- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..
- Thread starter Kiwi Pete
- Start date
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
I would aim for an arable version of that, that IS the direction I am heading in
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
My version is pretty similar to that too.
It really only includes the words "improve" and "our future" - because to a degree my boys need to internalise our mission statement if they are going to buy into it at all; I don't mean buy the farm and plant, but buy into the principles of how to be regenerative and increasingly self sufficient.
Soon I will be dead, so the realisation of "succession" is a measure of success to us.
It really only includes the words "improve" and "our future" - because to a degree my boys need to internalise our mission statement if they are going to buy into it at all; I don't mean buy the farm and plant, but buy into the principles of how to be regenerative and increasingly self sufficient.
Soon I will be dead, so the realisation of "succession" is a measure of success to us.
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
something like this ?
http://www.foddersolutions.com.au/
on their 250 acres that the property settlement from my divorce paid for, my ex father in law was running one of these. They were growing barley sprouts to feed cattle during the dry period around 10 yrs ago. Because he thought it was good, I never took any interest in it
apparently, they don't have it anymore, dunno why, been a couple of years since I heard from my daughters
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Awwww....
Every day is a holiday
Every day is a holiday
ShooTa
Member
- Location
- Denbighshire - In the vale of Clwyd!
For those of you who didnt make Groundswell 2018 - heres greg judys talk.
Its done for nags so why not for other stock?I have done it. I had to water it and pull silage sheet over the patches to lock in the moisture (and keep the ducks off) but it grows quite a bit of food in a week.
Like bean sprouts
see:http://www.foddersystems.com/benefits/equine.html
newholland
Member
- Location
- England
Hello,
We have been playing about with a holistic grazing system for our dairy herd. Its worked really well so far...…. but we have hit a huge problem now - the grass has gone very stalky after several months of sunshine and no rain......and the result is the cows eyes are getting damaged by the sharp grass stalks
What do people do to try and stop these stalks (I seem to have found other holistic farmers who have had similar problems) I guess cutting the grass or maybe rolling it down is the only answer?
Many thanks in advance for any food for thought.
We have been playing about with a holistic grazing system for our dairy herd. Its worked really well so far...…. but we have hit a huge problem now - the grass has gone very stalky after several months of sunshine and no rain......and the result is the cows eyes are getting damaged by the sharp grass stalks
What do people do to try and stop these stalks (I seem to have found other holistic farmers who have had similar problems) I guess cutting the grass or maybe rolling it down is the only answer?
Many thanks in advance for any food for thought.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Cutting can actually make the stems sharper, so I'd be loathed to advise that.
Maybe chain harrows?
If you can lie it over (I'm assuming it is standing dry?) would that help?
I am using my own set of guidelines, of course, and rolling when dry on our soil would just create surface damage which would reduce infiltration.
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
Grassroots Grazier
· 3 mins ·
So, we had a bit of a break from our patch of grass and went for a trip down south to visit some friends and family.
Upon a visit to a friend’s place, we were able to witness a property that has been under conventional management and is in the fledgling stages of making some super exciting changes.
This paddock is a set-stocked area running
In the first picture you can see the area to the left that has never been baled, and the area to the right that has. It was amazing, like a smack in the head!
Where the hay had been cut, the ground was heavily compacted, poor soil structure and struggling young plants frantically trying to cover the bare ground, including lots of moss and very shallow roots.
Where the grass has not been cut, there was amazing soil depth and quality, great species diversity and really healthy plants.
In baling the grass, they removed the ability for the plants to feed the soil, and instead stored the sunshine in the shed, used their own energy and efforts to stack it, and feed it out every day and then have to put supplements into the soil to replenish what has been removed- which you can see, after 6 months is still not recovered, and is still being grazed.
If they had left the grass in the ground, they would have saved on baling costs, saved time and energy in feeding, ended up with a much more nutrient dense product, and left the soil in better condition than it was found. As you can see from the non-grazed pictures, quantity is definitely not a problem!
When I asked the owner why they baled it instead of just managing the grass and horses in a cell system, they were a bit stumped!
This was such an interesting and really obvious example of getting stuck in a cycle of doing things the way they have always been done, just because, and really not seeing the impacts our actions are having on the land or on our hip pocket until it’s pointed out.
Thanks to Patrick Gleeson for letting us study your place, we can’t wait to see what you will achieve!
#grassrootsgrazier #paradigmshift #grazinghorses #openminds #smallsteps
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ShooTa
Member
- Location
- Denbighshire - In the vale of Clwyd!
Have to say im enjoying the rain - so much so ive left the sheep in their paddock/cell today just to see what the effects are on the grass. Im noting alot of 1st pass grass where large areas were trampled have not come back green yet but are showing some small areas of green shoots trying to break through. - its very odd not to have short grass this time of year. However i am glad that ive got acres of the stuff ahead of me as a grasswedge where others have none.
very brown - guessing very thin soil beneath onto the limestone.
another hidden something - you can see the trampling still in effect - this was grazed over a month ago.
more patchyness - plenty of flattening.
we shall have to see how it comes back in sept.
we shall have to see how it comes back in sept.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Looking good @ShooTa
You'll be quite surprised what comes with moisture
Total opposite end of the spectrum, just resetting the drought reserve here.
