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

Rob Garrett

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Derbyshire UK
I'm trying a slightly interesting approach, hence my multispecies reseed in '5 Gates'
Name of the paddock gives the game away, really, the idea is to manage this one with "kids gloves" and haul the seed away in the bellies of the cattle.

We'll see how that goes.... if a success then there are plenty of other places for a "chaos garden" around the boundaries, the only species missing is trefoil/lotus, but it's already in the soil.
Will be interesting to see if cattle graze those mature seed heads and not just strip off the green leaves, thinking of coarse stemmy chicory in particular.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Don’t you know he doesn’t sleep. ?
I've had almost 30 hours good sleep this week alone, that's a ton of it!

Book is " the Biochar Solution ", quite captivating TBH.
One early point is how we may become so focussed on "Carbon" that we forget our other nutrients - a 'monoculture of the mind' he calls it.
But from a natutal sequence farming viewpoint it's very interesting, especially the collapse of the western hemisphere
 

CornishTone

Member
BASIS
Location
Cornwall
I've had almost 30 hours good sleep this week alone, that's a ton of it!

Book is " the Biochar Solution ", quite captivating TBH.
One early point is how we may become so focussed on "Carbon" that we forget our other nutrients - a 'monoculture of the mind' he calls it.
But from a natutal sequence farming viewpoint it's very interesting, especially the collapse of the western hemisphere

Went to a talk a few weeks ago where a presenter made that very point! Carbon is just one aspect of soil health, albeit a very important one, but don’t take your eye of the other balls!
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Two barrels or have ya some fancy method of making it?
Just an oil drum, not very efficient but much more efficient to load.
Birdsnest on top of the feedstock, light it and put the lid on (with about a 30mm airgap) then shut off the bottom air when it's charred to about 130mm from the base.
I use minimum water to quench and then immediately douse the char in my brew, mostly compost juice, seaweed pulp and EMs, then bag it in 5kg bags for the stock to gnaw on
 

Fenwick

Member
Location
Bretagne France
It is interesting stuff, I make a wee bit here.

It's my gift to the generations to follow

Interested too in biochar. Though I would like to find a way of simply making large volumes. Perhaps some sort of giant pit that I could cover with soil?


As for the herd we have stopped providing hay about 10 days ago. They weren't interested in it anyway.
Grass looks good, as do the cattle. Heifers also are off the hay. Really pleased with how its all working out. They are normally inside by now.
I had huge doubts during the drought back in August. We held the cattle back so long to respect the rule of avoiding untoward acceleration. Now it seems to be paying off. :giggle:
IMG_20191211_112605_4[1].jpg
 
May have posted it before, but when I dd'd some herbal ley stuff into an existing sward during the summer, I had masses of yarrow come through. But I didn't put any harrow in the mix! Not really seen it before in the field though - perhaps because it's not had chance to express itself. View attachment 848390
I used to have a block heavy with Yarrow, it's magic stuff.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Interested too in biochar. Though I would like to find a way of simply making large volumes. Perhaps some sort of giant pit that I could cover with soil?


As for the herd we have stopped providing hay about 10 days ago. They weren't interested in it anyway.
Grass looks good, as do the cattle. Heifers also are off the hay. Really pleased with how its all working out. They are normally inside by now.
I had huge doubts during the drought back in August. We held the cattle back so long to respect the rule of avoiding untoward acceleration. Now it seems to be paying off. :giggle:
View attachment 848544
The large pit method appears pretty popular as a historical way to improve soils - much of the Amazon lies on top of it, remnants of the Western Hemisphere's lost civilisation.
The main points to consider: firstly you need to regulate airflow into the pit and secondly you need to be able to cut that off at the right time - which is why they evolved their production system to smaller pits later on; the losses were less when they got it wrong.
Unfortunately the recipe was lost when diseases and viruses wiped them out :confused:
No less fortunate than what's happening to those areas today, ie industrial soybeans and corn for biofuel ..... humans certainly take stupidity and greed to new heights :confused::confused::confused:
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
The large pit method appears pretty popular as a historical way to improve soils - much of the Amazon lies on top of it, remnants of the Western Hemisphere's lost civilisation.
The main points to consider: firstly you need to regulate airflow into the pit and secondly you need to be able to cut that off at the right time - which is why they evolved their production system to smaller pits later on; the losses were less when they got it wrong.
Unfortunately the recipe was lost when diseases and viruses wiped them out :confused:
No less fortunate than what's happening to those areas today, ie industrial soybeans and corn for biofuel ..... humans certainly take stupidity and greed to new heights :confused::confused::confused:
There are some good videos online showing different pit methods. I'll see if I can post one or two.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
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    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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