Category: Freedom & Farming at Pebblespring

The Farm is ours.

I spent some time this morning moving the field fence closer toward the river giving an expanded grazing area. I worked by myself. The weather was warm. I enjoy working by myself – Working up a sweat. Its a kind of meditation for me. Working step by step – problem solving – figuring it out as I go on.

Filled the 1 kl rainwater tank up yesterday. With water from my neighbour Richard. Rain water would stretch a lot further, if I had more storage and if I could catch more of the water coming off the roof. I spent yesterday morning adding an additional 6 m of guttering. very temporary, but its the best I can do right now. The other thing I did yesterday was to begin to build a path along the stream. The idea is to have permanent fence on both sides of the stream, so as to keep cattle out. Working with the chainsaw in the forest is heavy work. The chainsaw is new to me, I feel like I am learning to do new stuff. Expanding the range of what I can do, extending what is possible.

The cattle have kept inside of camp “B” this week. The strand of electric fence around the camp seems to be enough to stop them wandering off into the forest. But the good grazing is all gone. They like the grass, not so much the bramble and he other shrubs and trees. (the trees they like are the Port Jackson and Keurboom)

Ran some stocking density calculations based on Allan Savory’s method (and as discussed in plain English by Joel Salatin) So if I were to observe that my 2500 sqm camp “A” has a weeks grazing for 4,5 cattle (three full grown and three calves)  after resting for 28 days, then I would be able to extrapolate that the whole 10 ha would be able to carry 29 head of cattle. The following inputs apply:

• 80% of the land can be developed as pasture.
• pasture required 28 days rest before it can be regrazed

This would assume that the whole farm had pasture the same quality as camp “A”. I am far from achieving that objective.

If these I can achieve these rates I would be at about three times the stacking density touted as “local knowledge” of the area. I remain therefore sceptical of my own calculations.

I have set up the formula in a spreadsheet, so as I am able to make observations that can perhaps impact on the calculation, I can add them and see what I get out. For example I may see that I need to rest the pasture more or less than the 28 days I am estimating. The amount of rest required will be impacted by rain and season. I may see that  4.5 cattle can be grazed for longer than 7 days on any given 2500 sq sample. This will require some record keeping.

Transfer is still not through. Just waiting now. It was “lodged” in Cape Town last Friday, 20 March 2014. So I am waiting. I don’t like waiting. Lawyers say – 8-10 working days. So by my calculation that means Tuesday or Thursday this week!!!

I been putting some effort into planning my next steps with the pasture. This is my thinking right now:

Step 1 – move the temporary field fence (the red line)

Step 3 – 15 different strips can then be created using temporary electric fence.

Step 4 – Set up water lines

With the pasture set up in this way, I would be able to graze each strip for two days in order to give 28 days rest before it is re grazed. I can observe this arrangement ot see if it delivers enough nourishment for the cattle.

We spend three days last week in Cape Town (Bruce Springsteen concert) This forced me to make arrangements to be sure that the cattle could be watered and cared for while we were not there.
We drove back from Cape Town on Saturday (is about eight hours drive) we drove in past the farm, just checked the cattle water – It was almost empty.

The grazing situation has improved a little. Last week Tuesday we installed a make ship “bushfence”. I took a 50 m length of 1.2m Field Fence and strung it between tees and vegetation on the edge of the camp. I tensioned with with tiedown straps. The types we use to tie our fishing skis on to the roofracks. We added droppers we had saved from clearing the driveway. Well the fence has held. The cattle have not challenged it.

So the routine has become to graze the cattle in the larger camp around the cottage in the day, and then to put them back into the 50 X 50 properly fenced camp during the night with the electric fence on. Seems to work.

Next step would be to use electric fence to strip graze the cottage camp, without putting the cattle back into the 50 x 50 camp each evening. This would begin to rest the grazing and allow it to recover before it is re-grazed.

On the progress with the transfer: NHBRC eventually gave me an “assessment” – the amount I must pay in order to get the enrolment certificate. (R4700.00, once I convinced them that I could not pay a fee based on the value of the entire farm and the new cottage that is to be built. We eventually agreed that a 1000 sq m plot could be assumed for calculation purposes) So they promised the enrolment certificate by tomorrow, which will then allow the bond registration attorneys to continue and then we should expect transfer in 3 weeks.

I am going to have figure out how to get the cattle onto the good grazing that we have available. The obvious mistake that I have made is to bring the cattle onto the farm before I have proper fences in place and before I have proper water infrastructure in place. But of course it was not so much a mistake as me forcing my own hand. With the cattle here, I have been forced into some learning and some hands on experience that is informing and will continue to inform the decisions I make going forward.

Condition of grazing on 11 January 2014

Condition of grazing on 27 January 2014

The other problem I see is that taking care of the cattle is using the lettle time and energy I have availble. I need to begin focussing on getting the cottage habitable. The basic plan now is to get the cottage habitable to the point where we can get tenants or a caretaker, giving a permanent presence on the site.