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

[Kiwi Pete]

I'm reduced to mowing tracks for the fence, just too much load otherwise.
Probably pushing the sheep a bit hard - will have a yarn to their owner to see what he wants to do. They probably want a lamb drench.

Doing a pretty fair job of leaving some soil protection though!
Shifting twice a day, a bit under an acre at a time seems to shut them up.

I haven't even been measuring the areas TBH, just "putting them at it". Seeing what comes out the back of a disc mower that's set back on its heels, there's plenty there.

Happy days

 

[NZDan]

Bloody good! We had a proper cloudburst here, maybe 20mm in ten minutes? And it rained overnight as well.
It poured while we were at Mum's exchanging gifts, we got 4km up the road and it was dry, really localised.

We had a cloud burst late on on Christmas night, nowt like being up a ladder clearing spouting while pished and full of food.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

We had a cloud burst late on on Christmas night, nowt like being up a ladder clearing spouting while pished and full of food.

I see we had almost 30mm here. Now it's warmed up again, yesterday we had sleet and hail but a cracker today.
Had a dig through the big mat of "hay" we left and it is literally sopping wet, heaps of green seedlings and new tillers popping up

 

[Kiwi Pete]

By Steve Kenyon
Contributor
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Published: December 23, 2020
From the Ground Up, Livestock

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Photo: File/Debbie FurberIt was 2001. I was a young man starting my farm from scratch. I was just starting a family, running a small herd of cattle and working way too many hours on and off the farm. Have you heard the saying that a farmer works eight hours a day to feed your family, then he works another eight hours a day to feed his? Well, that was me except it was more than eight hours off the farm. I hate that saying. It really hit me one day when I was trying to feed grain in the morning and in the evening. I realized that I was feeding my animals four hours apart. I was working way too hard and not getting ahead. Why was I broke? Why couldn’t I make my payments?
Mental capacity

Rearranging chairs on the Titanic

https://www.canadiancattlemen.ca/fe...m-leads-manitoba-producer-to-regenerative-ag/

I was desperate. I heard a rumour that there was this school called Ranching for Profit and it could turn your farm around. But there was a problem — it was a week-long school, and the tuition was $2,500, plus all the travel and hotel and food costs. Ouch. I can’t afford that. A week off work and find $2,500? I had a friend from college who was in the same place as me — working extremely hard but no money. He was working off-farm and with his parents on the farm. Not only was he broke and could not afford the school, but the farm needed him.
I decided to sell four cows and take the school. My friend was not able to come. Off I went, green as grass and swinging for the fence to see if I could turn this farm around.


MIND BLOWING! I was so overwhelmed with information and emotion and passion. It was an incredible week for me. It was almost 20 years ago but I still feel the emotional overload that I had from being there. I was a young man starting a family. My job was to provide for my family and I was failing. I’m not too proud to say that there were a few tears shed that week.
On top of the course content, the networking that goes along with events like this is half of the education. The people I met and the knowledge I received was worth its weight in gold. What an amazing group of people. I had one person from the school offer me a job to set up and manage a ranch. I had another invest in land for me and I also had 300 head of cattle sent to me to custom feed, just from the networking. No one can ever tell me the networking is not worth your time at a conference or a school.


