- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..
- Thread starter Kiwi Pete
- Start date
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I that's all you need I have always been an improper farmer
"weeds"!!!
You're on your way to being a proper farmer
- Location
- Devon
Just been reading the harrows, rollers, toppers thread.
Never was keen on any of them for regular use. Now with my holistic thinking I'm even more anti, thinking an electric fence and livestock are the answer.
But I've kept quiet, I'm still a newbie on all this
Never was keen on any of them for regular use. Now with my holistic thinking I'm even more anti, thinking an electric fence and livestock are the answer.
But I've kept quiet, I'm still a newbie on all this
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Does any of them actually have a good reason WHY they do it? (Apart from enjoying driving tractors of course)
Aren’t you worried about them chewing the hose? Mine would probably eat through it and flood the pasture as soon as I left the yard.
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
Does any of them actually have a good reason WHY they do it? (Apart from enjoying driving tractors of course)
I could never understand why . . .
I just assumed it was required ?
Why else would you do it ?
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
Why do they harrow & roll grass ?
Serious question
The only time I've ever seen grass rolled is on a cricket pitch . . .
I wouldn't think that bears much relation to grassland management though . . .
Serious question
The only time I've ever seen grass rolled is on a cricket pitch . . .
I wouldn't think that bears much relation to grassland management though . . .
I think making stripes makes them feel happy inside! Plus the neighbour probably does it too!
texas pete
Member
- Location
- East Mids
As a young keen tractor driving youth, the stripes did it for me. Dead straight too...
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Molehills?
Otherwise, recreation
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Oh silage ground it can be justified if you are leveling molehills and pushing stones down where the mower won't catch them but, otherwise, it's recreational diesel abuse.
As for chain harrowing, the idea is to spread the dung evenly (because the soil biology is so fudged that it takes forever to break down).
- Location
- Devon
Stones and molehill I can perhaps understand in mowing grass, but it's claimed tillering? Er, doesn't grazing cause that?
And when you harrow out all that "dead thatch", how are the worms going to pull it down? I'd rather tread it in.
A mate always said he thought it a waste of grass to have to top.
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Training
Seriously, I did wonder and on day 1 I saw a heifer mouth the pipe once but I think being on 12 hour moves they just aren't bored enough to find it interesting!
- Location
- Devon
Many years ago MVF did a piece about the reduced yield rolling caused.Oh silage ground it can be justified if you are leveling molehills and pushing stones down where the mower won't catch them but, otherwise, it's recreational diesel abuse.
As for chain harrowing, the idea is to spread the dung evenly (because the soil biology is so fudged that it takes forever to break down).
I'm not saying never, but a few stones resulting in needing to change the blades more often is still cheaper than rolling all silage ground I reckon.
If you've got machine damaging stones in your dung, maybe there's other issues that need addressing. I've certainly had that to deal with here with shed floors breaking up.
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
I once had a small stone come off the mower through the side window, bounce off the upper front cab frame and go our the opposite door
I'd rather the stones were out of the mower's way.
- Location
- Devon
Fair enough!I once had a small stone come off the mower through the side window, bounce off the upper front cab frame and go our the opposite door
I'd rather the stones were out of the mower's way.
I've rolled very little in the last 10 years, I guess I'm just lazy
I roll some if there maybe a few stones out the dung don't harrow anymore as the keep sheep do that job and I get paid for them
it all still has its place we have had good oversowing takes before by ripping the hell out of it with the chain harrows, sowing the seed then rolling it, got to be better than spray and plough ?
it all still has its place we have had good oversowing takes before by ripping the hell out of it with the chain harrows, sowing the seed then rolling it, got to be better than spray and plough ?
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
The obvious : stop cultivating your land every thirty-seven minutes
Then the stones get covered up, instead of pulled up..
I actually found a stone when pushing a fence standard in the other day, I didn't think we had any so it gave me a wee fright
we're on a rocky ridge here but most of them are very well covered up.Re the tillering, I concur with your own thoughts, also not hammering your grassland with lots of N helps maintain a more diverse sward, so you don't get the same buildups of stemmy ryegrass that takes forever to break down - the only "bad thatch" I have here is the area that was cut for silage, and it's beginning to decompose now we've had a bit of moisture, hopefully it will take all winter to fully disappear as that's the cattle's "stepping stones" to spread their weight and maintain good infiltration over the wet season, without capping the soil and having limpy lambs from soil to hoof contact.
I have been guilty of chainharrowing a couple of paddocks last year because I hadn't bunched the stock up, and another one had horses graze it so I wanted their big
s broken up in case they harboured weed seed.About the only tractor-on-the-land I've done this year is some aeration/oversowing with clover, as my little spinner is still out on loan to a mate (he's been putting selenium prills on with it)