{"id":3199,"date":"2023-09-06T18:00:48","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T21:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/?p=3199"},"modified":"2023-09-06T18:00:48","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T21:00:48","slug":"new-calves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/2023\/09\/06\/new-calves\/","title":{"rendered":"New calves"},"content":{"rendered":"

By new calves, I mean new-to-us calves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This past year we (and by we, I really mean my father) trialed grazing recently weaned calves in the olive orchard as part of our pasture management strategy. When we had Normandy dairy cows all those years ago, and the olive trees were a so very much younger, we did graze the cows in the plantation. But when the trees got large enough that we couldn’t create an aisle with electric fencing where the cows couldn’t reach the trees we pulled all cattle out of the plantation. Since then we’ve had varying levels of success with the sheep. The pigs, which do graze the plantation, make little to no dent in managing the grass. To keep the orchard well tended, the grass needs to be kept under control. If for no other reason than you can’t harvest olives when the grass is up to your waist. We’ve tried most mechanical methods – spraying herbicide, cutting by weed whacker, cutting by tractor, not cutting, scraping the ground – but they all include purchasing consumables such as chemicals and diesel and so many man hours to run the machines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also try to manage the farm by permaculture principals. We don’t always manage it. But we do try. My father kept reading about grazing options and finally found enough evidence to suggest trying recently weaned calves would work. The theory is that they are too young to have the teeth, and the strength, to eat the leaves and branches of the trees. Which means they could be grazed among the trees without creating aisles using electric fencing. They are also short and small enough that they won’t break the trees by leaning. So we bought in 13 calves to start. It worked. Not without bumps, but enough that we have made the leap to buying in 30 new young calves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, as you can see above, they are not yet in the plantation. They just arrived last week. And I, very much out of practice blogger that I am, failed to document their arrival. So imagine a stock truck, a ramp, and the calves above. Anyhow, recently arrived, they need to get used to the electric fences (which in the plantation keep them contained for rotational grazing) and get used to our very, very green grass. They’ve had their required shots, been branded, and are being given transitional food to make sure the new rich pasture doesn’t give them scours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruben spent a morning making a mobile feed trough: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When we can find them, there will be larger wheels. But at the moment, it works. It only has to move about 20 meters every time the fence shifts, so they just pull carefully. The feed trough is so we can feed them transitional rations to help acclimate their digestion to not-milk. We are unusual in that we have such rich grass. Not enough roughage will make the calves sick. So, a very small serving of rations every day and free access to dry, baled forage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Weaned calves are a new experience for us. Typically, we have calves because they were born on farm and they are weaned naturally and transition from nursing to grass on their own. Which doesn’t require rations or baled hay or anything else. That isn’t practical this time as actual cows aren’t safe to graze in the planation so it’s just-weaned calves and all the care needed or no grazers for the planation. With some luck, some skilled management, and a careful eye kept on the grass, we will be able to grow out the calves in the plantation, keep the plantation clean, and sell the calves for a possible profit when they grow too big to be safe grazers. There might not be much profit, but if we even break even it will be less expensive than buying in diesel, the tractor hours, and chemical herbicides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone else know of farms that graze calves in orchards with short trees? