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

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
ha - ive done about an hours work on the farm in the last week & that was only because of my pet bullock, needed to do some fencing & move him . . .
I did water some trees we'd planted out there, to keep them alive

the other day I spent about half an hour getting a water pump running for a neighbour, then spent about 4 hours letting her talk & cry & vent about drought & stress & guilt & family & her mother recently dying & . . .

err, that was about my weeks work really
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
going into some medium sort of covers, but very stemmy. Since it will be for silage after and could do with decent regrowth I wanted to leave a fair cover behind. Tried bigger breaks but they were hammering one area and leaving clumps, so I had to burn some diesel.

View attachment 692620

Boring but it does leave a lovely finish and should pee the docks off a bit too. Cows are licking it every scrap up now. I'm only taking it down to 2300ish with the mower and grazing it to 2000 or so. Some of the rumens are actually sticking significantly out so DM intake might be higher? but I'm unconvinced.
Mown docks always increase intakes in my experience.
The physical properties and condensed tannins mean there is much less gassiness in the gut - they can be an integral part of bloat management as a result.

A few docks is as handy as none. :)
 

Agrispeed

Member
Location
Cornwall
Mown docks always increase intakes in my experience.
The physical properties and condensed tannins mean there is much less gassiness in the gut - they can be an integral part of bloat management as a result.

A few docks is as handy as none. :)

Good source of iodine and mining minerals from deep down too (y)

cows tend to take the leaves off but don't go mad for the stems unless mown. There isn't much left where they've been. Its more the ryegrass stalks, they're too 'springy' to be easily trampled, and I don't want the grass heading at 4" tall again :confused:

Interestingly, this field is mainly ryegrass/WC and the cows are hammering the brambles and roughage on the tracks - lack of fibre in modern ryegrass?
 

Blaithin

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Alberta
Thanks all.

Composting animal matter does seem like a good use of the nutrients within. I wonder if there are actually any real issues with it, when done properly? (In saying that I'm aware of seeing the odd decent sized bone go flying out the back of the spreader, so it doesn't always get done properly. I'm also aware of finding the odd sheep carcase with a topper, so collecting fallen stock for incineration doesn't alwyal get done properly either.)
Some drugs - like ivomec - seem to prevent scavenging if given soon before death. You also don’t want to compost anything that’s been euthanized with drugs.

It should also be considered that bones are an important source for wildlife. It’s encouraged here to not pick up bones and antlers as many animals chew on them for nutrient sources. And rodents will use them to help keep their teeth manageable. Porcupines love a good antler shed. Just because the compost doesn’t break them all the way down, doesn’t mean they aren’t being useful.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
ha - ive done about an hours work on the farm in the last week & that was only because of my pet bullock, needed to do some fencing & move him . . .
I did water some trees we'd planted out there, to keep them alive

the other day I spent about half an hour getting a water pump running for a neighbour, then spent about 4 hours letting her talk & cry & vent about drought & stress & guilt & family & her mother recently dying & . . .

err, that was about my weeks work really

I did some work -
20180711_211434.jpg
drank a few beers and pressed some wool for my mate during a "counselling session."
He's shearing all his own sheep this year -only 800 left to go now. (y)
Good source of iodine and mining minerals from deep down too (y)

cows tend to take the leaves off but don't go mad for the stems unless mown. There isn't much left where they've been. Its more the ryegrass stalks, they're too 'springy' to be easily trampled, and I don't want the grass heading at 4" tall again :confused:

Interestingly, this field is mainly ryegrass/WC and the cows are hammering the brambles and roughage on the tracks - lack of fibre in modern ryegrass?
Yep. (y)
I have seen a chart somewhere of the fibre requirements of cattle through lactation and to be honest - the way ryegrasses are usually "managed" over the growing season is about as far removed from what cattle need, as possible!
Cattle want more sugar in early lactation, and as their fibre requirements increase, in general terms the supply rapidly decreases, due to topping and silage/hay.

(Aftermath is lamb food, cattle need a lot of fibre.)
IIRC by late late lactation it's around 45% of total intake? Don't quote me it may be 35%.
But it's much more than lush ryegrass and clover can provide, anyway. Not just fibre but minerals, minerals that lots of diverse root systems help put into the animal.
Clover and ryegrass feed at the surface, certainly not always very deep, and ryegrass is not really production food, being low in protein compared to most forbs.

