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

[pear]

Looks good to me @pear. They do seem to preferentially graze chicory. As long as it fully recovers it’s should be ok.
What’s your plans for this? Leave till the spring or another grazing?
I have 25 acres of herbals going in next week with chicory in.

Hi Sam! If it recovers then get another graze over winter, if not, then leave until spring. I have got some more to put into this week, as an over seed and it’s a bit of a home brew/mix of herbs and some grass seed. If it doesn’t go in this week, I’ll leave it until the spring to drill. This crop in the picture was drilled mid April and sat there until June then romped away. I’ve only just got around to getting a fence up between harvest jobs as it was arable before, and getting water to it.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Who/ what is the father?

This guy. He sired last years and this years calves

 

[Kiwi Pete]

@pear, I agree with what the others have said. It's all swings and roundabouts when it comes to degree of utilisation vs recovery.

As Huw said, when we know pretty reliably that moisture and temp aren't going to be an issue, we can graze things to the floor and let it come back. But this is risky going into summer, which is why we don't, it could set you up for the 3 year drought if you did it "right"

I personally wouldn't expect too much over the cooler months, main thing IMO is that you don't damage the crowns by trampling them in the wet.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Runty wee thing, but mobile and feeding.

 

[Blaithin]

Geez. It’s not premie at all?

That size they tend to suck at regulating body temp. I wouldn’t send them too far ahead of anything.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

View attachment 907102
Runty wee thing, but mobile and feeding.

It'll either stay a runt or else be getting strong by the time the rest calve, either way what else can you do?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Geez. It’s not premie at all?

That size they tend to suck at regulating body temp. I wouldn’t send them too far ahead of anything.

Yeah. It's very premature. "In theory", based on a first calver taking 70 days to cycle, she shouldn't be born for another 4 to 5 weeks so she took us a bit by surprise. Not really much grass yet, not really very warm yet.... etc

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Yeah. It's very premature. "In theory", based on a first calver taking 70 days to cycle, she shouldn't be born for another 4 to 5 weeks so she took us a bit by surprise. Not really much grass yet, not really very warm yet.... etc

When did the bull go in?
No reason a fertile first calver couldn't have gone on in first month after calving.
Presuming the bull was with her of course

 

[som farmer]

most of our dairy hfrs calved towards the end of our block, disappointing, but, they will be front next year, calving index, for them, around the 315 days, don't know why, but this year has seen fantastic fertility, 80% maiden hfrs held to 1st service, 75 % of cows.
As 3rd dry summer in a row, our grass has been shafted, we have managed to keep residuals longer, which has certainly helped. Now we have had rain, everything gone into super drive, the thin bits, thickened up nicely, but a lot of the 'thickening' bits, are probably weed grasses, is it better, to have a higher % of weed grass, in a ley, that does grow in drought, or try to keep a higher % of ryegrasses, that don't grow in a drought ? And, will we have a 4th dry summer ? Which is the million dollar question !!!! Our grass policy, has changed, and we are farming for a dry summer now, this includes over seeding, with festololiums, fesques, plantain, chickory, vetch, timothy and cocksfoot, all included, with ryegrass, in varying amounts, and hopefully, we will achieve a ideal ley, from all our 'experimental' fields ! Rather than buy a ley with clover in, we are adding, up to 1.5 kg/ac of medium to large leaf white clover in, as never quite sure how much/sort they put in. Any info, on how much 'herbs' people include per acre, or, how have they got on, with said mixes, would be gratefully read !!!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

When did the bull go in?
No reason a fertile first calver couldn't have gone on in first month after calving.
Presuming the bull was with her of course

A couple of days before Christmas. He stayed in until he went tatas, because I didn't want a heap of fighting if I put him back in with the other big bulls we had .
I'd say this calf just about must be a fortnight prem, going by the little soft hoofs etc..

 

[Treg]

most of our dairy hfrs calved towards the end of our block, disappointing, but, they will be front next year, calving index, for them, around the 315 days, don't know why, but this year has seen fantastic fertility, 80% maiden hfrs held to 1st service, 75 % of cows.
As 3rd dry summer in a row, our grass has been shafted, we have managed to keep residuals longer, which has certainly helped. Now we have had rain, everything gone into super drive, the thin bits, thickened up nicely, but a lot of the 'thickening' bits, are probably weed grasses, is it better, to have a higher % of weed grass, in a ley, that does grow in drought, or try to keep a higher % of ryegrasses, that don't grow in a drought ? And, will we have a 4th dry summer ? Which is the million dollar question !!!! Our grass policy, has changed, and we are farming for a dry summer now, this includes over seeding, with festololiums, fesques, plantain, chickory, vetch, timothy and cocksfoot, all included, with ryegrass, in varying amounts, and hopefully, we will achieve a ideal ley, from all our 'experimental' fields ! Rather than buy a ley with clover in, we are adding, up to 1.5 kg/ac of medium to large leaf white clover in, as never quite sure how much/sort they put in. Any info, on how much 'herbs' people include per acre, or, how have they got on, with said mixes, would be gratefully read !!!

