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

[Fenwick]

Is there one "sweet spot" or multiple throughout the grass growth year/curve?

In a nutshell we are trying to balance these sweet "spots" within our systems i.e. stock class, soil, long/short term objectives etc.

Finding one grass growth sweet spot to graze seems to me too simplistic i.e three leaf or seedhead emergence or X kg DM/ha etc.

oh thérè is a sweet spot on a sigmoïde curve alright. each pasture species has one, and for many species it Can bé achieved multiple Times a year But you will never hit it right all thé Time, infact you wont hit it right often at all.

Thats why multispecies pastures are so useful as they hedge your bets so well.

Agréé 100% with @Kiwi Pete about platemeters. though i feel a bit excluded when we talk about grazing, dm/Ha down thé pub. I tend to say it's about boot high or bollock high or whatever. But we all get to thé same place in thé end.

 

[Woolless]

oh thérè is a sweet spot on a sigmoïde curve alright. each pasture species has one, and for many species it Can bé achieved multiple Times a year But you will never hit it right all thé Time, infact you wont hit it right often at all.

Thats why multispecies pastures are so useful as they hedge your bets so well.

Agréé 100% with @Kiwi Pete about platemeters. though i feel a bit excluded when we talk about grazing, dm/Ha down thé pub. I tend to say it's about boot high or bollock high or whatever. But we all get to thé same place in thé end.

I would like to come for a pint in your local hostelry if that's what the chat is! Plus french girls? Ooh la la!

 

[Woolless]

Six Original population Hereford heifers have finally arrived! Enjoying a beautiful day here in Berwickshire to ease their transition to the northern latitudes! @gadgewalker

Resident Hereford hater @Blaithin must be a bit scunnered by the way this thread has gone in recent days

 

[Blaithin]

Haven't popped in here for a bit. See I didn't miss much if you've all gone Hereford

 

[Blaithin]

Sold the Hereford this year. He did manage 5 years without trying to kill himself. I've been told the horned ones are better at surviving.

Should be noted that the entire reason we got him was nobody else wanted him at the auction so he was cheap

Tipped the auction scale at just under 2500 lbs after his hard summer of work with 7 cows.

Now all we've got are a couple of his half Herf heifers from last year.

 

[Whitewalker]

http://instagr.am/p/CHe-7EfFhfZ/ Link here to a refreshing podcast.
Enjoy. (nb. It wouldn't make much sense if it had a swear filter!)

Admittedly I haven’t found the time to get past 15 minutes yet but what is clearly evident is a beautiful relationship between two brothers. You can just see them bouncing off each other and a real connection. Looking forward to listening to the rest when I resurrect my EarPods

 

[gadgewalker]

View attachment 923695View attachment 923696
Six Original population Hereford heifers have finally arrived! Enjoying a beautiful day here in Berwickshire to ease their transition to the northern latitudes! @gadgewalker

Resident Hereford hater @Blaithin must be a bit scunnered by the way this thread has gone in recent days [emoji23]View attachment 923697

Looking good, it's great having them already! What are you doing for next year's bulling?

 

[gadgewalker]

Got them behind the electric and still in. Good start

 

[Woolless]

Looking good, it's great having them already! What are you doing for next year's bulling?

Probably going to buy an OP Hereford bull and keep it simple, particularly as I fancy some Red Polls and trying that cross. My inner livestock nerd might be set free with AI after that

 

[Woolless]

Got them behind the electric and still in. Good startView attachment 923710

I think I need 'extreme detail' about your water system?

 

[gadgewalker]

Probably going to buy an OP Hereford bull and keep it simple, particularly as I fancy some Red Polls and trying that cross. My inner livestock nerd might be set free with AI after that

I like all of this!

 

[gadgewalker]

I think I need 'extreme detail' about your water system?

Haha...As I hope you can see its as complicated as it seems.

IBC, hose, stop cock, old crystalyx bucket. Theres a mains running down the side so plan is to tee off that at various points!

 

[JohnGalway]

Haha...As I hope you can see its as complicated as it seems.

IBC, hose, stop cock, old crystalyx bucket. Theres a mains running down the side so plan is to tee off that at various points!

Great, I've about 20 drinkers in the back of the van right now!

 

[Woolless]

Great, I've about 20 drinkers in the back of the van right now!

Kerry cattle for sale cheap on sellmylivestock now in Sussex of all places!

 

[ShooTa]

all caught up again.. really enjoyed the dick richardson video - i like the simplicity of that style of base setup he talks about

 

[Woolless]

Sold the Hereford this year. He did manage 5 years without trying to kill himself. I've been told the horned ones are better at surviving.

Should be noted that the entire reason we got him was nobody else wanted him at the auction so he was cheap

Tipped the auction scale at just under 2500 lbs after his hard summer of work with 7 cows.
View attachment 923701

Now all we've got are a couple of his half Herf heifers from last year.

From what I've seen, he looks like one of those Anxiety 4th jobs.

 

[Blaithin]

From what I've seen, he looks like one of those Anxiety 4th jobs.

He’s a failure then. I’ve never seen a bull cave in to cows genetics so well.

Great for putting him over smaller cows. They never had too large of calves. sh!t for producing a consistent calf crop. He didn’t pass on any sort of hindquarter if the cow didn’t have much.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

oh thérè is a sweet spot on a sigmoïde curve alright. each pasture species has one, and for many species it Can bé achieved multiple Times a year But you will never hit it right all thé Time, infact you wont hit it right often at all.

Thats why multispecies pastures are so useful as they hedge your bets so well.

Agréé 100% with @Kiwi Pete about platemeters. though i feel a bit excluded when we talk about grazing, dm/Ha down thé pub. I tend to say it's about boot high or bollock high or whatever. But we all get to thé same place in thé end.

I feel the same at the pub, most farmers are speaking a different language so I talk to their partners instead.

"Greedy, entitled f**kwit" is not my first language, so I tend to shy away and converse in 'mum speak', ie what we are most worried, about and what we are trying to do about that.

(If our grass is measureable by a platemeter at this time of year, then I'm already failing my water cycle.
It took me a while to click to this)

 

[Kiwi Pete]

We use the token hereford in the mob for target practice @Blaithin

She is going to taste awfully good, def a freemartin

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Herefords do make a lovely dairy cross though, cheap and easy to finish