"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..

holwellcourtfarm · May 12, 2018

Kiwi Pete said:
Looks very reasonable to me

Since it is just first round - depending on growth and covers you are doing well at that, I'd say.

Roughly how many stock / how much grazing area for them?

For the first bit (where the grass was less dense as it didn't take quite as evenly) there were 30 adult cattle of 550 to 800 Kg and 6 young calves on around an acre for 36 hours. They are now on around ⅔ of an acre but will only be on it 24 hours.

hendrebc · May 12, 2018

holwellcourtfarm said:
For the first bit (where the grass was less dense as it didn't take quite as evenly) there were 30 adult cattle of 550 to 800 Kg and 6 young calves on around an acre for 36 hours. They are now on around ⅔ of an acre but will only be on it 24 hours.

What did your dad say about it all?

Kiwi Pete · May 12, 2018

holwellcourtfarm said:
For the first bit (where the grass was less dense as it didn't take quite as evenly) there were 30 adult cattle of 550 to 800 Kg and 6 young calves on around an acre for 36 hours. They are now on around ⅔ of an acre but will only be on it 24 hours.

I could have worded my question better - "how many acres are you intending to graze this season" would have been logical

Sounds pretty right to me - being all metric and flash I go on "a hectare per hundred" per day as a starting point, going into the season (which looks like it is firing up, your way

)

Farmer Roy · May 12, 2018

Kiwi Pete said:
Melons grow there?
Any money in melons? Far out they are expensive here.

Really quite amazing the variety you describe, here introduced stuff would take over before natives get a look-in..... much the same with people, really

these are camel melons or afghan melons - nasty bitter things you cant eat but that will potentially cross pollinate with water melons & bugger them

watermelons actually grow very well here.
the owner of this block keeps a little patch of land for himself & grows them dryland ( no irrigation / watering ) each summer.
no point trying to grow them commercially & competing with Woolworths or Coles when they can sell them so cheap

CornishTone · May 12, 2018

We get Paddy and Afghan Melons over here. Grow at an astonishing rate under the right conditions!

Farmer Roy · May 12, 2018

CornishTone said:
We get Paddy and Afghan Melons over here. Grow at an astonishing rate under the right conditions!

apparently the Great Depression / pre war / post war generations used to make jam out of the melons, I have VERY vague memories of my Grandmother & Aunt making some in the late 60's / early 70's, but I'm not even sure if that is real or imagined . . .

Farmer Roy · May 12, 2018

I think you can make jam out of virtually anything if you add enough sugar . . .

Kiwi Pete · May 12, 2018

Farmer Roy said:
these are camel melons or afghan melons - nasty bitter things you cant eat but that will potentially cross pollinate with water melons & bugger them

watermelons actually grow very well here.
the owner of this block keeps a little patch of land for himself & grows them dryland ( no irrigation / watering ) each summer.
no point trying to grow them commercially & competing with Woolworths or Coles when they can sell them so cheap

Interesting plants, aren't they?
I didn't realise the cross-pollenation potential there, I guess I would be lucky to stumble on something you hadn't considered in detail!

CornishTone · May 12, 2018

Farmer Roy said:
apparently the Great Depression / pre war / post war generations used to make jam out of the melons, I have VERY vague memories of my Grandmother & Aunt making some in the late 60's / early 70's, but I'm not even sure if that is real or imagined . . .

When I did the “Oz Experience” bus trip up through the centre in 1999, we picked them and threw them at road signs as target practice to break up the monotony of the journey!

holwellcourtfarm · May 12, 2018

Kiwi Pete said:
I could have worded my question better - "how many acres are you intending to graze this season" would have been logical

Sounds pretty right to me - being all metric and flash I go on "a hectare per hundred" per day as a starting point, going into the season (which looks like it is firing up, your way )

Holistic grazing 26 acres with this mob with another 15 acres available to set stock as needed. I'm learning this year ready to try the holistic grazing approach offer more land next year.

holwellcourtfarm · May 12, 2018

hendrebc said:
What did your dad say about it all?

He hasn't seen it yet

hendrebc · May 12, 2018

holwellcourtfarm said:
He hasn't seen it yet

does he know?

holwellcourtfarm · May 12, 2018

hendrebc said:
does he know?

