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

Kiwi Pete · Mar 15, 2019

ShooTa said:
one of the reasons i fed our silage in our silage field this year... and once i finally get round to wroiting my new plan for the growing seaon (waiting on 2 outside sources) then ill be resting that heavily in the period it would normally be cut.

It likely won't be "pretty" but I'd be shocked if it was actually "less efficient / effective"

Some just don't have the room to move, if you get what I mean?

One thing is, it doesn't have to look like "standing hay" as then you've gone off the top of the S shaped graph we all love, I know @Treg mentioned the flaw in "grass grows grass" in that you do lose productivity after recovery turns to rest.

So just be mindful, rather than too 'fundamental' and try to keep the forage in it's most productive state!
Grazing righter and tighter allows this to happen, as you miss it (that perfect point) by less.

I aim to allow most areas very short recovery early, grazing very fast; then once elongation is happening begin to clamp them down, rather than wait to run out of cover and play catchup - your solar panel shrinks very quickly and everything misses out as a result.

Treg · Mar 16, 2019

Kiwi Pete said:
It likely won't be "pretty" but I'd be shocked if it was actually "less efficient / effective"

Some just don't have the room to move, if you get what I mean?

One thing is, it doesn't have to look like "standing hay" as then you've gone off the top of the S shaped graph we all love, I know @Treg mentioned the flaw in "grass grows grass" in that you do lose productivity after recovery turns to rest.

So just be mindful, rather than too 'fundamental' and try to keep the forage in it's most productive state!
Grazing righter and tighter allows this to happen, as you miss it (that perfect point) by less.

I aim to allow most areas very short recovery early, grazing very fast; then once elongation is happening begin to clamp them down, rather than wait to run out of cover and play catchup - your solar panel shrinks very quickly and everything misses out as a result.

I did get reminded of that when someone posted the stages of grass growth a little back ( Kp or Roy posted it ) . Once the grass starts to die off it enters its dormant stage, so grazing / silage / hay needs to be before that stage.
I think I'm going slightly opposite to Kp (but depends on what everyone calls early ) , I'm aiming for 32 days break on grass being grazed now but will tighten that up once grass growth gets going ( hopefully) by May / June then lengthen the breaks July / Aug / Sept.
My reasoning is the farm is still recovering from last year & I want to give the clover time to work . May / June will watch closely and cut a field for silage if it looks like it's getting in front the cow's.

Kiwi Pete · Mar 16, 2019

Treg said:
I did get reminded of that when someone posted the stages of grass growth a little back ( Kp or Roy posted it ) . Once the grass starts to die off it enters its dormant stage, so grazing / silage / hay needs to be before that stage.
I think I'm going slightly opposite to Kp (but depends on what everyone calls early ) , I'm aiming for 32 days break on grass being grazed now but will tighten that up once grass growth gets going ( hopefully) by May / June then lengthen the breaks July / Aug / Sept.
My reasoning is the farm is still recovering from last year & I want to give the clover time to work . May / June will watch closely and cut a field for silage if it looks like it's getting in front the cow's.

Yeah, it's a struggle to keep up with that growth, eh?
Keep it current.
My normal reaction (lazy) was to park the fences in the shed, but that's not really fit for purpose

Next spring we'll aim to do it properly, maintain the density but move them ultra-fast, and see how we go with that.

We've still got the means to get the stock to do that, whether it's grazing someone's carryovers or whatever. Just obviously it's a bear mixing cattle, so it'd be more mob consolidation and getting a truckload in for a few weeks, the ability to do so really is the big kicker for us to go with the techno

Kevtherev · Mar 16, 2019

Hope this helps
Pretty straightforward to understand but nutrients weather and management makes variables in grass behaviour as we know.

Kevtherev · Mar 16, 2019

Grass varieties and types also vary growth stages.

Kiwi Pete · Mar 16, 2019

Can't beat diversity Kevin, just been hurling some money at my fields today, to try and beat the mid-summer blues a little.

Warm season/tropical species don't do well here, cool season only - apart from summer.

Do you have any water seeds in stock??

