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

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
I take heaps of photos, but largely "live in the moment" as well.

I like the fact that our ranch smells like a woodland at this time of year and the greenness "pops" in certain light. Land really is a jewel!
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Not sure if you caught that Graeme Hand video @som farmer but one thing that he talks about is litter, "fresh yellow litter"

I think that's a beautiful thing to think about, really if we were just talking ryegrass then it would be as that 4th leaf is senescing that is indictative of full recovery.. or for cocksfoot, maybe we can eek it out to 6-7 leaves. Your nose and ears can tell you a lot about readiness
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
photo 1 looks like overwintered grass, plenty of 'fibre' mixed with the new, no 2 shows it has had the desired effect of keeping it in the animal longer, as the sh1t is rather solid. Probably not near the actual truth, but as i have posted before, lush grass goes through to fast, and needs slowing down, those 2 photo's show what l was referring to.
As feared, farming here, is looking like we are going to be sacrificed, in the drive for greater global trade, while we may not like that, in the greater scheme of things, understandable. What it will mean for us, taken with brexit, and no CAP, we are moving into a changing role for farmers, an unknown role as well.
We do know we have to be 'climate' friendly, aim for zero carbon foot print, and farm for the good of the public, quite a tall order. The days of throwing huge amounts of fert at crops, and spraying for 'everything' are probably over for many farms, it wont be viable, carbon storage, or sequestration, will pay us for doing, how the hell they will work that out beyond me. The vast majority of 'family' farms, will just have to sit tight, get some 'bung', and cut our costs down. There will be winners and sadly losers, instead of moaning, we should look to the future, as a chance to embrace new systems, new ways, and move on forward, because it will happen, and there's nothing going to stop it.
For those regular posters, (to regular some), we are already well on the path to change, every farming publication includes the words 'regenerative' now, last year it was a 'fad', and this is the direction we need/must move in, rather a nice feeling, to be ahead of the rest, for a change. We swop ideas, mistakes, good and bad points, on this thread, it's a real discussion forum, and it's brilliant. We know changes are on route, we shouldn't fear them, but look forward with confidence, as we know/do the 'right' thing now, and we are not greedy. Farming is a strong vibrant industry, those that look to the future, will thrive, those that don't................
There ends a party political speech, for regen farming !
as an encore, l have a new mobile, all it needs is for someone to teach me how to put photo's from one to here.
Photos are easy if you are posting using your phone.
When writing a post, at the bottom left is a box that says “attach files”. Tap it & you will get “take photo” or “photo library”. If you want to take a photo, tap “take photo” & your phone camera will open, take photo, then tap “choose photo”
If you want to post a photo you’ve taken, tap “photo library”, which will open your photos up, scroll through till you find the photo ( or photos ) you want, tap it, then tap “add” on the top right hand corner.
You will get “thumbnail images” under your post, but make sure you tap “full image” where it says “insert all” before you “post reply”, to get full size pictures on your post
Hope this helps - always good to see pictures 👍

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Karliboy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Yorkshire
Finally got last of cows and calves out now into one big group
(big for me being 16 cows and 14 calves 😂)
Love having them outside the house much more interesting watching them over tv

and we’re off with the cells today probably around 1/4 acre at the moment in here next field will probably be around 1/8 per acre moves
First time calves have seen wire so lots of stakes and wire on 2 sides for training
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Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
We did have everything out bar a couple in for calving but a couple days ago we had a group back in, so bloody wet here now its a job to know what to do with the rest of them.
Lost track but must have chucked more than 5 inches of water out the rain gauge in the last week or so.
 

Humble Village Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Essex
Was getting ready to muck the yard out yesterday after 6 weeks of cattle outside. Decided this morning to put the hurdles back up and bring them in while i try and work out how to stop them getting out.

Grass I think is sour and they are cold and unhappy. It's making me unhappy but got a couple of damaged silage bales which never got used. One's got a bad eye (not the royal one)

Not enough swearwords to describe the situation.
 

Samcowman

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cornwall
Photos are easy if you are posting using your phone.
When writing a post, at the bottom left is a box that says “attach files”. Tap it & you will get “take photo” or “photo library”. If you want to take a photo, tap “take photo” & your phone camera will open, take photo, then tap “choose photo”
If you want to post a photo you’ve taken, tap “photo library”, which will open your photos up, scroll through till you find the photo ( or photos ) you want, tap it, then tap “add” on the top right hand corner.
You will get “thumbnail images” under your post, but make sure you tap “full image” where it says “insert all” before you “post reply”, to get full size pictures on your post
Hope this helps - always good to see pictures 👍

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And before you know it you will be drinking a beer whilst driving and taking a photo all at once 😂😂😂
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Finally got last of cows and calves out now into one big group
(big for me being 16 cows and 14 calves 😂)
Love having them outside the house much more interesting watching them over tv

