- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..
- Thread starter Kiwi Pete
- Start date
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
An old radiator core buried a few feet deep makes a great earth, not very portable though. The best way is to drive rods in that are long enough that they are always in moisture.
Got 2.5 metre lengths of 3 inch pipe driven in here around the shady side of my shed, I cut them through on an angle like a hypo. needle to help them thread thru the rocks and then knocked them in with a post-driver.
Left them a little proud of the surface so I can find them in case a termination breaks off.
@baaa I was looking at the Stafix x12i unit a while back as we were considering putting in a couple of solar units and doing away with the "ticky workshop" (the sound drives me mental) and from memory they were offering 135w panels with them, and a 225Ah battery in the kit.
That's a 12J output so not a lot less than your current unit.
It just worked out cheaper (we use a 25J unit here now) to get a m36r for when this unit goes kaput, I personally like using a higher joule lower voltage electric fence than the 10kV type of system that most people favour.
The reason is, in our damp type of environment high-voltage systems tend to leak more - egg insulators stop being insulators with the addition of cobweb, and then you have electrified pipe gates and strainer posts, that type of thing. Keeping the fence around 5kV seems to be ideal, whereas our livestock death rates would increase with higher voltages (speaking from experience, we lost 14 cows to electrocution one winter, I'd rather they were alive and on the other side of the fence TBH).
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
@Whitewalker
Wilson Plastics 150l portable trough
25mm LDPE feeder pipe, goes thru reducing fittings to attach to the shorter 20mm pipe on the trough (lighter weight).
A Jobe valve is the best I've found as the string can be set for use on a slope (and I always put it on a slope, and it's not able to be broken by cattle
this is how I'm feeding it at the moment, I can turn off the tap and drain the pipe before I need to drag it. I lashed/bale-taped a rope to it so I can put it over my shoulder like a handbag and drag it ahead of the mob while using my hands to pull the trough.
Too easy, a move takes me around 5 min.
I keep this one with the sheep mob, wouldn't let me upload earlier but this one is nice and light with 20mm HDPE and a thinner plastic tub.
Also bitey if you touch the hotwire with it, which is why they're this way around, the cattle fences are hot
Wilson Plastics 150l portable trough
A Jobe valve is the best I've found as the string can be set for use on a slope (and I always put it on a slope, and it's not able to be broken by cattle
this is how I'm feeding it at the moment, I can turn off the tap and drain the pipe before I need to drag it. I lashed/bale-taped a rope to it so I can put it over my shoulder like a handbag and drag it ahead of the mob while using my hands to pull the trough.
Too easy, a move takes me around 5 min.
Also bitey if you touch the hotwire with it, which is why they're this way around, the cattle fences are hot
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- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
All that "hard work" seems to be paying off - a week behind the cattle is looking mighty
Another 90 days rest and it should be mighty mighty - stock density is so "cheap" compared to other tools in the box
Another 90 days rest and it should be mighty mighty - stock density is so "cheap" compared to other tools in the box
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Whitewalker
Member
I just realised despite our water troughs being in the same place for 30 + years they haven’t grown roots and are easily uprooted ?
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
It's still all extra work, but it works for you very soon.
Looking forward to unrolling a few km of pipe and laying out a proper skeleton water system, really for all that it costs to do it "the right way" for our system it's worth it. Possibly should have done it before grazing this stuff but it will be tidier doing it afterwards.
Same with the fences, shudder to think how many miles I've walked putting up fences in the last 30 years but it's lots.....
I won't miss doing it once we get it set up semi-permanently into quarter-acre paddocks (420 of) and being able to maintain density and flexibility
Whitewalker
Member
So lack of rain is stretching us now but 95% or more of our ground has soil cover and grass is still moving although a lot slower. We have some fields with rock and soil is light and those parts are bare .
So going by what I have gleaned recently we are now looking at individual parts of fields and grazing the best grass , leaving green residue and only on for one graze . I feel more compelled due to the weather. We are also topping up with left over clamp silage. So I’m noW thinking about the next feeds how we can move on and off with water on the best bits over the farm. I have started finding more fields than we used to have too . ?
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Depends what the problem with the feet is.... sometimes they need a run around to get all the trapped OM out from between their toes. Sometimes the grass goes stalky and damages the soft tissue in between the toes, and sometimes it's just scald from being wet and then dry and then wet again. Sometimes footrot.
In general, upping the SD of the mob fixes feet issues that are diet related and increasing the frequency of shifting reduces the contagious lurgy issue - handily they both go hand in hand
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
That's a good way to look at it, another possible route to recovery is to turn that around - give them the silage on the worst bits (the sacrifice paddock idea) and conserve your more responsive areas to let them grow. It depends on the situation alot
Whitewalker
Member
Thankfully we have a skeleton water pipe just need more arms and legs
Whitewalker
Member
We’re trying to keep the milk at them , despite what I would have previously frowned upon for grass quality they are holding up well on the yields
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Zinc salt blocks will help , Biotin if you can get it & Arnica tablets.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Even the odd riser with a valve and hydrant would be a big help. Best dairy I worked on had two ring systems, an inner one (serviced the troughs ⅓ the way down the paddocks) and an outer one that ran the troughs at the ⅔ mark. A real "painting by numbers" place and even used 2 separate dosatrons so you could put more minerals in the backs of the paddocks ?
Whitewalker
Member
So can you put a wee bit of artwork on the map as to where you are
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Right about here.
60 miles due east of Invercargill.
Interesting things, averages.
Going off our "average annual rainfall" amounts for here, we've had under 4 years "average" spread over the past 5, eg in that timeframe we've had a metre less rainfall than the 100 year average would suggest.
We're far far from desparate, in fact we're well positioned to capitalise on the mismanagement of others; stock are cheap to buy and dear to graze out.
Quite surprising just how far the HM/HPG has taken us in such a short time, no small thanks to @Blaithin and @Farmer Roy for showing and teaching me how to keep water on the landscape
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Whitewalker
Member
Thanks for that, make me realise how wasteful we are with our water
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
It's quite natural to not really consider things that aren't normally limiting. But because it's cool here (-3.5 here now) it isn't the same "dry" because the dew here is immense.
Everything is sopping wet so the more 'thing' the more wet.
More cattle drinking=more cattle piddling
More grass growing=more surface to catch dew
More broad leaves=more surface area again
More litter=more retention and habitat
More habitat=more bugs
More bugs=more nutrients cycling in the system
hence the conservation we're trying to do on the land itself, rather than drying out grass and putting it under cover somewhere
Density is damn cheap, compared to fossil-powered feed conservation, you can do most of it with gravity and solar power.... and keep the water working for you instead of being an inconvenience.
Weather makes an awful opponent, which took us from my guidance counsellor's advice "you're far too bright to be a farmer, Pete!" and got us ranching. Ranching works better in all weathers.