This is another reason I want to give up topping, to prevent laminitis, especially later on in the year when the rains come.
 
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Inky

Member
Location
Essex / G.London
its psychological, not physical . . .


im really excited about the introduction of virtual fencing, using collars & being able to set up & move fences with an ipad - possibilities are endless

Very true, it's learnt behaviour. I use a virtual fencing system that is not GPS based (cable buried underground that emits a radio signal). The cattle are trained for around 7 days so they learn how the system works and we can weed out any not suitable (attached images show a cow with a collar and a graze line where the cable is buried). I'm looking forward to the Argensens collar coming to the market although i'm not sure how well it will perform under dense tree canopy.
 

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DanM

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Country
Several comments on how sheep would help improve people’s grass management; arguments against being “too much work”, “don’t like em”, “poor fences” etc. Would it not be great opportunity to offer a young guy a share farming deal - you get sheep to help with grassland management and some income. They get chance to farm and/or grow business.
 

Treg

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cornwall
going into some medium sort of covers, but very stemmy. Since it will be for silage after and could do with decent regrowth I wanted to leave a fair cover behind. Tried bigger breaks but they were hammering one area and leaving clumps, so I had to burn some diesel.

View attachment 692620

Boring but it does leave a lovely finish and should pee the docks off a bit too. Cows are licking it every scrap up now. I'm only taking it down to 2300ish with the mower and grazing it to 2000 or so. Some of the rumens are actually sticking significantly out so DM intake might be higher? but I'm unconvinced.
There's a Jersey on the far right that's as wide as she is tall, think she's having plenty:)
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Several comments on how sheep would help improve people’s grass management; arguments against being “too much work”, “don’t like em”, “poor fences” etc. Would it not be great opportunity to offer a young guy a share farming deal - you get sheep to help with grassland management and some income. They get chance to farm and/or grow business.
I like this concept a lot. It's win-win, for a start, to be honest for all the benefits my sheep provide it wouldn't worry me if they actually barely broke even - they save a lot of pasture maintenance and animal health costs for a little bit of grass when it's surplus.
 

awkward

Member
Location
kerry ireland
Very true, it's learnt behaviour. I use a virtual fencing system that is not GPS based (cable buried underground that emits a radio signal). The cattle are trained for around 7 days so they learn how the system works and we can weed out any not suitable (attached images show a cow with a collar and a graze line where the cable is buried). I'm looking forward to the Argensens collar coming to the market although i'm not sure how well it will perform under dense tree canopy.
on local commonage that I bound it's interesting to see different herds working their way around .each herd has it's own patch and rarely mix unless something is bulling. my herd wouldn't normally have access but when they have broke in .they have rarely mixed
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer

Agrispeed

Member
Location
Cornwall
Several comments on how sheep would help improve people’s grass management; arguments against being “too much work”, “don’t like em”, “poor fences” etc. Would it not be great opportunity to offer a young guy a share farming deal - you get sheep to help with grassland management and some income. They get chance to farm and/or grow business.

This is something I am quite interested in, once I've got my business stable. Sheep might be a start, and something I haven't really thought about, but I'm quite keen to get a beef/arable/silage rotation if I can find some land to rent, I'm hoping I can find someone young and keen to share farm it with. I was luckily enough that someone decided to let me have a go so I'm quite keen to do the same for someone else in a couple of years.

I think its very important to give someone ownership - I quite often have foreign students stay for several months at a time and I always try to give them a specific job they can make theirs, like rearing calves and to be fair they do a very good job and are very contentious, despite normally not coming from a farming background (not a bad thing to have someone asking WHY you do it that way). Several are now farming in other countries, but come back on holiday which is quite handy!

don't you find they just seed out on the ground unless cut earlier than this

You're right and It can be an issue, but I've been hanging onto this for when I ran short of grass, although there isn't much seed in these yet. Cows will take the flower heads off if kept tight enough which although they still look messy tends to kill them off quite well if done frequently.
 

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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