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

hendrebc · Aug 23, 2021

Karliboy said:
So these fields will have had 90ish days rest since first grazing and although there’s quite a bit of dense fodder there I feel it looks crap and needs some more clovers etc in there to spice it up a bit if you get me
I’m thinking a clover blend of sorts from barenbrug maybe some plantain and to strip graze it down tight with no back fence and to throw on seed as cows graze forward hopefully should be out of each field in around a 7days. Or would anyone approach it differently. ( I don’t want to mow it) and will be in September soo. So if I’m doing it I need to do it now as such before things start to cool off to much.
View attachment 981425 View attachment 981426 View attachment 981427

Looks good to me. If it's suckler cows your feeding with it they don't need clovers and herbs. Youngstock might but even they aren't as fussy as sheep and will be fine on mostly grass.

exmoor dave · Aug 24, 2021

Samcowman said:
In general do the public really care, they have been trained over the years to put heaps of flavouring on the meat. How many people will have steak without a heap of sauce on? Could be cynical and say trained by big business that the meat needs stuff on it so they can upsell sauces to go with it.

Funny enough, last night I was reading how the USDA classifies steaks into Prime, Choice and Select grades.

I suspect their prime (best) would be seen as far to fatty (marbled fat though!) for what the UK customer is told they want by the supermarkers etc!

The lowest grade 'select', looked exactly what you'd expect to find in a supermarket and probably wider, this grade was described as being only suitable for slow cooking or putting in a sauce based meal.
Probably off a R3 beast.

Henarar · Aug 24, 2021

trouble is any different ways to grade meat that they introduce here would probably be on top of what we already have and used to penalise rather than reward

Kiwi Pete · Aug 24, 2021

hendrebc said:
Looks good to me. If it's suckler cows your feeding with it they don't need clovers and herbs. Youngstock might but even they aren't as fussy as sheep and will be fine on mostly grass.

That's kinda what I was thinking too, his stock hardly look like they need anything much different from what they already get, and I would trust the cattle over most .

It might be a different story if he was finishing store lambs, but that's a cheap fix

Kiwi Pete · Aug 24, 2021

exmoor dave said:
Funny enough, last night I was reading how the USDA classifies steaks into Prime, Choice and Select grades.

I suspect their prime (best) would be seen as far to fatty (marbled fat though!) for what the UK customer is told they want by the supermarkers etc!

The lowest grade 'select', looked exactly what you'd expect to find in a supermarket and probably wider, this grade was described as being only suitable for slow cooking or putting in a sauce based meal.
Probably off a R3 beast.

Having meat that cooks in its own juice does the OSR growers out of a job

better to just have a big lump of beef and add oil, better for the GDP, better for Germany

Woolless · Aug 24, 2021

Samcowman said:
@Woolless an update for the increased stock density. Photo 1 is before at 0.4ha. 2 is 0.35ha. 3 is a fenceline photo in in and out because who doesn’t love a good fenceline photo.
View attachment 981595
View attachment 981598
View attachment 981594

A noticeable difference with just that small change. I'm needing to get mine tightened up a bit, although we've not long completed the first cycle with the bull out so hopefully a slightly more lax approach will pay dividends.

Henarar · Aug 24, 2021

Kiwi Pete said:
Having meat that cooks in its own juice does the OSR growers out of a job better to just have a big lump of beef and add oil, better for the GDP, better for Germany

that reminds me of a Theave we had that didn't get in lamb probably cos she was to fat so we had her made in to sausages all bar the chops, goodness there was some fat on those chops, didn't need anything to cook them in, lovely meat though

Woolless · Aug 24, 2021

Henarar said:
that reminds me of a Theave we had that didn't get in lamb probably cos she was to fat so we had her made in to sausages all bar the chops, goodness there was some fat on those chops, didn't need anything to cook them in, lovely meat though

Love chop fat! First argument I had with my wife when I moved in was when she trimmed the fat off her pork chop and threw it in the bin

Henarar · Aug 24, 2021

Woolless said:
Love chop fat! First argument I had with my wife when I moved in was when she trimmed the fat off her pork chop and threw it in the bin

I am not a big fan of fat but like to see it as the meat will be better for it, not sure if we have any left or I would take a photo, think the fat was three times the thickness of the meat

sausages were great to, loads of flavour

som farmer · Aug 24, 2021

just killed 3 pigs, we like them on the larger size, unfortunately, there was a 6 week waiting list to kill, they put rather a lot of weight on in 6 weeks, all 3 were over120kg hung up, chops are massive, we took the 'main' meat out of some, cured them for gammon steaks mmmm. But, everything was to 'large' pieces for our dwindling meat customers, kids left home = small joints. And l hate sheep fat, fine when hot, not when cold, beef on the other hand ..... The down side of those pigs, we had to sell a beefer, destined for our freezer, not enough room in the freezers ! sold well though. We buy very little meat from a shop, it doesn't taste the same !

Henarar · Aug 24, 2021

som farmer said:
just killed 3 pigs, we like them on the larger size, unfortunately, there was a 6 week waiting list to kill, they put rather a lot of weight on in 6 weeks, all 3 were over120kg hung up, chops are massive, we took the 'main' meat out of some, cured them for gammon steaks mmmm. But, everything was to 'large' pieces for our dwindling meat customers, kids left home = small joints. And l hate sheep fat, fine when hot, not when cold, beef on the other hand ..... The down side of those pigs, we had to sell a beefer, destined for our freezer, not enough room in the freezers ! sold well though. We buy very little meat from a shop, it doesn't taste the same !