and we’re off with the cells today probably around 1/4 acre at the moment in here next field will probably be around 1/8 per acre moves
First time calves have seen wire so lots of stakes and wire on 2 sides for training View attachment 962571View attachment 962572
l sometimes wonder if we fully appreciate our beautiful country side, we live in, you may, or may not, see some views from here, one day, if l succeed in following @Farmer Roy instructions !
Good friends of ours came for dinner today, left the ladies yapping, and went for a drive around. He couldn't believe the amount of grass we have on farm, compared to the last few years, nor can we really. I have always said this farm could seriously grow grass, and the dearth was water related, that has been proved with a vengeance, thankfully.
Things are never simple, learnt to cope with little, now we have to learn the opposite, grass ahead of the cows, is really high quality cutting grass, everything has caught up 'together', and friend was rather shocked at what was left behind them. For us, it is a seriously welcome change, l think we would have been forced to sell the dairy, if this summer was another dry one.
Where has our journey of grass management taken us, now the urgency has gone, we could sit back, and just say, 'back to normal', and go back to the 'old' normal, here, things have subtly changed, different grasses are used, dual purpose leys are 'out', the value of clover, and herbs to a degree, has been hammered home, just seen a substantial amount of w clover blend, has quietly arrived, so that point is well realised ! Ploughing will never become the normal route to reseeding, in fact, only to be used when it's the only option. Traditionally, l have loved IRG, and short term leys, we used to get tremendous yields from them, but now realise that for the last 10/15 years, they haven't really been that good, now their use will be targeted, over seeding ? or specific silage ley, perhaps festololiums will completely replace them, but whether cut, or graze, longer lasting leys are the aim.
It's very easy to drift back, and take an easy route, change forces change, and not only climate change is coming, political change is as well, the political change could be quite erratic and stupid, or illogical. So perhaps the biggest lesson we have learn't, is look after your soil, it's our bank, if we can improve it, if needed, we could 'live' off it in a bad year, if it's knacked, we cant. We need to work more in tune, with nature, rather than against it, we need to get off the hamster wheel, and enjoy farming again, perhaps the 'fun' we have had playing, and learning new ways, is one of the 'best' things. The one thing that cannot change, is the increasingly important fact, we have to produce highest quality food, we possibly can, to thrive, and this different approach, may well hold the key to that.
Two long tirades from me, in 1 day, might get banned ! It's a funny thing, that an old friend, going round the farm, can start you having to explain, or notice, things, that we now deem normal, and made me realise just how much we have altered our farm.
 

Poorbuthappy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
Was getting ready to muck the yard out yesterday after 6 weeks of cattle outside. Decided this morning to put the hurdles back up and bring them in while i try and work out how to stop them getting out.

Grass I think is sour and they are cold and unhappy. It's making me unhappy but got a couple of damaged silage bales which never got used. One's got a bad eye (not the royal one)

Not enough swearwords to describe the situation.
Pretty fed up with it here too.
Brighter today with a drying wind has reduced the mud, but more rain forecast for tomorrow.
Think these heifers should have moved a bit quicker yesterday ☹ Gonna chuck about a bit of seed and see what comes up with the regrowth. Might have to skip this paddock next round.
Bunch of cows not much better today.
20210521_180254.jpg
 

Karliboy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Yorkshire
We did have everything out bar a couple in for calving but a couple days ago we had a group back in, so bloody wet here now its a job to know what to do with the rest of them.
Lost track but must have chucked more than 5 inches of water out the rain gauge in the last week or so.

i am pleasantly amazed really here with the conditions, normally it would look like pbh photo above with the rain amounts we have had this month/week. even the banking is holding together and not sliding off. so something must be changing in the soil structure with the change in grazing practices.
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where there laying would normally be a bog by now
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Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
i am pleasantly amazed really here with the conditions, normally it would look like pbh photo above with the rain amounts we have had this month/week. even the banking is holding together and not sliding off. so something must be changing in the soil structure with the change in grazing practices.
View attachment 962726
where there laying would normally be a bog by now View attachment 962727
Good stuff.

I think I've said that before 🤣🤣

Outcomes are what matter most! Not necessarily the methods that gain these better outcomes for us.

Often feel the same way when I relive our journey, so much of the trial and error stuff was really just error, but the big thing is that we learnt and improved, which is the name of the game.

Like the wasting grass grazing thing, I'm really glad we did that, just as I'm really glad we learnt from it and kept looking for new stuff to try... one of the big things here is stocking rate and how that has climbed.

I think when Ian came here - @holwellcourtfarm, was that coming up 4 years?? we were grazing 400 sheep and 7 calves - and had no feed on the land to speak of in May after a pretty wet and bountiful year.
This year we are supposedly in drought conditions or "very dry" and have 38 sheep and are cruising along with 130 bovines in 300 paddocks and enough grass to get us to the end of September if it stopped growing today

but yeah, plans are useless in farming 🤣🤣🤠👍
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
and it hasn't cost a lot for those changes to happen, it's lots of minor tweaks, that add up very quickly, to substantial change, no wonder rep's hate it :sneaky:(y)
It probably cost a bit as far as "research and design" went.
But we didn't have to do all that, I just have insatiable curiosity/ irreducable rascality in my makeup 🤭🤠 it is what it is.

We could have shortcut a lot of that out but I am glad we had a play around with different things just to prove that they weren't "the best" before we redesigned our fencing layout etc, just so we didn't miss too many tricks.

I think our 28ha of "deluxe deluxe" techno will have cost around $450/ha all told - which isn't huge as a one-off capital type improvement. Could have done it much cheaper but "why"

it probably sounds cheaper if you divide that per paddock or per animal unit - we have 280 permanent paddocks set up for just under $44 per paddock, including water with minerals in it
 

Humble Village Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Essex
Pretty fed up with it here too.
Brighter today with a drying wind has reduced the mud, but more rain forecast for tomorrow.
Think these heifers should have moved a bit quicker yesterday ☹ Gonna chuck about a bit of seed and see what comes up with the regrowth. Might have to skip this paddock next round.
Bunch of cows not much better today.View attachment 962719
Always looks worse than it really is. Take another photo in a week and then 2 weeks. Ideal opportunity to get some new species in there.
 

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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