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

[Henarar]

Nart new, @Henarar, except "what we call things now" View attachment 910328

Actually its a very good simple terms way of putting it.
Yes its good to know all the technical stuff behind it (I never will) but as farmers do we need to ?
Farmers already need to know lots of stuff about lots of different things we can't know everything, well at least I can't

 

[Kiwi Pete]

You don't need to know how your car goes together to drive the car well.
But it sure helps (if you intend to have it around for a while), I think, if you improve your understanding of how all the parts work together.
Then you know to check the fuses when you discover the tail-lights are all out, and not go through all the bulbs

 

[Henarar]

You don't need to know how your car goes together to drive the car well.
But it sure helps (if you intend to have it around for a while), I think, if you improve your understanding of how all the parts work together.
Then you know to check the fuses when you discover the tail-lights are all out, and not go through all the bulbs

Yes its good to know but difficult to understand, simple stuff gets the message over much better at least for a start, if getting the message over is the idea.
Go in with a load of complex stuff and folk will get lost/board and go and get the fert spreader out to try and make the grass they have just eaten to the ground grow.

 

[Rob Garrett]

Would you leave the last cell just to see what effect not grazing would be?

Here you go. Be interesting to see what the thistles do next too, didn't think cows eat them, but just a few stalks left. Looks like young grass growing in the base?

 

[bendigeidfran]

Here you go. Be interesting to see what the thistles do next too, didn't think cows eat them, but just a few stalks left. Looks like young grass growing in the base?
View attachment 910459View attachment 910465View attachment 910469

Are you happy that you decided to graze it?
They looked to have grazed it off well.
Are you starting your last round now?

Thank you for leaving it, i just thought it would be interesting to see as kp says "what iff"

 

[Karliboy]

Went to sort the dogs out at the in-laws yesterday and check on the misses horses.
It a bit off a bugger that she’s doing a better job than me at stockpiling a few acres for winter grazing

Edit
The harrowed fields in the distance belong to mate of mine. He had them over seeded 2 weeks ago into ankle high grass. It’s not been rolled or sheep or anything then this week I seen him spreading prilled lime.
may aswell thrown his into fire to keep warm
had about 30 acre done

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Wow. You could do something with that the thing with pasture that's had that much rest, is if you took half away it would be back in 30 days.

That's exactly why I need to slow our grazing down, after looking at what happened with our winter experiment

 

[Henarar]

Went to sort the dogs out at the in-laws yesterday and check on the misses horses.
It a bit off a bugger that she’s doing a better job than me at stockpiling a few acres for winter grazing View attachment 910503View attachment 910504
Edit
The harrowed fields in the distance belong to mate of mine. He had them over seeded 2 weeks ago into ankle high grass. It’s not been rolled or sheep or anything then this week I seen him spreading prilled lime.
may aswell thrown his into fire to keep warm
had about 30 acre done

Bloody hoses get the cows in there when she is not looking

 

[Karliboy]

So I’m starting to think about my last round now.
Would I be better to eat/trample it right down this time around? It’s going to get 5 to 6 months recovery what ever happens and it normally will keep growing through winter just to wet normally after November so will have plenty of leaf to get it going next spring.
Also should I set it up into cells for the last round or save the work and let them have a free for all in each field? I’m thinking this may be better as it has to go wet here after this week to save on localised poached areas in the cells.
it’s not as though I’m trying to save that initial 24hr regrowth this time.

 

[Karliboy]

Bloody hoses get the cows in there when she is not looking

I keep threatening to dump a couple of stores up there with her for the spare stables

 

[exmoor dave]

Just abit of a ponder..... while weighing lambs on Saturday, they had grown on ok, but nothing special most 150-250 g/day, good few under that, few over..... anyway, for the last 12 days they've been rotating around a 35ac field, (split in to 5ac paddocks), the whole field was last grazed by cattle then followed by a big mob of ewes in mid august, then flailed tight, before a few inches of rain, so there's 35ac of quite dark green regrowth.
Paddock 2 had a sprinkle of left over NPK from spreading over a brassica crop in mid august.
As soon as the lambs hit paddock 2, sh!t hit the fan quite literally, but to be honest, as soon as they started in the field, they got quite lose.

