Finally finished reading the chapter 9 Big Organic, I feel released for at least a moment.
The headline of Chapter 10 reads GRASS- Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Pasture. I just read the first part of this chapter, what I like about this part the author writes is most people, actually ranchers, flouting the law of the second bite, which is the best time for animals like cows to get feed on the grass after being fully recovered.
"See, the growth starts out real slow like this, but then after a few days it begins to zoom. That's called 'the blaze of growth', when the grass has recovered from the first bite, rebuilt its reserves and root mass, and really taken off. But after a while"---the curve leveled out at around day fourteen or so--- "it slows down again, as the grass gets ready to flower and seed. It's entering its period of senescence, when the grass begins to lignify[get woody] and becomes less palatable to the cow.
"What you want to do is graze a pasture right at this point here, at the very top of the blaze of growth. But what you never ever want to do is violate the law of the second bite. You can't let your cows take a second bite of a grass before it has had a chance to fully recover."
I think the grass farmer Joel has put it clear enough that the law of second bite. However like the author says if the law of second bite were actually on the books, most of the world's ranchers and dairy farmers would be outlaws, since they allow their stock to graze their pastures continuously.
I understand that it may be faster to get the stocks fattened by feeding them continuously, but like growing apples or other kind of fruits, you won't pick them unless they've totally turned red. I don't know why but hope that I won't be such kind of greedy farmer one day. Have enough patience!
