Week Six with Extension by Cheyenne Van Echo

One of the cows at CMREC posing for a cute picture. 

This week started on Wednesday with our Weekly Connection meeting discussing the complexities of feeding the world along with other complex agricultural topics. In order to solve issues associated with food production, food waste, energy and human health we need a fleet of dedicated individuals with the capability to critically evaluate these situations to develop solutions. I am far from the level required to solve these issues, but I am able to practice my own critical thinking skills through this internship and the research projects we are currently working on! 

One of the jersey calves at Shenandoah Jerseys, the farm where we measure the growth of their jersey calves for a study. 

The rest of Wednesday consisted of weighing the sheep and cattle at WMREC followed by weighing the jersey calves on the private farm. 

On Thursday we traveled to CMREC to weigh the dairy heifers. The whole pasture group broke through one side of their temporary fence and got into another section and two of the heifers jumped an additional section to get into a freshly planted pasture. We moved the group into the barns to weigh them and reset the fencing for when we moved them back out. The farm crew skipped a section in their pasture rotation because the heifers were reportedly afraid of that section. We decided to try to put them back into that section but opened the section next to it so they had a larger area in case they got spooked and needed a place to retreat to. Here was a great opportunity for us to develop our critical thinking skills as we needed to quickly adjust as the heifers didn’t follow their planned rotation schedule. Working with animals rarely ever goes exactly as planned. 

The heifers in the pasture only group walking to the trees for shade. 

On Friday we did some maintenance on the pastures at WMREC in preparation for our pasture walk on Tuesday, July 11. Jeff mowed some of the field, we moved and fixed the water troughs that the cattle broke and set up new fencing sections. Amanda noticed that the back group was not grazing their far pastures as heavily as the front ones. We concluded that this was due to the distance of the pastures from their water and shade sources. In order to solve this problem we decided to move their water to the bottom on the alley way and give them access to the very back pasture that is covered by trees. We then locked them in those areas and blocked off their access to the original shade area. Our hope is that this will encourage them to graze the bottom sections more heavily since they will not have to walk as far to access water and shelter. 

The difference between where the cattle and sheep have grazed and a fresh pasture section with excellent new growth!

The cattle at WMREC waiting to be let into a new section of pasture. They have learned that when we set up new fencing it means they are about to get access to fresh pasture!