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

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Came across this i hope the link works. Not sure how to upload a video to here :unsure:
Edit. Click the blue button saying watch on vimeo. Save you reading the mext few posts were i think i cant get it to work but it does :sorry:
A great video, thanks.

I especially like the comment "if my cattle still eat it and they get nutrition from it then it's a forage, not a weed" (y)
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
Then I'd have to bale it, wrap it and cart it burning more diesel
they always say that if you make it you will want it

its ok watching that vid of how they do it in countries where they don't have to house because it gets to wet [and very good it is] but we have to make winter fodder if we want to keep cattle, perhaps we shouldn't be keeping them
 
View attachment 672408

We really need more animals on here, in slightly worried that I'm not eating enough off.
A good grazing rule of thumb is 50% for the livestock, 50% for the land. Building on the "Build it and They Will Come" theme from Farmer Roy, in order to build the biodiversity in the soil, we need to think about feeding the soil. Leaving behind grass, and trampling it in is going to feed all the life in the soil. The remaining grass is also covering any bare patches, which has multiple benefits: prevents capping and soil erosion, and supports the creation of effective water and mineral cycles.

Another rule of thumb is when grass is growing fast, move them fast. When grass is growing slowly, move them slowly. It's counterintuitive, but when you follow this practice you will grow more grass. May / June are fast growing months in Europe.

In your case, your animals have stimulated grass growth in multiple ways (their saliva, pulling on the plants, the hoof action, the dung and urine are all growth stimulants for grass.) Moving them quickly through your farm gives your whole farm in May gives the stimulation it needs.

Now, when you return to this paddock, after having allowed for sufficient recovery time, you should find yourself building up a dense, tall sward. How many days of recovery are you planning to give it? What about you taking a photo from this same spot the next time you come back to this paddock (before and after grazing)? It will be interesting to see. (You could show the comparison of the three photos in a PPT slide and put the dates under each photo.)

Then, when grass growth slows down, usually in late July and August in the UK, you will have built up sufficient sward to slow down the movements in order to keep in step with the slower growth rate so you can avoid overgrazing plants.

Here is a video I love to watch. He says, "you don't want to scalp it." You need to leave some behind in order to get quicker recovery and taller grass.

 
Sorry to butt in but I’m hoping one of you great minds can help me. After turning the sheep out to grass earlier than I would like to (poor planning) I can’t seem to get ahead and everything is getting overgrazed. At the moment I’m moving one big mob everyday but I only have 7 paddocks so I get back to it in a week and it’s not grown enough. If I subdivide with electric then I will overgraze more but build the wedge down the line maybe?

What’s the answer?
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Sorry to butt in but I’m hoping one of you great minds can help me. After turning the sheep out to grass earlier than I would like to (poor planning) I can’t seem to get ahead and everything is getting overgrazed. At the moment I’m moving one big mob everyday but I only have 7 paddocks so I get back to it in a week and it’s not grown enough. If I subdivide with electric then I will overgraze more but build the wedge down the line maybe?

What’s the answer?
Welcome to the hippy thread. :whistle:
I'm new to this holistic game and only have cattle but I'm sure others will have ideas.

How many sheep? How much land? What's the land like? Pictures?
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
A good grazing rule of thumb is 50% for the livestock, 50% for the land. Building on the "Build it and They Will Come" theme from Farmer Roy, in order to build the biodiversity in the soil, we need to think about feeding the soil. Leaving behind grass, and trampling it in is going to feed all the life in the soil. The remaining grass is also covering any bare patches, which has multiple benefits: prevents capping and soil erosion, and supports the creation of effective water and mineral cycles.

Another rule of thumb is when grass is growing fast, move them fast. When grass is growing slowly, move them slowly. It's counterintuitive, but when you follow this practice you will grow more grass. May / June are fast growing months in Europe.

In your case, your animals have stimulated grass growth in multiple ways (their saliva, pulling on the plants, the hoof action, the dung and urine are all growth stimulants for grass.) Moving them quickly through your farm gives your whole farm in May gives the stimulation it needs.

Now, when you return to this paddock, after having allowed for sufficient recovery time, you should find yourself building up a dense, tall sward. How many days of recovery are you planning to give it? What about you taking a photo from this same spot the next time you come back to this paddock (before and after grazing)? It will be interesting to see. (You could show the comparison of the three photos in a PPT slide and put the dates under each photo.)

