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

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
I dug the garden this year.
It's had 3 years of no-dig gardening but I wanted the free covercrop, mainly to catch all the N from the chickenshit overdose.
Hence we had nettles and sowthistles and docks taller than I.. and have them again now.

The first crop I pulled and brewed weed tea and then watered the seedlings with the tea; never seen a response like it in many many years of home gardening.
More sowthistle this round than nettle, in a few weeks I'll bag the flowers for seed because I really value them and you can't buy packets of seed in the shop.
Ever tried eating it? I see why the sheep step on each other to get there first.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
ive got a chappie...who does mine for me -- tis great.

aside. Awsome work bowland - great link - and almost perfect for what ive been looking for.

this may help ppl - cant remember if ive linked it already.
have to jump to BASEMAP rather than sentinal or landsat
and then swithc option to imagery on the basemap options (window icon)

I can see my grazing from fricking SPACE.
Do you know how to get a more up to date basemap? Or is it up to date for you?

The newer maps are all furry, and the clear map is ancient history, back in the old days when we still made silage!
Screenshot_20210228-010926_Chrome.jpg

Amazing what it looks like from space when you remove the groundcover in the growing season, no wonder we had a flood/drought cycle in the making.
3000 wet ton
I thought I was all over it, back then.... and the next summer we were feeding silage back out on the same area to sustain 45 cattle.
Only 150 days between rains but I thought we were f**ked!
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Changes how you see some plants, doesn't it?
having learn't that young dock leaf's are 25% protien, in a multicut system, they could provide some useful fibre, and send long taproots down, helping to prevent panning, quite a change around ! I wonder how they would survive very regular defoliation, every 5/6 weeks, keep going, or die back.
Again it would be interesting to know what research has been down on a whole range of weeds, other than the most efficient way of killing them. Generally it is becoming accepted that stock respond well to a pasture with a variety of plant life, rather than a monoculture, of ryegrass, and weeds, together with clover. Our problem here, is we lose the rg in a very dry time, and that is why this thread interests me so much. It's the time of year that seed brochures fall through the letter box, and most have a herbal ley mix, all slightly different, so how do we select the 'right' one, perhaps it would be an idea, to post what mixes they have found the best. So far, we have in the ground, cocksfoot, timothy, festololiums, along with clover, plantains, vetches and loads of w clover.
The other brochures arriving are the semen ones, 1 yesterday, 28 hol bulls listed, all genomic, bar 1, and most contain a majority of genomic bulls, and a vast majority of those genomic bulls, one never hears of again, although they tell us genomics is the 'way to go', i do have doubts, similarly the move to friesian, has produced a load of genomic bulls, with very little/none, statistics on shape etc. Perhaps i am just too fussy !
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
I didn't grow any spuds this year. Garden is a bit "hot" thanks to ½ tonne of chicken sh!t last year, but the corn is mental!

The boys planted the garden this time, it's been really rewarding for them because they have great variety and it appears to be growing by the hour.

Tomatoes are just coming ripe in the glasshouse and we might try some tomorrow. Small boy must have tried a beetroot already because I saw one replanted - with tooth marks in it :ROFLMAO:
I put dirty water [what soaks out of the dung heap] on the spuds, a tanker load of that don't half make them shift, been growing them in the same patch for 20 years now
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
having learn't that young dock leaf's are 25% protien, in a multicut system, they could provide some useful fibre, and send long taproots down, helping to prevent panning, quite a change around !
Again it would be interesting to know what research has been down on a whole range of weeds, other than the most efficient way of killing them.
Who'd research the value of a "weed"? Not really much chance of monetizing that research. :rolleyes:

The ability to turn a large profit from the results seems to be the key driver behind most "research" these days, sadly. :(
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
Who'd research the value of a "weed"? Not really much chance of monetizing that research. :rolleyes:

The ability to turn a large profit from the results seems to be the key driver behind most "research" these days, sadly. :(
which is why vegan rubbish has been found to be much better for you and the environment, more money in that crap than meat and milk
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
profit for whom, or unequally shared out. I just think they have to keep bringing out new varieties, to justify their wages, rather cynical, but the so called 'best' leys here are not. Never mind, regen farming is creeping into other ag mags, farmers guardian this week. So creating 'new' mixes/varieties, to sell to regen farmers, will fund their wages for a few more years, parasites.
 

awkward

Member
Location
kerry ireland
profit for whom, or unequally shared out. I just think they have to keep bringing out new varieties, to justify their wages, rather cynical, but the so called 'best' leys here are not. Never mind, regen farming is creeping into other ag mags, farmers guardian this week. So creating 'new' mixes/varieties, to sell to regen farmers, will fund their wages for a few more years, parasites.
How do we rid ourselves of these parasites, let them starve is my thinking but that 1 extra kg or litre is so valuable its easy convince the ego.
 

fat_teddys_mob

Member
Mixed Farmer
(Sorry if I'm posting this again but I couldn't find my previous post)

Hi everyone,

We at 3LM are extending a personal invitation to join a community of people whose aim it is to regenerate Earth.

It has long been our dream to have a place where people who have taken Holistic Management training from 3LM can find each other, share questions, opportunities, experience and learning. We finally have that place. It is called Regrarians Workplace. It is free to all people who have taken 3LM training in the past.

We cordially invite you to join our webinar on Saturday, the 27th of February, at 7:30 PM London, with Darren J. Doherty and the 3LM community. We will introduce key features of Regrarians Workplace, and then spend the bulk of the time in a participatory exercise, with the aim of kicking-off the formation of a community of like-minded people whose aim it is to regenerate Earth.

Join us tomorrow! https://dl780.isrefer.com/go/sit/edjohn46/
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
to easy, it's a natural trait of farmers, to 'do' better, so really, it's already sold, by the time the rep calls !!
Is it better or just more ?
May not even be more.
The best thing about pasture must be that you can shut the gate on it in November and there will be something for the animals to eat come April without doing anything
Doing stuff costs money
 

martian

DD Moderator
BASE UK Member
Location
N Herts
View attachment 944025
Does anyone know if the fungi that appears on fym is similar to that it the soil. (My first question so i may aswell make it a daft one!!)
Probably not, they'll be eating dead matter whilst the ones in your soil will be mostly consorting with living plants symbiotically, ie they and the plants both benefit from the union. You will get some detritus eating mushrooms where you've left a lot of straw etc, very handy for cleaning the place up
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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    Votes: 79 42.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 35.1%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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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