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

[hendrebc]

Early honeymoon? Care to explain THAT oxymoron?

It was £1200 cheaper to go now than at the end of august
Weve done everyrhing else backwards; lived together, had a baby and everything else as well so we thought we might as well do that the wrong way around too seeing as it was going to save us so much money

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

It was £1200 cheaper to go now than at the end of august
Weve done everyrhing else backwards; lived together, had a baby and everything else as well so we thought we might as well do that the wrong way around too seeing as it was going to save us so much money

More like a late wedding then really

 

[awkward]

TFF study tour . could anyone swing it

 

[Dead Rabbits]

@Kiwi Pete i think it was this thread - anyway, somewhere you asked me what would come up if it rained ?
I had a water leak here, this is the only thing that came up
Noogoora Burrs - introduced from South America in the late 1800's ( in hay / forage / seed imported then due to a massive drought, surprise suprise !! Hence our very tight quarantine / bio security laws now )
I had to get this trough operational again, even though I don't have any stock, just so the Roos & birds & insects can have a drink, as there is no surface water anywhere . . .

View attachment 671544 View attachment 671546 View attachment 671548

Look like cockle burrs

 

[Kiwi Pete]

One question I seem to often get asked is how to plan the start of the grazing season - I guess there are a large number of variables in springtime between farm systems....

For example a sheep station would have a much different set of constraints on spring pasture to what we do here, in September we have a bunch of calves to put out to graze and our main growth comes in about September to January... grass heads in late October.. all we have on winter grazing are sheep (grazing an acre per day or so).

What I have done in the past is start rotational grazing on a graph, working from a 100 day rotation down to a 30 day at the start of November, and just planned my grazing speed based on the date and what the line on the graph suggests (and bend it to suit the conditions and practicality)

Just wondering what @Sheila Cooke has up her sleeve on this part of the grazing season as it seems a lot don't know exactly where to begin, including myself!!

Obviously I have a reasonable idea of what we grow per day per week etc as I come from a holistic dairy farming operation where it was always discussed - I like to do a rough "fag packet" feed budget to make sure we are growing more than we allocate as forcing growth with soluble N is not something I want to do here...

Our season goes like this:
Winter - 4-5 sheep per acre on 100 day round
Spring - turn out calves when conditions allow, most sheep go home to lamb bar our ones which lamb in sept (ewes) and oct (hoggets/gimmers/shearlings)
Store lambs usually arrive about Christmas/longest day to help with keeping the surplus grass cycling
Summer - balance quantity and quality with livestock performance - I think I got too fast here and possibly should have taken longer to get around in hindsight of a very dry Dec-Feb
Autumn - lambs are gone and cattle are twice the LWT of turnout, store lambs traded or finished to suit growth and cashflow, mindful of need to stockpile grass as growth slows

About May I would normally be counting on being largely getting rid of cattle as they hit 550-620kg which is where we are now.

This year we got right through to now on pasture mainly although a run of frosts and several inches of rain has meant we only have 36 bulls out and 64 inside for the night, we sold 22 smaller ones to "lighten the load" earlier as it was clear we would be short this year.

Any thoughts welcomed

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Royal endorsement for Alan Savory

 

[awkward]

even though I can't view the video for some reason. it's great that the recognition is given to his work

 

[The Ruminant]

I don't know if I can post a Vimeo here, but I'll give it a try. This is a video you won't find on Youtube.

The video is called, "Understanding Brittleness to Better Read Your Land". Brittleness is one of four key insights in Holistic Management. The reason Brittleness matters is because tools often have different outcomes depending on where the land is on the Brittleness scale.

I hope it works for you.

Brilliant video, thank you

 

[hendrebc]

Not sure if it should be here or another regenerative thread but everyone from those threads are here so ill leave it here

 

[ShooTa]

kiwi - would that graph just be a straight line descent?
any brits do something similar ? I am just really going off eye atm, possibly being a tad short on the odd day if the grass is more rabbit eaten.

 

[The Ruminant]

Came across this i hope the link works. Not sure how to upload a video to here
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

I was lucky enough to meet all three of them - Neil, Gabe and Allen - on their own farms when I was travelling. Top people and a great film about them.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

@Kiwi Pete
I'm a pee poor kiwi grazier. This plates at 6300kg/ha.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

kiwi - would that graph just be a straight line descent?
any brits do something similar ? I am just really going off eye atm, possibly being a tad short on the odd day if the grass is more rabbit eaten.

https://www.dairynz.co.nz/feed/past...nd-rotation-planners/spring-rotation-planner/

Sort of like this - as you said, a straight line;
I seldom see a straight line in nature unless it is human nature

Still, I think any plan beats no plan as it is easy to get wrapped up in things during spring and drop the ball with pasture
At least it is an easy reference, not difficult to look at the calendar and allocate a % of grazing area based on today's date... but it does have shortcomings in that grass length is only loosely correlated to DM, which is loosely correlated to animal nutrition - "the moo test" is as "accurate" IMO as a plate meter or WHY

View attachment 674156 @Kiwi Pete
I'm a pee poor kiwi grazier. This plates at 6300kg/ha.

Looking good - sorry for knocking plate metering how accurate do you feel they are in real covers, not 3000kg/ha to 1500 which is what they are "designed for"?
I always felt they told lies outside that range - what's your feeling

 

[Farmer Roy]

http://www.rcsaustralia.com.au/the-critical-date-cometh/

 

[Farmer Roy]

http://www.rcsaustralia.com.au/stop-doing-list/

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

http://www.rcsaustralia.com.au/stop-doing-list/

A interesting approach, thanks.

I've some deep thinking to do now...........

 

[newholland]

@Kiwi Pete I am sure Shelia will be along in a Minuit to explain properly, but basically speaking, she has a grazing chart on A2 paper - on which you note your paddocks + sizes down the side, months (days) are along the top and then animal types / animal numbers /grass required/ recovery time along the bottom. You can also put in rented field end dates or special events like family holidays so you make the grazing easier for that particular week etc.

From all this data, you can then map out each days grazing for the year to suit the whole farm criteria - its simple and very accurate.
As you graze you then mark down what actually happened - to fine tune things for next year.
There is a lot of detail behind the chart and I recommend her grazing course.

 

[Henarar]

Any chance of a link to the chart ?
Trying to keep up with all this

 

[Farmer Roy]

Err, I think I put up a link to grazing charts a few pages back . . .

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Err, I think I put up a link to grazing charts a few pages back . . .

On my wall