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

[ShooTa]

Just a few images of what going on - didnt want the phone getting too pisswet through. 1st pic from yesterday with a non electrified back fence - pic from today - i took away their back fence to double the paddocksize to give them more access to trees - dont think theyd realised that yet.....and last is the grass after theyd moved forward.. plenty of trample still.
have come off plan slightly due to planning our weigh-ins and such for killing out the lambs so have a few options running in my head as to where i can send them so we can get them back to the race more easily... wish i had a mobile yard... should be on the cards i hope.

 

[Crofter64]

Nice trough, is that a home made one?

I've used some very similar style home made ones out of barrels as said and they were excellent, with a steel ring about 1' out from the edge to roll the pipe on and to stop cows kicking the sh!t out of them. They were very strong with the only downside being that I once saw sparks when they were dragged at speed on the road and them running downhill if you were trying to 'reel' pipe on! Would take a bit of time to build though and the floats were always the week point.

any pics of yours?

 

[Farmer Roy]

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180917111527.htm

 

[Ukjay]

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180917111527.htm

You been smoking again Roy, yer know that it can only be synthetics all the way and the scientists are mad, wrong and need shot:

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Nice trough, is that a home made one?

I've used some very similar style home made ones out of barrels as said and they were excellent, with a steel ring about 1' out from the edge to roll the pipe on and to stop cows kicking the sh!t out of them. They were very strong with the only downside being that I once saw sparks when they were dragged at speed on the road and them running downhill if you were trying to 'reel' pipe on! Would take a bit of time to build though and the floats were always the week point.

No not this one, it was bought at a clearing sale for $20
I'll grab you a picture of my homemade ones shortly.
I highly recommend Jobe valves, if you can get them, they are perfect.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Here are my half-100 litre drum jobs @Agrispeed
Ballcock setup not really ideal, although they do work OK.
I will make the v2.0 with the hole much nearer the bottom to suit the better Jobe valves (with the float on the string) the main joy of these little ones is that the lambs and sheep have no trouble getting water (or drowning in them) like a big deep trough.

got a bit dark by the time I got out.

Had to lamb a ewe with a massive dead single, had a leg back and I thought I was never going to get it around.... joys of too much grass, they do struggle with "overcooked" singles at the end of lambing.

She was the last ewe to lamb I think, I'll have a decent look in the morning in the daylight to see if there is still a fatty or not .

We'll have a short pause while the equinox does its thing, and then the hoggets will start, always a fun time but they are great mums. I will get @ShooTa some pictures.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

View attachment 719104
Here are my half-100 litre drum jobs @Agrispeed
Ballcock setup not really ideal, although they do work OK.
I will make the v2.0 with the hole much nearer the bottom to suit the better Jobe valves (with the float on the string) the main joy of these little ones is that the lambs and sheep have no trouble getting water (or drowning in them) like a big deep trough.View attachment 719106
View attachment 719108 got a bit dark by the time I got out.

Had to lamb a ewe with a massive dead single, had a leg back and I thought I was never going to get it around.... joys of too much grass, they do struggle with "overcooked" singles at the end of lambing.

She was the last ewe to lamb I think, I'll have a decent look in the morning in the daylight to see if there is still a fatty or not .

We'll have a short pause while the equinox does its thing, and then the hoggets will start, always a fun time but they are great mums. I will get @ShooTa some pictures.

The like is obviously for the rest of the post, not the dead lamb.

 

[Henarar]

why not just use small galvanised troughs with a proper box for ball valve they are not that expensive

those drinkers would not be acceptable here Pete for mains water, they have to be able to overflow before the water gets to the height of the valve, not sure how the float on a string ones work but if the water inlet is submerged they would defiantly not be acceptable
we have had two inspections in the last few years from the water supplier looking for this type of thing

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

why not just use small galvanised troughs with a proper box for ball valve they are not that expensive

those drinkers would not be acceptable here Pete for mains water, they have to be able to overflow before the water gets to the height of the valve, not sure how the float on a string ones work but if the water inlet is submerged they would defiantly not be acceptable
we have had two inspections in the last few years from the water supplier looking for this type of thing

Unless you fit an inline double check valve.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180917111527.htm

Lots of researchers are cottoning on to the whole plant / fungi / bacteria symbiosis thing. If there was money to be made from it the fertiliser industry would be all over it now

 

[Henarar]

Unless you fit an inline double check valve.

