First time growing a crop to out winter cattle on

[jellybean]

It probably doesn't answer your question really because stags wouldn't get a shock through their antlers so would trash it. Farmed deer never get to experience jumping fences so don't normally realise they can do it.
Wild deer I reckon would just hop over no problem.

 

[Devon James]

Need to get some cattle out on forage rape with this dry weather. Whats everyone doing for water? Do cattle have a big demand for it?
Cattle are Angus cross, would they need any hard feed along with grass silage and perhaps wholecrop in a trailer on the kale?

 

[vulcan]

Got this year's crop in today three weeks later than last year due to the wet weather just put forage rape in this year as cattle left some of the turnips in last year's forage rape stubble turnips mix ground not as dry as last year and got a couple of wet bits in the field so not expecting much to grow on them bits unless it drys up quick! So now to hope for some good growing weather and see what happens.

 

[dannewhouse]

what's your rough stocking rate? I have read above somewhere 10 bales put out per acre but how many cattle per acre?

ie if your planning a 150 day winter on say 5 acre that's 30 days per acre how many cattle will that hold?

or say you move a 100m fence 1m foreword every day for 20 cows with a bale every 3rd day?

I'm very interested in this method of farming and I'm just getting into it I have had various experiments but next year the arable rotation will have a nice block of 12 acre spring barley so I can have it spare ater winter barley till spring so I'm having some cows out! just wondering how to set it up and how many cows to allocate to it. (its not very easy for me to alter cow numbers there nor do I want to be short really having to take silage down)

 

[tinsheet]

Need to get some cattle out on forage rape with this dry weather. Whats everyone doing for water? Do cattle have a big demand for it?
Cattle are Angus cross, would they need any hard feed along with grass silage and perhaps wholecrop in a trailer on the kale?

what's your rough stocking rate? I have read above somewhere 10 bales put out per acre but how many cattle per acre?

ie if your planning a 150 day winter on say 5 acre that's 30 days per acre how many cattle will that hold?

or say you move a 100m fence 1m foreword every day for 20 cows with a bale every 3rd day?

I'm very interested in this method of farming and I'm just getting into it I have had various experiments but next year the arable rotation will have a nice block of 12 acre spring barley so I can have it spare ater winter barley till spring so I'm having some cows out! just wondering how to set it up and how many cows to allocate to it. (its not very easy for me to alter cow numbers there nor do I want to be short really having to take silage down)

Mind had a bale every other day, roughly 100m face move fence 1 meter a day, 20 in calf heifers, did from Nov till 1st of April
They did very well on it.
The down side was feeding with the tractor every other day, made a fair mess off the field in the wet weather.
Once the kale was finished, and we had a dry spell I rolled all the tracks, then spread yet more shite on it, ploughed it and put back to grass looks a treat now .

 

[vulcan]

what's your rough stocking rate? I have read above somewhere 10 bales put out per acre but how many cattle per acre?

ie if your planning a 150 day winter on say 5 acre that's 30 days per acre how many cattle will that hold?

or say you move a 100m fence 1m foreword every day for 20 cows with a bale every 3rd day?

I'm very interested in this method of farming and I'm just getting into it I have had various experiments but next year the arable rotation will have a nice block of 12 acre spring barley so I can have it spare ater winter barley till spring so I'm having some cows out! just wondering how to set it up and how many cows to allocate to it. (its not very easy for me to alter cow numbers there nor do I want to be short really having to take silage down)

Mind had a bale every other day, roughly 100m face move fence 1 meter a day, 20 in calf heifers, did from Nov till 1st of April
They did very well on it.
The down side was feeding with the tractor every other day, made a fair mess off the field in the wet weather.
Once the kale was finished, and we had a dry spell I rolled all the tracks, then spread yet more shite on it, ploughed it and put back to grass looks a treat now .

Just learning myself the best way to do it last year I just put the bales of silage out in random bits of the field but this year putting them in two lines up the field so the electric fence will be easier to do in the field also only put 50 bales out bout had to keep putting one out in the field every now and then till we got to the next bale had 16 store cattle be about 18 month old on from start of December till middle of January then they were joined by 9 in calf heifers and it lasted to the end of march then had to fetch bales in the field for them.gave them a fresh strip 1 meter wide and be around 100 meters long and a bale of silage every other day but by march they were nearly on a bale a day they did well of it sold some of the store cattle straight of the field in April.hope this makes sense and is some help for you.

