- Location
- somerset
at least they look as if they cannot get out. The best fenced field, l ever rented for sheep, was in two parts, 4 acres, with an 8ft, heavy duty chain link fence, dug in 12 ins, the second bit, .5ac, was the same, but had 8x4ft, sheets of flat tin, on the top half, with barbed wire angled out. The sheep never got out ! It was designed by sir Peter Scott, to rear waterfowl, for past owners, as a 'feeder place' for Slimbridge, not sure if it was ever used.If I was critical, I would say that your stocking density could do with going up
Walking grass today, with our nutritionist, who tells us, every year, sheep must be gone by early jan, at the latest. They left 14 march, and every year comments on how the grass looks good.
We have to take out, a lot more grass, from our grazing platform, for silage, we simply wont get around it all, huge amounts. Some of that grass hasn't had any N, some 30 units N, we decided to 'miss' 1st application, and put some on, after grazing, 25/30 units. We had a really good discussion, re grass, and growth, going by growth, and colour, of grass, dark green, and the amount of clover present, advocating missing the next round of fert, the clover is supplying enough N ! Both grazing, and cutting ground, are the same. Cutting ground will get slurry, and a 'bit' of fert, not that convinced.
The question was asked, has the clover growth exploded, because no N fix, was applied to give the grass, its early growth, which then didn't 'smother' out the clover. Next door is an organic farm, certainly their 1st cut, just taken, was nowhere near the colour of our grass, nor so much.
Is the organic system, of clovers, green mulch, dung and plough, missing a trick, a lot of our leys are either min-til, or dd, does the non inversion of soil, allow the clover, to work at full bore, letting its root system develop. I don't know the answers, l would like to, but farmers never ever stop learning. For me, its way out of my 'comfort' zone, will it happen again next year ? Might get really pissy if it does, will remind me of the hundreds of tons of fert, l have chucked on here, over the decades, that l could have saved that money !
Whatever the cause, its nice to see, and happening when fert has become a very expensive product, timed perfectly for that. And our nutritionist, who does a lot of work with M&S, reckons milk will get to 50ppl, and if we can continue to save money, like we are, its a double win, roll on sensible farming.