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

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
picked up our grass yesterday, impressive yields.
what was quite obvious, the newer 'dry grass leys', with herbs, didn't look huge yields, but more than they looked. The difference between them, and older ley, and cut only, was ground cover, simply much better, was this because of the different grasses, had smaller seeds, so more per acre.
Looking at 2nd round grazing, clover less than 1st, but grass better than 1st. Could a reason be, simply no N 1st round, so clover had no competition 1st, but grass responded to 30 units of N, and kicked in, and competed v the clover ?
 

cows sh#t me to tears

Member
Livestock Farmer
20220512_105950.jpg
sprayed with broardstrike and agritone 750 (mcpa). Why people think it knocks clover is beyond me? Yes it looks sick for a week or so. But soon bounces back.
Gypsum only. NO FERT.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
perhaps the increased cost of fert, isn't a bad thing, and we can all learn how we can reduce our reliance on it. I am not an 'organic farming' follower, looking at some around us, fert/sprays are replaced by diesel, and the continual ploughing of ground, isn't for me, a long term solution, fully accept not all organic farmers, are like that.
I feel that fert use, has become a necessity, to produce decent yields, in many farmers mindset, and many are to 'frightened', not to use it, 'just in case' things don't grow. Could include me, in that trend, not so many years ago.
We have/are entering a new era for farming, whether the benefits of higher prices, will show on the bottom line, l have my doubts, there are to many people living off our backs, and guvs using every trick they can, to keep cost, to the consumer, as low as possible, and we are the bottom rung, of the ladder.
I have always said, sustained, increased profit, can only be achieved by cutting COP, which isn't the easiest thing to achieve. At the same time, we are at a point, where climate change legislation, will increasingly impact on how we farm, while more production, is required, cheap production as well. Sprays, and fert use, are not climate friendly, energy costs are rising, all important things in modern farming. But we have become so reliant on those, alternatives have been largely ignored, and those alternatives, for those who choose to use them, may well find profits climb nicely, with the emphasis on choose, those 'forced' to follow that route, will not necessarily make it work, so well. It needs a massive mindset change, to make it work.
 
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som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
picked up our grass yesterday, impressive yields.
what was quite obvious, the newer 'dry grass leys', with herbs, didn't look huge yields, but more than they looked. The difference between them, and older ley, and cut only, was ground cover, simply much better, was this because of the different grasses, had smaller seeds, so more per acre.
Looking at 2nd round grazing, clover less than 1st, but grass better than 1st. Could a reason be, simply no N 1st round, so clover had no competition 1st, but grass responded to 30 units of N, and kicked in, and competed v the clover ?
by the time our pp, and some 2nd round grazing, goes in the pit, we will have enough grass silage, for the dairy, next winter, shock, is the best way to describe it. A nice one though. But perhaps the best thing, our farm can have a 'rest' this year, from pushing for max production, more hay making, if weather permits, allowing natural reseeding etc, certainly interesting to follow as the year progresses.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
by the time our pp, and some 2nd round grazing, goes in the pit, we will have enough grass silage, for the dairy, next winter, shock, is the best way to describe it. A nice one though. But perhaps the best thing, our farm can have a 'rest' this year, from pushing for max production, more hay making, if weather permits, allowing natural reseeding etc, certainly interesting to follow as the year progresses.
But PP isn't productive, all grass farmers know that :rolleyes:;)
 

Jonny B88

Member
Location
ballykelly. NI
What does people do about coccidiosis in calves? We had our tb test last week, vet took a dung sample of a calf that had watery dung. Turned out to be a reasonably high level of cocci. Our usual treatment has been to dose with tolracol those that appear to have a dirty back end or have runny dung. Just wandering how others do it, do you give it a miss and try and induce resistance? A hangover from calving indoors i know. Yes moving calving season to calf outside might help, but thats a mindset I’m not quite sure of yet.
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
What does people do about coccidiosis in calves? We had our tb test last week, vet took a dung sample of a calf that had watery dung. Turned out to be a reasonably high level of cocci. Our usual treatment has been to dose with tolracol those that appear to have a dirty back end or have runny dung. Just wandering how others do it, do you give it a miss and try and induce resistance? A hangover from calving indoors i know. Yes moving calving season to calf outside might help, but thats a mindset I’m not quite sure of yet.
I don't know if you can get lick buckets for the cows that help with cocci, we get something like that for the sheep, can't remember whats in them though
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
But PP isn't productive, all grass farmers know that :rolleyes:;)
never looks a lot there, till you cut it.
also think pp is left to long, before cutting, and therefore loses some of its feed value, as silage, always makes good hay though.
We focus on quality, quality silage means COP of milk, goes down, the better the silage, the cheaper the milk COP. But, quality of grass, should reflect the class of stock, it is meant to feed, no good feeding rocket fuel, to dry suckler cows, but good grass produces the results.
Bit of bad news today, our young agrominist is leaving, the firm he worked for, they haven't got the inclination to look at more sustainable farming, so he is moving to, sustainable farming, hopefully he might continue to advise us.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
What does people do about coccidiosis in calves? We had our tb test last week, vet took a dung sample of a calf that had watery dung. Turned out to be a reasonably high level of cocci. Our usual treatment has been to dose with tolracol those that appear to have a dirty back end or have runny dung. Just wandering how others do it, do you give it a miss and try and induce resistance? A hangover from calving indoors i know. Yes moving calving season to calf outside might help, but thats a mindset I’m not quite sure of yet.
vecoxan the lot, if one has it, likely the whole bunch do.
 

