- Location
- Pembrokeshire
If it’s as dry as everyone says going forward will take a lot of rain before it gets to wet to graze
Livestock management after the drought
- Thread starter Robin2020
- Start date
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
The first 5 months of the year surely saw far better grass growth than last year in most areas. A lot of areas have seen bigger all growth for 3 months now, but it will break and grass growth will be phenomenal after, assuming there is some green leaf to make use of that moisture.
It’s almost September now though, so having ‘good grazing for the last three months’ might be a stretch. There will be lots of low DM, high protein, low energy grass available, IF you can utilise it.
We’re all squealing about a 3 month drought, which is a million miles different to the multi-year droughts seen elsewhere in the world.
sticky
Member
- Location
- Near Stratford upon Avon
Mines all old turf here on heavy clay it won’t grow after October when the ground gets cold and wet and won’t start growing until late April. I have one 40 acre block that I grazed until mid January and I didn’t turn on until late April, it hadn’t shifted one bit, it’s had 94 ewes on with 1.5 lambs since and there’s nothing there now. It’s just my situation.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Might I suggest that you didn’t have any grass until mid-April because you grazed it until mid-January?
My lambing paddocks are old parkland grass, and to get sufficient covers by early April I have to shut it up in early November. If I continued to take the new leaves off later than that, there would be no green leaves to kick start growth in the Spring. You can’t burn the candles at both ends.
sticky
Member
- Location
- Near Stratford upon Avon
Exactly right, going to have to review my stocking rate and grazing strategy.
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
If you’re going to panic, my advice is to panic early 
no future in waiting till it’s too late
as the late great Tony Soprano said, any decision is better than no decision . . .
no future in waiting till it’s too late
as the late great Tony Soprano said, any decision is better than no decision . . .
- Location
- somerset
![IMG_0803[1].JPG](https://d1hu4133i4rt3z.cloudfront.net/attachments/1060/1060016-256de80b57dcdcf0ccf66cc48d244d57.jpg "IMG_0803[1].JPG")
drought ? what drought,
parts of this red clover ley, there is enough to cut, and parts where there isn't.
not exactly sure what to do, not sure there's enough, across the field, to warrant cutting, and not to sure whether to graze it, with the dairy, strictly controlled !
there's about 5 acres like this.
Interestingly, when we dug a water pipe in, across the area photo'd, we found regularly spaced stone drains, Other than snow on the ground, we have always said, you can drive your car across the field, at anytime of the year.
So, another statistic for climate change ? For certain, those drains were there for a purpose, because it was a big effort to put them in.
As you move down the slope, you get some dock leaf's included, then white clover, finally IRG seed heads.
But you can always learn, after a few dry years in a row, you get to know, what does, and what doesn't grow, in various fields.
looks like it will seed out nice ?
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
I KNOW it’s a different climate, soils, country, environment etc etc
but . . .
we do EVERYTHING we can to keep the moisture in the soil, that’s what our whole farming system revolves around. I always find the idea of draining soil ( even in floods here ) mildly amusing & quite counter intuitive
but - I did say I KNOW the UK isn’t here
- Location
- somerset
due for maize next yr, hoped we would get a cut before drilling maize, not sure that is going to be happening.
this is dry ground up there, and many times we have just 'topped' parts, for 2nd cut. And the only 'reliable' crop l have grown there, was lucerne.
But as l said, you soon learn what crops, will grow where, if dry summers are going to be the new normal, that is very useful and important knowledge.
@Farmer Roy Those drains would have been 2/300 yrs ago, the whole area up there is criss crossed with lron age ditches. Its still called sleights, in the pre 1550 tithe maps, it was called 'plain of slait'.
And as for conserving moisture, that is a must, we are only just learning about, it was so obvious here, where ground cover was early, corn and maize hasn't suffered like the grass, about 50 m from that pic, is maize, and that is getting stressed now, the only bit that is. Also, the headland of that maize field, is better than the middle, could be rolling post drill, might pay.
Can't work out how to keep g/cover on grass ground, when either us, or stock, regularly defoliate it ! Comes down to bulk fodder crops, to leave more grass for grazing.
the big difference is that you know your climate, and we don't know ours, yet.
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would those drains have run in 2012? only ten year ago, wet as a wet thing that's wet
- Location
- somerset
l cannot ever recall it being wet up there, even after long wet spells, a dry day, you can drive a truck, anywhere up there.
we are going to cut it, and d/d in some westerwold, might get a late cut, but def one before maize, best solution ?
Walterp
Member
- Location
- Pembrokeshire
Summer 2021 re-seed of paddock with 'Shield' PRG ex Wynnstay Haverfordwest sown on gritty, moisture-retentive clay not in drought conditions - thus no oat protective canopy, no clover, and drilled at standard rate 14 kg/acre (thistles on the bank show the limit of the reseed). Now being enjoyed by mainly pure-bred Sennybridge Cheviot ewe lambs intended as flock replacements for outside lambing groups of 40 (being the optimum number to protect against fox/badger predation on this farm) which in 2022 had no feed, no intervention and no vet bills. And no predation - a fox can afford a broken leg even less than a farmer.
Norfolk Hill Farmer
Member
Please could you explain the no of 40 and predation theory further.
- Location
- Fife
Small mob at lambing size is directly correlated to lamb survival. Shelter and feed on offer are also vital. I assume such small mob sizes also help the ewe keep track of her lambs and predator threats.
See Tim Leeming Precision Lambing for more details. He is achieving exceptional figures for lambs scanned v lambs tailed.
Paradoo Precision Lambing
Improving lamb survival rates in Australia and abroad
precisionlambing.com
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Small mob at lambing size is directly correlated to lamb survival. Shelter and feed on offer are also vital. I assume such small mob sizes also help the ewe keep track of her lambs and predator threats.
See Tim Leeming Precision Lambing for more details. He is achieving exceptional figures for lambs scanned v lambs tailed.
Paradoo Precision Lambing
Improving lamb survival rates in Australia and abroad
He wasn’t talking about lambing mobs of only forty though iirc.
- Location
- Fife
Who wasn't?He wasn’t talking about lambing mobs of only forty though iirc.
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- Location
- Montgomeryshire
The ‘precision lambing’ guy.
Iogijones
Member
- Location
- Denbighshire
Cant see many dairy farmers taking tack sheep this year.
- Location
- Ceredigion
Some of our land is free draining but without drains some would be totally unworkable, but it's amazing that land that was wet 10 years ago and just grazed we are now taking 3 cuts if silage from with heavy machinery