Pasture for Cattle - Turnips, Radishes & Mustard??

Angus/Tarentaise Cattle at the HAT Ranch

One of the views from Doug Honold's home at the HAT Ranch



And right out Doug's back door



Looking out to the West

Saturday at the Hat Ranch Field Day, (Honold Angus Tarentaise / www.hatranch.com) near Coon Rapids Iowa we were introduced to an interesting pasture concept. They had a field that they seeded for pasture of the first time, previously it had been used for row crops. Rather then planting a conventional pasture mix they tried something new for our area, it was a mix of Turnips, Radishes, Mustard with oats seeded with it, I could have sworn I saw some peas in there too. The cows loved it, I don't recall the tonage of yield that they estimated or the number of feeding days they had gotten out of it so far this season but they did say it fed more cattle for a longer period of time then their other pastures feed.

Typically they rotate all their pastures, but this one they could keep cows on all summer. The appearance of it looked strange, it was obvious that it was a new seeding, but until you looked closer you would think it was just over grazed looking sorta sparse. But, as you looked closer you could see the tops of the turnips and radishes, I was not the only one that pulled a radish up out of the earth as the cattle surrounded us grazing on the tops. It was also clear that as one forage source was eaten off another was immerging to replace it, the pasture was constently renewing itself without needing a rest.

It was real interesting to see a cattle producer that was willing to test out ideas that are new to them, another plan they have for the next planting season is to introduce wheat from Wyoming to see how it performs in their Iowa soils. Today, the HAT Ranch is the largest breeder and bull provider of Tarentaise cattle in North America. They maintain a 500 head cowherd, 800 head feedlot, feed dealership, as well as corn and soybean fields. They are crossing the Tarentaise cattle to Angus cattle.

Jake demonstrating quiet and calm handling techniques

These are Angus/Tarentaise cross replacement heifers with a bull

At their request we demonstrated the practical use of stock dogs on an operation such as theirs, the focus of their handling operation is low stress handling, it is important to them to provide replacement cattle to their buyers that are easy to handle. Wayne has been going over there nearly every weekend for over a month to dog break a group of cow/calves and a small group of replacement heifers with a bull for the demonstrations. It proved to be a bit of a challange for both Wayne and Jake, the cattle are visited regularly by coyotes and were not overly open to moving off of a dog. With the exception of one ornary red Tarentaie cow that is known for being hard to handle even on foot they got the job done, that cow, just ignore her and she goes back to the herd and her calf, not the ideal fix, but all agreed it was not worth getting injured over a cow that was on the to be culled board.

At a previous field day they had brought in a clinicianer to introduce their customers to low stress handling techniques on foot using simple pressure and release. Our job was to show how a dog working properly could be an asset to any of their operations. Over time, the HAT Ranch plans on introducing working dogs back into their operation. At this time their base cow herd has not been handled by dogs and does not plan on allowing dogs in their midst. The plan is to dog break the young replacement heifers and over the course of time have the work on the entire operation assisted by working dogs.

Luckily, Micheal Honold has recently moved home back to the HAT Ranch from Wyoming where he had been working on ranches near Kaycee, there he utilized dogs regularly. He is now managing the cowherd and looks forward to integrating dogs into the day to day operation.

Jake convincing this heifer to move with the rest

Every now and then I learn a something about Wayne that I had not known before. After a previous visit to the ranch he had mentioned that he was familuar with the Tarentaise breed of cattle, but it was much more then a familuarity, I learned on Saturday that Wayne used to own some himself, many years ago back in his home state of Colorado.

As I review the pictures from the weekend I can't help but wonder, is Wayne happy out working his dog giving demonstrations to other livestock producers? Or does it make him pine for what he used to have. I know he would love to ride those pastures daily with his dog at his side check on cattle, but instead he runs from farm to farm delivering propane for a living.