posted 1 hour ago
My family is raising beef cattle (Dexter) in Southern Oregon (Jackson County) for the first time this year. Our one year anniversary will be this coming spring of '26. In this year I have been reading, watching videos, and traveling locally to learn as much as possible. I have a long way to go, but what I want to bring up is actually about a farm I visited where a friend of mine, Trent, has been working.
He is starting his third or fourth year as a paid intern on a local grass fed beef farm. I have toured the farm a few times. The more I research, the more I realize what a unique farm it is. Everything about it seemed like the ideal, textbook MIG farm, but I didn't take all that much notice at first, except to desire to model my own farm after this one, on a bigger scale. I assumed most MIG farms are run this way and have similar metrics. Part of what I have learned, is that it isn't normal to actually realize the ideal, textbook MIG farm, in practice. One of the local farming old timers told me "Rocky's farm has the best grass on the West Coast." I assumed this was an exaggeration. From what I have learned over the last 9 months, he may have actually understated the situation.
All this information could be wrong, slightly, because I haven't actually sat down to write it all out while talking to Rocky and Trent, but it is pretty close to accurate. It is what I have gleaned from a dozen or so conversations, plus what I have seen firsthand on three farm visits. I will try to use integers when I know the numbers, and generic numbers when I do not. Here is my current level of understanding:
First, my understanding from Greg Judy and Allan Savory, and probably others I have heard from that I can't name off-hand, state that MIG goals are somewhere around 1 cow per two acres, and in IDEAL situations as low as 1 cow per acre.
Over four decades or so, Rocky has taken his 18(ish) acres of grass fields and slowly increased it to now manage 38-40 head of cattle annually. That is just less than .5 acres per head. It stayed at or around 39 (depending on birthing rates) for more than a decade. I think the lowest was 23 or so, due to Rocky's recent ongoing health issues. They are currently working to restore it to the max, but only have a little capital to invest in cows. I believe this year, they intend to have 8 cows, 8 calves, and 15 steer/cows. (The reason for the 38 instead of 40 is that the cows cycle out of the herd about every 8-10 years and, when needed, the best heifer joins the herd as a new cow. Not every year, but when necessary, older cows get turned into ground beef which is available for addons when ordering a whole processed cow.)
Typically, the farm has ~9-10 cows who give birth in May or June every year. They are random mixes of full-size breeds which are chosen for various desirable traits. The cow calf pairs (~20 total) are separated from the ~18-19 yearling/second year steer and cows. Each occupy a separate 9 acres of paddocks
The 9 acres are broken up into roughly 1/3 to 2/3 acre paddocks; there are around 30 total which are bordered in permanent straight 5-wire, with 2 being electrified. I haven't counted paddocks from on site personally, but the fences are fairly easy to see from an aerial view. There are also runs/corridors along the outside of paddocks and to a Temple Grandin style chute/corral/birthing area, and a winter barn/sacrifice field. The shapes are not uniform as they work with the contours of the land. The cattle are moved at different times depending on the season, but are generally on grass for 270 days, March - November. They get a 30% alfalfa mix in the winter (concrete floors for easy tractor cleanup in spring.) Within each paddock, which generally take a long corridor or alleyway shape, there is a single strand perpendicular rolling electric wire, which is moved dailyish (away from the water source) until the whole paddock is open. This breaks paddocks up into 4 or so smaller units, meaning that cattle are only given access to about 1/5 to 1/10 of an acre of fresh grass daily, depending on the season.
The structure and flow of this farm, to me, seems ideal, and I couldn't think of any way to obviously improve it when I saw it. It immediately expanded my idea of ideal. (My only suggesting was to add honeybees, as well as other insect and bird habitat as there are TONS of wildflowers, but also plenty of flies. Chickens is apparently too much work at this time).
That grass, though! That is what I can't stop thinking about.
I have this idea in my head of what the prairies were like when the settlers came and found the buffalo. 8-10 ft tall grasses. Crazy. Rocky's farm isn't quite that. But it is pretty close. There are margins where the cattle can't reach, and the polyculture in those areas is easy to see, and it is breathtaking. The grasses are taller than me, and I am 6'. I know that in itself isn't TOO crazy. But, it is also very thick, there are probably a half dozen grass species, plus another dozen "understory" species. It was too much for me to take in when I visited, and I wasn't paying as much attention to that as I could have.
If you read this far, you are either interested in the saving the world or a moderator... so, a little pause to say thank you!
As a note, I believe that for roughly 2 hours of work per day, or 14 hours per week, this farm nets around $30,000 off this particular venture.
Here is why I wrote this: Rocky is on his way out. He has had health problems and his only involvement is advice and communicating with customers. My friends (I am now friends with both young couples working the farm) have an amazing property opportunity and are struggling to figure out the next steps. They love the farm and want to buy it, but it is difficult. Both men work in town to make ends meet, as the cattle aspect isn't big enough to support two families. If they can't afford it, or the deal doesn't work out for whatever reason, this farm will certainly go to someone who will let it fizzle into a "normal" farm. They will probably hay it and wonder why the local hay guy says that's the most hay per acre he has ever seen.
What I would LIKE to do, in my altruistic goodness, is to help facilitate a documentary/how-to of this farm and show people that the ideal is in fact possible. I want someone who knows what to ask to interview Rocky before we lose him (you would all know this guy's name if he wasn't a humble introvert. He is well known locally, but only among cattle folk). I only have a vague idea of why this particular plot of land is so extremely productive. I want to know, and I want everyone to know. We could collect data over the next season, document it all, and put out something that could be mind changing and infectious.
However, I am busy and have no idea how to go about that. I can write and direct (like point and grunt, not like a film director...). I could even tell you why many of the other videos on YouTube aren't all that helpful. I like to curate ideas and opportunities for people, and if you make documentaries or how to's, this is a solid lead.
Trent and Rocky aren't part of this forum, but they are our people.
I would support a Kickstarter aimed at a documentary of this farm. Just sayin'.
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