This is about my "base measurement" if you like, still leaving the tougher tiller sheath material but removing most of the greenery.
I wouldn't graze this low during the growing season but now is when I take it all back and clean it out a bit. Unusually dry here yet but rain forecast, drymatter drops through the floor when the rain comes - what you have largely decomposes and feeds the growth over the coming months.
Unfortunately that's the most crucial part of a dry spell, managing the recovery period by maximising farm area not being grazed.
Watch your neighbours with interest
Mine tend to get so excited about a slight green tinge the plan goes out the window, open their stock up.. and their grass never recovers fully... they are hard to work out, these nextdoor neighbours
In 9 days those lambs in the distance will be in front of me here. 3 days per paddock ish.
You'll be quite surprised what comes with moisture
Total opposite end of the spectrum, just resetting the drought reserve here.
This is about my "base measurement" if you like, still leaving the tougher tiller sheath material but removing most of the greenery.
I wouldn't graze this low during the growing season but now is when I take it all back and clean it out a bit. Unusually dry here yet but rain forecast, drymatter drops through the floor when the rain comes - what you have largely decomposes and feeds the growth over the coming months.
Unfortunately that's the most crucial part of a dry spell, managing the recovery period by maximising farm area not being grazed.
Watch your neighbours with interest
Mine tend to get so excited about a slight green tinge the plan goes out the window, open their stock up.. and their grass never recovers fully... they are hard to work out, these nextdoor neighbours
In 9 days those lambs in the distance will be in front of me here. 3 days per paddock ish.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Most of my electric fencing stuff is very low cost - I can remember Dad buying some of this gear about 30 years ago
Clip leads are handy but even a bit of underground cable works as well for jumper leads - or a bit of poly or lacing wire..
I leave a loop at the end of each strand and just use a plastic standard for the end termination/insulators.
Plastic handles tend to snag any knots left in the strands as I use an electric winder to save my elbow wearing out
Some pictures, for interests sake, on how I'm monitoring recovery period over the wet season:
I can tell that it will recover reasonably quickly in height but not in density, as it isn't really tillering out. So I'm thinking 50 days..
This one was grazed just before I housed my big cattle, 20 days ago. It's looking nice and fresh after they punched in a lot with their big feet, but if I graze it too soon, it will just grow buttercups, so I'm thinking another 3 weeks minimum, so 50 days?
This one had a good poaching around the trough here as the weather cacked itself and they huddled along the fence, til I let them into the gorse at midnight, but 4 weeks on it's come back OK.
Another 10-12 days, then into the one on the left? My plan is coming together.
Most of the signs say a 50 day round will keep everything fed, but not too hard on the grass reserve - the weather could be absolute pants in the next 50 days, almost guaranteed. I need to be mindful of keeping my water cycle going, not too big an area, I can always use a bale to limit my area..
105 acres, 50 days.. 2 acres a day, give or take.
One mob has 415 48kg lambs
One mob has 60 sheep about 60kg, 17 calves that will eat for 3 so about quarter the intake of the big mob..
big mob gets 1.6 acre = third of a paddock
lil mob gets half an acre = tenth of a paddock
Will see how it goes, and adapt based on what I see happening
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Not really. A couple of shelter lines but hardly what you would call "hedge"
More just a couple of lines of cypress..
I have a heap of poplars cut and in a bathtub half full of water that will go in soon.
farming where we do I can't imagine not having hedges as we have so many of them even what started out as just a fence seems to end up as a hedge as the hedge plants grow along its line, you couldn't take a photo like some of yours here with grass going up the hill in to the distance, nice photos though
what do you think it is ?
I can see the drain lines here now which don't happen very often but there are other marks and lines that make no sense
ShooTa
Member
- Location
- Denbighshire - In the vale of Clwyd!
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
It's a tricky one, our climate does require a fair bit of wind (luckily we get it) to keep the soil workingfarming where we do I can't imagine not having hedges as we have so many of them even what started out as just a fence seems to end up as a hedge as the hedge plants grow along its line, you couldn't take a photo like some of yours here with grass going up the hill in to the distance, nice photos though
A neighbour of ours on the old farm was the agroforestry association chairman and absolutely wrecked his farm with too much shelter, and the settlers with their fires wrecked it by burning the original shelter
So it does require a bit of planning and foresight just to get the right effects with plantings, if you want to create microclimates it is good for growth when it's cold but can hinder things when it's wet..
You're right though, many Americans see my pictures and cannot believe "how open the landscape is" considering the wind we get.
Where we are is called Leeside for good reason though, doesn't look much of a hill behind us but it is a different climate up there
cold and windy, and only a few hundred feet up above the estuary behind us.