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

[Kiwi Pete]

How much stock have you left on farm Pete? I'm thinking you destocked a bit as winter has progressed?
Are you still in stockpiled feed, or grazing new growth now?

We've got 290 hoggs, maybe 200 lambs now? in one mob

Our 20 odd sheep/lambs around the yard/verges/water scheme tanks/lawn

50 calves and 4 bigger guys in another mob, with 8 cows and a bunch of calves following them a day behind, (I pulled out the 2 yearling speckle parks as they have a hot date night

and left their "mother" out with the lambers so they get down to business, and don't suck her before she calves)

Just as fewer mobs means more solar panel, I like to make more mobs as a first response to being in a surplus - get around it quick, let it come up but just cover the ground and put a bit back into the stock. Cheaper than silage

But we will need more stock soon... will look at getting maybe another 60 calves or something on on a short-term basis.

You're right, we offloaded 40 cattle a while back, you don't need to offload for long in the spring to suddenly get a bit of cover.

But to answer, this is just spring regrowth we're pruning

 

[gadgewalker]

Afternoon all.

That's what the "flock" went in at on Sunday evening and out this morning. 2.5 days.

I want to balance up getting on top of it and getting the ewes in good nick for a months time aswell as leaving some litter as there is a long rest period to come.

They certainly aren't picky now but wondering if that's just taking it down too much? Has anyone got pics of what they are aiming to come out at just now?

Still a layer underfoot with good spreading of sh!t. Rather than soil coming through.

Cheers

 

[Fenwick]

can't you juste clip thé réel into thé fence?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

@Kiwi Pete for sh1!s and giggles, what’s that heifers milk mirror look like?

I'll try to get a better picture for you over the weekend.

Not her best udder picture as she's just been feeding 2 hungry Canadians and her own little monster.
Not a typical woolly hereford udder though.

 

[exmoor dave]

Afternoon all.

That's what the "flock" went in at on Sunday evening and out this morning. 2.5 days.

I want to balance up getting on top of it and getting the ewes in good nick for a months time aswell as leaving some litter as there is a long rest period to come.

They certainly aren't picky now but wondering if that's just taking it down too much? Has anyone got pics of what they are aiming to come out at just now?

Still a layer underfoot with good spreading of sh!t. Rather than soil coming through.

CheersView attachment 913921View attachment 913922View attachment 913923

I'd be fair chuffed with that sort of take down this time of year!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Me too.
It really depends "what is planned for that, next" and when it's planned for @gadgewalker but I wouldn't say it's too tight for after the equinox; even if you give it 100 days to get its mojo back it isn't going to be going to sticks and stems.

 

[gadgewalker]

Thanks @exmoor dave & @Kiwi Pete. It could be left for 100+ going by the excel I made up so thats good hear. It could be left longer just going by the current stocking density and whats left to graze in front but will see where we are as we go along.

May just push it to daily moves. No extra skin of my nose for the amount of stock there is and the way the front and back fences are being set up.

 

[exmoor dave]

Thanks @exmoor dave & @Kiwi Pete. It could be left for 100+ going by the excel I made up so thats good hear. It could be left longer just going by the current stocking density and whats left to graze in front but will see where we are as we go along.

May just push it to daily moves. No extra skin of my nose for the amount of stock there is and the way the front and back fences are being set up.

We've been sending a mob of 460 biggish ewes round some new ground, just hitting whole fields, max 15acs at a time. I was abit sceptical what sort of job they'd do on grass that was 4-6" long, but I didn't have any spare electric fencing.
Have to say they've done a fab job and the regrowth behind them is starting to really show.

Not very regen, but I'm going to get abit of liquid N sprayed on 30acs or so just to try to bulk the winter feed budget up.
It's probably plenty late enough for fert but we generally grow late into the year.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

This is what we're leaving behind our lambers, not very much by comparison!

I've sped them up a fair bit because, the grass is going nuts and I don't want it going off the boil.
As you can see, I spread them out and left them longer, so it's a bit patchy.

 

[exmoor dave]

Apparently this old stuffView attachment 913903
is growing at between 55 and 60kg/ha at the moment.
Farmax says we should be growing about 19-24kgDM/ha over the week.... so there is your "blaze of growth", and even weed grasses do it

It also showed a brix of around 17, FWIW

Ohhh.... didn't realise you were a Farmax'er Pete!

How do you find it to use?

Our grazing group have been using the "Lite" version and I find it reasonably easy to use with abit of tutorial.

I was shown the full version a couple years ago and it just looked like gobbligook

 

[hendrebc]

Ohhh.... didn't realise you were a Farmax'er Pete!

How do you find it to use?

Our grazing group have been using the "Lite" version and I find it reasonably easy to use with abit of tutorial.