 

[hally]

Got this year's crop in today three weeks later than last year due to the wet weather just put forage rape in this year as cattle left some of the turnips in last year's forage rape stubble turnips mix ground not as dry as last year and got a couple of wet bits in the field so not expecting much to grow on them bits unless it drys up quick! So now to hope for some good growing weather and see what happens. View attachment 568276 View attachment 568278 View attachment 568284

Looks a very professional job

 

[vulcan]

Looks a very professional job

I it doesn't look to shabby think it was just the yt they sent with the drill!! @hally. did you say it's 10% discount for every picture I put on here!!!!!

 

[hally]

I it doesn't look to shabby think it was just the yt they sent with the drill!! @hally. did you say it's 10% discount for every picture I put on here!!!!!

Ah yes but as I work for nought anyway, 10% of nought can always be arranged

 

[vulcan]

Bit of a crop failure this year compared to last just wellie hight in the best parts were last it was knee height and the wet bits not grown at all but not had many dry days since it was drilled wet bits stood with water for weeks.on the plus side not need the water proofs on to shift the fence this year and will save on straw with them outside.

 

[Kevtherev]

How is it for lime @vulcan ?

 

[vulcan]

Was ok when tested couple of years ago will get tested again in the spring before re seeding more down to the crap weather this year up here.

How is it for lime @vulcan ?

 

[hally]

a bit disappointing really but not uncommon around here this year. in fact never seen a good crop in the whole area even on dry land. Just been a crap year for small seeds.

 

[Jim75]

First year trying a rape/kale mix. Struggling to get a idea of how long it will last along with feeding haylage. Calculations tell me anything from 1 month to 3 months anyone able to hazard a guess. 14.9ha redstart sown last few days of July. Anywhere from 700 ewes to an extra 200 ewe lambs if needed. Is there a simple way of converting/estimating fresh weight to dm/ha taking m2 samples without using the wife's oven

 

[Kiwi Pete]

View attachment 601708 View attachment 601706
First year trying a rape/kale mix. Struggling to get a idea of how long it will last along with feeding haylage. Calculations tell me anything from 1 month to 3 months anyone able to hazard a guess. 14.9ha redstart sown last few days of July. Anywhere from 700 ewes to an extra 200 ewe lambs if needed. Is there a simple way of converting/estimating fresh weight to dm/ha taking m2 samples without using the wife's oven

Kale would be 12-14% DM.
So if you weigh a cut square metre at say 30 kilos, multiply 30 by 0.13 =3.9kgDM
Equals 3.9TDM/ha.
Looks better than that from here

How much haylage are you thinking and we'll work it out.
6000kgDM/ha x 14.9ha = 89.4TDM for a starter.
At 1.5kg/ewe/day..x700 ewes... 85 days.
If a bale is 220kgDM then....?

 

[neilo]

View attachment 601708 View attachment 601706
First year trying a rape/kale mix. Struggling to get a idea of how long it will last along with feeding haylage. Calculations tell me anything from 1 month to 3 months anyone able to hazard a guess. 14.9ha redstart sown last few days of July. Anywhere from 700 ewes to an extra 200 ewe lambs if needed. Is there a simple way of converting/estimating fresh weight to dm/ha taking m2 samples without using the wife's oven

https://www.germinal.com/cmsfiles/Forage-Options-Brochure.pdf

If you take a m2 sample and weigh it, multiply by 10,000 to get kg of fresh weight per hectare, then multiply by the text book DM% (12-14% for Redstart, according to Germinal), you will get the estimated DM yield per hectare.

Then you need to work out similar for the silage, and calculate your requirements based on number of head, class of stock, etc (3% of liveweight for sheep?).

Then, and this is the bit that makes a joke of the whole thing, you need to pick a completely random number out of the air for a utilisation rate and multiply your yield by that. Base that random number on your certain knowledge of whether it will be a sh*te wet winter, or one with minimal rainfall and warm enough that the crop grows slowly through to March, or you get a fortnight at -20 at Christmas that wipes out the crop.

Good luck.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

And that!!

Yes we just used to whack kale off about halfway up the stem, which allowed plenty for wastage!

But the 'somewhere between 1 and 3 months" is 100% correct

 

[neilo]

I should perhaps add that I've never done the calculation. I prefer to look at the crop and scratch my head a bit before putting a fence up where I see fit.

 

[The Ruminant]

And that!!

Yes we just used to whack kale off about halfway up the stem, which allowed plenty for wastage!

But the 'somewhere between 1 and 3 months" is 100% correct

I prefer to think “it will last into the new year...”

 

[Jim75]

Cheers @neilo @Kiwi Pete I'm aiming to try and time it so the ewes tidy it up or damn near it so that they come in for lambing towards mid march. One field is going into SB so will need cleared and the other hopefully back into grass so could be tidied up after lambing or by ewe Hogg's. Ewes are in good nick at the minute, how hard to the ground can they graze the stem? I'm thinking it'll go quite low as they aren't all that thick this year but open to suggestions.