- Location
- Quebec, Canada
I’m not U.K based and I live in the middle of nowhere.
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..
- Thread starter Kiwi Pete
- Start date
- Location
- Quebec, Canada
What kind of sulphur ?powder or granulated. Do they eat it or rub their faces in it. And with the DE?
- Location
- Quebec, Canada
Good advice. Not always easy to carry out.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I just used a bag of elemental sulphur that I had been carting around Southland with us for several years
@davieh3350 put me onto the idea.
I have seen them lick and sniff at it but they just treat it as a dustbath - I have a little yard fenced off as an annex at the end of my barn and it is part of the lane network so it sees some use when moving lambs past.
Amazing how quickly lambs find it and learn to use it, of course we get lambs from all around the place so it does represent a bit of a biosecurity issue, especially woolly lambs.
Most would just quarantine them and treat them all to be safe, it goes against my grain a little.
I did drench some lambs with some DE and ACV that were really scouring, the year we arrived, but I wasn't doing FEC back then so it was just a stab in the dark
(that is as close to being a proper farmer as I get )by and large most of these farmers around me don't really intervene much either so we have a pretty good "gene pool" - but selling the poorer ones store probably is their intervention mechanism, and so I am mindful of that factor too
- Location
- Cornwall
Amazing how they know what to do after a sniff and a lick having, presumably, never come across the stuff before?
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Some of your rules and regs really do go against logic, don't they?
We just have a couple of big holes dug for waste - I know I should tan more hides but they tend to get discarded.
Apart from a couple of unlucky cattle, and a few dead lambs we have few dead stock, but paying a knackerman would soon add up
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Quite intriguing alright.
Stock are pretty inquisitive, but I have seen a lamb straight off the stock-truck having a roll - I think it is instinctive behaviour.
Plus lambs might see mum in there and simply copy - a lot of things are passed on (probably lice
) from mum to the next gen.Look at political views - most of "our" views are probably shaped by what our parents did and thought and said, and unless we have good reason, we follow them. Often food preferences, sayings, habits all come from them too, so sheeple and animals are not far different
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
most people are f^ucking sheeple
only gotta look at TFFers for that
only gotta look at TFFers for that
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I realise it is "wrong" to think of my fellow man as similar to a sheep
Some prove they are emancipated and think for themselves, but a great number simply play follow the leader - like in your cartoon.
Sadly you can beat many farmers by being a bit more of a thinker and less of a doer
Have been pondering @awkward 's comment most of the day, and how it relates to so many farmers I deal with - they will often inherit the farm as a youngster, and be quite "progressive" much to Dad's amusement and dramatically increase production... the "work" often increases but they are young and full of beans... but as they age that context changes, and they are locked in by their system.
Hence you see 70 year olds still wading through wet ewes with a drench gun and the kids not wanting to hear a bar of it, or having to employ someone to help.
Similar in dairy circles, too, it is easy to look at production and costs and increase both, and then one day years have passed.. and that same incremental increase isn't so easily achieved
We are experiencing a huge pilgrimage to lower inputs, once-a-day milkings after the cows are bred, and simply a little more coasting suddenly the kids come home from college and want to be involved again, because the afternoons are freed up and progress has been made in their eyes
...so, sustainability is a matter of context, isn't it? Holism allows for that to change, as our energy levels change through our lifetime, and definitely is encouraging the next generation better than before
That's regenerative
Some prove they are emancipated and think for themselves, but a great number simply play follow the leader - like in your cartoon.
Sadly you can beat many farmers by being a bit more of a thinker and less of a doer
Have been pondering @awkward 's comment most of the day, and how it relates to so many farmers I deal with - they will often inherit the farm as a youngster, and be quite "progressive" much to Dad's amusement
and dramatically increase production... the "work" often increases but they are young and full of beans... but as they age that context changes, and they are locked in by their system.Hence you see 70 year olds still wading through wet ewes with a drench gun and the kids not wanting to hear a bar of it, or having to employ someone to help.
Similar in dairy circles, too, it is easy to look at production and costs and increase both, and then one day years have passed.. and that same incremental increase isn't so easily achieved
We are experiencing a huge pilgrimage to lower inputs, once-a-day milkings after the cows are bred, and simply a little more coasting
suddenly the kids come home from college and want to be involved again, because the afternoons are freed up and progress has been made in their eyes ...so, sustainability is a matter of context, isn't it? Holism allows for that to change, as our energy levels change through our lifetime, and definitely is encouraging the next generation better than before
That's regenerative
I think a little jersey house cow would suit you too. Cattle graze differently to sheep and horses theyre much better at eating long stuff the others wouldnt touch. Go on you know you want to really
You having a larf
After seeing them frikin looney gate jumping cattle - there is no chance in hell I am going into cattle. Also - I do not have the required sheds to house beasts if needed, I obviously know feck all about cattle, even less than I know about sheep which is very little too - which would seriously concern me.
