Hay Delivery and Winter Prep at Berryton Home Farm
This week at Berryton Home Farm.
Cooler weather this weekend is a nice break from the blazing heat. Despite not even being August, prep for the approaching winter begins as we receive a hay delivery today to feed our cattle through the cold months. Sourcing local, unsprayed hay ensures our herd’s nutrition while enriching our soil, a cornerstone of our land stewardship.
The hay arriving today will sustain our cattle—including our two, young Black Angus heifers—for a potential 120-day winter. In colder months, animals, burn more calories to stay warm, relying on a robust fat layer for insulation. As a European, I find Kansas winters intensely cold but manageable but our cattle are built for it, and ample hay keeps them thriving.
We used to hay our own land, but it set our pastures back three years by depleting carbon and nutrients, a very hard lesson to learn both economically (equipment is not cheap) but also disappointment at not realizing a quite obvious truth. Cutting grass even at “optimal times” harmed soil biology, stalling regeneration. Now, we source unsprayed local hay, rich in organic matter, nitrogen, and seeds to feed our cattle while boosting our land’s carbon and nutrient load. As cattle eat, their manure and trampling return nutrients to the soil, mimicking natural cycles and building fertility. This regenerative approach, inspired by grazing pioneers, heals our land rather than draining it. You see, when hay is cut and then removed to a different site, that carbon and nutrient load cannot be returned to the immediate place is was created from. When herbivores graze the returned nutrient (manure and urine) is only a few feet/yards away completing the cycle. Does that make sense? I hope so as this is actually a much larger and complex topic that I have compressed quite tightly!
Each bale we stack is a deliberate step toward a system that works smarter, not harder, fitting in with our busy lives.
The cooler weather, with morning dew and scattered rain, has kept our pastures vibrant even after two grazing cycles this year. We were moving our cattle to an off-site pasture with Eastern Gamma grass last week, to give our main fields a rest. Unfortunately that did not happen due to our lead animal being stubborn and not wanting to corral. Hahaha, it can be a little drawn out sometimes when we do not have the money for some of the better equipment, but we get there with a training program based on a food rewards known as Range Cubes! Eventually in the next few days we will be able to “chum” Penny into the corral and through the chute into our trusty old trailer.
This preparation reflects our mission: Raising food while restoring the Earth. Our cattle, bees, and pastures form a cycle that endures through winter’s chill. Visit www.berrytonhomefarm.com/farm-store for our latest honey and pasture-raised chicken. Sign up for our newsletter for updates on our winter prep and August honey harvest. If you’re in Topeka, call to visit—see the hay bales and the land we’re building together.