A little, I'm sparing him the details until I can show him results

holwellcourtfarm · May 12, 2018

I have just signed up for this online course on Nitrogen and it's impact on the environment (3 hours per week over 5 weeks). Anyone else interested?

https://www.edx.org/course/nitrogen-a-global-challenge

What you'll learn

Learn about the global nitrogen challenge, how nitrogen has helped human civilization to develop, and how its misuse now threatens us
Discover how fundamental nitrogen is to agriculture and food security
Understand the role of nitrogen in air pollution and its impact on human health
Learn how nitrogen can pollute our water and the risks that then arise
Examine the solutions to the global challenges of nitrogen and how we can better manage this precious element

Samcowman · May 13, 2018

holwellcourtfarm said:
I have just signed up for this online course on Nitrogen and it's impact on the environment (3 hours per week over 5 weeks). Anyone else interested?

https://www.edx.org/course/nitrogen-a-global-challenge

What you'll learn

Learn about the global nitrogen challenge, how nitrogen has helped human civilization to develop, and how its misuse now threatens us

Discover how fundamental nitrogen is to agriculture and food security

Understand the role of nitrogen in air pollution and its impact on human health

Learn how nitrogen can pollute our water and the risks that then arise

Examine the solutions to the global challenges of nitrogen and how we can better manage this precious element

View attachment 670730

Thanks for the heads up. Signed up for it now, should be interesting .

Kiwi Pete · May 13, 2018

Got out today for a few jobs after our first frost of autumn.

...found some bare soil where the bulls had a scrape going... seems that I didn't kill too many worms with my 4cm of cultivation and salt herbicide

Finally put all the sheep together as a mob now it is time for the ewe lambs to be bred, should have them lambing through October when we are having a feed surplus, pasture balance date here is about then so it should work OK.
Ewes about 6 weeks earlier.

"for optimum germination, ensure a fine tilth and good soil-seed contact" got mythbusted

...and we let the stored solar energy out of a gorsebush as a "teachable moment" about what we think might happen to the bare soil where the bush was - money is on gorse growing back as the environment hasn't changed except the sunlight can touch the bare soil - have bred a winner here

...and spent an hour uncovering the stack and taking the duals off the tractor now we have a mob of cattle semi-housed, as another demonstration for the boys as to how we end up being reactive and not proactive, as is our nature as humans

...now we need to burn diesel to feed our stock which is not the outcome we wanted - money is on electric fencing means more family time at the park / fishing / shooting ducks / exploring waterfalls and less "proper farming" - every cloud, as they say... amazingly perceptive, small children, they can be easily moulded to be environmentalists if we aren't prejudiced against the environmental concerns of livestock production via solar capture

Henarar · May 13, 2018

How long do you winter house the cattle for Pete ?

holwellcourtfarm · May 13, 2018

Kiwi Pete said:
Got out today for a few jobs after our first frost of autumn.View attachment 670766 ...found some bare soil where the bulls had a scrape going... seems that I didn't kill too many worms with my 4cm of cultivation and salt herbicideView attachment 670768
Finally put all the sheep together as a mob now it is time for the ewe lambs to be bred, should have them lambing through October when we are having a feed surplus, pasture balance date here is about then so it should work OK.
Ewes about 6 weeks earlier.View attachment 670770 "for optimum germination, ensure a fine tilth and good soil-seed contact" got mythbustedView attachment 670772
...and we let the stored solar energy out of a gorsebush as a "teachable moment" about what we think might happen to the bare soil where the bush was - money is on gorse growing back as the environment hasn't changed except the sunlight can touch the bare soil - have bred a winner here View attachment 670774
...and spent an hour uncovering the stack and taking the duals off the tractor now we have a mob of cattle semi-housed, as another demonstration for the boys as to how we end up being reactive and not proactive, as is our nature as humans ...now we need to burn diesel to feed our stock which is not the outcome we wanted - money is on electric fencing means more family time at the park / fishing / shooting ducks / exploring waterfalls and less "proper farming" - every cloud, as they say... amazingly perceptive, small children, they can be easily moulded to be environmentalists if we aren't prejudiced against the environmental concerns of livestock production via solar capture

Great post Pete

On the last point, I know what you're getting at is the impact of housing them but could you self feed silage from the pot with an electric wire to reduce the tractor input?

holwellcourtfarm · May 13, 2018

Henarar said:
How long do you winter house the cattle for Pete ?

He's going to make you cry

Henarar · May 13, 2018

holwellcourtfarm said:
Great post Pete

On the last point, I know what you're getting at is the impact of housing them but could you self feed silage from the pot with an electric wire to reduce the tractor input?

clamp or bales ?

"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..

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