Bracken for bedding

If you were to cut it earlier for a few years, and kill it off, are there others who would immediately step in to utilise the improved grass yield?
That's typically the quandary on the commons here, leading to little being done.

Gorse control is a major issue, and some gov agreements include a payment for commoners to work on the gorse.
Thinking about it, there's one common nearby where the agreement pays them to crush it-bracken- with a cage roller thing. nice quiet job for some of the oldboys.
But I note they don't like to get on it too early in case they deplete the golden egg laying goose.

The old dog for the hard road :ROFLMAO:
 

Ysgythan

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Ammanford
Hi all. A couple of questions for those who farm common ground on or around brecon. We are on holiday up here and have been walking today around the national park visitor centre. There was a lot of bracken that had been mowed, some was rowed up and some was bailed.

It all seemed very dry so was surprised that more was not baled or is it a crop that needs to be very dry (dryer than hay) to prevent it warming up in the bale.

What do you use to mow in as I don't think I would want to put my disc mower over the ground with all the rocks and the uneveness. If it a drum do you need to extend the bottom plate to give a cut height of about 3" and avoid hitting the rocks.

And finally who ever mowed it did a great job missing 99% of the gorse but there was some in the cut crop and in the bales do the spikes cause a problem with the cattle when they lay down.

Cheers from a interested farmer.

its a carcinogen so it’s use as bedding has declined. Also the regrowth is poisonous, especially in the “asparagus” phase which cattle can gorge on.
 
redwater in cattle is a bog problem locally.
If you bring adult cattle onto the hill from afar....look out!
(and it does seem to have a localised element. we've seen it in bought in bulls from just 7-8 miles away!)

currently think we're seeing loupin ill going through the blackies again -7-8 years mebbe after it went through last.
One group lost 80% of the replacement ewe lambs over last winter.

How effective is the injection against redwater? Mate of mine brought blue greys in from Scotland and let them have 9-10 days exposure first then gave them the injection afair, I didn't hear of him losing any to it. I have five ever reducing stands of bracken, haven't seen louping ill in decades.
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
How effective is the injection against redwater? Mate of mine brought blue greys in from Scotland and let them have 9-10 days exposure first then gave them the injection afair, I didn't hear of him losing any to it. I have five ever reducing stands of bracken, haven't seen louping ill in decades.
I haven't had to treat redwater.

I've lost one or two long ago, then had that bull with a mild case which got given antibotics and went straight on.

got a neighbour who'd know ALL about it......
 

nt farm

Member
We treated for red water three years ago when we took on some more summer grazing and know the previous graizer who lost a couple of yearlings to it. Had a change of vet and he said he wasn't convinced about it so we just treat cattle with spot-on every 4 years.

We have not had any cases. So cant say if it works or not but very happy not to have any deaths.
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
We treated for red water three years ago when we took on some more summer grazing and know the previous graizer who lost a couple of yearlings to it. Had a change of vet and he said he wasn't convinced about it so we just treat cattle with spot-on every 4 years.

We have not had any cases. So cant say if it works or not but very happy not to have any deaths.
Those deeply immersed in it reckon the beasts are fine up until they're 2Y/O...before that they weather it fine.
(I've immediate neighbours whose main holding is very lowland, and they have to ensure replacement females to the hill herd are exposed, pref as calves, but in any case before 2)
 

nt farm

Member
We tend to rotate cattle throw this grazing. So first summer they are go to this grazing and second summer they go down to the water meadows to fatten so I suppose they get there exposure in year one.
 

nt farm

Member
In our case, the common is owned by the Brecon Beacons National Park. They bought it from Eagle Star Insurance in the late seventies for the grand sum of 96p/acre. We, the commoners were not given a chance to purchase it. The Nat Park looked into spraying the bracken but decided against that for various reasons. They do cut some of the gorse from time to time though. We've asked them to leave certain patches of gorse for the yellowhammers, of which we have quite a number. The Nat Park are more than happy that we cut and bale the bracken.View attachment 908630
Although other farms have rights to our common, we have been the only active graziers for over twenty years.
I guess we are very lucky that we've never had a problem with ticks. I know that some commons have a bad problem with them. Some to the extent that commoners cease to use their grazing rights. I know the common you were on, very well but I was not aware that they had a tick problem.
This aerial view of our common shows the iron age remains on the summit.
Where about is this photo. We have just climbed up pen y drug which looks a bit like your photo.
 

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

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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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