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

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
20211017_200014.jpg

things are starting to look alright again
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Surely a 300 is a recreational model. A 500 would be a qualifying business purchase..... :ROFLMAO:

On a more serious note I'm watching attempts to develop low emissions helicopters with amused interest....
son in law works in design/safety on helicopters, he says they are absolutely totally inefficient emission wise, in fact, the worst there is, after space rockets.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
son in law works in design/safety on helicopters, he says they are absolutely totally inefficient emission wise, in fact, the worst there is, after space rockets.
That's why I now think their use should be reserved for essential tasks that ONLY helicopters can do (air ambulance, search and rescue etc).

Imho there is now no acceptable case for them as personal transport (even for politicians, business leaders and "celebrities") or for recreational use.

And I'm a self-declared helicopter buff.

I know a chap with an AS341 Gazelle. It carries up to 5 people but burns a full tank (540 litres of jet A1) in 3 hours.
 
That's why I now think their use should be reserved for essential tasks that ONLY helicopters can do (air ambulance, search and rescue etc).

Imho there is now no acceptable case for them as personal transport (even for politicians, business leaders and "celebrities") or for recreational use.

And I'm a self-declared helicopter buff.

I know a chap with an AS341 Gazelle. It carries up to 5 people but burns a full tank (540 litres of jet A1) in 3 hours.
Just to abuse the same statistical nonsense as the average tabloid, the average combine harvester has a fuel tank of about a 1000 litres but only one seat
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
They only make fuel tanks half the size now
at 85ppl for red, they need to half the consumption, as well.
On that theme, min-til or dd, look very attractive, now, all we need, is high production pp, perennial corn plants, that would probably halve the rate.
What l cant really 'imagine' is an electric powered tractor, presumably they will come, jd will be ahead of that game, their tractors are already green.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
at 85ppl for red, they need to half the consumption, as well.
On that theme, min-til or dd, look very attractive, now, all we need, is high production pp, perennial corn plants, that would probably halve the rate.
What l cant really 'imagine' is an electric powered tractor, presumably they will come, jd will be ahead of that game, their tractors are already green.
Interesting on that front to read the FG review of the prototype JCB electric forklift. JCB reckon it is good for a typical 6 hours use before charging (2 hours to full on a fast charger) but FG found that in intensive work like mucking out it only managed 1.5 hours.

There's a way to go yet on some of the tech.
 

Fenwick

Member
Location
Bretagne France
What l cant really 'imagine' is an electric powered tractor, presumably they will come, jd will be ahead of that game, their tractors are already green.

John deere and fendt already have models. The jd actually works with an extension lead!!

Other smaller companys are also proposing smaller cheaper and simpler models. I recall a chzech tractor being around 15k€.

there are plenty of jobs on a farm which dont require long autonomy. We should be at the forefront of the electrical revolution. but hey.

i'm looking forward to it.

I don't think winter grazing with cattle necessarily "helps" as far as buttercup goes, however the disturbance does mobilise a bit of N and everyone eats everything,, so.... what's the worst that can happen

we have a field at the bottom if the farm called scout field. It generally looks pretty poor with lots of buttercuos. (it is even written on my grazing chart from this spring 'too many buttercups').

We stockpiled it for summer grazing, then grazed it hard in august.

While still not great its looking much better now. Perhaps I won't need to lime it after all. I'll probably know better next spring.

The cows will be grazing here in a few days time.



IMG_20211016_185806.jpg
 

Guleesh

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Isle of Skye
That's the one. It crushes up pretty easily too with a bit of impact from above 😬View attachment 992000
I think we're going to need to do a bit of work on the boundary fence
Are plain wire fences still often installed down there? There's not many of them left round these parts, nearly all 8/80/15 netting now. I'm surprised that fence is still holding stock given the pressure it's obviously under and the slack line, lucky for you that it's not my sheep next door to you...
 
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som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Are plain wire fences still often installed down there? There's not many of them left round these parts, nearly all 8/80/90 netting now. I'm surprised that fence is still holding stock given the pressure it's obviously under and the slack line, lucky for you that it's not my sheep next door to you...
as a lad, l bought a few small lots, or single ewes, and lambs, cheaply in market, least said, the better, but it was an extremely quick learning curve, in both fencing and diplomacy
Interesting on that front to read the FG review of the prototype JCB electric forklift. JCB reckon it is good for a typical 6 hours use before charging (2 hours to full on a fast charger) but FG found that in intensive work like mucking out it only managed 1.5 hours.

There's a way to go yet on some of the tech.
quite like the look of the small robots, toiling away 24/7, weeding etc, they look quite practical. But when you move on to the really big tackle, it's a job to imagine, a combine, or forager, working all day, without re-charging, or 'whatever'.
But this is the start of a new revolution, with electronics, we have no idea of what some nutty professor is going to discover, how can we, he hasn't discovered it yet ! The changes in my lifetime, that we have witnessed in farming, are really quite mind boggling, and yet, we quietly absorb them into our practices, with little fuss, but not little expense. Who knows, nuclear powered tractors, with free antiradiation overalls included. Nobody knows what will, or is being invented/tested, nor even those nutty professors, but above all, one thing is certain, just like death and taxes, everybody needs to eat, unless, someone is developing an alternative form of fuel, for the human body to live/work on, you never know .....
 
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Fenwick

Member
Location
Bretagne France
as a lad, l bought a few small lots, or single ewes, and lambs, cheaply in market, least said, the better, but it was an extremely quick learning curve, in both fencing and diplomacy

quite like the look of the small robots, toiling away 24/7, weeding etc, they look quite practical.
Saw those at an organic meeting a few years back. Actually thought it might be useful for certain farms. But i think they would get stolen pretty quickly!
 

Guleesh

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Isle of Skye
as a lad, l bought a few small lots, or single ewes, and lambs, cheaply in market, least said, the better, but it was an extremely quick learning curve, in both fencing and diplomacy
Some probably came from a place that had poor fences that they were used to getting through, it's skill they never forget once learnt. I've bought sheep before that I couldn't really understand why they were selling them, until I got them home and tried to contain them...
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
Some probably came from a place that had poor fences that they were used to getting through, it's skill they never forget once learnt. I've bought sheep before that I couldn't really understand why they were selling them, until I got them home and tried to contain them...
Neighbour bought some like that, said they never saw them in the same field twice
 

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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