What the Heck Does a Grazing Specialist Do?

What The Heck Does a Grazing Specialist Do?

 This question can come from a light-hearted farmer poking fun at yours truly, a new legislative staff person, an environmental group or a spirited consumer. In the biz of conservation, we hear all the time that locally-led conservationists are part of America’s best kept secret.  It’s about time we open up the gates and let the word out, that the “facilitators of the green” are here with poly posts in hand; to help add profitability to farms, protect the topsoil and invigorate a smorgasbord of grass based foods for the community.

 The entertainment value I can extract from a farmer asking, “Oh, what do you do, just flit around looking at grass?” can be priceless.  “Yea--- your right, I show up on the farm to hop and skip around the pasture, spreading red clover seed in my wake as I pirouette amongst the cows playing a pan flute,” I banter back. Why yesterday I spent some time in your over-grazed paddock whispering to the frail plants and sprinkling some compost tea elixir on their little roots, to reassure them, you wouldn’t graze them before their time.”  It would be great if these remedies worked and we could graze happily ever after.

 The reality of being this special grazing person requires balancing skills with practicality while having the passion and personality to listen to the land and its stewards to effectively enhance all the resources at hand.  And remember everyone has a different set of goals. As the fever of calls come in to the office for grazing assistance, this past week demonstrates the many facets of what your local grazing guy or gal could be doing, just in case you were wondering if they might be flitting around.

 The week started with me hooking up our District’s 4-wheeler equipped with a Herd seeder to go out and frost seed 800 dollars worth of clover on one of our beef grazier’s farm.  This activity was planned last fall by grazing grass very tight to the ground.  While doing this work, it was decided to feed hay in each paddock seeded to get animals working like light harrows on the soil.  This mobile field office was also a good way to find out what the farmer wanted to do this upcoming season.  We coaxed out adding another parcel of land, upgrading an existing spring and applying lime.  From there I went over to take pictures of Tom & Sue, our Conservation Farm of the Year for an upcoming press release and ended the day returning phone calls about using our post driver and downloading pictures into my computer.

 Tuesday morning had me dropping off local grass-fed meat to a conference center on my way to a grant prospectus meeting about the adoption of grazing with stakeholders in the Chenango River Watershed.  I also consulted with the Coordinator of the CNY RC&D Council about an upcoming grazing intern position and discussed my frustration and disappointment in getting the news about not receiving a multi-state grazing training grant, for which we worked 2 long years on.  Then back to the office to line up farm visits for tomorrow and start a quarterly report on activities performed for the last 6 months.

 It’s funny how early morning sunshine and the site of two bluebirds circling your boxes brings an uplifting effect on the day.  Life is good indeed when your office is outside.

Farm visits are the cornerstone of what we do.  On this day, I walked with Marion around her newly seeded, soon to be horse pastures, discussing with her about sacrifice areas, paddock layout, fence type, costs and construction ideas.  I left with a plan and would help her price the job out, along with teaching her and her husband about fence building and using the post driver later this spring. 

 I stopped at Chris’s farm to check on the progress of a new watering system going in and got an earful about the price of milk.  We both agreed that utilizing rotational grazing for his youngstock was going to lower his costs if we could set aside some time every week to teach a dedicated employee or family member about moving the fence.  Then on to Calvin’s dairy farm to inspect the fence contractor’s work excluding the pond from the cows.  Calvin motioned to me and asked, “you got a minute, with the price of milk I need to get your opinion on getting more out of that pasture up behind the barn.”  Sure.  Two hours later we had a plan of action in our minds about dividing up the 45 acre field and realized it was going to be an undertaking, but agreed to go forward after all the planting was done.  Back to the office in time to write some thank you letters for instructors that helped me facilitate a grazing training session at the recent statewide Water Quality Symposium.

 Rain days marked the end of the week, which provides time to do some critical farm planning and mapping, figuring construction costs, lining up contractors, fixing equipment, interviewing intern candidates, coordinating a bus trip for our grazing group, writing a story for our newsletter, answering the many phone calls and researching many little grazing related activities.  Even Saturday had me judging an FFA speech contest at a local school.  Many have said this is not real work (which I include myself in that), however being in this realm now, I can attest to being wrong.  For me, this is work sandwiched between my farm work at home.

 I wish this conservation work was as straight forward as milking a cow.  The intricacies and nuances of helping folks change their mindset and operation towards a managed grazing system can be challenging.  On any given day you can be a planner, a builder, a grant writer, a psychiatrist, a photographer, an animal behaviorist, a mechanic, an accountant, a tour guide and cook, to name just a few. 

 Being called a friend by the farmers I work with is the most rewarding job description I can think of.  Being recognized by your peers as a person that goes above and beyond any specialist title has rewards far exceeding any program funding.  Of the grazing professionals I know, I am confident they also adhere to these principles beyond the paycheck.  Just ask your local grazing mentor to come out to the farm to help and find out how special, a specialist can be to the viability of your farm and its resources.

Published in Lancaster Farming 4/2/09