There are a couple of lucerne paddocks that I’m letting the cows eat rather than turning into hay. Twistie approves:
She’s called Twistie because she has an odd twist to her horns. She likes eating the mature lucerne. Grazing legumes can be risky, but the biggest risk is with young plants and these ones are in full bloom.
The Mirandaise like it too. The two year old Mirandaise heifers often eat as a group.
Below is 08. She likes to steal milk from Big Cow, but she usually gets a horn in her side as a reward. Still, she’s persistent and maybe that is paying off because she’s a big one-year old heifer. The Salers horns are growing fast on those young girls. With the brown fur they look like Ewoks to me.
The paddock they are in is called the soccer pitch because it is flattish and roughly the dimensions of a large pitch. Here you can see the reel, polywire and white step-in posts I use for the front fence. I don’t back fence because they don’t go back and eat the old stuff.
They’ll be through the soccer pitch in another three days then they’re off to Florida for some mixed natural prairie. After a Spring of drought we’re getting some rain in Summer and the grass is growing well.
grasspunk.com 
Lovely green pastures! You live in such a beautiful part of France!
You mentioned “Grazing legumes can be risky”. What are the risks?
Beautiful,Brent! 1-wristed Poz
Hey Susan! It is a little dry for the grass sometimes, but it is a great climate to live in.
Josh, I have a feeling of deja vu here. There’s a risk of bloat when cows eat legumes, especially if they are immature and soggy. Clover has the same risk. When the plant is mature there’s far less risk. Similarly when you make hay out of it.
Bloat is when the gases can’t escape – the cow gets bloated with gas and has trouble breathing. Any pasture can cause this in early spring so you have to be careful in letting them adjust when you keep cows inside for the winter.
Farmers in Australia, New Zealand and Aregentine are big users of lucerne/alfalfa for direct grazing.
Hey Poz, you are back! Does the lack of a second wrist put a damper on your cage-fighting career?
I love that photo of Twistie. She’s supposed to be the “milker.” Maybe when Gwar gets older we can try mikling her.
I had a Salers/Limousin steak the other day. Beats the Argentinian steaks for me 😉
Frank: They marble well, which is hard to find in French steak. We did our taste tests and found that the Salers was our favorite, so we bought the cows. I’m off to the Averyron and Auvergne soon to buy some more. Here’s a steak photo from our taste test at the start of the year: http://www.flickr.com/photos/doople/5485680566/
Jean, I’m sure it is spelled either “GWAR” or “GWAR!”
We had our great steaks in some small restaurant in the mountains of Auvergne, indeed. They seem somewhat unimaginative with regards to naming local products over there though. The steaks were served with a truffade with Salers cheese and was preceded by a Salers Gentiane liqueur 🙂