We don't buy any from a shop and the odd occasion we eat out I usually have fish as the meat probably won't be as good as what we have home

Woolless · Aug 24, 2021

Henarar said:
We don't buy any from a shop and the odd occasion we eat out I usually have fish as the meat probably won't be as good as what we have home

I know what you mean. I rarely eat lamb out as I am spoilt eating my own young mutton at home.

som farmer · Aug 25, 2021

som farmer said:
just killed 3 pigs, we like them on the larger size, unfortunately, there was a 6 week waiting list to kill, they put rather a lot of weight on in 6 weeks, all 3 were over120kg hung up, chops are massive, we took the 'main' meat out of some, cured them for gammon steaks mmmm. But, everything was to 'large' pieces for our dwindling meat customers, kids left home = small joints. And l hate sheep fat, fine when hot, not when cold, beef on the other hand ..... The down side of those pigs, we had to sell a beefer, destined for our freezer, not enough room in the freezers ! sold well though. We buy very little meat from a shop, it doesn't taste the same !

we picked up our gammon joints, steaks and bacon today, not happy, 60kg of gammon steaks only !
just a few pics, of how clover and plantain, can result in a nice sward, the other end of the field, chicory is predominant, not plantain. This ley doesn't have a lot of prg in it, tried to show the prg seed heads, above the 'proper' stuff, with more prg, it's worse. Tried to show how open it is up there, it's very dry ground, but you do get a good view. Combined barley in the field above this today, 3 ton/ac, and a massive swathe of straw, grown barley before, in the same field, and struggled to get 1.5ton, that's how dry it can get,
As @Kiwi Pete , likes his spotty cows, put 1 of ours in, and showing the residual they are leaving.

Kiwi Pete · Aug 25, 2021

I do like a bit of variety, always nice to know who you're looking at from a distance - not really the case if they all look the same!

som farmer · Aug 25, 2021

our milkers consist of at least 12 breeds, and there x's Normande, not one of the best, but they look great.

Bowland Bob · Aug 26, 2021

It's my 1st year on this journey and it has been a steep learning curve. One of the biggest obstacles was the very late cold spring combined with previous more conventional management leading to alot of the inbye ground finally beginning to grow and then going to seed straight away. One 60 acre piece in particular I rested December through to end of May. 3 inch growth then went to seed. Am I right in thinking that I can attribute this to previous management of pretty much continuously stocked , eaten bare with sheep, i.e. very stressed?
Clamped and baled 100 acres the last few days mainly 2nd cut. As I was mowing I thought the cows should be grazing this, not a thought i would have had 12 months ago! As the farm is in transition, I guess I was thinking let's have a big enough silage/haylage buffer for this winter and gradually get down to mowing less and less, with better future stockpiled forage going into winter as the farm hopefully responds to the change in management practice .

ShooTa · Aug 26, 2021

yes the seeding straight away is a biological response - ive noticed it becoming less so over the past 3 years...

Fenwick · Aug 26, 2021

Bowland Bob said:
It's my 1st year on this journey and it has been a steep learning curve. One of the biggest obstacles was the very late cold spring combined with previous more conventional management leading to alot of the inbye ground finally beginning to grow and then going to seed straight away. One 60 acre piece in particular I rested December through to end of May. 3 inch growth then went to seed. Am I right in thinking that I can attribute this to previous management of pretty much continuously stocked , eaten bare with sheep, i.e. very stressed?
Clamped and baled 100 acres the last few days mainly 2nd cut. As I was mowing I thought the cows should be grazing this, not a thought i would have had 12 months ago! As the farm is in transition, I guess I was thinking let's have a big enough silage/haylage buffer for this winter and gradually get down to mowing less and less, with better future stockpiled forage going into winter as the farm hopefully responds to the change in management practice .

It was a difficult spring for everyone. But it has been a fantastic summer for grass.

We too are working at cutting less and less hay.

Kiwi Pete · Aug 26, 2021

They're old tired plants. Somehow things need to be shaken up to the point that the actual surface is disturbed, allowing new plants to grow from seed and take over from the old

can be easier said than done if it's thatchy and dense, we regen'd a lot of our land with winter sheeps, basically used the pressure combined with wet muddy conditions to break up the thatchy layer and the worm wave to help incorporate that.
Some overcooked bits had new seed sprinkled at it, but that's optional, the main thing is that the land needs impact and rest to get it out of its rut

Bowland Bob · Aug 26, 2021

Kiwi Pete said:
They're old tired plants. Somehow things need to be shaken up to the point that the actual surface is disturbed, allowing new plants to grow from seed and take over from the old

can be easier said than done if it's thatchy and dense, we regen'd a lot of our land with winter sheeps, basically used the pressure combined with wet muddy conditions to break up the thatchy layer and the worm wave to help incorporate that.
Some overcooked bits had new seed sprinkled at it, but that's optional, the main thing is that the land needs impact and rest to get it out of its rut

That's the plan, its had 60+ days recovery, not sure whether to lightly skip over it with the cows soon then higher stock densities later. Or, tighten the cows up now in it, and then rest it all winter. It's only 4 inch tall now but all pointed tips. No thatch as such, I was hoping to save this piece for a wet time in winter as it'll stand the cows without too much pugging.

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

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

0 %

Up to 25%

25-50%

50-75%

75-100%

100% I’ve had enough of farming!

Share this page