May-Hem

On a recent phone call with Mark from Esoterra Culinary Garden, Mark succinctly described the month of May by calling it "May-hem".

If you talk to just about any farmer, May is the hardest month. It's the month where the plants grow exponentially each day, where the work continues to pile up, and where we get the most concerned about weather events (this May was drier than we'd like). For us at Grama Grass, May brought the novel challenge of three herds.

When Lincoln, Emily, and I wrote our grazing plan back in February, we decided to shift to three herds during May so the cows could cover more ground at the same time. We felt this was the right decision as we had contracts to graze in both Boulder and Louisville, and the grass on one of our private properties would benefit from a light spring graze.

In practice, the three herds stretched us and our fencing material thin. Each day we had to move each herd, haul water to the three different locations, and monitor and observe three different properties. On top of having three herds, we got chicks, irrigated three additional properties for future grazing, dealt with owning trucks from 1997, enjoyed busy days at the Farmers Market, calmly handled a small rodeo when a cow broke out and tried to graze the Pleasant View Fields Sports Complex, and more.

The best part of my work day is witnessing the cows' excitement when they see their new pasture, but that glory comes into question in May because we have so much going on. I say to myself, y'know, we really could make it easier on ourselves if we did some sort of set stocking like almost every other rancher. And I always quickly correct myself, because moving the cows daily makes us the level of graziers that we strive to be. So we continue on and do what we do.

This decision is further confirmed when we graze such a public place as Davidson Mesa, and we hear such positive remarks and gratitude from the community out enjoying our collective public lands. Those “love what you’re doing"s, “thank you”s, and questions about our work are the glimmers of nourishment that fuel our grassland stewardship, and get us through all of the May-hem. - Andy & the Grama Grass & Livestock Team