All things Dairy

[In the pit]

That was in late April/early may when it was very dry here and I messed the rotation up (after advice on here I should have grazed higher covers through early-mid April instead of 2800-3000's) if I had more herbs and clovers I might not have had too!

Edit: My first grazing of the gs4 was late February and they were good to go again by early April without fertiliser
With your slurry system you would be absolutely flying with them.

The problem youve got is so many species of plant all requiring different rotation length
On the ryegrass 3 leaf system you want to graze as the plant gets its 3 Rd leaf but if you’re waiting for your other plants to get ready then your ryegrass will have got to far and you’ll have dead crap in the bottom ( as @som farmer has on his pictures) and your ryegrass won’t tiller properly
If your gs4 seeds are so good why not omit the prg out of them and see how you get on

 

[Headless chicken]

Feeding in a drought just got easier hopfully. View attachment 1042492

Getting dry with you guys yet?

 

[Beef farmer]

Getting dry with you guys yet?

Very

 

[Jdunn55]

The problem youve got is so many species of plant all requiring different rotation length
On the ryegrass 3 leaf system you want to graze as the plant gets its 3 Rd leaf but if you’re waiting for your other plants to get ready then your ryegrass will have got to far and you’ll have dead crap in the bottom ( as @som farmer has on his pictures) and your ryegrass won’t tiller properly
If your gs4 seeds are so good why not omit the prg out of them and see how you get on

They're so good because the ryegrass is part of the mix
The mix is what makes them good

Graze it when you like, late the better for the herbs
Earlier the better for ryegrass
There's a happy medium

 

[Jdunn55]

Very

You got rain forecast for the weekend?

 

[Beef farmer]

You got rain forecast for the weekend?

6mm won't bring much to the party

 

[som farmer]

We stock a farm to tight for all this regeneration stuff. It wouldn't like our approach. You and som both had cows in still very late, that's unacceptable here

had cows out in feb before, but it all depends on soil condition, it will pan/tread very quickly, getting our net work of cow tracks growing, that helps. But if we get it wrong, its wrong all summer.
As we do move into weird mixes, they are very different, cows seem happier on them, and seem to need less, the milk goes up slightly when they are on our simple mixes. And wouldn't like to say @Jdunn55 is wrong, in saying me/you being surprised, at what they can produce. The main point, is something is at 'ideal' stage all through the grazing season. We only went down this route by necessity, we had to do 'something'. And l was very dubious, but in fairness, they do work, in a dry time, they do keep growing. The hill in that pic, is facing south, and very exposed, the worst of it is about 65% plantain, self seeded, the rest is w/clover, some chicory, which wasn't sown, AMG, odd bits of rye grass, and bloody docks.
If, a real diverse ley, does what is claimed to do, it might shock us all, plenty of grazing, and no fert, time will tell. But to get that benefit, you need to watch your soil structure, the better that is, the more N the clover will fix. Of greater effect to us, was stopping routine ploughing, which, in turn, increases the worm population, the micro's, fungi etc, they are what drives everything forward, increases fertility etc, was hoping to increase moisture retention, but have to report failure there.
But there's nothing new there, if the time and money, that has been spent on developing chemical fixes, had been spent on improving what came before, those fixes, it might all be very different today, we don't know.
Its like climate change versus changing climate, we simply don't know, who to believe.

 

[Jdunn55]

6mm won't bring much to the party

Bugger, was a lot more when I looked yesterday

 

[som farmer]

The problem youve got is so many species of plant all requiring different rotation length
On the ryegrass 3 leaf system you want to graze as the plant gets its 3 Rd leaf but if you’re waiting for your other plants to get ready then your ryegrass will have got to far and you’ll have dead crap in the bottom ( as @som farmer has on his pictures) and your ryegrass won’t tiller properly
If your gs4 seeds are so good why not omit the prg out of them and see how you get on

and yet, those other grasses keep us going, rye grass just heads. But, if you look, what those other grasses, clovers and herbs do, is lengthen your window for grazing, clover and herbs remain attractive to cows, even when 'older', what is wrong with most varieties of prg, is they have developed the leaf, the actual root system is very shallow, the application of N, only stimulates leaf growth, it does nothing for the roots. That is why most varieties of prg die off here, they cannot find moisture below a certain depth. R/clover, herbs, cocksfoot etc, all have deeper root systems, and can find moisture, where ryegrass can't. Its quite simple, if we have rain, nothing can really bear prg, if we don't, an awful lot of plants, will, and do, beat it.
And, as it happens, we have sown some trial patches, of different legumes, to see what they do. As fert gets more expensive, and we need to use less, legumes can supply both protein and free N. We just need to work out, the best way to harness both.

 

[sidjon]

Feeding in a drought just got easier hopfully. View attachment 1042492

Is that the one from S and S online sale?

 

[In the pit]

Ryegrass roots will go down along way unless you’ve got something stopping them , absolute crap that there shallow rooting and die off

 

[Beef farmer]

Is that the one from S and S online sale?

Stags?

 

[sidjon]

Stags?

Symonds and Sampson, but have noticed it's not finished

 

[Beef farmer]

Symonds and Sampson, but have noticed it's not finished

Was stags, finished last Sunday

 

[crashbox]

We stock a farm to tight for all this regeneration stuff. It wouldn't like our approach. You and som both had cows in still very late, that's unacceptable here

You're right, if you have a 21 day round and deck the sward to 1500 the herbs are unlikely to persist.

 

[crashbox]

Ryegrass roots will go down along way unless you’ve got something stopping them , absolute crap that there shallow rooting and die off

There are much better species for root depth and drought tolerance. Evidenced by other species outperforming ryegrass in a dry period, in the same field.

That said, I agree that with good grazing management and soil structure PRG will perform much better than otherwise.

And plenty of N and rain.

 

[In the pit]

Prg and 30% white clover takes a lot of beating if at all
It’s what I’ve used for the last 30 odd years and now all of a sudden there’s things that are much better

 

[In the pit]

We have a week of dry weather in this country and people are saying we’re in a drought

 

[sidjon]

We have a week of dry weather in this country and people are saying we’re in a drought

All the kiwis and Aussies are like ya nah, when the hedges are the same colour as the Jersey cows, might be classed as a bit dry then

 

[lazy farmer]

We have a week of dry weather in this country and people are saying we’re in a drought

Having a problem with grazing 2800- 3000
Litres are very slightly up. Bf down from 4.6 to 4.15. Protein unchanged. Very sub optimal.