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Terneras Nuevas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Por terneras nuevas, me refiero a terneras nuevas para nosotros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Este a\u00f1o pasado, nosotros (en realidad, mi padre), probadas terneras, reci\u00e9n destetadas, en la plantaci\u00f3n como una parte de nuestra filosof\u00eda de cuidar por los olivos. Cuando tuvimos los Normandos, muchos a\u00f1os anteriores, los \u00e1rboles de la plantaci\u00f3n fueron mucho m\u00e1s chico y usamos los Normandos a manejar el pasto en la plantaci\u00f3n. Pero los \u00e1rboles crecieron y llego un punto que no pudimos poner una cerca el\u00e9ctrica a una distancia suficiente de los \u00e1rboles que las vacas no pudieron hacer da\u00f1o. Desde entonces hemos tenido diferentes niveles de \u00e9xito con ovejas. Los cerdos, que quedan en la plantaci\u00f3n, no comen suficiente pasto para limpiar la plantaci\u00f3n solos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Para mantener la plantaci\u00f3n en bien salud, necesitamos manejar el pasto a un nivel corto. Si por ninguna otra raz\u00f3n que no pueda cosechar aceitunas cuando el paso llego a la cintura. Probamos muchos m\u00e9todos mec\u00e1nicos – herbicida, malezadora, chequera, sin cortar, pala – pero casi todos estos m\u00e9todos incluyen compras como gasoil, qu\u00edmicos, y muchas horas laborable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tambi\u00e9n, tratamos de cuidar al campo en la filosof\u00eda de permacultura. No siempre sucedemos, pero probamos. Mi padre ley\u00f3 de las opciones pastoreos y finalmente decidi\u00f3 que hab\u00eda suficiente raz\u00f3n a probar terneras reci\u00e9n destetadas. La teor\u00eda es las terneras j\u00f3venes son demasiado joven a tener los dientes para comer los \u00e1rboles, no tendr\u00edan la fuerza o tama\u00f1o a da\u00f1ar los \u00e1rboles en general. Sin la capacidad a hacer da\u00f1o, podremos dejar libre en la plantaci\u00f3n sin cerca el\u00e9ctrica alrededor de los \u00e1rboles. Entonces, compramos 13 terneras en el inicio del a\u00f1o para hacer una prueba. Funciono. No sin dificultad, pero, funciono bastante bien que compramos 30 terneras nuevas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahora, como puede ver en la foto, no est\u00e1n en la plantaci\u00f3n todav\u00eda. Llegaron la semana pasada. Y yo, blogger muy fuera de pr\u00e1ctica que soy yo, no hice fotos de la entrega. Necesita imaginar el cami\u00f3n, el tubo, y las terneras bajando al coral. Pero no importa. Como est\u00e1n reci\u00e9n llegados, necesitan acostumbrarse las cercas el\u00e9ctricas (en la plantaci\u00f3n la cerca es usado a dividir los espacios grandes), y nuestro pasto muy verde. Damos todos las vacunas, la marca, y la raci\u00f3n para el desarrollo de la digesti\u00f3n. Toda la comida seca es para evitar la diarrea que viene con un cambio a pasto muy verde.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruben paso una ma\u00f1ana construyendo un comedero con ruedas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cuando encontramos, compramos ruedas m\u00e1s anchas. Pero, por el momento, funciona bien. Solamente mudamos 20 metros, m\u00e1s o menos, cada vez que cambiamos la cerca. El comedero es por la raci\u00f3n peloteada. Un poco de raci\u00f3n cada d\u00eda, con acceso a fardo, ayuda la digesti\u00f3n a cambiar de leche al pasto natural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Para nosotros, las terneras son un animal nuevo. Normalmente, solamente tuvimos terneros cuando nacieran ac\u00e1 en campo. Quedaron con su madre hasta la vaca decidi\u00f3 a no producir m\u00e1s leche y los terneros comieron pasto. En este caso, no necesitamos comprar raci\u00f3n o fardo. Pero ahora, precisamos las terneras sin las vacas, como las vacas no puedes estar en la plantaci\u00f3n. Entonces, terneras muy j\u00f3venes o sin animales a comer el pasto en la plantaci\u00f3n. Con un poco de suerte, gesti\u00f3n cualificada, y un ojo al pasto, podremos tener terneras entre los olivos, mantener las filas limpias, y vender las terneras por un poco de ganancia cuando est\u00e1n demasiado grande a quedar en la plantaci\u00f3n. Puede ser que no ser\u00e1 una ganancia muy grande, pero si no perdimos la inversi\u00f3n ser\u00eda menos caro que el gasoil, las horas del tractor, y los herbicidas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00bfAlgunos de ustedes conocen de otros establecimientos que usan terneros en plantaciones con \u00e1rboles bajos?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By new calves, I mean new-to-us calves. This past year we (and by we, I really mean my father) trialed grazing recently weaned calves in the olive orchard as part of our pasture management strategy. When we had Normandy dairy cows all those years ago, and the olive trees were a so very much younger, … Continue reading New calves<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":34327803,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[181391],"tags":[734206,1648819,101600,1460730,45796,306568],"class_list":["post-3199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cattle","tag-calves","tag-forage","tag-grazing","tag-heifers","tag-permaculture","tag-weaning","without-featured-image"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6BeCJ-PB","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34327803"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3199"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3228,"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3199\/revisions\/3228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapiccolinauy.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}