Nutrition
The Power of Observation
By Travis Meeter, University of Illinois
Beep! Ding! Buzz! The noises
and alerts that come from
a cell phone can absolutely
dominate your day. Answering
calls, emails, texts, social media
alerts, and on and on… the
happenings around you can
come and go while you are
still staring at your phone.
While taking pasture samples
a few weeks ago, I challenged
myself to observe. I turned my
phone to silent and left it in
my pocket. I wanted to focus
on the pasture conditions and
the behavior of the cattle.
Here are a few really simple
observations I made when
sampling pastures:
• Cattle like shade
• Cattle don’t like fescue in
the spring, they prefer
clovers, Bromegrass
and Orchardgrass
s a
It’ BIGGER
FAMILY THING
Congratulations to Emma for a
successful
2017 Show Season
We would like to introduce our
newest family member
Kelton Born David
Cozzens
March 8, 2018
We would like to thank VanHorn Limousin for all their help this past season.
We would also like to thank Griffith Farms from Cutler, Ohio, for their
purchase of EMMA Penny at the 2018 Ohio Valley Sale.
Gurney
Limousin
134 | JUNE/JULY 2018
David, Missy, Forrest & Emma Gurney
Maggie, Nathan, Raylee & Kelton Cozzens
15019 Township Road 8 • Attica, Ohio 44807
419/426-1822 • e-mail: [email protected]
• Cattle don’t eat the grass
around manure, spiny
weeds
• Cattle graze harder closer
to the water
• Flies cause cows to huddle
and not graze
These observations are
rudimentary. However, I think
they warrant discussion.
First, Cattle will seek shade. In
every paddock, the majority
of the cows were grazing
in the shade. That day the
weather was fairly typical of
an Illinois June. It was warm,
a bit humid, but there was a
nice breeze. It was obvious that
cattle preferred the shade.
Many times, when developing
a rotational grazing plan,
producers ask “Do cattle need
shade?” I think answering this
question becomes easy to
answer when observing cattle
behavior. Allowing cattle access
to seek shade makes sense to
me. It is their natural behavior to
seek shade. They may not need
it or use it on every day of the
year, but I would recommend
having access to shade in a
planned grazing system.
Next, it was easy to see that
the cattle were not mowing
the paddock from front to
back at a certain height like a