Just out of interest, what is it that actually causes lambs to muck badly on strong grass, in particularly the fertilised paddock?
Is it excess protein? Or is there such a thing as sub clinical excess of nitrates (as oposed to a toxic amount) ?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

So I’m starting to think about my last round now.
Would I be better to eat/trample it right down this time around? It’s going to get 5 to 6 months recovery what ever happens and it normally will keep growing through winter just to wet normally after November so will have plenty of leaf to get it going next spring.
Also should I set it up into cells for the last round or save the work and let them have a free for all in each field? I’m thinking this may be better as it has to go wet here after this week to save on localised poached areas in the cells.
it’s not as though I’m trying to save that initial 24hr regrowth this time.

Yes, take all you can without sacrificing animal performance.
Say you increase recovery time by "17 days", what does that matter in the grand scheme of things?

How far away is your likely snow date, taking a leaf from Blaithin and Crofter 64, you'll need a bit of cover by then.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Just abit of a ponder..... while weighing lambs on Saturday, they had grown on ok, but nothing special most 150-250 g/day, good few under that, few over..... anyway, for the last 12 days they've been rotating around a 35ac field, (split in to 5ac paddocks), the whole field was last grazed by cattle then followed by a big mob of ewes in mid august, then flailed tight, before a few inches of rain, so there's 35ac of quite dark green regrowth.
Paddock 2 had a sprinkle of left over NPK from spreading over a brassica crop in mid august.
As soon as the lambs hit paddock 2, sh!t hit the fan quite literally, but to be honest, as soon as they started in the field, they got quite lose.

Just out of interest, what is it that actually causes lambs to muck badly on strong grass, in particularly the fertilised paddock?
Is it excess protein? Or is there such a thing as sub clinical excess of nitrates (as oposed to a toxic amount) ?

I think the short answer is, "digestibility", Dave. You know, the speed at which it travels from the rumen to the sphincter, what most people strive for is highly digestible forage - which the animals cope better with in the springtime.
By the end of summer, when they are trying to put on fat, they need that lignin and mature feed because it has the complex fatty acid structures (remember our chat on here about "happy lines"?) but leafy grass is more sugar and water than oxygen/hydrogen.
In simple terms it is a protein overload, like burning kindling to stay warm, they need far higher intakes because the rumen is using more energy to function.
In some cases the P+K has an effect as well, as when we're scraping the ground, but mainly it's a lack of oxygen (brown feed) that causes a less aerobic gut environment - compaction, if you like

 

[Crofter64]

Yes, take all you can without sacrificing animal performance.
Say you increase recovery time by "17 days", what does that matter in the grand scheme of things?

How far away is your likely snow date, taking a leaf from Blaithin and Crofter 64, you'll need a bit of cover by then.

My first snow usually arrives in November, but there is already one field, last grazed on September 14th ,which I will not visit again as I plan to start my rotation there in the spring . I thought it best not to hammer it now-just to make sure I stick with my decision, I plan to spread manure on it next week.

 

[Crofter64]

So I’m starting to think about my last round now.
Would I be better to eat/trample it right down this time around? It’s going to get 5 to 6 months recovery what ever happens and it normally will keep growing through winter just to wet normally after November so will have plenty of leaf to get it going next spring.
Also should I set it up into cells for the last round or save the work and let them have a free for all in each field? I’m thinking this may be better as it has to go wet here after this week to save on localised poached areas in the cells.
it’s not as though I’m trying to save that initial 24hr regrowth this time.

I have not bothered to backfence my big fieldthat the cattle are working their way up on as it has been bone dry. They are calling dor a few days of rain , so tomorrow I will backfence quite tightly. I think that if it will rain a lot where you are in the next little while it will pay off to put up cells rather than open up the fields completely. Bette localised damaged than damage all over.I have tried to be strict about that and the recovery in has been very rewarding.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

My first snow usually arrives in November, but there is already one field, last grazed on September 14th ,which I will not visit again as I plan to start my rotation there in the spring . I thought it best not to hammer it now-just to make sure I stick with my decision, I plan to spread manure on it next week.

I was planning to spread ours this weekend

Not happening!

 

[Henarar]

I was planning to spread ours this weekendView attachment 910542
Not happening!

Snow is a bloody nuisance but there is something rather wonderful about it
For about 5 seconds

 

[JohnGalway]

Snow is a bloody nuisance but there is something rather wonderful about it
For about 5 seconds

I'm old enough now to enjoy it in pictures!

 

[texas pete]

Snow is a bloody nuisance but there is something rather wonderful about it
For about 5 seconds

It's great when you're eight.

I remember loving it as a kid and dad moaning...I moan now and my kids love it.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Yes