Savour Soil Permaculture
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WEEDY WEDNESDAY
Weeds are a language. Most people see weeds as a problem, but if we take the time to understand them, they are a language which can tell us what is going on in the soil beneath them. Weeds arrived because the soil has some sort of deficiency or condition that both allows them to thrive and prompts nature to repair the damage. By learning that language, we can assess unfamiliar land...scapes and recognise the sources of troubles within our systems. Over a succession of Wednesdays, we will be posting a series of ‘cheat sheets’ as it were, to help not only to identify weeds but help understand what they are trying to tell us. These ‘cheat sheets’ are far from complete but are a beginning of a broader conversation See More
I suppose I better get me arse into this facebook lark, as there appears to be some interesting things to look at. I am a frikin mushroom with facebook etc.
So what happened with the bones, as one assumes there is not enough heat in the heap to break them down?
The above is interesting - so have you added the diatomatious earth and sulphur under the trailer - whereby the stock then know where to go and self treat if they get lice / fly struck / or pre struck?
if you could add something the diatomateous earth to make it more attractive (and leaving the sulphur out of course) for them to lick, then it could help control your internal worms too. I mixed some minerals in and the cattle took it quite happily.I just used a bag of elemental sulphur that I had been carting around Southland with us for several years
@davieh3350 put me onto the idea.
I have seen them lick and sniff at it but they just treat it as a dustbath - I have a little yard fenced off as an annex at the end of my barn and it is part of the lane network so it sees some use when moving lambs past.
Amazing how quickly lambs find it and learn to use it, of course we get lambs from all around the place so it does represent a bit of a biosecurity issue, especially woolly lambs.
Most would just quarantine them and treat them all to be safe, it goes against my grain a little.
I did drench some lambs with some DE and ACV that were really scouring, the year we arrived, but I wasn't doing FEC back then so it was just a stab in the dark
by and large most of these farmers around me don't really intervene much either so we have a pretty good "gene pool" - but selling the poorer ones store probably is their intervention mechanism, and so I am mindful of that factor too
Yes, the above is why we are starting to add some different animals, as we have come around to learning that we can get better land qualities by using nature, it is the learning curve that holds us back currently coming from a non agri background, as we do not like doing anything without at least some knowledge - as the animals could suffer through our own ignorance.
Also, as we are not the kind of people who throw chems at anything and everything - thus we are somewhat of a minority around here, so my lifestyle is one whereby I kind of withdraw from people to avoid confrontation as I move through my years.
the odd lamb... Quite big lamb
has ended up getting trapped in the dung midden... And then a covering of muck has landed over it covering it... All gone...
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
They aren't all lunatics - some people are just reluctant to cull, for various reasons.You having a larf
After seeing them frikin looney gate jumping cattle - there is no chance in hell I am going into cattle. Also - I do not have the required sheds to house beasts if needed, I obviously know feck all about cattle, even less than I know about sheep which is very little too - which would seriously concern me.
I guess the concept of "welfare" means everything must have equal opportunity to die of old age?
People first around here, if I have concerns about dangerous animals or damage to the environment, then away with them!
However, sentiment often overrides direction.
Not too sure - I just put it there and they roll in it
they seem to associate itching with rolling. We don't have an issue with flystrike (most years) down here but that is due to pre-lamb shearing I think. The neighbours use pour-on for lice, if I see his sheep by the boundary I just shift mine on and then go back if need be. Same with cattle on the boundary, my neighbour always puts his cattle next to mine so I have asked him to let me know
otherwise his jump in.I've never had animals jump out, they always jump in
the odd lamb... Quite big lamb
Even the bones?
Knowing my luck, I would get a frikin nutjob. Local farmer was banged up quite bad recently, and although he is aging a bit - it does show the dangers with cattle for the untrained
Not too sure - I just put it there and they roll in it
Same with cattle on the boundary, my neighbour always puts his cattle next to mine so I have asked him to let me know
I've never had animals jump out, they always jump in
Nature is remarkable when you open your eyes to it, look deeper to see how things tick. For us, this is part of the draw - work with vs against nature, because nature normally wins in the end, no matter what we try and cheat out of her.
Every day is a learning day!
Yup.