First time growing a crop to out winter cattle on

[vulcan]

Not sure about nvz or how long 6acre will last for at the moment looks like I need more cattle out in it to get over it for ploughing in the spring put another 6in yesterday after tb testing so got23 out now will make this do till the new year and se how things are going as for costing of the crop no how much it cost to grow it but not planning on comparing it to housed cattle just done it as have a shortage of shed space so needed to do something.

 

[Kevtherev]

@neilo
Be an ideal crop of spring barley after all that muck etc
What you reckon?

 

[dannewhouse]

if you move the fence up to the edge of the kale roughly 1m forewards how long is the fence to work out how much you are giving them? to work out how much I would have to grow to house my cattle. is anyone feeding straw with the kale isn't that one of the best things as lots of fibre?

 

[tinsheet]

if you move the fence up to the edge of the kale roughly 1m forewards how long is the fence to work out how much you are giving them? to work out how much I would have to grow to house my cattle. is anyone feeding straw with the kale isn't that one of the best things as lots of fibre?

Kale face is about 100m long, it will get longer as they get through it will move the fence less as required,
one thing they push me when I am moving it,
doing very nicely on it.

 

[ajcc]

16 yearlings out here, fence face about 100 metres moves a metre a day much same as Vulcan. Also get a bale of whole crop barley every third day.....the spring barley was whole crop baled start July and kale, typhon rape, green globe turnips and Samson stubble turnips broadcast on 2x triple kkkd stubble. Double cropping is satisfying, simple no frills,easy productive use of a stoney field.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

@ajcc yours is a bit more exposed than mine.

I don't know if I can load pics today because of crappy WiFi but we've got 140 X 10 month heifers on swift.

I work on putting 10 bales of silage / acre and that will keep 10 heifers for 100 days / acre.

What a difference a year makes, it's incredibly dry under door for mid December. The calves still did well last year but there were a few days where it didn't look too pretty.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

 

[exmoor dave]

This looks a ruddy brilliant idea.

We'd be very similar ground to you @ajcc , bit higher up, exposed no trees like your pic.

Our hungry gap is mid March and april for the hill cows, as they come in off the moor mid March in to fields that the April lambing ewes have just vacated, so bare.
Being next to the sea at its coldest in April means grass is very slow to get going.

Would root crops still be ok to graze late march early April?

 

[scholland]

This looks a ruddy brilliant idea.

We'd be very similar ground to you @ajcc , bit higher up, exposed no trees like your pic.

Our hungry gap is mid March and april for the hill cows, as they come in off the moor mid March in to fields that the April lambing ewes have just vacated, so bare.
Being next to the sea at its coldest in April means grass is very slow to get going.

Would root crops still be ok to graze late march early April?

@exmoor dave we have this mix in for hoggs.
https://www.cotswoldseeds.com/product/hardy-root-mixture
Its meant to last to March, we put sheep onto it this last week and hope to feed it right through until end of March hopefully. It was only sown 20th odd of June but still a strong crop.
Hope to put more in this next year but get it in a bit earlier.

 

[exmoor dave]

@exmoor dave we have this mix in for hoggs.
https://www.cotswoldseeds.com/product/hardy-root-mixture
Its meant to last to March, we put sheep onto it this last week and hope to feed it right through until end of March hopefully. It was only sown 20th odd of June but still a strong crop.
Hope to put more in this next year but get it in a bit earlier.

Cheers that's quite interesting......... now just got to work out how to keep the landlords pet herd of red deer out

 

[dannewhouse]

we are looking at drilling our grazing crop after combineing barley so a fare bit later than you lot, 1st august is an early target date for us realistically.

 

[dannewhouse]

how much fertiliser do you put on these winter crops? 2 cwt/acre (250kg/Ha?) of say nitram ie 86.25kg N /Ha

 

[tinsheet]

20 heifers on kale
No fertilizer, just abit of lime (1 ton per acre) and loads of Shite.

 

[vulcan]

All ours got was a 600kg bag of 27.5.5 on 6acre.

 

[bjreroberts]

They all seem very clean, do they have a straw area to lie on?

 

[exmoor dave]

View attachment 44172220 heifers on kale
No fertilizer, just abit of lime (1 ton per acre) and loads of Shite.View attachment 441720

Any problem with lambs tongue weed over with you?

I know your organic so couldn't use a pre-em to control


Lambs tongue a big problem over here on any ground we've broken in the past

 

[tinsheet]

No, the only tongue we have problems with is the bloody deer! Seem to have a taste for kale,
The weed we do get problems with tends to be redshank luckily the kale tends to smother any weeds out.

 

[jellybean]

Cheers that's quite interesting......... now just got to work out how to keep the landlords pet herd of red deer out

Here's how you control the deer!

 

[exmoor dave]

No, the only tongue we have problems with is the bloody deer! Seem to have a taste for kale,
The weed we do get problems with tends to be redshank luckily the kale tends to smother any weeds out.

I'm concerned about deer too, as we can't shoot them, landlord would sooner supply tall electric fencing, but I'm not sure how effective that would be

 

[exmoor dave]

Here's how you control the deer!

View attachment 441872

Haha! Guess that answers my question