How many cows...

[Whitepeak]

... On 150ac??

I know this is a bit of a how long is a piece of string question. But how many suckler cows and replacement heifers could realistically be kept on 150ac?

Cows are predominantly pure blonde (avg 750-800kg). Heifers calved at 2.5-3yrs old. Surplus heifers/bulls are finished on farm at 12-18mths. Ground is good grass growing limestone, mainly permanent pasture, grazed late April to early Nov. Cows wintered on just homegrown haylage, from 2 cuts.

The reason I ask is we have been letting out 50ac on summer lets. But one tenant wants to take approx 40ac on a longer term (5yr) agreement. But as we are increasing cow numbers now I'm home full time I want to future proof ourselves.

 

[dinderleat]

Calve your heifers at 2 years will free up some space and reduce costs by increasing output. A lot will depend on how much reseeding you have done and what fert you put on.

 

[Agrivator]

If you have the facilities to inwinter all stock, then 100 cows should not be too intensive.

100 cows + calves summer grazing - 70 acres.

25 mainly replacement heifers summer grazing - 15 acres.

Haylage and aftermath grazing - 65 acres.

Bought-in straw to make up for shortfall in haylage.

 

[Werzle]

Cow and calf to the acre grazing plus another acre for making her winter fodder or half an acre for two cuts

 

[puppet]

The question is do you want to tie yourself up to a tenancy or take it back and give yourself flexibility to expand? If you are full-time and have parents then you need 100+ cows to keep you occupied then work out the area and how many cattle you want to finish

 

[Kiss]

Divide it up, measure it, graze it properly

Depends on what rent your getting for the land, and availability of forage it’s easy to buy dry cow feed

 

[Whitepeak]

Thanks all, certainly some food for thought.

Reducing calving age is one of my long term aims. However need to reduce spread of calving first to make that easier.
Paddock grazing is high on my priority list, currently everything is set stocked and I feel like we end up wasting a lot of grass.
Personally I think we could increase numbers quite a bit just by making better use of grass tbh. However shed space will end up being a bigger limiting factor.
Currently work off farm night milking as well.

 

[Jdunn55]

I currently am aiming for 2 cows + calves/acre of grazing until third cut (which is done in august) then that increases a bit to allow for the calves who will be eating a bit by then. I've only achieved that by electric fencing. Strip grazed with daily moves.
50kg of ferilisrr per month per acre (25%N) and reseeding 20%/year and making sure lime is spot on.

Before, we were set stocked with no reseeding, ph at 5.0 and hardly any fertiliser. About half a cow to the acre.

So it depends on how much effort you want to put in really.

Buy a quadbike + geared gallagher reels (all the other I've tried are rubbish in comparison) and electric fencing will take 15 minutes per day without one it takes half an hour...

Then for silage I'm aiming for 15t/ac on three cuts which should be doable once reseeded and limed

 

[Jdunn55]

15t of silage should feed 2.5 cows OR 5 calves so heifers will be somewhere in the middle.
Assuming a 150 day winter

 

[Skintagain]

Altitude is a big factor

 

[som farmer]

kg of cow per hec, and kg of calves produced per hac, big cows need a lot of grass/silage, as in dairy grass rats, it's kgs production that wins, every time.