summer pasture

Our spring rains, usually at least 6 inches in April and May, never came this year. Weeks have gone by without a drop of rain; in the dry soil, the few showers we received -- a tenth of an inch at a time -- doing little to soften the soil. Driving temporary fence posts into the ground has been a real chore.

Nevertheless, and while the early orchard grass, timothy and fescue have gone to seed and grown lignous, underneath is a green layer of second-growth clover, bedstraw, and orchard grass, with bindweed stitched overall. The berry cane, multiflora rose, and forbs like ironweed and goldenrod have found the heat and low moisture to their liking, and they, also, are green. In large paddocks the cows trample what they don't eat, and they are fat and glossy. Although our pastures don't conform to the magazine picture of how a pasture should look, our cows would win a beauty contest. Their only supplements are salt blocks and some kelp; their only therapies are the bitter forages they seem to like so well.

Finally two weeks ago the drought ended, with two rainfalls of nearly two inches apiece, over the course of a week, and several smaller showers in between. Grasshoppers are hatching by the millions. It will be instructive to see how the forage goes on.