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

[Karliboy]

So I’ve gathered up about 500kg of leaf mulch compost and some soil with some worms in to add to the dung pile for some live bacteria.
Would we leave as a pile just tipped in the middle of the dung pile and let the compost work itself outwards from there or would it be better to try and incorporate it into the dung a little?
Every few weeks as and when I can if available I will try to add some more as the winter progresses even if it is only a bucket or 2 of soil and worms

 

[som farmer]

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.

update, seen 1 rabbit today, the first for 6/8 weeks !

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

We were run alive with rabbits here as a nipper. They were breeding in the woods and the old gravel pit. Eventually dad got sick of it and put a rabbit fence round the offending woods, it was my job as a 7 year old to go round the fence daily and block any attempts to dig out. Eventually they starved to death but not before utterly clearing the understorey right across the wood so you could crouch down and see clear through.

In the last 20 years the numbers have varied greatly. Some years we've had several bags of 50+ in an hour with a pickup and 2 .17hmr rifles and some years we've not seen a single rabbit.

Plenty of foxes around though so there must be something to eat.

 

[unlacedgecko]

We were run alive with rabbits here as a nipper. They were breeding in the woods and the old gravel pit. Eventually dad got sick of it and put a rabbit fence round the offending woods, it was my job as a 7 year old to go round the fence daily and block any attempts to dig out. Eventually they starved to death but not before utterly clearing the understorey right across the wood so you could crouch down and see clear through.

In the last 20 years the numbers have varied greatly. Some years we've had several bags of 50+ in an hour with a pickup and 2 .17hmr rifles and some years we've not seen a single rabbit.

Plenty of foxes around though so there must be something to eat.

McDs and KFC must likely.

 

[GC74]

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.

Yes can't believe how many ducks and ducklings there are! I was aerating a paddock on Saturday and there was six lots running around it......never seen it like that before. On the rabbit side there's a few getting around.

 

[GC74]

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

Yip and then the rabbit board got down to shooting or trapping single digits in an area. A late friend of my olds was down Waimahaka way said they would spend 2-3 weeks getting just one! Guess this was the 50s or 60s So rabbit board was shut down and now as kiwi Pete said back to plague numbers in same areas.

 

[exmoor dave]

Yip and then the rabbit board got down to shooting or trapping single digits in an area. A late friend of my olds was down Waimahaka way said they would spend 2-3 weeks getting just one! Guess this was the 50s or 60s So rabbit board was shut down and now as kiwi Pete said back to plague numbers in same areas.

Even more bonkers, is how they were introduced to NZ in the first place!

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Can't remember if its been mentioned before, but anyone watched this?

Watch The Sacred Cow Movie For FREE

The Sacred Cow: A "No-Holds" Barred Documentary Which Finally Lays Bare...The REAL Truth BEHIND Meat, Your Health And The Environment

access.sacredcow.info

 

[Henarar]

Even more bonkers, is how they were introduced to NZ in the first place!

folk seem to like moving silly things round the world

 

[som farmer]

McDs and KFC must likely.

you are joking, meat in that stuff, way below rabbit standard.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Yip and then the rabbit board got down to shooting or trapping single digits in an area. A late friend of my olds was down Waimahaka way said they would spend 2-3 weeks getting just one! Guess this was the 50s or 60s So rabbit board was shut down and now as kiwi Pete said back to plague numbers in same areas.

Populations around here are slim even compared to in the 90s. Used to count maybe 20 on the way to school on the bus, always the same time of day and so the rabbits were in the same places.
Now you might see one or two, but the habitat has all changed as well.

Central Otago is different, last Easter bunny shoot I picked off 300 and something just patrolling a sunny face with the shotgun before it was dark enough to have a feed and get the light going, literally crawling.
We drove a line to where the rabbit fences joined up, we had slabs of shotgun shells placed there ready, cleaned up another 700 in half an hour max the farmer rang Mike a fortnight later and said to come back, we hadn't even put a noticeable dent in numbers and we'd picked up 1800 in 24 hrs.

Incredible when you think that taking 20-30,000 rabbits out of an area doesn't even really make a difference

 

[som farmer]

if you had seen the speed our rabbits spread across the farm, incredible, and pretty well gone in a week, both good and bad, i suppose.

 

[Henarar]

Populations around here are slim even compared to in the 90s. Used to count maybe 20 on the way to school on the bus, always the same time of day and so the rabbits were in the same places.
Now you might see one or two, but the habitat has all changed as well.

Central Otago is different, last Easter bunny shoot I picked off 300 and something just patrolling a sunny face with the shotgun before it was dark enough to have a feed and get the light going, literally crawling.
We drove a line to where the rabbit fences joined up, we had slabs of shotgun shells placed there ready, cleaned up another 700 in half an hour max the farmer rang Mike a fortnight later and said to come back, we hadn't even put a noticeable dent in numbers and we'd picked up 1800 in 24 hrs.

Incredible when you think that taking 20-30,000 rabbits out of an area doesn't even really make a difference

they say for every rabbit you shoot ten go to the funeral

 

[Henarar]

they say for every rabbit you shoot ten go to the funeral

then go shagging next day

 

[som farmer]

then go shagging next day

ahh, thats the cause, perhaps the herbal leys we are putting in, have contraceptive properties, some claim they have other 'properties'!

 

[Woolless]

Looking for a few ideas. Got an 8 acre field that was/is down to a plantain/clover mix but that's looking really thin after four years and the fairly moderate grasses that were there before are moving back in. The plan was to winter the ewes on it, including feeding bales and then put something else in. I could do with something for feeding weaned lambs late July so forage rape is an option. Protoplus, IRG and red clover mix was also suggested. Would also provide a nice early bite in the spring. Any other clever ideas, including what to put in following that?

 

[Bury the Trash]

Westerwolds plus white clover .,simple quick (the grass is anyway) easy to establish also it will go longer than one yr if needs be.

KISS

 

[Woolless]

Westerwolds plus white clover .,simple quick (the grass is anyway) easy to establish also it will go longer than one yr if needs be.

KISS

What's the advantages of westerwolds?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

So I’ve gathered up about 500kg of leaf mulch compost and some soil with some worms in to add to the dung pile for some live bacteria.
Would we leave as a pile just tipped in the middle of the dung pile and let the compost work itself outwards from there or would it be better to try and incorporate it into the dung a little?
Every few weeks as and when I can if available I will try to add some more as the winter progresses even if it is only a bucket or 2 of soil and wormsView attachment 922459View attachment 922458

If it were me, I'd have a crack at making a 'Johnson-Su' bioreactor for that leaf litter, and some of the dung. Layer it like a cake, then use the "result" when you spread your muck

 

[som farmer]

What's the advantages of westerwolds?

don't see any, IRG not more expensive, yield similar, and would stay for 2 yrs.