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

[holwellcourtfarm]

First time in here this year. The grass has largely headed but I'm experimenting again. This field has been grazed in early May every other year.

Running about 60,000kg per hectare by my rough reckoning.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I suppose my too deep question came from the fact there is bare soil. Perhaps I hadn't built enough litter/ rested long enough but was a fair amount of seed head in there.

Bare soil isn't "terrible" in a non-brittle environment, I mean it is like a bit of pigeon-poo on a solar panel in that it represents a loss of efficiency / lost opportunity.
You're right in wanting to address it, IMO, but if you keep grazing "total grazing" style then your longer recoveries will go a long way to filling in the gaps

We had some pretty open pasture here, it had been undersown under triticale or oats grown for silage and "swamped out" by it in places, so we put plantain seed on it and it took well

one thing to consider is that what we plant tend to be "bunch" or "tussock forming" grasses with upright habits, which by nature don't really spread out so the bare soil between plants is always there

it takes a while to see the effects of grazing tweaks filtering through, is what I mean by this big long piffle - what I see on dairies with high frequency grazing is that the month or so between grazings is barely enough for those interplant spaces to fill in, if soil was damaged in a previous grazing pass the grass is ready months before the soil is.

But we look at the grass and not the soil surface, if you see what I mean? This is why "resetting" is a term used quite a bit on here, what that often represents is just a change in frequency by storing the grass up longer and cutting it short - which you can just "do" with your grazing plan and density

 

[Kiwi Pete]

That's where cameras come in handy @Walwyn

 

[som farmer]

baled some hay today, on the slope, so plenty sun and wind, reseeded last autumn, with a dry mix, cut friday, x1 ted, rowed up, and baled, the other end of the same hill, cut 7/8 days, pulled out last week, to wet to bale, moved x4, and nowhere near hay tonight, difference, more prg, sown after rape, in 3 lots. Cows start on pre mown tomorrow, see what happens. Both of us quite shocked to see 6'' cracks, over a lot of cut ground, and re-growth is starting to run to head, very quickly, moisture stress, where there is lots of grass, fine, where we have cut, grazed, not so good, very impressed with the chicory and plantains, they are coming back better than the grass. We did think we were in line for a decent summer though, and certainly didn't expect stress yet. As we use a bit of N, grass looks 'patchy', as in dark green, and light green patches, not striped ! Agrominist was out yesterday, looking at the barley, which is to good, no straw stiffener, reckoned the patches, lack of sulphur, even though we use 27 N + sulphur, for 1st applications, you can certainly see the difference between using, or not, worked that out 3 yrs ago !

 

[Henarar]

Bare the ground and it dries out.
Anyway its meant to be wet for a week after today so should be fine

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Bare the ground and it dries out.
Anyway its meant to be wet for a week after today so should be fine

Temporarily it does.
But then there's that time thing again, if it is "bare" for a week and recovering for 11 weeks there's a lot more potential to turn a light shower into a feed, than bare for a week and recovering for 2½ weeks.

The overall effect of how we graze is really minor compared to length the time in between grazings, it's just that pictures with animals grazing is a lot "sexier" than pictures of grass (or no grass)

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Temporarily it does.
But then there's that time thing again, if it is "bare" for a week and recovering for 11 weeks there's a lot more potential to turn a light shower into a feed, than bare for a week and recovering for 2½ weeks.

The overall effect of how we graze is really minor compared to length the time in between grazings, it's just that pictures with animals grazing is a lot "sexier" than pictures of grass (or no grass)

Much easier at Ag college to lecture about the grazing period than the rest period though it seems...

 

[Henarar]

Temporarily it does.
But then there's that time thing again, if it is "bare" for a week and recovering for 11 weeks there's a lot more potential to turn a light shower into a feed, than bare for a week and recovering for 2½ weeks.

The overall effect of how we graze is really minor compared to length the time in between grazings, it's just that pictures with animals grazing is a lot "sexier" than pictures of grass (or no grass)

As I said its going to rain so no problem

Back 40+ years ago you didn't go topping after the cows as not many had toppers, you went skimming to cut the thistles and rubbish and old grass the cows didn't eat, this was normally done with an old cutterbar mower as you wouldn't want to use your new KM22 if you even had anything that posh.
Dad used to say "you don't go skimming of a dry time"

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Much easier at Ag college to lecture about the grazing period than the rest period though it seems...

It (the grazing) does play a part in the grand scheme, because that determines and facilitates the rest.

But when you compare the "power" of what each does in terms of what builds resilience, soils, ecosystem function etc things like grazing height are really quite irrelevant as drivers go.

You can get all tied up in kgDMs and budgeting, or you can just make sure there's more than enough - by designing your grazing operation away from the platemeter and stopwatch, because all it does is distract from the bigger picture

plants need time to grow
weather needs time to arrive
grass grows grass

 

[som farmer]

It (the grazing) does play a part in the grand scheme, because that determines and facilitates the rest.

