Gabe Brown, Neil Dennis

[trevorgreycattleco]

Anybody here familiar with these guys? Are you using their ideas at all? I've been researching this for a whole. Seems to me this type of system Gabe Brown is running could be a boom to the cattle business. Now cows go on all the ground at one point or another just short amounts of time. He's eliminated many inputs. I can see a future where grain farmers and livestock farmers work together instead of competing for land raising monocultures.


http://vimeo.com/m/80518559

 

[trevorgreycattleco]

Here is a presentation Gabe gives. It's 45 minutes or so but absolutely fascinating. Worth the time in my opinion. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rKjX3UdVDFU&feature=youtu.be

 

[Mill Iron A]

My family has been doing this style of management on rangelands since the late 80s. I like his idea of cover crops but not sure we could pull any farming off. You should subscribe to graze magazine, he has an article in it each week.

 

[trevorgreycattleco]

Thank you. Why do you think you can't pull off crops?

 

[Mill Iron A]

Not used to it. Plus most of our range is 10-12 inches annual precip. We do have a seperate place that gets closer to 18 though. We did double our carrying capacity with HRM and perennials, it would be interesting to toy with some annuals.

 

[trevorgreycattleco]

I like the idea of planting several varieties together. Thanks for responding.

 

[justintime]

I know Neil Dennis very well. Been to his place several times. He has a very intensive grazing program that has worked for him for many years.

 

[nkotb]

I have heard Gabe talk multiple times, and visited one on one with him on several occasions.  He has some very good ideas, and some that are a little off the wall.  The biggest drawback most operators face is the lack of time, or inability to make time to do the high management it takes to make this system work really well.  In western Kansas, we sit at about the same yearly precipitation of what Gabe is in the Dakota's, however, have not been able to make this system work quite as well.  The biggest difference is the daily average temperature.  We get hotter during the day, and don't cool off as much at night, therefore our ET's are much higher.  I work as an agronomy consultant, and with the lowered water availabilty of our irrigation, have been trying to convince growers, especially those who already have the cattle/feeding facilities, to try this system on their smaller wells.  We have done some figuring with very conservative numbers, and a system like this with the MIG grazing, would net a substantial amount more than a 150-1600 bu. corn crop, off of these smaller wells.

 

[trevorgreycattleco]

Wow. Very interesting. My wheels seem to never stop spinning.

 

[beebe]

I have started doing this kind of management and I believe that the great reward will be the improvement in the soil health and organic matter.  If the soil improves everything else will improve especially the ability to retain water.

 

[jbzdad]

ntkob...I pm you about this topic.  Would appreciate a response if you see this

 

[nmcattle]

Any literature available on this topic for a rookie wanting to learn more? Is the trick to use the "cocktail" of grasses and legumes using numerous different species? I'm assuming the aggressive rotational grazing has a large impact on their results also.

 

[beebe]

There is all kinds of information on them on You Tube.  And many others too.