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Improved grazing starts with planning

The Ravenscroft family makes planning an important part of their grazing rotation on their Cherry County ranch.

Curt Arens, Editor, Nebraska Farmer

October 28, 2021

6 Slides
John Ravenscroft  at a Nebraska Extension stocker and yearling tour earlier this past summer

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Photos by Curt Arens

There is something special about Three Bar Cattle Co. and the John and Cheryl Ravenscroft ranch operation 35 miles south of Nenzel, Neb., in the middle of Cherry County — Nebraska’s cow country.

The fact that this ranch headquarters sits in a beautiful, quiet valley in the heart of the Sandhills along Boardman Creek might be enough. But if you ask John Ravenscroft about the ranch, he will tell you that it is planning that makes their ranch special and successful.

The family ranch hosted about 40 participants in a Nebraska Extension stocker-feeder workshop and tour this past summer in Nenzel. Workshop attendees heard numerous sessions from Extension specialists on fly control, minerals and other aspects of cow-calf and stocker operations. In the afternoon, everyone traveled to the Ravenscroft ranch.

All in the family

The ranch — which includes John and his wife, Cheryl; their oldest son, Eric, his wife, Shannon, and their children, Jaylynn, Tyler, Elle and Tucker; and middle son, Kevin, his wife, Liz, and their daughters, Kayleigh and Lily — is family-owned and operated.

Both John and Cheryl grew up on ranches and were neighbors in their youth. After they were married, they moved on this ranch in 1959. So, ranching comes as second nature to them today, and their children have gotten into the act. Their third son, Brant, is in Enid, Okla., at U.S. Air Force flight school, along with his wife, Emily, and their daughters, Caroline and Nora.

Driving out into his series of pasture paddocks across the Sandhills ridges and picturesque valleys, John noted that financial planning for the operation begins in January. The financial plan is kept on the conservative side, expecting income a little less than one might see, and expenses a little higher than expected.

“With the plan, we can see before the year starts if what we want to do will be financially possible,” John said. “If it is not, we can make adjustments. As the year goes by, we can monitor this plan to see how we are progressing and make necessary adjustments. It helps to make decisions on our inputs.”

John said that development of the grazing plan is more fun, and they have been at it for a while. The family started rotational grazing in 1986. Today, they make a general grazing plan even before completing financial planning, and then tweak it into a detailed plan before cattle go to grass.

Each “cell” or group of cattle — including spayed heifers, first-calf heifers, cows, yearlings on meadow grass, replacement heifers, and Eric and Shannon’s purebred Red Angus herd — have a different grazing plan for their cell to meet the needs of the cattle in the cell and the grass they are grazing.

Spayed heifer cell

The Ravenscrofts buy heifer calves each year that weigh about 450 to 550 pounds. They start buying calves in January and get everything bought by late March or early April. Heifers are spayed in April and begin their grazing in what John calls the “spayed heifer cell.”

In 2021, there were 1,000 heifers in that group, grazing 19 paddocks over a total of 8,145 acres. “The stocking rate is 8.15 acres per head,” he said. Once a paddock is grazed, the moves are managed so the heifers do not get back to the first-grazed paddock for at least 30 days during a normal spring of good grass growth.

“With cool-season grass, we think this works out well,” John said. “The next time around, we keep monitoring the regrowth and adjust our moves accordingly.” He said that the goal is ultimately to make sure the grass has recovered before coming back to graze it again.  

Cow cell

This past year, 28 paddocks made up the cow cell, covering 11,518 acres and grazing about 1,000 cows and calves. That amounts to 11.5 acres per pair, so if you figured 180 days, that is 15.6 animals on 1 acre for one day.

“The cows calve out in the paddocks starting May 1,” John said. “Depending on the grass conditions, they are usually weaned in November.” In dry years, they could be weaned earlier. The cows are wintered in smaller herds and fed range grass and protein to supplement.

Over the past 25 years, John said that cows had to be fed hay for a short period in only one of those winters.

In years past, he noted that they had purchased cows and used terminal cross bulls, but they have started in more recent years to raise their own replacement heifers. The first-calf heifers were calved out beginning April 1, to give them more time to breed back.

Replacements

The Ravenscrofts kept back about 400 head of replacement heifers this year. “They started out according to the plan, with seven paddocks of 2,857 acres, or 7 acres per head,” John explained. “This is an example of having to replan and make adjustments.

“Their water source consisted mostly of a creek, but the creek dried up as it does in really dry years. That’s why the first calf heifers had to be moved in with the cows, which amounted to 3,685 more acres and four more paddocks to water, and it changed the stocking rate to 12 acres per head, or 14.6 head per acre per day.”

Yearlings and registered stock

About 900 head of home-raised yearlings graze on 1,299 acres of meadow. They ran for 140 days at a stocking rate of 1.4 acres per head, or 97 head on 1 acre for one day.

“Eric and Shannon have started a registered Red Angus herd, and as of right now, there are 190 head in this group,” John said. “They have 10 paddocks with a total of 3,196 acres, or 16.8 acres per head.”

About 1,000 acres in the best parts of eight meadows are hayed, with hay production this year running at about two-thirds of last year, he said. With a production of about 2,500 bales from this season and bales left over from last year, John said they should have enough to get through the winter.

To bolster hay production, they also have a 130-acre center pivot that runs over a grass-alfalfa mixture, along with a K-Line pod concept New Zealand-style irrigation system that covers 200 acres.

Planning makes perfect for the Ravenscroft ranch operation, but John told the tour participants that plans can and do change all the time. It takes some flexibility and the ability to make those adjustments in midseason to protect the soil, water and grass, and keep the cattle fed and healthy, even under challenging conditions.

Learn more about the family and the ranch online at ravenscroftredangus.com.

About the Author

Curt Arens

Editor, Nebraska Farmer

Curt Arens began writing about Nebraska’s farm families when he was in high school. Before joining Farm Progress as a field editor in April 2010, he had worked as a freelance farm writer for 27 years, first for newspapers and then for farm magazines, including Nebraska Farmer.

His real full-time career, however, during that same period was farming his family’s fourth generation land in northeast Nebraska. He also operated his Christmas tree farm and grew black oil sunflowers for wild birdseed. Curt continues to raise corn, soybeans and alfalfa and runs a cow-calf herd.

Curt and his wife Donna have four children, Lauren, Taylor, Zachary and Benjamin. They are active in their church and St. Rose School in Crofton, where Donna teaches and their children attend classes.

Previously, the 1986 University of Nebraska animal science graduate wrote a weekly rural life column, developed a farm radio program and wrote books about farm direct marketing and farmers markets. He received media honors from the Nebraska Forest Service, Center for Rural Affairs and Northeast Nebraska Experimental Farm Association.

He wrote about the spiritual side of farming in his 2008 book, “Down to Earth: Celebrating a Blessed Life on the Land,” garnering a Catholic Press Association award.

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