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

[Blaithin]

Wolves would struggle in the UK.

One of the highest, if not the highest, cause of wolf mortalities are roads. Their territories are large. If roads wipe out entire packs here, where there’s only 3 major roads in a territory, any wolves in the UK would have a rough go. They would be fragmented populations quickly depleted by motor vehicle collisions. AFAIK the UK has no infrastructure to help wildlife navigate major roadways?

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Cheap DIY mix: stubble turnip, fodder radish, kale, mustard (that's the yellow you can see). Think I would reduce the mustard in future, awesome late nectar for pollinators, but won't stand frost & crowds turnip so not much bulb. Broadcast onto disced w barley stubble, then rolled. More of a mix for the soil than for sheep grazing.

It's all brassica, would you benefit from some other plant types?

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Wolves would struggle in the UK.
. AFAIK the UK has no infrastructure to help wildlife navigate major roadways?

Lots of talk about adding it but hardly any action....

 

[Rob Garrett]

It's all brassica, would you benefit from some other plant types?

Yes, have used linseed (stuff will grow anywhere), oat, phacilia & borage in the past, but pushes the price up. There was a fair bit of barley regen. & Blackgrass (FOC).

 

[Treg]

Yes, have used linseed (stuff will grow anywhere), oat, phacilia & borage in the past, but pushes the price up. There was a fair bit of barley regen. & Blackgrass (FOC).
View attachment 999189

I think you may have to concentrate on building up a bit more soil

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

I think you may have to concentrate on building up a bit more soil

Have you never heard the phrase "our soil is a hard as concrete"?

When you see plants growing like that it really does make you marvel at the capacity and vigour of nature (and at the madness of our approach where "you NEED quality seed to be successful and that's why its expensive").

 

[som farmer]

Wolves would struggle in the UK.

One of the highest, if not the highest, cause of wolf mortalities are roads. Their territories are large. If roads wipe out entire packs here, where there’s only 3 major roads in a territory, any wolves in the UK would have a rough go. They would be fragmented populations quickly depleted by motor vehicle collisions. AFAIK the UK has no infrastructure to help wildlife navigate major roadways?

highly re assuring post !
we are very close to a busy main A road, it's very effective in keeping out new badgers, from moving in, it isn't only the ones, you see flat packed, it also includes the ones that crawl off, and succumb elsewhere. Road traffic could be placed near the top, of the predator list !
One can easily imagine some animals, released, that could survive, in the country side, very rarely being seen, we have muntjack, and fallow deer, never yet seen a fallow here, and only ever get a rare glimpse of a m/jack, otters visit, not seen, and occasionally see signs of wild boar, they do not last long ! Yet with birds, we regularly see them, they don't 'hide'.

 

[som farmer]

I think you may have to concentrate on building up a bit more soil

we pan very easily here, but l am really looking forward, to digging a few holes, to see how far chicory, and plantains roots, have gone down, but have to wait a bit longer ! Chicory in particular, we have found difficult to manage, so a lot is riding on it's soil conditioning use !
But we are entering into an unknown type of farming, so there is a huge amount to learn, and it's fun to learn.

 

[martian]

But we are entering into an unknown type of farming, so there is a huge amount to learn, and it's fun to learn.

Think how much more fun it would be if there were a few more wild animals though!

 

[som farmer]

vegans, rustlers, tow rags etc, surely that's enough to deal with, unless, of course, we could offer shooting for cash, with the above included, as the main quarry !
If releasing 'new' animals, into the countryside, there needs to be a proper 'plan' in place, if things do not go in the direction, as expected. Most zealots, expend all the effort, in getting the release, and assuming all will be fine, after. Those that illegally release, just don't think.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Think how much more fun it would be if there were a few more wild animals though!

Do you get deer herds at Weston? I know Royston does but we only get Muntjac.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

vegans, rustlers, tow rags etc, surely that's enough to deal with, unless, of course, we could offer shooting for cash, with the above included, as the main quarry !
If releasing 'new' animals, into the countryside, there needs to be a proper 'plan' in place, if things do not go in the direction, as expected. Most zealots, expend all the effort, in getting the release, and assuming all will be fine, after. Those that illegally release, just don't think.

You should read up on rewilding, it's a fascinating subject

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Do you get deer herds at Weston? I know Royston does but we only get Muntjac.

