Trample Matter

This morning, Joe and I headed out to Watsonville to check on the cows and take down some poly-wire fence. The area where we left the cows last night had been eaten up and we decided to open more space to let them graze for the next few days. The ground looks good but we didn't allow for any "Drought Reserve" to be left behind. Drought reserve is what Joe and Ev call feed that is not grazed so in case of a drought, the cows can come back to a previously visited field to feed.

Optimally, we would give the cows enough feed so that they take a single bite out of the most energy rich parts of the grass. Joe explained that this is the flowers, leaves, and seeds. The rest or the plant should be trampled - crushing carbon into the ground. In the end, there should be just enough grass left for a drought reserve, in case the cows need to come back to the given area.

I'm not sure if we are going to go check on the cows tomorrow, as they have plenty of feed. But it would be interesting to see what the area we gave them will look like in the morning. We're still watching the effects of high density and analysis our observations to make the most informed decisions about how to most efficiently use high density. Any time we visit the cows we gather valuable data.