better for the grass as it can recover more quickly than if it was grazed lower.

A flexible paddock grazing system is the only thing that has kept us from having to feed hay in a dry spell like this. We’re thankful that we finally got a good rainfall event, and will be carefully managing our herd until the next one.

  • Size: 13.15 acres
  • Number of cattle: 140
  • Class of livestock: feeder cattle
  • Type of grasses: crabgrass, foxtail, Johnson grass, other native summer grasses and forbs
  • Grazing duration: 24 hours
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Today’s Paddock (6-28-23)

This is a fun blog series where we show you exactly the paddock that our animals are enjoying on a particular day. All of our animals are raised in their natural environment and the common denominator among them all is PASTURE ROTATION! So take a look through these blog posts to see where the animals find themselves on a given day.

One job that our cattle herd is excellent at is preparing the pasture for chickens. Chickens like short grass and the cattle love to graze tall grass. They work great together and as you can see from this picture taken this morning, when managed correctly we can avoid the use of a tractor and mower, and use our cattle to mow instead.

  • Size: 5.81 acres
  • Number of cattle: 150
  • Class of livestock: feeder cattle
  • Type of grasses: ryegrass, crabgrass, white clover, various other forbs and native summer grasses
  • Grazing duration: 24 hours
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Today’s Paddock (5-7-23)

This is a fun blog series where we show you exactly the paddock that our animals are enjoying on a particular day. All of our animals are raised in their natural environment and the common denominator among them all is PASTURE ROTATION! So take a look through these blog posts to see where the animals find themselves on a given day.

Check out this video of the paddock shift for the cattle herd a few days ago:

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Today’s Paddock (4-24-23)

This is a fun blog series where we show you exactly the paddock that our animals are enjoying on a particular day. All of our animals are raised in their natural environment and the common denominator among them all is PASTURE ROTATION! So take a look through these blog posts to see where the animals find themselves on a given day.

Our cattle herd of about 160 head are eating their fill in the paddocks recently as this time of year usually provides lots of lush pasture that consists of rye, ryegrass, vetch, clover and some volunteer species. The goal in these paddocks is to allow the cattle to trim the grasses down in order to keep them in a vegetative state which will lead to more grass longer into the summer. Here they are with heads down filling the fermentation tank (rumen) and resetting the growth cycle.

  • Size: 7.87 acres
  • Number of cattle: 160
  • Class of livestock: feeder cattle
  • Type of grasses: rye, ryegrass, vetch, clover, native species
  • Grazing duration: 48 hours