There were so many ideas that I brought home but one stands out. I learned how to do a gross margin analysis. I was never taught this in school, not even in the agriculture college I attended. It was a whole new way of looking at the farm. Imagine, actually planning to pay for your labour on the farm?
As soon as I got home — you guessed it — I was back to the off-farm job. Back to the same old grind of making a living. My friend phoned me up and I told him about how powerful the school was. The next weekend, he traveled over 500 km to come see me. He asked me to teach him what I learned. It was the best thing that that could have happened to me. I had to teach what I learned. We sat down for two days and I struggled to remember what I learned and tried to remember how the numbers all went together. I stumbled through it and at the end of the second day we had his family farm entered into a gross margin analysis.
I still remember him sitting at the table. He dropped his head into his hands and there was silence. I did not know what to say, so I stayed silent. The margin told us he was LOSING $300/cow. I was not sure if he was mad? Or sad? Did I do something wrong? Finally, he looked up at me and there were tears in his eyes. “I thought we were making money,” is all he said. “I honestly thought we were making money.” I saw right there, first-hand, the power of a gross margin.
All that week, after work, late at night, I ran my farm through the margin calculator, and I found out that the cows were losing me the most money. In my environment, the small herd of custom cows I was managing was making me the best margin and my cows were losing money. I think the biggest benefit to understanding the economics of your business is that the decisions are so easy to make. His decision was to pull back from the purebred business and focus on the grass and the commercial cattle. My decision was to focus on the custom grazing and sell my cows. Different decisions but similar results. Both farms started to make money.
I would like to share with you some fantastic news. My friend turned that farm around. Over the next few years, he was able to buy back 14 quarters of land that the bank had previously repossessed, and within a few years, he quit his off-farm job. I’m happy to say that he is still operating a successful farm business today. I think the gross margin analysis was the most important breakthrough that my farm ever had. I would guess that if you asked my friend, it was his as well. I am proud of you, buddy!


too good not to share here

eta the "rearranging chairs on the Titanic" is also top notch

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Bulls on parade

Really happy with how these crossbred "Canadians" are doing now, the small bull is 14 months and the bigger bull is a year older.

Big bull has "we think" got to all the cows and heifers, small guy has probably given it a fair crack as well. Certainly been all over them like a rash.

Wee guy is ¾ speckle park, big boy is still catching up a little after being away for the winter, came back a bit light.

 

[DanM]

I'm reduced to mowing tracks for the fence, just too much load otherwise.
Probably pushing the sheep a bit hard - will have a yarn to their owner to see what he wants to do. They probably want a lamb drench.View attachment 929362
View attachment 929361
Doing a pretty fair job of leaving some soil protection though!
Shifting twice a day, a bit under an acre at a time seems to shut them up.

I haven't even been measuring the areas TBH, just "putting them at it". Seeing what comes out the back of a disc mower that's set back on its heels, there's plenty there.

Happy days

Morning Pete; intrigued about how the grass your leaving-starts cycling back round. Is it damp enough under the cover that stock are actually “incorporating” it into top layer of soil, or is it literally a layer lying on top and your reliant on the dung and creepy-crawlies to join it all together and get it cycling?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Morning Pete; intrigued about how the grass your leaving-starts cycling back round. Is it damp enough under the cover that stock are actually “incorporating” it into top layer of soil, or is it literally a layer lying on top and your reliant on the dung and creepy-crawlies to join it all together and get it cycling?

Hi Dan! It's pretty much a layer on the surface.

We're not in a hurry for it to disappear because "this is it" (in some respects) as far as having bulk lignified grass goes.
We want to leave a thickish layer so new tillers have to take over (succession) as opposed to keeping the old tillers going to be grazed in 45 days time.

Hopefully they've had enough of a crimp to hay off and rain + time will turn it to a compost layer on the surface, which will feed and protect the horsepower underneath

With our planned destocking beginning next month and that we'll only have a skeleton landscaping crew by March, we're switching rapidly from around a 45-50 day planned recovery to 90-120 days - we need "a reset" to enable this length of rest.

If we don't get all over it now, long story short, we'll just have a heap of stemmy stuff that isn't actually growing, if it isn't in recovery mode then the plants aren't really pushing out the exudates as they could be.

Half the solar panel is effectively "on the dole"

Some will hopefully come back in time for 'aftermath heading' kinda like second-cut silage, so the later flowering species like timothy and ryegrass and cocksfoot will add to the seedbank
the earlier flowering plants like meadowgrass and dogatail and fog won't get so much opportunity

much the same as a tidy-up with the topping machine except that leaves the residue on top of growing leaves, this is more like you flat-rolled it 8 times without the weight and compaction.

