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

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
I really enjoyed watching this one (y)
I think this more 'Permaculture' type of operation is where we want to be pointing, here; it just makes more sense.
I've just watched Rebecca Hosking's "A farm for the future" mentioned in your linked video.


Richard Heinberg: "We've created a way of life that is fundamentally unsustainable"
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya

Kenton Peart is at Rangeland Bulls.
6 hrs · Augathella, QLD
Number 6 heifers at Dunvegan
Pregnant with their 2nd calf
No supplements fed
No veterinarian bills
No chemicals used ...
Only half our annual rainfall for 2017
Pre-test rate 91%

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Garlone Moulin
Outstanding! This is what should be being studied/duplicated/ reported not all the other bulls**t we farmers allow ouselves to be distracted by, this should be the front page of the Country Life, hats off to you!
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Agrispeed

Member
Location
Cornwall
For some reason I haven't been getting alerts for this thread again :mad: Caught up again now, interesting stuff (y)

I had a friend come to help play farmer yesterday and they were amazed by this little trick, it makes life a lot easier, and you don't need to turn the fencer off for it. Its a easy way of making corners too.
IMG_2663.JPG


In an attempt to reduce the effort required to rear calves I threw them outside at a few days old this year. I haven't had any disease problems (so far!) and they are doing very well on 6l+ of yoghurt. They have stripped all the seedheads off the grass and picked at leaves off the trees, which is quite interesting. They were happily cudding at about a week old.
IMG_2651.JPG
 

Blaithin

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Alberta
Where can the rest of us( who live far from you) learn some of this stuff? I direct market all my beef, lamb and veal but I am sadly lacking in actual meat knowledge, I know a few things but not the details. As a result I don’t properly instruct the butchers on how to cut ( I just do the basic cuts) and don’t always give clients satisfactory answers. My Mum grew up in France before the war and there every housewife knew all her cuts of meat, from nose to tail, and how to prepare them. I missed out on that lesson
I'm not familiar with colleges in the east but are there any agriculture ones close to you? I'm not far from Olds College and tease myself with their continuing education courses. One of them is butchering wild game, another is sausage making... I don't think either are online though.

You might be surprised if you check local community colleges or ag colleges. There's quite a demand for homesteading type courses these days. Olds just finished up Fiber week - all about spinning and different fibers and dyes and whatnot, next up is Hort week with just about anything horticultural you can think of and suggest that they can find an instructor for.
 

Blaithin

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Alberta
All I can think is trying to clean goopy, thick yogurt out of every thing :sick:

Do they not need it to be as warm if it’s yogurt? I’m also seeing issues with frozen yogurt in winter :ROFLMAO:

Maybe I could free feed them a frozen drum shaped yogurtcicle in the winter. They could pick at it as they like and limit sucking on other things! :hilarious:
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Not too bad really, I have no trouble with it blocking teats on the feeder. Helps if you chase it with a little rinse-water.
My feeders are those semi-circle ones with 10 teats, clip on a gate, a bag and a half of powder is all they get each, and maybe 2 dozen surplus eggs? It all goes in (y) diversity of protein at an early age IMO is good for them.
 

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Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
For some reason I haven't been getting alerts for this thread again :mad: Caught up again now, interesting stuff (y)

I had a friend come to help play farmer yesterday and they were amazed by this little trick, it makes life a lot easier, and you don't need to turn the fencer off for it. Its a easy way of making corners too.
View attachment 686236

In an attempt to reduce the effort required to rear calves I threw them outside at a few days old this year. I haven't had any disease problems (so far!) and they are doing very well on 6l+ of yoghurt. They have stripped all the seedheads off the grass and picked at leaves off the trees, which is quite interesting. They were happily cudding at about a week old.
View attachment 686238
looks a nice place for little calves
 

Agrispeed

Member
Location
Cornwall
looks a nice place for little calves

Its a very steep bit of field, which was planted with nut trees under HLS, so theres loads of shade and its not a huge amount of use for anything else.

You feed them yogurt? Is it waste from somewhere or you actually take the milk and make it into yogurt?

Or is yogurt Cornish for milk :cautious:

I just use some plain yoghurt to start it and then keep a little bit left over everyday to carry on the culture. The calves seem to adapt to it very quickly and it helps to stop bad bugs forming. I don't clean the feeders except for between batches of calves, and have very little issues. Calves get cold milk once they are off colostrum and then move onto yoghurt after a day or so.

Do they not need it to be as warm if it’s yogurt? I’m also seeing issues with frozen yogurt in winter :ROFLMAO:

We don't get cold weather :whistle::bag::D

You have to get the right teats, there are ones that will block, but peach teats and milkbar ones are fine as they don't have any non return balls in that seem to block. They are much simpler too(y)

Not too bad really, I have no trouble with it blocking teats on the feeder. Helps if you chase it with a little rinse-water.
My feeders are those semi-circle ones with 10 teats, clip on a gate, a bag and a half of powder is all they get each, and maybe 2 dozen surplus eggs? It all goes in (y) diversity of protein at an early age IMO is good for them.

I heard about eggs but haven't tried it. There is a big spring calver locally who swears by adding a bit of yeast too. I have hang on feeders for inside the sheds, but there isn't much to hang them on outside... I couldn't belive how expensive the peach teat freestanding feeder was, a blue barrel and a drill bit is a lot cheaper!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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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