Remember most herb seeds are small, 0.5kg of herbs can actually add quite alot of diversity to your swards .
I have added 0.7kg a acre of Chicory/ acre which I have since felt is to much.
Most recently I added 0.25kg of chicory/ acre and 0.25kg of Plantain / acre , at that rate the plantain is the most dominant plant in the sward so can possibly be added at lower amounts. Yarrow, Trefoil etc are really tiny seeds so 100g / acre go along way.

 

[Crofter64]

I don't know how dry you normally are but the rain is the important bit in grazing low. If it hadn't rained you might be kicking yourself for grazing it lower than normal.
We can get away with all kinds of low grazing grass abuse here because we get regular rain.

We had had an unusually windy dry spring , followed by a continuously very hot, dry summer.So at the end of July I made the decision to sacrifice two fields (for 6 weeks of grazing) that I was then planning to rest till the spring, so that other fields could get ahead to set me up for the autumn as I figured that at some point we would finally get some rain. And we did in mid-August and not only has everything grown like mad, but those two fields have bounced back, better than usual. That is what surprises me. This rebound is better than on the fileds I really was careful with.

 

[Crofter64]

View attachment 907099View attachment 907100
This guy. He sired last years and this years calves

Speckle Park?

 

[Blaithin]

A couple of days before Christmas. He stayed in until he went tatas, because I didn't want a heap of fighting if I put him back in with the other big bulls we had .
I'd say this calf just about must be a fortnight prem, going by the little soft hoofs etc..

Check her teeth, that’ll tell you more than anything.

Fully haired so can’t be too early.

 

[Samcowman]

We had had an unusually windy dry spring , followed by a continuously very hot, dry summer.So at the end of July I made the decision to sacrifice two fields (for 6 weeks of grazing) that I was then planning to rest till the spring, so that other fields could get ahead to set me up for the autumn as I figured that at some point we would finally get some rain. And we did in mid-August and not only has everything grown like mad, but those two fields have bounced back, better than usual. That is what surprises me. This rebound is better than on the fileds I really was careful with.

I saw this the other year. Probably something to do with all the extra fertility you have put on there by parking the animals there.

 

[Crofter64]

Check her teeth, that’ll tell you more than anything.

Fully haired so can’t be too early.

What about the teeth?

 

[Blaithin]

What about the teeth?

If the fronts haven’t broke through the gums yet or have just started, then they’re premie. Fine enough they’ll usually survive, just have to pay more attention to temperature.

When they’re so premie their hair isn’t all there yet, then they aren’t usually going to make it.

 

[som farmer]

Remember most herb seeds are small, 0.5kg of herbs can actually add quite alot of diversity to your swards .
I have added 0.7kg a acre of Chicory/ acre which I have since felt is to much.
Most recently I added 0.25kg of chicory/ acre and 0.25kg of Plantain / acre , at that rate the plantain is the most dominant plant in the sward so can possibly be added at lower amounts. Yarrow, Trefoil etc are really tiny seeds so 100g / acre go along way.

we have been putting 1/2 kg, chickory and plantain, time will tell. One thing i have noticed, probably because we are sowing some, there's a lot of 'wild' plantain about, must be well represented in the seed bank ! Several years ago, using a different spray programme on maize, when cut, we had 28 acres of wild plantain ! if only we knew what we had !!
Vetches, we have overseeded, with clover and grass, at 1 kg, very active growth, but think the seed rate was to low, pretty sparse, not sure how it will stand grazing, but we operate, an in/out policy, virtually nothing has more than 3 grazing feeds, till now, when the dry cows are mob stocked. However, we are going to try, 5kg acre, with some of our hybrid rye, to see if we can up the protein in the silage. I have very bad memories of growing oats and vetches, that were horizontal !!!
We sowed some special dry mix ley, containing cocksfoot, fesques, timothy, and several prg, with a good kg of w clover, slow to get going, but looking good now, the grass leaves, appear a lot 'finer' than PRG, but reps did not want to sell us cocksfoot !! Should be fine, if managed correctly, since heard of someone, who has overseeded most of his grass, at 4 kg/ac. The proof, as always, is how much is in the bulk tank ! We are getting quite good, at which fields, the milk goes up, a very good lesson to learn !!
going off subject, seen a few mushrooms, in fields, i haven't seen any for decades ! Hoping, this is a good sign of improving the soil.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Speckle Park?

Not this guy. Our next bulls are, but this one is a shorthorn x

 

[Fenwick]

We had one years ago that calved 11 times in 9 years! She was regularly calving at 10 month intervals.

We had one years ago that calved 11 times in 9 years! She was regularly calving at 10 month intervals.

Got a few of those. But it is expected with thé Salers breed