Keep ‘em Moving
In his article titled ‘Just One Thing’, Joel Salatin so persuasively summarised why moving your livestock every day is the keystone practice for grass farmers. I’d like to emphasise and expand on this theory.
Moving our livestock on a frequent basis is deemed non-negotiable for forward thinking grass farmers like you and I. What I’m only just starting to appreciate, however, is that the seemingly repetitive process of yanking up my step-in posts, striding a little way through my field and trodding them in again is perhaps of equal value to me as the farmer, as it is to my cows or my soil.
Proverbs 14:23 “In all labour there is profit”
We all need the exercise, yes, but I'm talking about something a little more creative. Moving livestock becomes a ritual. Like a runner clocking in 5 miles every morning, like a baker kneading a batch of dough for the thousandth time, like a painter setting his easel.
The work is not only a necessity, but a creative process. There are both conscious and subconscious results of our practice:
Conscious
Frequent checking of livestock health: To the experienced eye, even one glance at your animal can tell you their overall health.
Constant re-calibrations of our grass-measuring eye: Whether we use a physical tool for measuring forage, or just ‘eyeball’ it, we can’t help but get better at it when the feedback loop is so short (in the case of daily moves or more).
Subconscious
A tangible affirmation of our goals: When we move our livestock, we are usually performing the key process (the ‘one thing’) that helps us reach our farming, business and livestock goals. This reinforces our goals in our minds and gives us a dopamine hit in reward of our effort.
Bias for efficiency: when we do something over and over our brain will find the most efficient way of doing it. I’ve found that an idea on a new way to layout my fence will then come to me later in the day (AKA a shower thought!).
In essence, when we make frequent herd (or flock) movements a non-negotiable, all the negotiables fall into place. It doesn’t take many days of dragging water pipes or rolling up miles of wire before you’ll figure out a good place to leave it more permanently. Equally, it doesn’t take many days of stock moves before the process gets burned into your mind and your identity. Once a thing is a part of your identity, you fight like hell to make it look good, feel good and do good. Iteration at its finest.
“The work works on you more than you work on it”. This quote sums it up. So thank you Joel for your clear advice to newbies and old hands alike: ‘Move ‘em Every Day’!
