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

[Bury the Trash]

Good stuff, my Dad was always keen to try beekeeping when he retired, but he didn't have much of one, about 18 months.
So I will give it a nudge here but really need to create a bee environment first, as it's like a green desert.

Chicory is a simple one, and agricultural too , to have about , just let it go to flower .....not graze of course...

 

[som farmer]

going to cut spring sown red clover/ grass ley, for 2nd cut, reasonable amount there, but the grass, just has not gone to head, not sure why not, and am not complaining. We sowed some spr barley 1st contained a fair amount of barley, surprisingly, fair bit there again ! Cows are grazing IRG, as well as rape, IRG, spr sown, cut once, but it has not sent up a seed head, seems to have grown laterally, rather than vertically, again, surprised.
If we didn't have the rape, we would be feeding silage, as it is, they are eating 3.5 kg of hay a day, and been feeding it since 18 may, not quite what we had expected to do !

now cut, you can see the change in soil type, brash is bad, loam, only slightly better, yet, on the hill, not to bad, but definitely less than we thought, needed cutting, so hopefully will come back again. Been whingeing about our leys, not performing, but, the reality is, not enough moisture. We get rain, growth spurt, then nothing, till the next lot.
The kale, has definitely out performed the hybrid rape, to the extent, contemplating growing kale for summer feed, instead of rape, but i reckon we will be buying fodder again this winter.

 

[Rob Garrett]

Good stuff, my Dad was always keen to try beekeeping when he retired, but he didn't have much of one, about 18 months.
So I will give it a nudge here but really need to create a bee environment first, as it's like a green desert.

Sunnies in your cover crop must of helped, Phacella is magic, Borage even better, but don't tell @CornishTone might bring his rash back!

 

[Rob Garrett]

Good stuff, my Dad was always keen to try beekeeping when he retired, but he didn't have much of one, about 18 months.
So I will give it a nudge here but really need to create a bee environment first, as it's like a green desert.

Sunnies in your cover crop must of helped, Phacella is magic, Borage even better, but don't tell @CornishTone might bring his rash back!
View attachment 900026

 

[Rob Garrett]

Chicory is a simple one, and agricultural too , to have about , just let it go to flower .....not graze of course...

[emoji4]

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Daughter's cover cropping in her pig grazing area. No fuel used in establishment

 

[texas pete]

Sunnies in your cover crop must of helped, Phacella is magic, Borage even better, but don't tell @CornishTone might bring his rash back!
View attachment 900026

Looks a good cover crop grazing mix.

How much is that per acre? if you don’t mind me asking.

 

[Henarar]

View attachment 900072View attachment 900073

Daughter's cover cropping in her pig grazing area. No fuel used in establishment

not even a cup of tea when you finished ?

 

[Poorbuthappy]

not even a cup of tea when you finished ?

She and the pigs did it. She doesn't drink tea, the pigs aren't offered

 

[Blaithin]

Beekeeping is an awesome hobby, truly working with nature, purest form of farming, you are never really "in control" of the job.

Anyone thinking of starting, advice would be:
1. Start with more than 1 hive (please!)
2. Don't read too many books or do too much research, it makes it too complicated and there is no "right answer" with bee's, just remember the basics & learn what you see.
3. Get some experience & a good mentor before you start.

Basics of beekeeping:
1. Is there a healthy queen?
2. Is there access to food?
3. Is there enough space?

That's all you need to know to get started, everything else is built around that.

Getting a bit late in the year to start now.

Why more than one hive?

 

[Rob Garrett]

Why more than one hive?

1. Comparison: watch bee's working from two or three hives @ hive entrances in a nectar flow, you may see one hive with less bee's going in & out or bee's may be flying/behaving different, that would signal an inspection is needed. Go through the strongest hive first the compair what you see in the weakest hive to diagnose the problem i.e no queen, old queen, drone layer, disease etc.
2. Use one colony/hive to save another: if one colony is queenless (no queen = dead colony), take a frame of young brood/eggs from your other/strongest hive, give to queenless hive to rear another queen.
3. Equalisation in spring.
4. Building up queen rearing hives, making nucs etc etc etc.

Trying to keep bee's with one hive is like trying to be a painter but with no brushes, you can get by for bit dorbing paint around but your soon going to get in a mess! Sorry bad analogy, and a bit off the holistic grazing thread!

 

[Tyedyetom]

your lucky, been dry here and grass is slowing up but typical I go and cut our away ground this morning for second cut get back and the forecast is changed to thunder rain tomorrow

Thunder and lightening here now in west Devon!

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Thunder and lightening here now in west Devon!

You can keep it - hay to bale today

 

[Henarar]

You can keep it - hay to bale today

You may be lucky
then again

 

[Poorbuthappy]

You may be lucky
then again

Indeed.
Looks like we missed some around 4am.

 

[baaa]

So I have finally come up for air!! I have managed to buy a second trailer for shipping water around the farm from an IBC tank. This one is going to be parked in the field as refillable water stockage. Has anyone found a company that sells attachments that connect from the IBC to black water pipe hoses that won't leak? Any advise would be gratefully received

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

So I have finally come up for air!! I have managed to buy a second trailer for shipping water around the farm from an IBC tank. This one is going to be parked in the field as refillable water stockage. Has anyone found a company that sells attachments that connect from the IBC to black water pipe hoses that won't leak? Any advise would be gratefully received

The top of a roundup can will fit an ibc. So you just need to drill a hole and fit a tank connector or similar.

 

[som farmer]

So I have finally come up for air!! I have managed to buy a second trailer for shipping water around the farm from an IBC tank. This one is going to be parked in the field as refillable water stockage. Has anyone found a company that sells attachments that connect from the IBC to black water pipe hoses that won't leak? Any advise would be gratefully received

smiths of glouscester

 

[hendrebc]

Google Podcasts

podcasts.google.com

Found this podcast very interesting. It could be a thread by itself but really couldn't be arsed with the arguing that would come with it like came from the should we be using nitrogen one

 

[Rob Garrett]

Google Podcasts

podcasts.google.com

Found this podcast very interesting. It could be a thread by itself but really couldn't be arsed with the arguing that would come with it like came from the should we be using nitrogen one

Didn't notice any arguing on "should we be using nitrogen" thread, thought it had potential to share some knowledge.