We only used about 20kg/m² to get this laid down which in groundpressure terms, is a very light topping tractor!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

It's easy math at the solstice - we'll graze "todays bit" again about the equinox which is 90 days out

100 days after that is about the end of June/start of July
100 days after that is about October, so really slowing it down.

We made the grazing area smaller (density) and consolidated mobs which both increase the recovering area and time

Now we have the DM there, we can slow down the time and "make the farm bigger" again

We really need to hit the ground running next growing season, a bit like delaying turnout but in a grazing context.
This means we can run good (4.5-5.5 instead of 2.5/ha) stocking rates from the get-go

 

[DanM]

It's easy math at the solstice - we'll graze "todays bit" again about the equinox which is 90 days out

100 days after that is about the end of June/start of July
100 days after that is about October, so really slowing it down.

We made the grazing area smaller (density) and consolidated mobs which both increase the recovering area and time

Now we have the DM there, we can slow down the time and "make the farm bigger" again

We really need to hit the ground running next growing season, a bit like delaying turnout but in a grazing context.
This means we can run good (4.5-5.5 instead of 2.5/ha) stocking rates from the get-go

So the destocking will be jan/feb/mar, equivalent to Jul/aug/sept in Uk? How long are you planning to run without stock before ramping it back up?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

So the destocking will be jan/feb/mar, equivalent to Jul/aug/sept in Uk? How long are you planning to run without stock before ramping it back up?

Yep about that period between grazings anyway.

We possibly won't be "destocked" destocked until Feb, it really depends on how this guy gets on with his irrigation system (long story short, the container with most of the brain has gone missing in transit, which meant no summer water, which means no grass!!) but the original plan was 6-8 weeks so 3-5 more. We'll play it by ear.

We'll just stock up accordingly, we are in the rare position that we've made enough $$$ to pay all our costs for the June-June financial year already, so we can choose the animals for the covers we have when we feel it's good to go.

It could be anything yet.
120 calves grazing on $15/week would be pretty suitable if we could get them from April-October, get them ready for the bull or something.
Maybe we'll buy some cattle if the price crashes going into winter and I can see a clear $400/hd margin in them. It's an enviable position, one we've had a few tears fall to earn though.

 

[Henarar]

Here you go @Jaffa Cakes we made a start on this yesterday, feel free to pick holes in it.

Here is a before pic of the next bit

This hedge hasn't been helped by the woodland behind it having the effect of making it grow out over the field, the hedge is very narrow for one of ours with no bank at all though there is a deep washed out gully behind it
just for interest the woodland used to be a field and its grown over.

 

[Crofter64]

Bulls on parade
View attachment 929573View attachment 929574
Really happy with how these crossbred "Canadians" are doing now, the small bull is 14 months and the bigger bull is a year older.

Big bull has "we think" got to all the cows and heifers, small guy has probably given it a fair crack as well. Certainly been all over them like a rash.

Wee guy is ¾ speckle park, big boy is still catching up a little after being away for the winter, came back a bit light.

Shedding of hair and slickness are supposed to be the pre- eminent signs of health in cattle. These guys tick both boxes!

 

[Jaffa Cakes]

Here you go @Jaffa Cakes we made a start on this yesterday, feel free to pick holes in it.View attachment 929598
Here is a before pic of the next bit
View attachment 929599
This hedge hasn't been helped by the woodland behind it having the effect of making it grow out over the field, the hedge is very narrow for one of ours with no bank at all though there is a deep washed out gully behind it
just for interest the woodland used to be a field and its grown over.

Looks like its heading in the right direction, ivy is a bit of a bugger to work around! What type of hedging is it?

 

[Blaithin]

Figured I'd tack on a photo of the bale messes I aim for in the winter. They really don't waste that much as we do make them clean it up. Also every day or so a sled or two are taken away to feed the horse. Still leaves a nice cover behind. Hardest part is being able to get bales out to where I think they would do the most good. Once there's enough snow it's hard to get them out there.

You can see farther back is another bale. That ones a silage bale and there's been a bit more left behind from them. Lots of straw. They kind of second as a bedding pack once we've moved the ring on to the next bale.

