HomeMy WebLinkAboutFarming '91, 1991-03-20, Page 12A12. FARMING ’91, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 1991.
Farming ’91
Grass is greener on the Hoonaards' side of fence
BY KEITH ROULSTON
Spring will soon green the grass
on John and Jenny Hoonaard’s
Morris Township farm, east of
Blyth and soon after a relatively
rare sight in these parts will be
seen: beef cattle on pasture.
While the trend over the last
couple of decades has been away
from pasturing cattle and taking all
the feed to them in feedlots, the
Hoonaards are practitioners of a
way of farming that is drawing
more interest: intensive pasturing.
Intensive pasturing means dividing
large pastures into small paddocks
and ensuring the cattle graze each
paddock for maximum gain. Pas
turing has lost favour because in
large pastures cattle don’t gain as
much because they waste too much
grass.
The Hoonaards have no cattle of
their own, instead custom pasture
cattle for other farmers. Last
year they pastured 179 head on
their own 100 acre home farm and a
rented 50 acre pasture nearby.
John bought the farm in 1973
and originally kept cows and their
calves. There was so little money in
that he switched to fattening cattk Jenny and John Hoonaard enjoy the spring sunshine in their pasturing system and, Jenny says, ‘‘I can’t think of a way we
Morris Township farmyard. The couple uses an intensive could farm we’d enjoy more than this.”
He first became interested in
intensive pasturing after reading
an article in Harrowsmith maga
zine about rotational grazing. Later
he heard a spokesman for Galla
gher fencing speak on the subject.
He was attracted by the ecological
aspects of the pasturing system as
well as the economic benefits.
He first started with 50 steers on
21 acres the first year, dividing his
pasture into six paddocks. The gain
of two pounds per day encouraged
him to go further. The next year
moved up to 129 heifers and rented
50 acres of rough pasture and it
was then John learned it wasn’t as
simple as planting pasture and
dividing it up. There is quite a bit
of trial and error in learning how to
make best use of the pasture, he
says. You have to learn from
observation when is the best time
to move the cattle to a new pasture.
You have to know when the pasture
is at the right stage of maturity for
the cattle to be let in, and how
much growth to leave before you
move the cattle on to the next
pasture.
The pastured area of the farm
was expanding year by year as the
couple decided to get out of
cultivating crops for cash sale and
to make use of all their farm for
pasture. It took time to let the
Atrazine get out of the soil so
legumes could be planted.
The crunch came in 1988 when
the Hoonaards pastured 245 head
of their own and got hit with a
drought. The rate of growth was
still good but too much additional
hay had to be fed when the heat
dried up the pastures. That, along
with the fact John says he paid too
much for the cattle in the spring
and the price was too low in the fall
and they lost money.
In 1989 they decided instead of
putting their own cattle on pasture
to custom pasture for others. The
results have been good and Jenny
says, “I can’t think of a way we
could farm we’d enjoy more than
this.”
Part of that enjoyment comes
from working with cattle on pas-
Continued on page A14
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