120ha of grass

unlacedgecko · Nov 10, 2019

Northeastfarmer said:
I meant on your intensive beef enterprise...the OP is looking for suggestions

If the OPs location is within touching distance of Caistor, Lincolnshire he can PM me and set up a meeting to discuss further.

Otherwise, he can do his own budgets, business plans and due diligence.

Northeastfarmer · Nov 10, 2019

unlacedgecko said:
If the OPs location is within touching distance of Caistor, Lincolnshire he can PM me and set up a meeting to discuss further.

Otherwise, he can do his own budgets, business plans and due diligence.

Well it’s pointless suggesting intensive beef if you can’t give a profit forecast...

Blue. · Nov 10, 2019

S J H said:
All depends on location surely?

Lincs if I remember rightly.

unlacedgecko · Nov 10, 2019

eulb said:
Lincs if I remember rightly.

I'll wait on that PM then...

tepapa · Nov 10, 2019

unlacedgecko said:
Well, 1ha is 100m x 100m. Assuming the 90ha is 9 paddocks x 10 paddocks.

The first paddock will take 400m of fencing.
400m cumulative.

The next 17 will take 300m of fencing.
5,500m cumulative.

The remaining 72 paddocks will require 200m of fencing.
19,900m cumulative.

I'd purchase 21,000m of low resistance copper poly wire (£50/1,000m). £1050

Plastic posts at 1/10m, I'd purchase 2000. (£1/post). £2000

I'd then purchase 200 wooden posts for corners and strainers (£4/post). £800

I'm confident I could map and fence such a piece of land in 8 days. (£300/day) £2400

Total fencing spend £6,250

You'd also require 5 X water troughs, 5000m of water pipe and some fast fix hydrants. £6,500

Total spend £12,750.

Once fenced and set up each ha will be capable of producing 1,000kg of lw gain. Budget 8,00kg to be conservative.

Dovecote Park growing cattle contract pay £1.60/kg of lw gain. That's an income of £1,280 per ha, or £115,200 across the 90ha system. Makes £12,750 on infrastructure look like spare change.

Use the other 30ha for silage and wintering.

I would add £20,000 for a cattle handling system. Nothing worse than handling cattle in a field corner with gates.
This figure is of course massively variable depending on buying new, second hand, with grant, building permanent out of wood or steel or a moveable setup.

jack6480 · Nov 10, 2019

Grass it down and just top it

unlacedgecko · Nov 10, 2019

jack6480 said:
Grass it down and just top it

What would be the point of that?

Mc115reed · Nov 10, 2019

Feed the digester then get them drown it in digestate at any possible opportunity for fert

ollie989898 · Nov 10, 2019

jack6480 said:
Grass it down and just top it

He could grass it down and let someone take several silage cuts from it for several years. After 4-5 years it would have improved the soil structure no end and might be worth putting back into arable.

Around here with rents being £200+/acre just to let folk grow grass etc on it then you have a serious figure staring you in the face before you start.

ollie989898 · Nov 10, 2019

unlacedgecko said:
Well, 1ha is 100m x 100m. Assuming the 90ha is 9 paddocks x 10 paddocks.

The first paddock will take 400m of fencing.
400m cumulative.

The next 17 will take 300m of fencing.
5,500m cumulative.

The remaining 72 paddocks will require 200m of fencing.
19,900m cumulative.

I'd purchase 21,000m of low resistance copper poly wire (£50/1,000m). £1050

Plastic posts at 1/10m, I'd purchase 2000. (£1/post). £2000

I'd then purchase 200 wooden posts for corners and strainers (£4/post). £800

I'm confident I could map and fence such a piece of land in 8 days. (£300/day) £2400

Total fencing spend £6,250

You'd also require 5 X water troughs, 5000m of water pipe and some fast fix hydrants. £6,500

Total spend £12,750.

Once fenced and set up each ha will be capable of producing 1,000kg of lw gain. Budget 8,00kg to be conservative.

Dovecote Park growing cattle contract pay £1.60/kg of lw gain. That's an income of £1,280 per ha, or £115,200 across the 90ha system. Makes £12,750 on infrastructure look like spare change.

Use the other 30ha for silage and wintering.