TBO with the price of water these days I would rather have a proper trough with a proper ball valve box, one avoided night leaking would pay for the trough

 

[Kiwi Pete]

why not just use small galvanised troughs with a proper box for ball valve they are not that expensive

those drinkers would not be acceptable here Pete for mains water, they have to be able to overflow before the water gets to the height of the valve, not sure how the float on a string ones work but if the water inlet is submerged they would defiantly not be acceptable
we have had two inspections in the last few years from the water supplier looking for this type of thing

With these ones for sheep, my plan is to simply make a bit of a sledge for them with a drum on board.
Sheep here generally drink beggar all due to the grass being so wet (being coastal, it's that damp air from the sea and fog during summer that keeps us afloat) so it's as much for appearance's sake as anything much else.
With daily shifts onto fresh grass and all that, really I only need the little ones for the odd occasion that they are fenced down the back end of a paddock for an extended length of time (which I realise is too common-sense for the UK rule-makers as well)
But yeah, a small toboggan with a low trough and a drum to feed it, so I can drag it over and then fill with either buckets or a hose.

The plan is to have everything in one big mob with the big trough, as the sheep can stand up on the bottom lip and slurp over the edge alright - I gave it the test with those hoggets we had here.
Most of my paddocks have natural water in them as well as the permanent troughs, but I want to trace the water lines with my rods, and put risers in in certain places.

The Cycle of Life and Living Things
You will spit after my 'we don't really have unfair advantages down here' spiel on that other thread, but Dad never had reticulated water on his place and it didn't make a lot of difference except for midsummer, when by day he just spread them out for water, and then gathered them with his dogs again in the evening to "suit the land" (with sh!t) by making a circle of electric fence (500m circumference, then.)

He was the epitome of farming in my eyes, bless him, but you would seldom see him without his woollen shirt on miss the old chap immensely especially when I pass off his teachings as "my own" information - it was just good farming practice to him.
I feel I should credit him as much as these internet gurus

They still used to get the helicopter to spray on his fish and kelp fert though!
- they'd get the gorse out of the wallet for the right things.

But nothing on anything he could have for free

I use his old fencing reels and tools with considerable pride, and talk to the birds about what I'm seeing in the land - it's a bloody good way to farm @Henarar

He used to splice his polywire together though I just knot them up, and ride out the birdsnests

His paddock names :
Back
Second back
Matagouri
Clover paddock
Thistle
Over by "Big Bird" (nickname for the neighbour)
Pond paddock
High-top
Cattle paddock (94 acres of cover crop: ryecorn and chou (kale)
47
By Cam's trees (other neighbour had 5 poplars with a gap between the second and third one)
The Cutting
Centre
The Airstrip
Farside Flat
Nearside Flat
Front Paddock
Ram Paddock
End Pen

Fate said I had to buy a farm with 17 main paddocks and a pen for rams and quarantine, at bend a in a"Clay Road" with right angle corners for drafting cattle without bringing them home into the yards

Ironically, this one had already been named the same name, Leeside, by the owner before the chap we bought it off

I thought you might like to read how I came to be a recycler

 

[Kiwi Pete]

He built about a foot of topsoil in parts of the cattle paddock, with his cover crop thing and about 80 odd cattle.
In the old days it was basically a field of rocks, like hard white half-bricks
They ploughed it after the Blair Bros. sold the place (was split in half roughly and bought by two locals) and in that field the beet yielded 47 tons of drymatter/hectare by end of winter

After the whole lot has now been ploughed and cropped and pugged up with cows over winter, I cannot bear to go back there.

The land is weeping, and it's very plain to see.

 

[hendrebc]

He built about a foot of topsoil in parts of the cattle paddock, with his cover crop thing and about 80 odd cattle.
In the old days it was basically a field of rocks, like hard white half-bricks
They ploughed it after the Blair Bros. sold the place (was split in half roughly and bought by two locals) and in that field the beet yielded 47 tons of drymatter/hectare by end of winter

After the whole lot has now been ploughed and cropped and pugged up with cows over winter, I cannot bear to go back there.

