Do you ROTATIONALLY GRAZE your livestock? and if not, why?

[Jdunn55]

I find that notion incredible unless your land was either free to buy or free to rent

How did you mean? The land would cost the same to rent or buy wether you used it for dairy or beef?

You would just see the gains through quality grazing better with dairy as you get a milk ticket every other day. With beef you only know how well theyve done once they're hanging up and if theyve done well or badly you would be unable to pinpoint it to wether you're grazing scheme is good or not.

 

[SteveHants]

There's a reasonably successful dairy round here that does it with nigh on 1000 jersey x, half the mob milked once a day and the other half milked twice a day moved minimum every 24h. They pay a lot of attention to their tracks (astroturf) and seem to let the cows wander in to be milked at their own pace.

 

[onesiedale]

As im often told on here there are numerous benefits to rotationally grazing livestock so is everyone doing it? and if not why? what are the downsides im not hearing about as when i drive across the country i rarely see it!

Really, the only reason it isn't done is because some folks are too far in their comfort zone with their finances and costings.
Its a no brainer to rotationally graze stock, bearing in mind the back fence, (and therefore rest period for the grass), is more important than the front fence.
Have you paddocked up your place yet @Bossfarmer ?

 

[Bossfarmer]

I was really surprised at the cost of putting the infrastructure in and even more surprised at how much work it was, having said that good job I did.

it working well for u/ is that with sucklers?

 

[Bossfarmer]

Really, the only reason it isn't done is because some folks are too far in their comfort zone with their finances and costings.
Its a no brainer to rotationally graze stock, bearing in mind the back fence, (and therefore rest period for the grass), is more important than the front fence.
Have you paddocked up your place yet @Bossfarmer ?

no im wary of putting in permanat fences/troughs as grazing fields are rotated with cereals

 

[Bossfarmer]

How did you mean? The land would cost the same to rent or buy wether you used it for dairy or beef?

You would just see the gains through quality grazing better with dairy as you get a milk ticket every other day. With beef you only know how well theyve done once they're hanging up and if theyve done well or badly you would be unable to pinpoint it to wether you're grazing scheme is good or not.

ive read that the cattle dont actually do better than set stocked you can just stock higher which frees up land for either more grain or cows, does this extra ground benefit you much though if you then need more staff to handle it? is the extra cost/work of the system actually then profitable and enough to be worthwhile? mabye just when cereal prices are high?

 

[Ted M]

24 cows and calves (Jan /Feb born) kept on 14 acre block from early April until mid October. Split into 1 acre paddocks with one water trough to 2 paddocks.
Cows moved every 2 days on average.
First year of trying it but really pleased so far. Going to try introducing some more clovers, chicory and plantain this year

 

[Tim W]

As im often told on here there are numerous benefits to rotationally grazing livestock so is everyone doing it? and if not why? what are the downsides im not hearing about as when i drive across the country i rarely see it!

What do you mean by rotational grazing?
I have run various systems that would qualify & you wouldn't notice them all if you drove by
1) Sheep in year 1, cattle in year 2, cropped fodder and fat lambs in year 3
2) Cattle grazing fields for a couple of weeks followed by sheep then a rest for a couple of weeks then start again
3) Moving mobs of sheep around 14 paddocks with long rests between bites

All have advantages ---
More moves you do the more infrastructure you need and the more labour intensive the system becomes
Rotational doesn't always fit easily with conservation objectives
Horses for courses

 

[Farmer Roy]

As im often told on here there are numerous benefits to rotationally grazing livestock so is everyone doing it? and if not why? what are the downsides im not hearing about as when i drive across the country i rarely see it!

hey @Bossfarmer, grab yourself a wee dram, allocate a few hours ( or a lot of hours ideally ) & have a read through this.
LOTS of UK experiences here, don’t be put off thhttps://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/improving-our-lot-planned-holistic-grazing-for-starters.224870/at it is NZ based

 

[Farmer Roy]

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

:oops: Eh up! The idea of starting a thread about Holistic management has been on my mind for ages, if I am honest. Lets start by me putting my cards on the table - I have NO formal training, NO books, and NO interest in starting big wars on which way is best. I do, however, completely and...

thefarmingforum.co.uk

 

[lazy farmer]

How did you mean? The land would cost the same to rent or buy wether you used it for dairy or beef?

