"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..
- Thread starter Kiwi Pete
- Start date
Dead nettle.
Not sure
Buttercup?
We have some fields we rent where we graze some silage some and hay 2 which are side by side. 3 years ago I started grazing one of the hay fields and they had been hay or silage for 10+ years at that point and as you can imagine there were heaps of buttercups out there. Absolutely filthy with them. It’s amazing what a couple of years grazing on a sort of rotation can do to a field. The hay one next door is the same as it was. The now grazed one is looking a lot better now. Just got to stop the bloody dog walkers letting the cattle out. Once already this year they have been in the hay field
Thank you.
Just googled Dead Nettle - looks very similar, and someone was eating it on YouTube...
So, is that a good sign and something sheep will eat freely or will I have to tighten up the stocking density?
Our neighbour is set-stocking ewes and lambs on our grass (with plenty of that stuff in there).
They don't seem to like it as much as the grass...
No idea on if sheep will eat it. All I know about sheep is we had a leg of lamb on Sunday and it was bloody brilliant, been too long. I’ve got a now third year reseed which hasn’t gone that well which has loads of dead nettle down one side. Going to graze the bottom end of it this year rather than silage it and see what difference the 2 options make on the makeup of the sward going forward.
- Location
- Devon
Also, the mk1 PBH egg mobile is in action
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Dead nettle has pink flowersFunny you say that, the one on the second from bottom does look similar to a variagated pot plant
The pinky flower ones have what looks like nettle leaves, but never seen pink flowers on nettles before..
Hmm, maybe a quick mower job then..
How are you going to move it? And how often?
Any chance of bunching the ewes up on it and trampling them to death? I’m going to give it a go with a patch of docks this year
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Do you have a formula for bunching them back up after lambing?
ie how soon do you do it?
Common practice around here is to set-stock from about the start of lambing, halfway to weaning, and IMHO it (the set stocked bit) is the biggest hidden cost of farming, by eating all that regrowth at the worst possible time
- Location
- Devon
Every day atm because there's not much grass out there. Quad pulls it.
The plan is to have 2 with new hens in 1 each autumn. There'll be a few less in there then as aiming for free range spacing so less moving will be needed.
Would prefer "proper" free range freedom but foxy stops that.
This is daughter's project but I intend to experiment with some pastured broilers too.
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- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Not sure about the variegated one in the third picture, Jay. But those nettles are "red dead nettle" or dead nettle - because they don't sting!
And buttercup at the bottom, I think from the leaf it's creeping buttercup, ranunculus repens
- Location
- Devon
Yes I'm very conscious of that and have started bunching them up at about a week old. But I don't have 1000's and the biggest mob will be less than 200 doubles so hopefully will work ok.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Cracker, it's certainly going to be beneficial doing that
Looks grand. How many hens?
As far as Reynard goes, would an automatic timed door closer not do the trick? I've been thinking about chooks but assumed I'd be able to let them free range during the day, and rely on a machine to shut them up.
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
We see foxes during the day
But that may just be because we haven't had to persecute them
Or because you're too close to big city...We see foxes during the day
But that may just be because we haven't had to persecute them
I have asked the guy who grazes our land to try that, but as I will be moving - need to keep option over re the maintenance etc to avoid letting it go back to ruin.
Thanks Pete,
We did have some creeping buttercup when we too over the property, but we never saw any last year - so do sheep eat them, as all our paddocks were grazed by sheep for the first time in over a decade?