Then, when grass growth slows down, usually in late July and August in the UK, you will have built up sufficient sward to slow down the movements in order to keep in step with the slower growth rate so you can avoid overgrazing plants.

Here is a video I love to watch. He says, "you don't want to scalp it." You need to leave some behind in order to get quicker recovery and taller grass.

Thanks Sheila. Currently I'm moving them daily, a bit under an acre each time. I still have about 20 acres to get round this way due to the late turnout.

I'm aiming for at least 30 days rest before they regraze this field (we also have some land that I'm still set stocking this year).

Later in summer it often gets very dry here so it will all slow down then.
 
Welcome to the hippy thread. :whistle:
I'm new to this holistic game and only have cattle but I'm sure others will have ideas.

How many sheep? How much land? What's the land like? Pictures?


200ewes plus lambs on 68 acres of old permanent pasture. All limed, p and k improved with fibrophos within the last 12 months. 15 years of grazing licenses and mowing so it was in a bad way. I’ve got a reseeding plan but I’m just looking to allow the grass to get ahead right now
 

hendrebc

Member
Livestock Farmer
I was out at "great minds"
He probably meant pete sheila and hollwell and was just being nice about the rest of us :whistle:
Im in the same position this year with no grass. So is almost everyone else i speak to. I think the grass has been hammered all winter and our non existent spring so the roots have depleted themselves :cry:
Im lucky though ive tsken on 50 acres of rough grazing next door and have 10 acres of italian ryegrass thats growing like hell so its not so bad now. The rest of the grazing fields are very very very slow to recover though. Deciding to get off the fertilizer merry go round this year hasnt helped things either. Probably would have been a good year to use early urea as a compromise but i had to stop sometime and who knew this spring was going to be so slow (n)
Its a good learning experience though definetly need better planning for next year. If we can do it on a year like this then a normal year will be much easier and a good year will be easy :cool:
 

Agrispeed

Member
Location
Cornwall
200ewes plus lambs on 68 acres of old permanent pasture. All limed, p and k improved with fibrophos within the last 12 months. 15 years of grazing licenses and mowing so it was in a bad way. I’ve got a reseeding plan but I’m just looking to allow the grass to get ahead right now

If you can use a back and front fence then you will get that extra few days growth per paddock, as well as not letting the fluffy critters nip off the grass as soon as it starts to recover.

In my experience a back fence is as important, if not more so than the front fence.
 

Agrispeed

Member
Location
Cornwall
I found this nice demonstration of the effects of different grazing densities on weed growth a couple of days ago.
IMG_2624.JPG
 

CornishTone

Member
BASIS
Location
Cornwall
they always say that if you make it you will want it

its ok watching that vid of how they do it in countries where they don't have to house because it gets to wet [and very good it is] but we have to make winter fodder if we want to keep cattle, perhaps we shouldn't be keeping them

If you shouldn’t keep cattle because it’s too wet in the UK, you could probably cross every crop and livestock species off the list except water cress! That would make the greenies and vegans day I expect!
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Sorry to butt in but I’m hoping one of you great minds can help me. After turning the sheep out to grass earlier than I would like to (poor planning) I can’t seem to get ahead and everything is getting overgrazed. At the moment I’m moving one big mob everyday but I only have 7 paddocks so I get back to it in a week and it’s not grown enough. If I subdivide with electric then I will overgraze more but build the wedge down the line maybe?

What’s the answer?
How are your sheep BCS wise?
Back fences and small blocks are about all you can do IME, you could perhaps begin splitting your paddocks in half (if they are the same size, of course) so you are on 14 day and once the cover builds a little subdivide further?

Looks a bit of a year to forget for sone of you, I would say throw some hay at them if you have it - but the short answer to me is give them something to fill the belly and small blocks until you can get some feed in front.

I am in a similar boat here as by the time the rains came it was too cold to do much, luckily I have a shed and lots of fencing

I am running some cattle in for a feed if silage just to pad out the grass a little - playing the waiting game really!!
But, say I cut a paddock into 5, that means the first break has had 4 days of recovery by the time they are on the last one, by the time you do that across 17 paddocks or whatever, that is a lot of extra grass that you don't grow with a cow per acre set stocked.
 
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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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