Happy Independence Day!
lilyhillcattle.com
Jul 4, 2025Instagram
To extend our grazing season, we need to graze this forage before it goes to seed. Once grasses enter the reproductive stage and begin producing seed heads, they shift energy away from leaf and root development and toward seed production. This not only reduces regrowth potential but also decreases the plant’s nutritional quality. By letting our animals graze it now, they’ll remove the top several inches of the plant, which signals the grass to stay in its vegetative state and focus on growing new leaves rather than setting seed. If we time the rotational grazing right, we can stimulate regrowth and get multiple rounds of higher quality forage from our pastures. This extends our grazing window, reduces our reliance on hay, and keeps the forage cycle active before the grass heads out and quality declines.
lilyhillcattle.com
Jun 26, 2025Instagram
Today was HOT here in the Southeast, high humidity, 100 degree temps, and a full day of hard work. Morris and Anthony pulled a 10+ hour day, starting with sorting cattle with me for our beef program in the morning, followed by daily farm chores, and then baling and stacking hay in the barn well into the evening before the rain tomorrow. Farms run on people willing to show up, no matter the weather, no matter the hours. We’re proud of the work we do and the beef we produce, but we’re even prouder of the people who help us do it.
lilyhillcattle.com
Jun 26, 2025Instagram
I’m very much in favor of finishing on pasture, like we do in our own operation. But before you jump in with “most cattle are in CAFOs,” it’s important to understand the full picture. Even cattle finished in feedlots spend roughly 70% of their lives grazing pasture during the cow-calf and backgrounding phases of the production cycle. The microbial life our ecosystems, bacteria, fungi, and more, evolved alongside large grazing animals. Without them, the system begins to break down. Unless we bring back the American Bison in their historic numbers (or their ecological equivalents around the world), cattle are essential to keeping these landscapes alive. Their methane production is part of a natural cycle, and while it’s important to acknowledge and understand it, we must also not underestimate how vital our cattle and ranchers are in managing and preserving these grasslands.
lilyhillcattle.com
Jun 21, 2025Instagram
Sorting off this year’s replacement heifers and assigning them their new tag numbers. For those unfamiliar, replacement heifers are the young females we select to stay on the farm and become part of our breeding herd. These girls were chosen for their genetics, structure, and temperament. The heifers that don’t make the cut? They will go into our finishing program for our direct to consumer beef operation. @kawasakiusa
lilyhillcattle.com
Jun 19, 2025Instagram
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