Kevtherev · Mar 16, 2019

Yeah I’ll send some over in the van.
Get some Aber HSG grasses in [emoji41]

Karliboy · Mar 16, 2019

Did you put seed on with your home made aerator gizmo?

holwellcourtfarm · Mar 16, 2019

Kiwi Pete said:
Can't beat diversity Kevin, just been hurling some money at my fields today, to try and beat the mid-summer blues a little.
View attachment 777154
Warm season/tropical species don't do well here, cool season only - apart from summer.

Do you have any water seeds in stock??

Better make it a ship load and send the spare over to NSW

Henarar · Mar 16, 2019

Samcowman said:
Talking about grazing and silage got with senior management this week. Apparently you want to save as much ground as you can for silaging and cut as much silage as possible.
Where we are you can get away from needing to silage due to being on clay. But extending the grazing season waiter end should be a target.

Sam it may be me cos I have been up late/early lambing but I can't make sense of that

Samcowman · Mar 16, 2019

Henarar said:
Sam it may be me cos I have been up late/early lambing but I can't make sense of that

Is it the bit in the middle. Should be can’t not can. Now edited.

Henarar · Mar 16, 2019

I have been wondering where making fodder fits in even with the mower quite high as Pete said it hits it to hard if it don't rain as we found out last summer.
The trouble with buying in with a long winter is a high price year 500 bales at 40 quid wouldn't leave much profit, most years it would be ok though if you can find something worth buying

would it be better to make fodder late in the season chuck some FYM on it and leave it ?

Henarar · Mar 16, 2019

Samcowman said:
Is it the bit in the middle. Should be can’t not can. Now edited.

yep makes sense now and I agree all I can work towards here is extending the grazing season and shortening housing for cattle at least, sheep maybe a bit different

Poorbuthappy · Mar 16, 2019

Henarar said:
I have been wondering where making fodder fits in even with the mower quite high as Pete said it hits it to hard if it don't rain as we found out last summer.
The trouble with buying in with a long winter is a high price year 500 bales at 40 quid wouldn't leave much profit, most years it would be ok though if you can find something worth buying

would it be better to make fodder late in the season chuck some FYM on it and leave it ?

As a sheep man I've never understood this late silage making - why not graze it? Even starting to think that with cattle now.

Kiwi Pete · Mar 16, 2019

Karliboy said:
Did you put seed on with your home made aerator gizmo?

Yes!

Reminds me I was going to take a couple of pictures for @farmideas -not sure if the tag worked but let me know if you want any details

Kiwi Pete · Mar 16, 2019

Henarar said:
I have been wondering where making fodder fits in even with the mower quite high as Pete said it hits it to hard if it don't rain as we found out last summer.
The trouble with buying in with a long winter is a high price year 500 bales at 40 quid wouldn't leave much profit, most years it would be ok though if you can find something worth buying

would it be better to make fodder late in the season chuck some FYM on it and leave it ?

You may be better to use the spring flush, leave it out of grazing from the start and get in quick??
If you can delay housing and then use that to delay turnout, that's what I'm working on.
Get some decent cover in the spring and stay on a conservative grazing area, meaning you bunch them up (if that's practical for you to achieve) a bit more?

Otherwise it's damned difficult to keep on top of it if your growth curve is like here, even just taking third to half, the ranch seems too bloody big for 120 small cattle; then they grow and the grass slows and it suddenly gets too little again

Manipulating the recoveries and residual covers helps but it still takes some managing.
I've gone about it the wrong way each year and it costs me dearly, by getting complacent with all the grass and take a break from the fencing when it's most important, they get too fussy

Chris F · Mar 16, 2019

Kiwi Pete said:
Yes!View attachment 777190 View attachment 777192
Reminds me I was going to take a couple of pictures for @Practical Farm Ideas -not sure if the tag worked but let me know if you want any details

@farmideas Mike one for you.

Kiwi Pete · Mar 16, 2019

Chris F said:
@farmideas Mike one for you.

Hey, thanks for that, Chris

good man

hendrebc · Mar 16, 2019

Kiwi Pete said:
I've gone about it the wrong way each year and it costs me dearly

You still seem to be doing quite well and better than most profitability wise and growing more grass than most. What happens when you finally crack it and get it right

Samcowman · Mar 16, 2019

hendrebc said:
You still seem to be doing quite well and better than most profitability wise and growing more grass than most. What happens when you finally crack it and get it right

He will be able to get the place next door and go full time ranching!!!!

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

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