Gulli

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
never looks a lot there, till you cut it.
also think pp is left to long, before cutting, and therefore loses some of its feed value, as silage, always makes good hay though.
We focus on quality, quality silage means COP of milk, goes down, the better the silage, the cheaper the milk COP. But, quality of grass, should reflect the class of stock, it is meant to feed, no good feeding rocket fuel, to dry suckler cows, but good grass produces the results.
Bit of bad news today, our young agrominist is leaving, the firm he worked for, they haven't got the inclination to look at more sustainable farming, so he is moving to, sustainable farming, hopefully he might continue to advise us.
Disagree to some extent I'd much rather feed good silage to sucklers than rubbish, much easier to manage feeding and they are healthier. Try to keep ours at a fairly level condition and it costs the same to make good silage as it does bad...
I'd say it's much easier to balance good stuff with hay than bad stuff with bought in protein
 

crashbox

Member
Livestock Farmer
What does people do about coccidiosis in calves? We had our tb test last week, vet took a dung sample of a calf that had watery dung. Turned out to be a reasonably high level of cocci. Our usual treatment has been to dose with tolracol those that appear to have a dirty back end or have runny dung. Just wandering how others do it, do you give it a miss and try and induce resistance? A hangover from calving indoors i know. Yes moving calving season to calf outside might help, but thats a mindset I’m not quite sure of yet.
Baycox drench for those with it.
Medicated concentrate for those at risk.
There are two levels of medication, lower and higher depending on if calves are already infected or not.
Medicated feeds require vet prescription.
Horrible little disease, makes me want to rear calves outdoors...
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Disagree to some extent I'd much rather feed good silage to sucklers than rubbish, much easier to manage feeding and they are healthier. Try to keep ours at a fairly level condition and it costs the same to make good silage as it does bad...
I'd say it's much easier to balance good stuff with hay than bad stuff with bought in protein
give you that.
 

Jonny B88

Member
Location
ballykelly. NI
vecoxan the lot, if one has it, likely the whole bunch do.
Issue i have with that is, those calves that aren’t showing signs, surely have been exposed to it but have either resisted it or haven’t picked it up as bad?? So if I’m aiming to increase herd resistance a little exposure is needed in order to figure out those that aren’t resistant? Or am i daft?😂🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️
 

Poorbuthappy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
Disagree to some extent I'd much rather feed good silage to sucklers than rubbish, much easier to manage feeding and they are healthier. Try to keep ours at a fairly level condition and it costs the same to make good silage as it does bad...
I'd say it's much easier to balance good stuff with hay than bad stuff with bought in protein
Depends how you define good and rubbish I guess.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Issue i have with that is, those calves that aren’t showing signs, surely have been exposed to it but have either resisted it or haven’t picked it up as bad?? So if I’m aiming to increase herd resistance a little exposure is needed in order to figure out those that aren’t resistant? Or am i daft?😂🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️
meant to give them time to develop resistance.
 

Samcowman

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cornwall
What does people do about coccidiosis in calves? We had our tb test last week, vet took a dung sample of a calf that had watery dung. Turned out to be a reasonably high level of cocci. Our usual treatment has been to dose with tolracol those that appear to have a dirty back end or have runny dung. Just wandering how others do it, do you give it a miss and try and induce resistance? A hangover from calving indoors i know. Yes moving calving season to calf outside might help, but thats a mindset I’m not quite sure of yet.
Depends on how easy it is to dose them individually whilst they are at grass. If easy then just do the loose ones. If hard do the lot.
Find out where they are picking it up as well to eliminate that in the future. We rent a block of ground that’s waiting for building. About 6 fields but no fences so the cattle run through the old ditches and always had coccy there in the calves. So we put bulling heifers there now and solved that problem.
 

Crofter64

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Quebec, Canada
I’m happy to see all the great photos of grass growth from over the pond . We had a brutally cold winter. Then in April it rained in torrents and the cattle were knee deep in mud. Last week the rain finally stopped and I thought ‘ all we need is a bit of warm weather to really get things growing.Well the last few days it has been around 28C and nothing is growing. I had to put the animals out on pasture ( ready or not) and am taking it down ,Pete-style, trying to slow the rotation so grass can grow.
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57349BDC-5462-4ED9-9557-9452335BABC0.jpeg
3EB2A93B-250F-438D-BB9B-E183DDD8D009.jpeg

I’ve been working on the permanent fences the last couple of weeks, but missed this damaged fence around these trees, so I had a photo to remind myself.
 

Fenwick

Member
Location
Bretagne France
What does people do about coccidiosis in calves? We had our tb test last week, vet took a dung sample of a calf that had watery dung. Turned out to be a reasonably high level of cocci. Our usual treatment has been to dose with tolracol those that appear to have a dirty back end or have runny dung. Just wandering how others do it, do you give it a miss and try and induce resistance? A hangover from calving indoors i know. Yes moving calving season to calf outside might help, but thats a mindset I’m not quite sure of yet.

Apple cider vinegar drench, once a day for three days.
 

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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