But when you compare the "power" of what each does in terms of what builds resilience, soils, ecosystem function etc things like grazing height are really quite irrelevant as drivers go.

You can get all tied up in kgDMs and budgeting, or you can just make sure there's more than enough - by designing your grazing operation away from the platemeter and stopwatch, because all it does is distract from the bigger picture

plants need time to grow
weather needs time to arrive
grass grows grass

plate metre hasn't moved for at least 2.5 years, probably longer, we can easily judge how much grass is there, and how much the cows need. What l would say, the plate metre has a place, here, the p/metre gave us an the ability, to 'eye' measure, the grass, pre metre, guess work, post metre, more accurate, taught us what amount of grass was actually there.
On topping/skimming, we used to use an old cutter bar mower, bucatti ? Then upgraded to an old double chop ,kid, that was great, spout of, spreader plate . The next upgrade was a 'proper' topper, with blades, not over impressed with that, and moved onto a flail topper. The last 2 did a job, but pulped up the toppings, spread the shite over same toppings, but did the job, now, that doesn't get used a lot now, post mow, nice tidy job, plus, if sunny, the skimmings turn to hayish, very quickly, and disappear quickly, as the cows love it !
That brings us to weed control, you cannot stop them coming, and using herbs/clover, sprays are out, l am hoping, denser leys, and not so much ploughing - which brings a new crop of weed seeds up, will keep them down, but the main control, will be topping/skimming, which should leave something to feed the soil, and, as we are finding, giving a re-set to grass, to stop running to head, bring on the heading less grass ! But, as @Kiwi Pete said, bare soil, leads to drying out, and, so completely right, grass grows grass, thin leys let weeds grow, and multiply, but it's all a case of getting the balance right, and that's easier said, than done, as we know only to well !!!

 

[Walwyn]

View attachment 967835View attachment 967839That's where cameras come in handy @Walwyn

That the same hill? just struggling with matching up landscape features. Your next break, which was browner before is greener now?
Yea agree, trying to get into the habit of taking more pictures.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

That the same hill? just struggling with matching up landscape features. Your next break, which was browner before is greener now?
Yea agree, trying to get into the habit of taking more pictures.

Just a slightly different angle:

 

[Walwyn]

Just a slightly different angle:

View attachment 967944

Thought it was, just going cross eyed looking at it. Always makes me think how open the landscape is in NZ, unlike a hedge every 100 metres here, does give more reference points in photos though

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Thought it was, just going cross eyed looking at it. Always makes me think how open the landscape is in NZ, unlike a hedge every 100 metres here, does give more reference points in photos though

It's too open, alot of the time. This week we've had 84mm from the east (coast) direction and even the inside walls of the shed are wet from that

About the best reference point (to me, anyway) is you can see the "hole" which is in that little gut at the bottom - in the old pic it's hard to spot with the sun angle but there's a calf heading toward it in the newer one.

One thing that strikes me is that 10 months on, I can still see the old fence lines, luckily I took so many pictures as I can go back now and jog my memory as to what I tried where

But yes, the blacker is was the better it is now

 

[Henarar]

Thought it was, just going cross eyed looking at it. Always makes me think how open the landscape is in NZ, unlike a hedge every 100 metres here, does give more reference points in photos though

Pete would get fed up with hedge trimming

 

[Henarar]

Walked this a few days ago, got to cut it by and by.
Bit of variety in here, even the odd bit of grass

 

[Treg]

Walked this a few days ago, got to cut it by and by.
Bit of variety in here, even the odd bit of grass View attachment 967975View attachment 967976View attachment 967977View attachment 967978View attachment 967979View attachment 967980View attachment 967982View attachment 967983View attachment 967984View attachment 967985View attachment 967986

Crikey @Henarar somebody should be paying you for the habit you've created there, takes a long, long time for that to happen

 

[Walwyn]

Pete would get fed up with hedge trimming

I know i get fed up hedge trimming
Cant put my hand on it now but measured up for the milk buyer, something like 23 km of hedges on our farm, although very much an asset it would be a lot easy to manage if they were straight

 

[Walwyn]

It's too open, alot of the time. This week we've had 84mm from the east (coast) direction and even the inside walls of the shed are wet from that

About the best reference point (to me, anyway) is you can see the "hole" which is in that little gut at the bottom - in the old pic it's hard to spot with the sun angle but there's a calf heading toward it in the newer one.

One thing that strikes me is that 10 months on, I can still see the old fence lines, luckily I took so many pictures as I can go back now and jog my memory as to what I tried where

But yes, the blacker is was the better it is now

How many times has it been grazed in those 10 months?

 

[Fenwick]

I know i get fed up hedge trimming
Cant put my hand on it now but measured up for the milk buyer, something like 23 km of hedges on our farm, although very much an asset it would be a lot easy to manage if they were straight

why do you trim the hedges?