I could send John up 50 or 60 red deer if he wants them. Counted that most days last spring / early summer on a 60 acre block I rent.

 

[Blaithin]

I feel like island populations are sounding a bit spoiled when it comes to talking about introduction of species. Especially since oh…. All of our invasive species seem to come from there

I understand the arguments about rewilding and introduction of species gone for decades, I do. But take a step back and think what your life would be like if you were attached to a continent. You really wouldn’t get a say about what decides to move into your area, even if it’s come from thousands of miles away.

Fight the idea of reintroduction, but maybe also plan for different sorts of animals showing up anyway. They may show up on their own without help.

 

[Woolless]

Wolves would struggle in the UK.

One of the highest, if not the highest, cause of wolf mortalities are roads. Their territories are large. If roads wipe out entire packs here, where there’s only 3 major roads in a territory, any wolves in the UK would have a rough go. They would be fragmented populations quickly depleted by motor vehicle collisions. AFAIK the UK has no infrastructure to help wildlife navigate major roadways?

That's interesting. Low road density in some parts of the Highlands but still busier than in wolf habitat with you I'm sure.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

I feel like island populations are sounding a bit spoiled when it comes to talking about introduction of species. Especially since oh…. All of our invasive species seem to come from there

I understand the arguments about rewilding and introduction of species gone for decades, I do. But take a step back and think what your life would be like if you were attached to a continent. You really wouldn’t get a say about what decides to move into your area, even if it’s come from thousands of miles away.

Fight the idea of reintroduction, but maybe also plan for different sorts of animals showing up anyway. They may show up on their own without help.

It's not so much the species themselves in concerned about but the rules put in place here to prevent us controlling them if necessary....

 

[martian]

Do you get deer herds at Weston? I know Royston does but we only get Muntjac.

Yup, plenty of fallow deer about, periodically. Also muntjac. In the absence of wolves or lynx, we have to make them feel a bit unwelcome. Like badgers, they've got no natural predators beyond fast moving vehicles, so populations soon rise to levels where any kind of natural regeneration of woodland etc is hamstrung by excess browsing.

You can see the historical evidence for this in the middle of the farm here, there was a medieval hunting park whose boundary ditch is still visible, enclosing 330 acres. This ditch and bank would have been fortified with a wooden palisade to keep riff-raff out and the (fallow) deer in, so the owners could bowl up occasionally and chase the deer. Hertfordshire has more of these old parks than any other county in the UK and the harts (stags) gave the county the name. After 300 odd years the open forest had reverted to bare land, the deer had browsed out any sapling that might have one day turned into a tree, so the park was 'dis-parked' and turned back to farmland (circa 1600). If you look at old maps, there was barely a tree on this ground until Victorian times, whereas the surrounding country has vestiges of ancient woodland still going, although deer numbers are getting so high now that a lot of this woodland is of minimal ecological interest.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Yup, plenty of fallow deer about, periodically. Also muntjac. In the absence of wolves or lynx, we have to make them feel a bit unwelcome. Like badgers, they've got no natural predators beyond fast moving vehicles, so populations soon rise to levels where any kind of natural regeneration of woodland etc is hamstrung by excess browsing.

You can see the historical evidence for this in the middle of the farm here, there was a medieval hunting park whose boundary ditch is still visible, enclosing 330 acres. This ditch and bank would have been fortified with a wooden palisade to keep riff-raff out and the (fallow) deer in, so the owners could bowl up occasionally and chase the deer. Hertfordshire has more of these old parks than any other county in the UK and the harts (stags) gave the county the name. After 300 odd years the open forest had reverted to bare land, the deer had browsed out any sapling that might have one day turned into a tree, so the park was 'dis-parked' and turned back to farmland (circa 1600). If you look at old maps, there was barely a tree on this ground until Victorian times, whereas the surrounding country has vestiges of ancient woodland still going, although deer numbers are getting so high now that a lot of this woodland is of minimal ecological interest.

Thanks. I've seen some fairly big herds up around Hormead but we never get anything bigger then muntjac here.

 

[hendrebc]

Still don't think releasing things is a good idea. Don't you have rifles in Hertfordshire?

 

[martian]

Still don't think releasing things is a good idea. Don't you have rifles in Hertfordshire?

Rifles are why we don't have very many deer here now. We used to see mobs of 50+, they'd reduce the woodland floor to bare ground. Now the most we get is six or seven in a group and they tend to keep on the move