Anyone that thinks that is right about some animals
Will leave you to think about that one
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..
- Thread starter Kiwi Pete
- Start date
Will leave you to think about that one
exmoor dave
Member
- Location
- exmoor, uk
Yes, even when the ground looks flat, it only takes a tiny bump to short a surprising amount of net out.
Plus with the power only coming from a 12v energiser, there isn't much power to lose before the fence isn't effective..... the rabbits are persistent!
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I do have a fluffhead to help keep things real
I did say, rabbit farming its the future
she is very smart always looks like she is thinking about something and she comes to a whistleI do have a fluffhead to help keep things real
exmoor dave
Member
- Location
- exmoor, uk
Not really.
A mate of mine on FB has said "it's money in the bank" and all that crap, but it isn't money in the bank. It's money out of the bank!
I'd really rather just get more animals, and put money in the bank that way.... maybe have a cruisy winter on the back of it.
We deal with the "we're short of feed" in different ways to most,, but if you had asked me the same question 3 years ago, well I was probably sharpening the mower this time 3 years ago.
And it wasn't "money in the bank" then either
I guess that's one of the pitfalls of carrying alot of breeding stock, you've really got to have a fall back plan, even our outwintered herd of cattle on moorland have a stack of silage bales ready to feed if we get prolonged bad weather so the grazing vanishes.
Dad would call it money in the bank too, in a way I agree, when you need it, you need it, but it's also deteriorating all the time...... so actually just like money in the bank near zero interest rates
For suckler cows, we've been buying alot of what we need, as grass for us to bale, that's run away from the chaps sheep, or 2yr old stuff, the chap no longer wants.
Seems to work well and lets us just get on and graze our ground
exmoor dave
Member
- Location
- exmoor, uk
If you look through a termal scope over most of our ground, you'd think we were rabbit farming
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
You fed the worms by turning the green into brown, they like their brown stuff as you like cake
still can't believe you turned down cake
I remember one of Dad's trials involved using roundup as "aeration" and gosh did that do wonders for the soil, at about 11mls per acre.
Completely relieved compaction and undid the ploughpan but of course you can't do that, not now in the age of enlightenment.
People will cry themselves to sleep about using poison and chemical resistance and God knows what else so that's between you and me and the gatepost
One of his other trials was to spin various fertilisers out on old the tennis court with a fiddle 4 times a year and see what they all did after a few years of repetition, now that was interesting.... even more interesting now that I drive a fert spreader.
The 3 worst things for soil structure are the 3 most common things we are called to apply.
One for the "you couldn't make it up" files if ever there was.
Based on "expert" advice, this week I will mostly be buggering water catchments in a precise and scientific manner
we use to rent a field like that, I had a really good light, stand on the gate and put it round and see hundreds looking back at youIf you look through a termal scope over most of our ground, you'd think we were rabbit farming
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Are rabbits quite a pest over there? We used to have bloody plagues of them when I was a lad, I got a .22 for my 8th birthday and we did a lot of shooting.
Went around a farm at Wairuna and got about 550 on the first round, got another brick and got 400 on the second lap. 500 acres, and you could get that type of tally on a monthly basis. Soon got to be a fair shot with a .22LR.
then the dairy farms came in and the rabbits kinda retreated and hares took over
then they brought in the calicivirus and the rabbit population down here never really recovered, you see a few and then the virus comes back through and you see very few.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
It's quite a different business to what we do now.I guess that's one of the pitfalls of carrying alot of breeding stock, you've really got to have a fall back plan, even our outwintered herd of cattle on moorland have a stack of silage bales ready to feed if we get prolonged bad weather so the grazing vanishes.
Dad would call it money in the bank too, in a way I agree, when you need it, you need it, but it's also deteriorating all the time...... so actually just like money in the bank near zero interest rates
For suckler cows, we've been buying alot of what we need, as grass for us to bale, that's run away from the chaps sheep, or 2yr old stuff, the chap no longer wants.
Seems to work well and lets us just get on and graze our ground
You have liquid assets that we don't really have.. I mean if you get a bit stuffed then you can liquidate some ewes or thin out the cows, we don't have that option.
Our asset is our green cover, and our cashflow comes from what we do with that.
