Back to traditional farming or hobby farmers?

[DrWazzock]

2.5 ewes to the acre is all it will carry outdoors through the winter here, with reasonable under drains but some sticky land. Could maybe have increased numbers by housing through the winter as some do just north of here with success but very careful management needed. Too high a stocking rate through the winter and the grass will be too slow to get going in the spring just when you need it most. Granted we ended up with surplus grass in the summer as the lambs came away but this was baled for horses.
High stocking rates frighten me. We have had near disasters with that. And once your in that corner there is no cheap way out.
The cattle/ sheep combo worked well here back in the old days. The cattle kept on top of the summer grass as the lambs went, then we spread the sheep thinly over all the grass in winter when the cattle came in. This last time round with livestock here we had too many sheep and not enough cattle IMO but. I’m not really in charge. We could never find a reliable source of calves when the local dairies went, dabbled in sucklers but didn’t get on that well with them. It’s a specialist job.

 

[Bossfarmer]

I've got hundreds of acres you couldn't get a tractor onto.
The PH would need a huge lift before any granules were of any use whatsoever -and the spreaders sink.
There's hundreds of acres under gorse/boulders/bog.

The inbye mowing that is fed wouldn't carry 5 to the acre either. Cripes! They'd starve.
2-3 tops, and then you'd be fetching supplement in winter, worming every 10 minutes without intense management, and have some pretty sick sheep and ground.

And from what I've experienced, the harder you try to force nature, the worse off you are. Best go with the flow mate.

im talking about on arable land, obviously poorer stuff wont take 5

 

[Bossfarmer]

2.5 ewes to the acre is all it will carry outdoors through the winter here, with reasonable under drains but some sticky land. Could maybe have increased numbers by housing through the winter as some do just north of here with success but very careful management needed. Too high a stocking rate through the winter and the grass will be too slow to get going in the spring just when you need it most. Granted we ended up with surplus grass in the summer as the lambs came away but this was baled for horses.
High stocking rates frighten me. We have had near disasters with that. And once your in that corner there is no cheap way out.
The cattle/ sheep combo worked well here back in the old days. The cattle kept on top of the summer grass as the lambs went, then we spread the sheep thinly over all the grass in winter when the cattle came in. This last time round with livestock here we had too many sheep and not enough cattle IMO but. I’m not really in charge. We could never find a reliable source of calves when the local dairies went, dabbled in sucklers but didn’t get on that well with them. It’s a specialist job.

i dont carry many to the acre in the winter as ive all the cows grazing/silage ground around 500 acres grass for them to roam about it

 

[steveR]

I think we make it look too easy.
Nobody makes a TV series called my dream suburban semi, or my dream small industrial unit/engine repair shop/turbine factory. Yet such places can be just as full of interest, excitement and potential.
This constant romanticising of agricultural roots does nobody any favours.
Time to go and blast the pheasants off my emerging wheat. Then there’s a ballcock to mend, the digger wheel motor to change and the sprayer pump to finish plumbing in. Bet Kate Humbles still in bed.

And not with you ....

Agree wholly with your post though. TV really do like their rose tinted lenses...

 

[JP1]

Some celebs try and find out just how hard the farming / retail is to make sustainable returns . They tend to use Twitter and other SM to bolster their "brand" rather than let their outputs speak for themselves

I'm sure much of it is well meaning

 

[egbert]

i dont carry many to the acre in the winter as ive all the cows grazing/silage ground around 500 acres grass for them to roam about it

so the 5/acre isn't the whole year? how many would your ground carry year round? ( with no bought in food, and no competition from beasts)

 

[Estate fencing.]

In some places we are struggling for 1 to the acre over the whole farm year round, the problem around he if it is good ground the arable boys have it, all the sheep are left with is very wet (so wet in fact you can only see the tops of the hedges) or poor land.

 

[bluebell]

small farm big farm, not the issue its whever the person who owns it runs it, is farming it because thats there chosen job, living and not somewhere treee to show off to their luvvy friends, the latest TV show with that women that bought a former dairy farm and now building a country mansion comes to mind, no intention of farming it to much hard work time and effort and worry just make a TV show about it ?

 

[JP1]

Peasant cow keeping

Young bulls needing a bit of extra: a tonne of beet at a time, brewers draff, potatoes , few nuts and hay

(second photo taken before netting)

 

[steveR]

Peasant cow keeping

Young bulls needing a bit of extra: a tonne of beet at a time, brewers draff, potatoes , few nuts and hay

(second photo taken before netting)

View attachment 931375View attachment 931376

Tipper I hope, JP??

 

[JP1]

Tipper I hope, JP??

Tipper with back barn door type tailgate

 

[spin cycle]

Tipper with back barn door type tailgate

pah call yerself a peasant....real peasant would hand bawl them off and chop em for cows with teeth

 

[JP1]

pah call yerself a peasant....real peasant would hand bawl them off and chop em for cows with teeth

One day I may get a root chopper but for now I've been dicing spuds in a small rectangular galvanised water trough using a ditching spade. Beet can cut to too many slivers which make them more awkward to tip out in to the bucket with that round lip holding them back

 

[spin cycle]

what you need is one of these.....just so happens i know a geezer sellin one for HALF new price

 

[JP1]

what you need is one of these.....just so happens i know a geezer sellin one for HALF new price

With one tractor I'd still have to load it by hand! Quicker to do it my way

 

[bluebell]

like all things, what spoils farming is the money side? if you didnt have to worry about bills bills bills the farming side, lifestyle etc etc ?

 

[Bald n Grumpy]

like all things, what spoils farming is the money side? if you didnt have to worry about bills bills bills the farming side, lifestyle etc etc ?

Farming pays bills what buggers it up is unrealistic values put on land and farm houses that are money gobbling piles that should be sold to someone with money so that the farmer can have a nice new built house which is actually warm and comfortable

 

[Renaultman]

surely b & b cattle muck would be just as good? are you putting any bagged p & k on?

I don't think the B & B opportunities for cattle are as prevalent as they for pigs up here. I know I need to look harder at either pigs or poultry in the very near future.

 

[simonk88]

We've a large area to farm here (6000ac), our own suckler herd (140cows), all operations in house, but needing more OM have grassed down about 210ac for various other 'smaller' farmers and are either selling standing grass, baled silage or a cropping license to grow silage grass for a couple of years. Allowing us to get grass around the farm in the arable quicker, with its OM benefits and having nearly got blackgrass to a point it doesn't factor into many decisions anymore ( Like not bothering with pre-ems and drilling wheat in Sept), we do muck for straw, and grow 1000ac of cover crops that are grazed off by another guy that's a sheep specialist, who also grazes the permanent pasture and silage ground. For us, even though we are a relatively large farm working with neighbours has helped out everyone involved, not just ourselves.