Cropping / Livestock rotation - comments please :)

phil the cat

Member
Mixed Farmer
True but why pay for advice and not take it! It's the same sort of debate really as a few posts previous- sacrificing arable production for the gains of running livestock on the land. I can see why it's a positive for the OP but we're lucky that we regularly spread FYM/green waste/sewerage sludge and do a lot of spring cropping so the stock aspect wouldn't be as beneficial. Also we are on mag limestone and have a valley that's permanent pasture as it can't be cropped. It's getting the right system to get the most out of your land and conditions. Still interested to see how it goes for old spot though!
 
Location
Cambridge
If you ignore all the advice then it's a waste of money.

If I didn't try anything I've been told wouldn't work (several times by agronomist) then I would have missed out on some pretty useful discoveries.
 

phil the cat

Member
Mixed Farmer
Is anyone a member of the maize growers association? There's a paper on their website on this but you can't open it unless you're a member. Our maize contractor eluded to it saying that they're verdict was similar to our agronomist but not pestering him for it as he's silaging. Apparently the only real success has been by the Dutch and they've drilled cover crops in strips between rows? It's a bit of a hot topic as those who grow maize know that when it's harvested on a soggy October/November day it makes a mess and can lead to erosion/run off problems.
 

Douglasmn

Member
You asked "why do arable at all?", well if you had lambed a thousand ewes in the spring you would soon figure out why! Plus, feeding cattle and scrapping up in the winter etc. etc. Arable is a part time job in comparison, flip I couldn't even call it part time as there is no real need to work in the winter at all with arable!
We have cattle and grain here. The cattle are as little work as the corn. If anything I'd say the cattle side is easier and less work, so I can definitely see why some people would question the economics and benefits of growing poor paying crops.
 
We have cattle and grain here. The cattle are as little work as the corn. If anything I'd say the cattle side is easier and less work, so I can definitely see why some people would question the economics and benefits of growing poor paying crops.

You sowing crops by hand or something?
 

Douglasmn

Member
You sowing crops by hand or something?
3metre seed drill. What makes you say cattle are so much work? Winter time just feed and bed. Nice and easy, no long days. Summer time just check them once a day and basically leave them to it. The odd afternoon working with them in the pens. A bit of mucking out, some odd job fencing repairs. Wouldn't call it a high workload.
 
3metre seed drill. What makes you say cattle are so much work? Winter time just feed and bed. Nice and easy, no long days. Summer time just check them once a day and basically leave them to it. The odd afternoon working with them in the pens. A bit of mucking out, some odd job fencing repairs. Wouldn't call it a high workload.

Calving cows, pd'ing cows, tb testing, dosing cattle, clipping for market, scouring calves to check twice a day in early spring, moving fences, calf registrations, bedding and scraping feed passages, feeding out silage, giving young stock meal etc. etc.
 

Douglasmn

Member
Calving cows, pd'ing cows, tb testing, dosing cattle, clipping for market, scouring calves to check twice a day in early spring, moving fences, calf registrations, bedding and scraping feed passages, feeding out silage, giving young stock meal etc. etc.
There's the difference. Stores here. Very little work.
 

martian

DD Moderator
BASE UK Member
Location
N Herts
Calving cows, pd'ing cows, tb testing, dosing cattle, clipping for market, scouring calves to check twice a day in early spring, moving fences, calf registrations, bedding and scraping feed passages, feeding out silage, giving young stock meal etc. etc.
Well I know we're in the soft South, but with the 300 odd animals on the farm here (120 cows and followers), I'd say that they take up no more than 2 hours for one person a day, throughout the year. Admittedly there is the odd peak in workload, like the TB test that comes round every 4 years when we might need 3 people for a morning, or the twice a year PD test which is around 2 hours for each herd. Winter feeding/bedding can take 2 hours, usually much less, we don't feed anything other than big bale silage and big bale straw (silage harvest maybe 3 days in all for 3 or 4 bods, straw much the same). We don't dose anything if we can help it, nor clip, haven't got a feed passage etc etc. Decent handling facilities are a must and harsh culling of any trouble makers.

And blow me down, they make us money as well as giving enormous pleasure. But keep it to yourself for God's sake, we don't want everyone else joining in....
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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