Rumours of Rain

I think I told you about the part time assistant, Marius, that has been clearing some vegetation and keeping an eye on the cattle. Well he did not pitch for work on Monday, yesterday or today. Perhaps he has had enough for now. I have been driven by this turn of events to try out a new routine.What we were doing is keeping the cattle in camp "A" at night behind the proper fence and a strand of temporary electric fence. Then in the morning when Marius would arrive, the cattle would be moved into camp "B" for the day. But now, I am leaving the cattle in camp "B" day and night. They are not wondering off. They are contained by fence only on two sides. The other two sides are basically the bush. The bush is thick and there is no incentive for them to wonder too far into it, because the better grazing is in the pasture area.

I have managed to get there each afternoon this week to be sure that the water is full. 

This new plan allows me to rest camp A a little. It would be great if I could give it a full 30 days rest. I just heard a few drops of rain come down through the open window. I hope some fell on the farm.

I am under pressure to develop a proper grazing plan. I would like to be use the temporary electric fence to divide camp B into 10 small strips and graze the cattle 2 days in each strip. Then perhaps pasture A into 5 strips each of 2 days. This will give each strip 30 days rest. With enough rain this could work out. But my feeling is that camp A plus camp B is still too small for the bull, two heifers and three calf's.

My observation continues.

Rest period for pasture "A" started on Monday,  10 February 2014