You would just see the gains through quality grazing better with dairy as you get a milk ticket every other day. With beef you only know how well theyve done once they're hanging up and if theyve done well or badly you would be unable to pinpoint it to wether you're grazing scheme is good or not.

Rotational grazing means better quality and quantity. So you can make more meat or take land out to crop or rent to someone else. Land is expensive.
either that or call your beef extensive and market it accordingly.

 

[Bury the Trash]

'Laziness ' ' More labour intensive ' hmm what happened to that trendy phrase ' work smarter not harder ' ?

and Anyone without / short of silage or hay around here atm will, I bet make more next year

and anyone not encouraging a livestock farmer in this part of the World to make winter fodder should be seriously disregarded.

 

[rusty]

To set up a dairy grazing platform with water troughs, tracks and electric fencing would be in the the ball park region of £200 acre. It does help if you can get catchment sensitive Farming grants for some of these costs.
With my in calf dairy heifers I move them every 5 to 7 days and use an electric fence to split some of the bigger fields in half.
I have stone walls with permanent electric fenced top wiring on most of them. This makes rotational grazing much easier and saves the walls Bette rather also.

I have just checked my figures and I was way out. I looked at setting up a second unit for 200 cows on a 140 acre block split into 25 paddocks and it was going to be about 65k for 1900m of sleepers, 32mm water pipe, 20 troughs and 4000m of single strand electric. This was about 6 years ago when I could get the sleepers at £5.50 each. Works out at over £300 cow

 

[Ffermer Bach]

no im wary of putting in permanat fences/troughs as grazing fields are rotated with cereals

look at progressive farming company Ltd, kiwi tech water infrastructure, we just laid the black pipes on top of the ground, between the fence and the hedge with portable troughs to plug in, the only thing I would do differently is put in a 32mm main up through the farm instead of 25mm (as I think there is less pressure loss in a larger bore pipe).

 

[Ffermer Bach]

it working well for u/ is that with sucklers?

with sucklers and sheep, this year will be a better one to look at, as I was still putting it all in last year.

 

[kiwi pom]

I've no idea on the numbers but I can't imagine the kiwi's would do it if it didn't pay. They move breaks every day on winter grazing, so doing it in the summer doesn't make much difference.
I think you need a ring fence or decent size blocks though. If you know you have something else to do the next week then set breaks in advance, so all you have to do is shift them.
To get summer grass round here, you need the huge cost of irrigation, so every blade is precious and needs to be managed properly.

 

[capfits]

Many of us run hybrid systems and certainly not optimised rotational grazing systems.
Reasons are of course various.
In sheep for example cocidiosis is more common, individual animal performance is not better, but amount produced per given area can be higher, so can effect your margins during a selling campaign.

 

[onesiedale]

no im wary of putting in permanat fences/troughs as grazing fields are rotated with cereals

Single strand of HT electric + portable trough won't be too much of an issue.
You'll realise that you can grow and graze that much grass that you will never want to drill cereals again!

 

[FonterraFarmer]

I forced dad to let me do it 2 years ago, he kicked and screamed all the way, had to use bit of shitty electric wire and crappy posts because he was dammed if he was spending any money on it. I persisted and last year I went and bought a quad, new posts, Gallagher geared reels (dont waste your time with any other) and new wire. I shift my sucklers, heifers and steers daily. Takes about 15 minutes per group once I get in the spring of it. Wouldnt ever not do it, it's easy once you know how and the reward is well worth it. I ticked my sucklers at 3-4 cows to an acre last year (once I had some rain)

As above, sucklers and youngstock are easy as you havent got to worry about tracks yo get them in for milking. I just create a bit of a path for them to get back to the water trough in each field and that way I'm only tearing up a small strip along a hedge

You not get TruTest geared electric fence reels up there?

 

[Jdunn55]

You not get TruTest geared electric fence reels up there?

Tbf I've never tried them because I tried some cheap sh!t which lasted all of two seconds as I got fed up with them, tried the gallagher and found them brilliant and they do everything I need and more