Recent content by ChrisStep

This lad's got his own leader follower system going.

We're grazing blues, lims and Herefords out of dairy cows now. They grow at the same pace as a beef bred steer so should kill out at similar weights by 20-22 months, but will be a couple of grades less confirmation. There are Herefords and Herefords - our best and our worst.

If you like your podcasts, listen to Pasture Pod. It's a goldmine of grass based information.

I'm hoping the red clover roots will do a similar job. To be fair, it's not a hard pan as it's been direct drilled for about 8 years, and until last week had plenty of deep cracks in it. Once the grass gets going again and I overseed the worst of it, I'm hoping it'll grow through it.

Old MF spring tine cultivator 2 inches deep followed by power harrow combination with the coulters off the ground. I regret using the tine drag, as it sat like porridge through the wet winter. We were trying to level the field out a bit. I went straight into a stubble with the combination the...

About 6 hours with 75000kg of cattle. New seeds clover/prg on some of our "heavier" arable ground. Should have been silaged, but never got the stones rolled in before it got wet last back end - and then went from too wet to concrete this spring in 3 days while I wasn't looking. I'll spin a...

Well that drought seems to be over for now. Note to self - take account of ground conditions when timing moves...

Didn't get it grazed until after it flowered, and then grazed twice more last season. I suspect I overdid the nitrogen this spring. There's still a little chicory left, but I've lost most of the plantain and red clover.

As to species, I'm sowing grass seed on land in an arable rotation, with a plan of getting 5 years out of it. I'm going into a 4th year of perennial ryegrass (and still struggle to spell it), I tried a propriatrary herbal ley, which went in for last year (perennials, timothy, red clover...

Thanks for the link - a good management guide. I can see two competing ideologies emerging - rotational grazing to maximise grass output and quality v mob grazing to maximise biomass production and soil return. Is that a fair summary? I'm in it for the soil. If I'm mob grazing for this...

That's a good guide - I think I'll print out the last few comments and stick to the office wall. Many thanks. This is today's move.

Not the wrong thread, just ignorant. Which approach gets me most for cattle to eat per ha? Couldn't bear keeping them inside any longer, so turned out into what grass we have. We'll average about 10 inches at the moment, but starting to drought. 6mm rain since middle of March. Non of the...

What observations would you suggest, if not looking to see how much grass is left? I'm less about following a recipe than dispelling ignorance. I'm interested in getting the most out of my grass and if I'm leaving too much, as unlacedgecko says, quality will decline. I've grazed perienials...

Has anyone tried to make a plate meter? I have an idea to start measuring grass with the aim shifting cattle out at 1500kg DM to allow optimum regrowth, and also get a handle on grass growth to budget feeding. I don't want to splash £500 on a bit of plastic which I probably won't use once I've...

The weed wiping is for the thistles in the fallow land. The grass has now been eaten / trampled, leaving a good stand of thistle for a weed wipe at about 2 ft. Hopefully miss any remaining grass stalks. Thanks for the heads up on pink eye. Is long grass a cause?