I was shown the full version a couple years ago and it just looked like gobbligook

Very very good tool and I found it to be almost bang on with the predicted covers as long as I'd balanced it properly. But.... It takes a lot of time to balance it properly (hours sometimes when your transfering stock from one mob to another) and is a pig to do if it doesn't want to then it just won't and I couldn't get it to work sometimes. Could be made much more user friendly if they tried. I think they made it complicated to make you think you needed a consultants help to do it so you spend more money with them.
Don't think I'll bother with it now all it ever told me this year and last was I needed to sell as many lambs as possible before the autumn when growth slows down. I already knew that. When it comes to when to get stock off the grazing platform in winter or back on in spring you can just watch the farm cover and when it gets to where you think it needs to be put them on. Running all breeding stock I don't see the value in it so much as if you ran a flock of ewes and say bought in cattle to keep on top of the extra grass. It would be perfect to tell you how many extra mouths you could feed or how many to get rid of and when.
But I can't sell breeding ewes or cows when the computer tells me to because they might be rearing lambs it calves or pregnant. That's what bales are for feeding when there isn't enough grass to eat.
Would be handy to find the maximum stocking rate but you can't magic breeding ewes out of thin air anyway without buying them so I'll just stock what I think I can get away with and cull a bit harder if I go too far. That's what everyone else does anyway
The lite version sounds interesting not heard of that. If it just did the forecast cover and demand graph it's all I'd need. It's all I used it for anyway.
Agrinet on the other hand is very good if you don't use that.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Ohhh.... didn't realise you were a Farmax'er Pete!

How do you find it to use?

Our grazing group have been using the "Lite" version and I find it reasonably easy to use with abit of tutorial.

I was shown the full version a couple years ago and it just looked like gobbligook

I use the free pasture growth forecaster and it's probably as good as you'd get for a free tool. Helps me keep it real if ya know what I mean?

I'm in the habit of making a daily prediction, because I know our daily demand I rub the two figures together and realise we're in a surplus.

We had a fairly comprehensive play around with it when we were looking to buy the place, just to work out the viability of what we wanted to do, and have not long finished using it to evaluate a lease block's buoyancy

Saves a lot of "fag packets" to find the sweet spot of a business

 

[gadgewalker]

Anyone recommend a site/pdf/something for grass & "weeds" Identifying?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Anyone recommend a site/pdf/something for grass & "weeds" Identifying?

I find most of the grass ID apps completely nuts. You're better off with a book IMO, sorry I can't even point you in the direction of one!

 

[gadgewalker]

I find most of the grass ID apps completely nuts. You're better off with a book IMO, sorry I can't even point you in the direction of one!

Yeh couple of apps aren't too bad but yeh agreed. Cheers

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Yeh couple of apps aren't too bad but yeh agreed. Cheers

I have tried Plantsnap (I think) but it's hopeless on grasses. You really need a proper "textbook" with details of the ligule etc rather than trying to identify things off their seedheads.

Various threads on here show that people will identify browntop as tall fescue

 

[exmoor dave]

Very very good tool and I found it to be almost bang on with the predicted covers as long as I'd balanced it properly. But.... It takes a lot of time to balance it properly (hours sometimes when your transfering stock from one mob to another) and is a pig to do if it doesn't want to then it just won't and I couldn't get it to work sometimes. Could be made much more user friendly if they tried. I think they made it complicated to make you think you needed a consultants help to do it so you spend more money with them.
Don't think I'll bother with it now all it ever told me this year and last was I needed to sell as many lambs as possible before the autumn when growth slows down. I already knew that. When it comes to when to get stock off the grazing platform in winter or back on in spring you can just watch the farm cover and when it gets to where you think it needs to be put them on. Running all breeding stock I don't see the value in it so much as if you ran a flock of ewes and say bought in cattle to keep on top of the extra grass. It would be perfect to tell you how many extra mouths you could feed or how many to get rid of and when.
But I can't sell breeding ewes or cows when the computer tells me to because they might be rearing lambs it calves or pregnant. That's what bales are for feeding when there isn't enough grass to eat.
Would be handy to find the maximum stocking rate but you can't magic breeding ewes out of thin air anyway without buying them so I'll just stock what I think I can get away with and cull a bit harder if I go too far. That's what everyone else does anyway
The lite version sounds interesting not heard of that. If it just did the forecast cover and demand graph it's all I'd need. It's all I used it for anyway.
Agrinet on the other hand is very good if you don't use that.

Yeah it does the forecast graph,
Think a big difference is that stock numbers etc are inputted on a rough monthly basis rather than as accurate as daily like the full fat version (??)

I think the lite version was developed as a free tool for dought afflicted NZ farmers to use,
Not sure how we were able to use it

 

[exmoor dave]

I use the free pasture growth forecaster and it's probably as good as you'd get for a free tool. Helps me keep it real if ya know what I mean?

I'm in the habit of making a daily prediction, because I know our daily demand I rub the two figures together and realise we're in a surplus.

We had a fairly comprehensive play around with it when we were looking to buy the place, just to work out the viability of what we wanted to do, and have not long finished using it to evaluate a lease block's buoyancy

Saves a lot of "fag packets" to find the sweet spot of a business

As a planning tool it does seem a really good tool to predict what is possible on a holding

 

[Bury the Trash]

Anyone recommend a site/pdf/something for grass & "weeds" Identifying?

Grasses: A Guide to Their Structure, Identification, Uses, and Distribution in the British Isles

Charles Edward Hubbard
Penguin Books, 1992 - Gardening - 476 pages
0 Reviews
After the concise and informative descriptions of the structure of grasses and their flowers, there are lists of grasses for various habitats, followed by a key to grasses in flower. It provides excellent scientific illustrations of the major grasses found in the UK and information on the preferred conditions for each grass.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

As a planning tool it does seem a really good tool to predict what is possible on a holding

Really good for testing various stocking plans for profitability. That's how we hit the ground running, really, rather than going off outdated information we could have our recipe fairly well sussed before we signed up