Do you know anyone else actually doing this? Can you explain how this system works day to day?

ollie989898 · Nov 10, 2019

Mc115reed said:
Feed the digester then get them drown it in digestate at any possible opportunity for fert

Would bring the land back into good heart and several years of grass will improve soil structure no end.

egbert · Nov 10, 2019

unlacedgecko said:
Well, 1ha is 100m x 100m. Assuming the 90ha is 9 paddocks x 10 paddocks.

The first paddock will take 400m of fencing.
400m cumulative.

The next 17 will take 300m of fencing.
5,500m cumulative.

The remaining 72 paddocks will require 200m of fencing.
19,900m cumulative.

I'd purchase 21,000m of low resistance copper poly wire (£50/1,000m). £1050

Plastic posts at 1/10m, I'd purchase 2000. (£1/post). £2000

I'd then purchase 200 wooden posts for corners and strainers (£4/post). £800

I'm confident I could map and fence such a piece of land in 8 days. (£300/day) £2400

Total fencing spend £6,250

You'd also require 5 X water troughs, 5000m of water pipe and some fast fix hydrants. £6,500

Total spend £12,750.

Once fenced and set up each ha will be capable of producing 1,000kg of lw gain. Budget 8,00kg to be conservative.

Dovecote Park growing cattle contract pay £1.60/kg of lw gain. That's an income of £1,280 per ha, or £115,200 across the 90ha system. Makes £12,750 on infrastructure look like spare change.

Use the other 30ha for silage and wintering.

wow, sounds really good. You must be absolutely raking it in.

unlacedgecko · Nov 10, 2019

egbert said:
wow, sounds really good. You must be absolutely raking it in.

I'm not doing it unfortunately. I own no stock and have no year round land.

I'm just a sh!t kicking contractor with lots of big ideas and an internet connection to read other people's experiences.

unlacedgecko · Nov 10, 2019

ollie989898 said:
Do you know anyone else actually doing this? Can you explain how this system works day to day?

I know of people growing cattle on contract yes.

There is a guy in Twitter in Wales with a 40ha techno system. He achieved 800kg per ha LW gain at 1,000ft.

There are others out there. YouTube and AHDB are great resources.

Went to a head from beef AHDB event in the summer. The speaker there has 400 dairy beef calves running in 1 mob. They're with him from weaning to slaughter, and are out wintered in fodder beet and silage.

CopperBeech · Nov 10, 2019

unlacedgecko said:
Where are you?

Put it all into a leguminous grazing mix. Cut the 90ha into 90 paddocks with electric polywire and put water in each paddock/use mobile troughs.

Intensive beef grazing.

Good idea on paper - but will depend upon the ground type, infrastructure cost and ultimately the way the finished beef cost goes.

we’ve just out 250 acres into a legume grazing mix, and another 250 acres into a legume fallow mix. As wrong as it sounds, may we’ll be the latter that returns at a higher rate than a beer enterprise.

More to life · Nov 10, 2019

Anything that requires regular on/off cattle movements and good staff is near impossible to make work there’s just nothing in it.

Blue. · Nov 10, 2019

unlacedgecko said:
I know of people growing cattle on contract yes.

There is a guy in Twitter in Wales with a 40ha techno system. He achieved 800kg per ha LW gain at 1,000ft.

There are others out there. YouTube and AHDB are great resources.

Went to a head from beef AHDB event in the summer. The speaker there has 400 dairy beef calves running in 1 mob. They're with him from weaning to slaughter, and are out wintered in fodder beet and silage.

The real smart operations keep it to themselves .

jack6480 · Nov 10, 2019

unlacedgecko said:
What would be the point of that?

Claim your subsidy, good for wildlife. Less work.
It’ll grow some good crops after you’ve left it a few years and no one wants this corn or meat.

Plant trees, the wood job seems good

ollie989898 · Nov 10, 2019

unlacedgecko said:
I know of people growing cattle on contract yes.

There is a guy in Twitter in Wales with a 40ha techno system. He achieved 800kg per ha LW gain at 1,000ft.

There are others out there. YouTube and AHDB are great resources.

Went to a head from beef AHDB event in the summer. The speaker there has 400 dairy beef calves running in 1 mob. They're with him from weaning to slaughter, and are out wintered in fodder beet and silage.

Interesting. Not hugely capital intensive, do you think it could be made to work on rented land?

Agrivator · Nov 10, 2019

There is often a vast difference between what farmers claim to achieve, and what they actually achieve.

120ha of grass

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Up to 25%

25-50%

50-75%

75-100%

100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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