- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Great. I wasn't sure whether to post the link up or not.
I did a "MOOK" on antimicrobial resistance last autumn which was very good so I have high hopes for this one.
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..
- Thread starter Kiwi Pete
- Start date
I did a "MOOK" on antimicrobial resistance last autumn which was very good so I have high hopes for this one.
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
He has both but I was thinking of the clamp.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
These ones unfortunately will lose their heads and shaggy coats once the schedule rises - at the moment it is $5/kg due to the freezing works being full with the usual off-load at the end of the season - so we made the decision that it makes sense to feed a bit of silage as it is cheap, and wait for the schedule to come up to $5.30 where it was before the glut..
Then when it is done I'll clean off the dirty woodchip and put some more in, and put 120 weaned calves in for a couple of months - last year it was about end of June until end of September, 10 weeks or so.
All told the 10 weeks cost about $62/head but that is coming down as we are using the same chip and that is a large part of the cost, bedding.
Enough chip will be about $12-13/head so it's still cheap, really...
good usage of wood that would otherwise decompose in a windrow on a forestry block somewhere and VERY clean stuff, combined with UV light through the plastic it is quite a sterile environment despite the organic brown colour that screams "dirty" to some of the purists and you know who I meant with that poke That is what we are working towards, once we get this 2016 silage out of the pit a load of knaprock/limerock is going down to make a firmer base and hopefully it can be used as a self/feeding barrier type system as well - but it is as easy to stockpile more feed I feel and cut down on how long they need to be in.
For example there is no reason that we can't keep cattle out longer than this year's attempt, not all of it is the fault of the weather as I could have managed better and still have a lot more grass/smaller area per day/longer to go before "winter"
In saying that now I have fed these fat sods inside I can't get them to come out
still learning about housing beef In an ideal world I would have smaller calves outside until all the big cattle are over 600kg, then a quick dungout/topup of chips and put the calves inside for July August September or thereabouts just as the winter hoggets are such great cashflow when nothing much else is about I can be busy here - it is all about time and pasture management as opposed to throwing lots of money at it.
We have a clamp here - just a bit of earthwork really, it was made about 35 years ago so has escaped the "need" for concrete/sumps/effluent disposal and all that poop, I save any stuff that leaches out and use it for science experiments
we did make a few bales from the pea crop and will again, bales have a place for pasture-feeding being that bit less juicy and acidic, doesn't scorch the jeebers out of the grass as the clamp silage does
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- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Phew!These ones unfortunately will lose their heads and shaggy coats once the schedule rises - at the moment it is $5/kg due to the freezing works being full with the usual off-load at the end of the season - so we made the decision that it makes sense to feed a bit of silage as it is cheap, and wait for the schedule to come up to $5.30 where it was before the glut..
Then when it is done I'll clean off the dirty woodchip and put some more in, and put 120 weaned calves in for a couple of months - last year it was about end of June until end of September, 10 weeks or so.
All told the 10 weeks cost about $62/head but that is coming down as we are using the same chip and that is a large part of the cost, bedding.
Enough chip will be about $12-13/head so it's still cheap, really...
That is what we are working towards, once we get this 2016 silage out of the pit a load of knaprock/limerock is going down to make a firmer base and hopefully it can be used as a self/feeding barrier type system as well - but it is as easy to stockpile more feed I feel and cut down on how long they need to be in.
For example there is no reason that we can't keep cattle out longer than this year's attempt, not all of it is the fault of the weather as I could have managed better and still have a lot more grass/smaller area per day/longer to go before "winter"
In saying that now I have fed these fat sods inside I can't get them to come out
In an ideal world I would have smaller calves outside until all the big cattle are over 600kg, then a quick dungout/topup of chips and put the calves inside for July August September or thereabouts just as the winter hoggets are such great cashflow when nothing much else is about I can be busy here - it is all about time and pasture management as opposed to throwing lots of money at it.
We have a clamp here - just a bit of earthwork really, it was made about 35 years ago so has escaped the "need" for concrete/sumps/effluent disposal and all that poop, I save any stuff that leaches out and use it for science experiments
I was worried you'd tell @Henarar that you house for 6 or 8 weeks (cue comments about NZ being easy)
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well a shorter winter housing period is easier and cheaperPhew!
I was worried you'd tell @Henarar that you house for 6 or 8 weeks (cute comments about NZ being easy)
as a rule it don't matter what country its in housing is expensive and pick your own is cheaper [temperature dependent]
I can't help thinking that despite the fact we relatively extensive we can be over stocked with cattle in the wrong year and get pinch points where we are short of grazing, I can see one coming in a couple weeks if the silage grass don't get a move on
The TB job don't help with this, selling cattle use to be on a whim when the price was right or conditions dictated now its like military planning and you get a window to sell and sometimes not at the right time or risk getting stuck with more animals than you know what to do with
The TB job don't help with this, selling cattle use to be on a whim when the price was right or conditions dictated now its like military planning and you get a window to sell and sometimes not at the right time or risk getting stuck with more animals than you know what to do with
newholland
Member
- Location
- England
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
Hello, when you say 100 cows per hectare per day as a guide, are you saying a day is 12 hrs or 24 hrs?
