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

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer

Fenwick

Member
Location
Bretagne France
Hi @BobTheSmallholder , I didn't mean to touch a nerve. I also didn't want to turn into this thread into handbags at dawn which so often happen's on online forums including this one. We can always discus further on PM.

My opinion was/is simply that their 'regenerative farm' is dependent on non-regenerative, and unsustainable ag. and that is why I found the title of their book misleading. I appreciate you have strong opinions on this too. To which you are of course absolutely entitled.(y)

I still think they are doing some wonderful things over there at Ridgedale, and have been following their progress through YouTube since the beginning.


Back on topic, does anyone have experience grazing comfrey? We have some pretty deep covers with a large swathes of it this year. I remember hearing something about possible liver toxicity.
IMG_20190620_113730_5[1].jpg

it produces incredible amounts of biomass. (About 4ft high in the photo).
 

BobTheSmallholder

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Angus
Nice. (y)

I've not much electronic experience but I'm willing to learn ;)

Does it let the fence back down behind them?

Sorry I didn't mean to get into a big argument about it either, was only on my 2nd coffee of the day!

In short my replies can be summarised as they fully admit they can do things better but they are trying to teach many different enterprises in a small space and can't do everything perfectly. They do give it a bloody good go though.
 

Karliboy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Yorkshire
View attachment 813254
I really am liking my portable trough. Think it will be the biggest factor in improving this 100 acre block of limestone hill. (y)
View attachment 813260


How do you go on for cattle wanting to roll it over? I fear if I had one it wouldn’t last 5 mins before it would be upside down. I really need to decide what I’m going to do for water when I get back to the pizza fields next week.
I quiet fancy a kiwi micro drinker but again I think cattle would tip it over and trash it.
I’ll take a good look at them at groundswell this week.
 

onesiedale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Derbyshire
How do you go on for cattle wanting to roll it over? I fear if I had one it wouldn’t last 5 mins before it would be upside down. I really need to decide what I’m going to do for water when I get back to the pizza fields next week.
I quiet fancy a kiwi micro drinker but again I think cattle would tip it over and trash it.
I’ll take a good look at them at groundswell this week.
these were my concerns, however neither the micro drinker or the portable have been an issue.
The micro drinker looked after 80 yearling heifers through the spring, better than I was promised. Now the weather has warmed up, these yearlings are now drinking more so I've switched to a portable 100 litre. The calves (this spring born have been running with 1 micro drinker for 120 of them. Again, it's exceeded my expectations.
Once the cattle knew that they could only drink one at a time, then it seemed better regulated.
I even had one of the micro troughs for a group of 50 dry cows this spring! (y)
 

Karliboy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Yorkshire
I can see why you're concentrating on the cattle @Kiwi Pete .
Getting fed up with sheep again. It's the same every year about this time - they just seem to lose respect for fences. And of course this year I have more subdivision and therefore more fences for them to trash.
Moved 1 lot today and they went straight through the fence into the next paddock. Put them back, put up an extra strand, and strimmer under the wire. 2 hours later they'd gone through it again.

Get to the autumn, then it's not an issue, right through til the next summer.

Had cause to travel a neighbour's ground the other day (retrieving sheep:rolleyes:) who is kiwi style dairy. Oh how easy to set up paddocks and lanes for just cattle!

I see James Daniel (kiwitech uk) has a session at groundswell - "grazing infrastructure - keeping the b*****s in" !
Got that 1 marked down to see!


Dito to the above, I’m going watching moving the mob right before this in the field.
 

Samcowman

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cornwall
It's amazing the difference when you know where you're going, eh? (y)
Just being able to see it in front of me and seeing there is a plan and the rest times rather than trying to remembering it and flicking through my diary. Just have to go back through and fill it out from the start now.
Still don’t know what I’m doing though.
 

Karliboy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Yorkshire
Finished cell grazing a banking on Saturday cows now have 2 long and 2 short legs
E75D2F9B-3DDD-423F-AD7B-22D3777748AC.jpeg

called/shouted/balled them back down of the hill tonight
57DF7B68-6273-4500-B0C3-D95391F13E8C.jpeg
and stuck them in a mowing meadow to clean up
4EA540C3-906F-41EB-80A0-B581C6665242.jpeg
861EF5B4-5F44-4F2E-B97B-A839D5F1B07F.jpeg
Ideally I wouldn’t have done this for another couple off weeks but needs must as off to groundswell tomorrow and want it easy for pops while I’m away.
I’ve probably got about 30 days meadow and cell grazing to go at now so that should give the hill a good rest hopefully. Maybe more depending on regrowth as I cycle around fields
I’ve a funny feeling I’m gonna need to buy some more wire before long and some water infrastructure.
And my other issue is do I put any fert on mowing land at a reduced rate again?. I did 50% for first cut and had a excellent crop all the same.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Just being able to see it in front of me and seeing there is a plan and the rest times rather than trying to remembering it and flicking through my diary. Just have to go back through and fill it out from the start now.
Still don’t know what I’m doing though.
I found it really difficult, until I began with where I'd been.
I filled out a whole chart of 'history' first just to see what I'd been doing, and that gave me a bit of a pattern to base the planned grazing chart from.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
Sheep have a natural grazing/ moving system through of their own. Going against that in a micro managinv sort of way will make the shepherd work.

Electric fencing in the dry and with that brilliant insulator wool thd challengs is there.

I farm sheep plus other things as they dont make enough money in comparison.... i want freedom to do othefpr things (y) that helps me sustain the flock long term not just novelty and fashion and fad.

No by pishing around moving them or crappy electric fences every 5 mins :ROFLMAO:

Mind you we do have relativly small field size on a World scale ... not sure a bout China though come to think of it :unsure:
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Sheep have a natural grazing/ moving system through of their own. Going against that in a micro managinv sort of way will make the shepherd work.

Electric fencing in the dry and with that brilliant insulator wool thd challengs is there.

I farm sheep plus other things as they dont make enough money in comparison.... i want freedom to do othefpr things (y) that helps me sustain the flock long term not just novelty and fashion and fad.

No by pishing around moving them or crappy electric fences every 5 mins :ROFLMAO:

Mind you we do have relativly small field size on a World scale ... not sure a bout China though come to think of it :unsure:
Sheep work best in a bigger mob, have always meant to quiz you up on what you do?
I'm just trying to count how many paddocks Blair Bros. had on their 700 acres and I think it was about 17 main ones.
Water was whatever was "on the landscape" ie no reticulated water at all, but a good network of dams and creeks

so it wasn't all about daily shifts either, but it was still incredibly effective because it ran by itself. Much of the year they could both be away doing whatever and life on the ranch would carry on.

It really taught me a few things about "sustainability" because they were still doing the same and still making a good go of things in their 70's, although they did switch to round bales over the Big Howard jobs (y)

So, what can you tell us about your "lot"?

:)
 

Poorbuthappy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
Watched this the other day.
Quite a bit on protection dogs and wolves which though interesting is not particularly relevant to most of us, but some other interesting more relevant stuff.
Good to listen to someone doing the holistic thing with sheep.
Also interesting that it was the answer to some of her parasite issues.
 

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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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