The land is weeping, and it's very plain to see.

Nice tribute to your dad Pete he should have written a book
Shame about the place now though
But they do say we are only custodians for the land until someone else takes it over and we should strive to leave it in better condition than it was when we were given it. Your dad definitely did that

 

[Karliboy]

is your dads old place far from yours? @Kiwi Pete

it does sound a crying shame what has/is happening to it

was your dad a first generation farmer ? its good to see what skills you have taken on from him and how your building your own place up with the methods and ideas hes passed on to you.


im kind of a third generation farmer
grandad bougt the 70 acre hill farm (realy steep and undulating as shown in other pics of mine) in 1952 he was a cobbler/shoe shop owner but always wanted a farm everrything he did was self taught more or less, he wasnt allowed in the army for the war as he was born a cripple with bad feet ( he died when i was in my early 20s)
dad was born in 1949 grew up hear and still here but was a builder by trade and not overly interested in farming but hes done good he developed the old barn into 3 house and built new farm buildings and rebuilt various other farm cottages. so we have lots of property about the farm all rented out .
ive always been interested in farming since a child but only really been in controll this last 5 years (im now nearly 38 and like you work full time. Im in engineering so wanting to keep things simple and self supporting except for straw for 20 cattle only give or take a couple) and only really starting to study how the ground needs to be improved because of reduced outputs (im learning a lot from this thread as ive said beore)

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Thanks

He was a master of time, and many other things as well. We had some great times, in fact all time in his company was enjoyable.
Everyone said the same thing about my old man

There was a post by @martian on the mob stocking thread about the Greek islands and it just took my memory palace right back to the landscape I first learned to read - it is sad to witness things going so wrong, for so little reason other than a lack of understanding and too many horsepower.
It used to hang on in a dry year, that was what set it apart in the late 80's when farms everywhere were in survival mode, Dad and Uncle just chugged along and lived the dream

Now it is a monoculture, the gullies drained and bulldozed in, new grass, tramlines from fert trucks and not a mob in sight.

Set stocked

Excellent progress

So the cycle has been continued elsewhere - here

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Dad was technically a second generation NZ farmer, Karl. Leeside v 1.0 is about 40 mile by road, less as the crow flies.
It's about 350 feet higher than here and a much different climate as well, less easterly wind in the afternoons but harsher also, every mile inland here is slightly more alpine in microclimate.

Great Grandpop came out here in 1864 to miss the tail-end of the goldrush but he was one of those Scots that could.
So he teamed up with an associate and they became seed merchants/importers.
Grandpop bought the farm and then "the boys" (Dad, and his elder brother) bought it from them after Dad had been to Lincoln and then away on work experience at Rakaia for a couple of years, and Uncle had done his compulsory service in the Army at Burnham.
But really it was down to Dad, Uncle liked the accounts and tractorwork etc, but Dad handled the stock and husbandry side of it.
Uncle didn't like cattle within prodding distance and couldn't effectively move sheep without noise

We all know those types, but it worked very well as they both had a bit of a grump when the other couldn't hear them, but got on with it.
Uncle had to minimise a serious amount of income so the farm bought a lot of toys for boys

Looking through the accounts was quite an insight into creativity hence my love for being careful of, and creative with, my funds.
Again, similar to here, bugger all invsstment, but a good percentage of turnover is profit

So I'm not too sure WHERE I am, probably a tenth generation farmer all counted, but started from scratch.

Mum's side were Yeoman farmers from Somerset - I imagine there was very little in the way of dirt under his nails though!

 

[Henarar]

Mum's side were Yeoman farmers from Somerset - I imagine there was very little in the way of dirt under his nails though!

quite, we Somerseterians don't like to get our hands dirty

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

quite, we Somerseterians don't like to get our hands dirty

Just cowshit everywhere else

 

[Agrispeed]

This is the excellent home made type I liked that a friend had made. Not my handiwork, far too smart.

The weakest point was the float valve. a decent Jobe valve (mega bucks) would be better IMO, very simple and reasonably stockproof though


Here's one of my smart, but quite expensive big kiwi tech troughs. They have solid aluminium and resin floats, and are very well made. Designed for bull beef apparently, and it shows.