 

[Fenwick]

Do any of you doing Bâle grazing have before and after pics, that illustrate thé state of thé paddocks after feeding and after regrowth? I remember @onesiedale and his r1s. but no photos of thé fields thé year after.

I Can only find before and after photos of thé North Americans, but i wanted some from more temperate climates.

 

[onesiedale]

Do any of you doing Bâle grazing have before and after pics, that illustrate thé state of thé paddocks after feeding and after regrowth? I remember @onesiedale and his r1s. but no photos of thé fields thé year after.

I Can only find before and after photos of thé North Americans, but i wanted some from more temperate climates.

Will put some pics up later this week. Must be remembered though, after bale grazing we usually drill seed into the pasture.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Figured I'd tack on a photo of the bale messes I aim for in the winter. They really don't waste that much as we do make them clean it up. Also every day or so a sled or two are taken away to feed the horse. Still leaves a nice cover behind. Hardest part is being able to get bales out to where I think they would do the most good. Once there's enough snow it's hard to get them out there.

You can see farther back is another bale. That ones a silage bale and there's been a bit more left behind from them. Lots of straw. They kind of second as a bedding pack once we've moved the ring on to the next bale.

View attachment 929760

Matter of interest, how do you get them out there?
(big rounds).

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Do any of you doing Bâle grazing have before and after pics, that illustrate thé state of thé paddocks after feeding and after regrowth? I remember @onesiedale and his r1s. but no photos of thé fields thé year after.

I Can only find before and after photos of thé North Americans, but i wanted some from more temperate climates.

If you go on FB, Mark Anderson (Westridge Farm) does a lot of that, not too far from here.

Mostly on ex-arable land that is completely flogged, for want of better description, it's like brick with about 1-1.5%OM

Edit, I can't find his FB pages so maybe he's halted his accounts

 

[Blaithin]

Matter of interest, how do you get them out there?
(big rounds).

The one in the photo was actually a big square

Drag them behind the truck usually. Mom had a fit about that and bought a tractor this fall though so sometimes we use that. Just it's a little old tractor and the ice defeats it more often than not. Need to get a 3pt hitch so we can weigh down the back better.

The silage bales we can take multiple out and just leave them alone. They don't usually beat them up so the bales open until we cut them. Although there is one cow with horns that isn't allowed out, she'll pop them all. The heifers haven't learnt their horn power with that yet.

But there are areas the snow drifts in too much so they get cut off eventually and other areas that aren't within the fence and once the ground is frozen I can't really move the fence. Need to make up some type of wire holder. I've got a plan in my head for them, just never got around to it. Not paying for those tumbleweed type ones from NZ

 

[Kiwi Pete]

The one in the photo was actually a big square

Drag them behind the truck usually. Mom had a fit about that and bought a tractor this fall though so sometimes we use that. Just it's a little old tractor and the ice defeats it more often than not. Need to get a 3pt hitch so we can weigh down the back better.

The silage bales we can take multiple out and just leave them alone. They don't usually beat them up so the bales open until we cut them. Although there is one cow with horns that isn't allowed out, she'll pop them all. The heifers haven't learnt their horn power with that yet.

But there are areas the snow drifts in too much so they get cut off eventually and other areas that aren't within the fence and once the ground is frozen I can't really move the fence. Need to make up some type of wire holder. I've got a plan in my head for them, just never got around to it. Not paying for those tumbleweed type ones from NZ

Thanks. I figured you wouldn't be trying to roll them around the snowdrifts by hand!

Must be interesting trying to shift fence with frozen ground. Would you be able to put parallel fences along the sides of your grazing area and just use a polybraid cut to length, that you could slide forward as you go?
Kinda like how we make our lanes on pasture here. But without the weight of a reel to support and insulate, if you have about the same distance each time it makes the reel redundant

Looked at those tumblewheels as well, but they seem cost prohibitive for all that they "do" unless you're using a strip half a mile long. 40 or 50 yards is plenty to shift IMO