Watching it blow in the wind is better than paying a man to come bale it up, but neither of them is "money in the bank" really.
Hence the hay-mower and the plough are both parked by the gate as monuments of our past life as farmers, the need to change the size of the farm isn't there if you can change the number of stock it carries from time to time
' Rabbits a Pest here ' would be an understatement that's fer sure 
- Location
- somerset
we 'lost' our rabbits 10/12 yrs ago, they got something that cleared the lot out, several times we have seen a few, in an area, but not for long. This year, we saw a few, then quite a few, and they spread fight across the farm, i fully understand the expression, 'breed like rabbits', the speed was impressive ! Now, we have zero, again, they went in a couple of weeks, in a funny sort of way, i quite miss them.
hardly any on the home farm, this was some land we rented about 5 miles away.
we have some away land where there are a few, they seem to get a few then get the mixy then go again
Dad said when they had the mixy first on some roads there were so many dead ones it was a job to walk between them
During and just after the war they were reasonable money, a chap used to come round every week with horse and putt and collect them take them out to the station and they would go to London, Dad reckoned that some of them must have been pretty well come by the time they got there as some didn't bother to paunch them properly but I spose some bugger was glad to see them. apparently the chap used to stop in Eagle Tavern for lunch and some of the buggers would buy him drinks till he was half cut and go out and get some rabbits out of his putt and sell them to him again
- Location
- somerset
as kids, we ate a lot of rabbit, then mixy, i mowed a field, with a finger bar mower, on the headlands, the mower would bung up, with dead/dying rabbits, you have to back up, clear up, about every 20/30 yards, haven't eaten rabbit since.
We still had a lot of 'fit' rabbits, augmented my pocket money, thanks to the local butcher 1'4penny's, that looks wrong now, one shilling 4 pence a head. As got older, we would lamp them in the l/rover, nothing to 60/70 a night, worth b all by then.
We still had a lot of 'fit' rabbits, augmented my pocket money, thanks to the local butcher 1'4penny's, that looks wrong now, one shilling 4 pence a head. As got older, we would lamp them in the l/rover, nothing to 60/70 a night, worth b all by then.
exmoor dave
Member
- Location
- exmoor, uk
Massive pest here, not a huge amount of control happens, I'll admit I don't put the hours in I used to.
We had celisci (not sure on the spelling) virus come through in 2017, which really knocked them in the valley, but numbers seem to be back up now.
Mixy doesn't really seem to knock numbers anymore.
The rabbits on the hill blocks seem to be immune to both diseases
Could burn through a brick of .22lr easily in a good night
exmoor dave
Member
- Location
- exmoor, uk
The NZ were a sight to see mind!
Few times driving at night, we had to do a double take that we hadn't seen a fox!
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Oh wow. They're apparently back to plague numbers inland, we do the Easter shoot but it's been canned for the past 2 years - wet weather amd then covid, so I bet there are some up there now.
Quite noticeable how many ducks have arrived due to a limited hunting season as well, I didn't even go out this year which is the first time in 35 years, ducks everywhere. Must have 150 bouncing around this place and it is just a blip.
One thing, I bet population control via hunting is a whole lot easier down here. Not so much the rabbits, as inland can be pretty remote, but in general.
Quite noticeable how many ducks have arrived due to a limited hunting season as well, I didn't even go out this year which is the first time in 35 years, ducks everywhere. Must have 150 bouncing around this place and it is just a blip.
One thing, I bet population control via hunting is a whole lot easier down here. Not so much the rabbits, as inland can be pretty remote, but in general.
exmoor dave
Member
- Location
- exmoor, uk
In the book "making sheep country", the author describes historical accounts of the the NZ rabbit plague in the later 1800s, it was described as almost like a wall of fire moving across the landscape devouring all the green stuff in front.
The stations' rabbit trapper tallys are mind boggling
- Location
- West Yorkshire
Rabbits are a serious pest here, I know it’s a poo way for them to die and suffer but I’m kinda glad when mixi comes around every 5or 6 years to knock the buggers back a bit.
my land is to awkward to get around with a vehicle for shooting without them buggering of night or day.
my land is to awkward to get around with a vehicle for shooting without them buggering of night or day.
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