- Location
- Quebec, Canada
please keep us posted on outcome
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..
- Thread starter Kiwi Pete
- Start date
Photos of WW2 American Transit camp, can't remember who asked about increasing soil?
First few photos taken couple of weeks ago, the last photo was a aerial photo taken in 2012 .
I first looked at this land in 1995 & there was little growth on the hardcore roads & it was obvious they were roads.
The photo in 2012 the roads are still fairly clear but showing they were growing over.
In the recent photos the roads are getting much harder to see, even with the dry weather.
Even the concrete plat that the officers canteen was on is growing over.
The 2 loops was for enlisted men, camped either side of the roads with canteen at far end & the P shaped loop was the officers area .
- Location
- Devon
Maybe I'm missing something but I've gone right off the idea of spraying anything off.
If we're trying to improve or speed up recovery, essentially of the soil, why use a chemical thats going to kill off lots of your soil biology?
The trade off from that is perhaps a poorer take of the reseed, or cover crop, but I'm interested in alternative ways of establishing these things.
Whitewalker
Member
I’m seeing in our10 acres with about 20 calves , how the short grazing window and longer recovery time with little fertiliser, the grass although shot is only a few heads with a grassy bottom. If getting more fertiliser it would all be shot and like hay . They are tramping a small segment and munching enough. I’m happy to see how we’re going so far .
It’s probably a compromise either way. Either you spray and kill some biology and get a better cover crop and reseed or don’t spray and get a poorer take on the new seeds. Which would have the best result in years to come?
- Location
- Devon
On the premise that if you build soil health that will encourage the "right" plants to get established, I'm taking the no spray method.
But you can certainly take the hit in the short term with cover crop yield .
Been a challenging couple of years trying to establish anything though.
Would be nice to get a "normal" year for comparison.
- Location
- Derbyshire
You'll be fine chucking all the seed on now, however, depending on how you graze it through the winter, I wouldn't bank on it being a ready made re-seed. More a case of run through it with a DD drill in march to top up the seeds with more of what you are aiming for.
If you were closer by I'd offer you the use of the simtech
Unfortunately no water in the field at present to be able to graze it tight enough for this. They have to go across to the far side of the next field for water hence it always being cut for silage. I will be moling a pipe to it to make it a better job.
That’s what I thought would be the case put everything in and top up in the spring with a bit more. Thanks for that we picked up a second hand Avatar last year for contract work and keep using it for bits of our own as well when I can. A smaller one that’s cowman proof would be easier though.
- Location
- West Country
A little left field; but If you planted the oats at a usual cropping seed rate and included legumes (Peas/beans) as your cover, the legumes would fix N and help with soil biology etc before being eaten off or frost killed over winter. The oats would get trimmed off at same time removing any disease, feeding soil, preventing winter kill and then you could allow the oats to grow on for harvest in the summer....
- Location
- Derbyshire
The simtech is definitely stockman proof - it has to be on this place!
As for water in the field just run pipe over the top so you can bunch the cattle up nice and tight with daily moves and water moving with them.
As for water in the field just run pipe over the top so you can bunch the cattle up nice and tight with daily moves and water moving with them.
This is something I always make an effort to remind myself of.
“Weed” seeds are in the seed bank for decades. We regularly mention how long they’re around for - just the other day it was docks. Yet rarely do we consider what good seeds we have in that bank. It’s a bank, it has many deposits! If you broadcast seed and it doesn’t have a great success rate initially, that doesn’t mean the seeds aren’t still there waiting for the right conditions. This is why many who do broadcast see increased diversity as the years go on.
So with that thought in my head, beat the sh!t out of that field with hooves. Sprinkle some seed on it and let the hooves do the work for you.
UK is constantly saying how wet it is and how much it pugs up land. Yes. Do you realize how much I wish I had a season like that where I could reliably have such moisture that I could just stomp seeds into the ground? Any of the oopses I’ve seen on this thread where people say “don’t worry, it’ll come back fine” are the perfect place to spread seed.
You don’t need to bale graze. You don’t even need particularly high cover. And while water is good, cows can easily go all day without a drink. Run them out there in the morning, bring them back in the evening. Or have a tank on a trailer and a trough.
I have no equipment so my decisions are all based on what can I do with animals and no wheels. So in your instance I would let that pasture rest all this year if I could. Then at some point in the winter when it’s muddy, sprinkle the seed over it and rotate a dense mob to push it in.
Now I don’t know your winter climate well so that timing could vary. Here I wouldn’t have a large window but would want to make sure it’s either soon enough that any perennials I seed get established enough to survive winter or late enough that winter is on its way out and seeds don’t germinate just to be frozen again. Based on what I’ve seen you could probably safely seed even annuals prior to winter and they’d manage alright through it.
With this method you have no, or very little, equipment requirements. Feed your cows. Fertilize the seeds at the same time. Can start to see what areas of a field grow what. Even tiny pastures have microclimates that certain plants favour. I can go out on two acres and find short, drought tolerant native grasses, wild flowers and fruits and then tame grasses, all in the areas they prefer to grow. Each has its own niche spot in the pasture based on its requirements and preferences. By broadcasting a multipack all over you won’t necessarily get a uniform blanket of all varieties but you could get a patchwork quilt of what likes where. Which is what Nature is.
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^^^Brilliant ^^^
- Location
- Derbyshire
- Location
- Devon
Have certainly tried that here by stocking hogs very tight for 6 weeks or so during lambing. Still want the right conditions when you drill though, otherwise I've found everything gets a long rest before the seeds germinate, and the old sward gets going again as the seeds finally do.
timing and the right weather are everything
Water pipe is cheaper than spraying and reseeding, especially if the weather screws you over and nothing germinates!
Just buy a couple of rolls and leave it on top, despite what experts say, it doesn't dissolve in the sun
- Location
- Hertfordshire
I’m a fan of that. Would I need to spray off the grass before the cover crop for planted? I’m thinking of the grass taking over the following spring? I wanted the grass in it to guarantee me some feed for winter.
- Location
- Cei newydd
Song being doing a loop in my head most of the day
Someone else already said it but why spray it off?
I'm going to try and just put an overseeding mix that's mostly Italian ryegrass into a tired permanent pasture field this summer. It won't last long and isn't diverse but it will come, or should come, reliably without spraying off and let me stomp some carbon down and feed the soil and hopefully get everything working a bit better again. No kill no till winter feed cropping sounds good if I can get it to work ?
Someone else asked this too but I've already added the quote and I really want to know so I'll remind you again. Please let us know how this goes