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

Treg

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cornwall
A combination, I really need to make a concentrated effort to "tear my eyes off the road in front" alot more
I think we can all fall in to that one KP , it's quite hard to be a well rounded farmer.
One of the first farm visits I went on at college was part of a large estate, the manager said never pay on performance, ie if you pay a herdsperson on litres a cow , calf survival will drop, if you pay them on calf survival per cow litres may drop ( something like that it was nearly 30yrs ago ) , it always stuck with me & is why I'm not keen on costings, because you can see a weakness that can become a focus.
I do now do costings but only because it's part of College/ Defra research & find it interesting, just try and ignore some of it!
 

awkward

Member
Location
kerry ireland
Second opinion required please?
Getting "untoward acceleration" job going on here (eating more grass than growing). Weaned lambs onto red clover mowing ground, selling lambs/culls etc.

Checked deferred grazing paddock below, which has had 64 days rest, was hoping to leave another round (30 day), but grass going flat and looks like rust mold setting in. So thinking of grazing now?
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We get a lot of this here lately , what is the cause and solution to it as we see leaf dieback , hurting yield on pasture. Is it a mineral issue
 

Rob Garrett

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Derbyshire UK
We get a lot of this here lately , what is the cause and solution to it as we see leaf dieback , hurting yield on pasture. Is it a mineral issue
Not sure, but could be combination of end of growing season + ideal conditions (long grass, damp mornings, warm days) for rust & other fungus, not to be confused with natural grass growth/die back of the lower leaves. The learning for me in this particular year/weather pattern has maybe been not to shut up for deferred grazing too soon or even transition into it i.e. a quick light graze before shutting the gate. Sheep broke into next deferred grazing field for half a day, so had less rest but looks better for it.
 

Rob Garrett

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Derbyshire UK
Awesome. Keen to see how they go.
As per my post above we stuck to that .1ha base cell size over winter as it made the math easier, on a sh!t day they would get fractionally more and in good conditions we'd steal it back.

Because I'm a sadist, I'd generally give them their ¼ acre in ¼'s, but if it was really rough then it would be less more often. Doesn't mean you need to!
Day 3 @ the funny farm & it's hellish exciting, not a clue what I'm doing but right interesting.
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Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Not sure, but could be combination of end of growing season + ideal conditions (long grass, damp mornings, warm days) for rust & other fungus, not to be confused with natural grass growth/die back of the lower leaves. The learning for me in this particular year/weather pattern has maybe been not to shut up for deferred grazing too soon or even transition into it i.e. a quick light graze before shutting the gate. Sheep broke into next deferred grazing field for half a day, so had less rest but looks better for it.
Good point Rob.
I think that's how I'll approach our deferred grazing next year, give it a really quick topping if it needs it, like a 15-day round around the whole lot.

Woohoo, that looks good to me, looks like they are behaving themselves?
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Taking inspiration from Pete,
Couple of DIY pogos

2x long tread in's
2x mono shooting sticks, surplus to requirements,
4 zip ties per pogo

View attachment 909289

Great for moving the big drag water trough and drag pipe too
Brilliant, eh, straight under the fence with a loaded quad. One of those things you wonder "why didn't I do this for a start?"
 

Rob Garrett

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Derbyshire UK
Short-rotation ryegrass is kicking away nowView attachment 909455
We were due a spring equinox storm so I had this hedgeline paddock pencilled in for a bit of shelterView attachment 909456
but it didn't really eventuate at all. Still just a handful of lambs, our big wide dorper finally popped past night, 2 when I saw her last
Bit concerned they are all getting enough tucker, is it the triangle on their left hand side that should look full?
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SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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