Good food and clean air does wonders!Crikey your tall
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..
- Thread starter Kiwi Pete
- Start date
Step mother was bitching and moaning about mine being unable to wander freely over the fields (probably on fathers behalf) and being hemmed in, she couldn't understand what I was trying to achieve, to be fair they weren't always happy about being shut in the rank old grass and sometimes roared to get out, she did eventually acknowledge that the field looked better.
The neighbour loved how the bracken had been flattened and is always asking when they will be back round to do a bit more
If its short periods that's fine but for longer periods I certainly wouldn't agree with it.
Like in all things there has to be balance , the balance here is between the soil , the grass & the cow .
that's one thing you can beat by flattening, trampling, cutting and generally keep having a go at is bracken,
bustard stuff in a hedge the best way to keep it from killing the hedge out I have found is to let the hedge go up higher cos bracken grows from the ground up every year and can only grow so high
Their behaviour was quite interesting to watch. There was a group of 23 young stock that were running wild and generally arseholes before I started a couple of years ago, they got shifted weekly sometimes more, last year I was working round a big field doing various patches here and there taking the fences down and letting them roam about all over till I had put them up again in the next spot, put the dog round them and they would see the gap in the poly wire and trot back in quite happily. They wouldn't have done that before
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- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
On Saturday I took the bull out of the herd (he's been in as long as necessary now) along with 4 empty cows who I aim to slaughter soon. It will also eke out the grazing for the herd.
The bull and 3 of the cows walked straight into the trailer without prompting. They do seem much easier to handle these days.
how do you know the cows are empty if they have been with the bull ?
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
They've had plenty of tries
Perils of hobby farming
One is 19 years old now and deserves her final rest.
hum perhaps I am reading it wrong but it seems that the cows have been with the bull until last Saturday if that's the case how do you know they are not in calfThey've had plenty of tries
Perils of hobby farming
One is 19 years old now and deserves her final rest.
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
I don't is the straight answer. If they are though it will be a surprise. They'll be grazed for another month then scanned with the rest of the herd before a final decision. Last year we didn't get to scan. These cows then spent all winter with the bull and haven't calved.
Right I thought it sounded like you were just going to send them on without scanning
I would never trust seeing a cow bulling as a sure sign she isn't in calf
One of our ped cows a couple years ago came bulling twice and we AI d her twice and she calved to the first service
Had the same with the bull serving them
I’ve been doing a bit of reseeding today. Moved a bunch of cows and calves from a small paddock that is probably 75%clover that had gone to seed and there’s still seed coming through in the muck 24hrs later. The old pasture they are on has virtually no clover in it.
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Bit dreary here today.
I had a bit of a scratch around the edges of the silage stack, and fed the outside mob - not planned, but the opportunity was there to do so...
they seemed happy enough with it...
They grazed this field about 6-10 days ago.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I've also been receiving quotes for poly pipe (for the water system) and, sh!t, does it pay to shop around!
Price range (25mm LDPE, per metre) has so far varied between $.88 and $1.69......
You could easily spend double for the same product, I was really surprised at the variation.
Price range (25mm LDPE, per metre) has so far varied between $.88 and $1.69......
You could easily spend double for the same product, I was really surprised at the variation.
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
It will make quite a difference to the overall water system price, hence attempting to get the sharpest possible deal.#freemarketinaction
It's only LDPE pipe as the longest run of 25mm is about 775 metres, by my calculation it should flow about 17,280 litres per day, with the head available.
Approx. 5200m of 25mm and about 800m of 32, as I want each of the laterals to have a bit of 32mm at the start, for "oomph".
I've sourced about 100 2nd-hand microtroughs and all the wire we'll need, which should mean we come in under the $500/ha mark by quite a margin.
Maybe even $400/ha, a decent year and it "should" pay us back with extra carrying capacity.
- Location
- Quebec, Canada
I used 8 rolls of 400” x20mm(3/4”) pipe . It seems to be working alright. It runs off the well at the barn . Maybe I should have gone bigger but the price difference between 20 and 25mm was enough to deter me. In what way do you expect the 32mm to give the system ‘oumph’ so far along the line?
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Each time you step up in size the flow resistance drops, albeit by less with each increase. Pete using as much 32mm as possible will help keep flow rates up.