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
A bit of both, most all farmers around here can't run many big cattle on their flat land as they make a big mess, so they are driven to offload early or put them up in the tussock for another winter, which works for them... but I don't have a big rough tussocky hill so the next best solution was to buy a place with housing installed.
Or winter crops, which cost in more ways than one
Really it comes down to seeing what other farmers do and think, and exploit the flaws - as you will see with the UK COP issue, simply grow them cheap and sell the consumer what they want to buy - hardly rocket science is it
yet many think that is not the way for them and all try to do the same thing - turn over a heap of cattle on small margin and run a big risk that the financials change - "left holding the baby"This system doesn't match a big hill on land price or running costs but it does give huge flexibilty and grows a heap of feed, so we try to do what we can within our constraints of kids and jobs and rentals and other stuff
leaving the soil to reach its potential by not churning it with cattle is sensible for us to do, but trying to manage the grass surplus with a minimum of trading is just as sensible - I will not bring in disease and medicate it away on principle, I don't need the extra money that badly, nor do I want to stockpile carbon in my yard if I can do it on the land that costs in many ways as well, plastic, compaction, diesel, time, money... fudge 6 cuts a year
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
24.
"All day and half the night" as our old dairy worker told me when I didn't realise it was Sunday!
So 750 cows would graze 7.5ha over 24 hours but it may be 5ha during the day, 2.5ha plus supplement at night, as an example of how I'd do it, have all that poop concentrated on the night break
At 4000 cover to 2000 cover it is 20kgDM/head/day or 'about sufficient' for making money.
newholland
Member
- Location
- England
Thanks @Kiwi Pete ..... ok here is an example: we have 96 high yield Holsteins going into a 2hc paddock which has thick grass at 35cm - 40 cm high. What do you advise? ( time / area / allocation)
I split the paddock to give then 0.75hc for the first 12 hours and then I was just going to let them have the remaining 1.25hc for remaining 36hrs.
I split the paddock to give then 0.75hc for the first 12 hours and then I was just going to let them have the remaining 1.25hc for remaining 36hrs.
nor do we but I wouldn't mind one, the place where @farmerclare use to keep her sheep had some hill land ironstone dry when everything else was wet and damp when everything else was dry, solve a few problems that
seen that with bales spaced around the field so they eat them when they come to them, to wet for thatOr winter crops, which cost in more ways than one
yes but don't we have to keep productivity up ? LOLReally it comes down to seeing what other farmers do and think, and exploit the flaws - as you will see with the UK COP issue, simply grow them cheap and sell the consumer what they want to buy - hardly rocket science is it
Agree on the six cuts but getting away from using the diesel/plastic etc is not easythat costs in many ways as well, plastic, compaction, diesel, time, money... fudge 6 cuts a year
just try to do it as cheap as possible
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
It really comes down to what you can do and how it relates to what you want to achieve - considering all factors.
You might boost production or trampling effect or nutrient transfer by another fence but it means another trip and another walk across the field two ways - only you can work out what suits your goals (you know what they are, helps)
My example is that I was putting animals into whole 2.2ha fields with no fence and "being lazy" and it didn't help with my goals of rationing or trampling but it gave good performance from the stock each month - not so much when the grass failed to grow.. so more subdivisions and shifts are better if the time is available.
Your example will work fine, no point making things overly difficult for little gain
(leave that to the rest of 'um)
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
It would be f**king interesting to start a "productivity / efficiency / profitability" thread and find out what everyone's definitions are - I believe many have little clue of what they want to do and tend to use them interchangably as it suits them to
Efficiency doesn't worry me - it comes with the territory, but productivity does; and profitability is crucial or we are gone.
When you see animals more as the tools, they work for me not do much the other way around, then productivity is natural occurence and improves over time
When you work for animals too much: cut their food and bring it to them, make their bed, take away their sh!t - then in your spare time, do the soils work for it too, and stop the plants reproducing as well so you can do that for them......
well I roll my eyes If you bunch them up more then they maintain their environment to suit themselves - leveraging labour
It seems daft but I am trying to do more ranching, less farming, but trying for the best of both worlds
As in, be aware of what the others are doing and try to beat them with simplicity and exploiting what they don't see
Next is to make more money from other things closer to home, as I figure a $10k shed on the 12 acres I bought will let me jack the price by $50k when I sell it shortly
which pays and is efficient , but getting a builder to build it is more productive as he's the expertSame as as the farm, I have the objectives, they're the experts, it's therefore more productive = input/output
keep producing more to keep the money productivity down, fantastic
sometimes producing nothing can be more productiveOh no please don't start a 'productivity/ efficiency/ profitability thread on here!
People change the definitions to suit their own needs.
It's what cash that stays in your pocket (or assets that you keep ) is what matters .
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
The grass or the sheep?View attachment 670852 planned grazing on the lawn, is 20 foot by 20 foot about right for two old ewes
may have to take a cut at some stage though