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

[JohnGalway]

Thanks I have listened to a lot of them, my job is quite mind numbing! Are you doing a microscope workshop @johngalway?

Sort of, I'm starting with the foundation courses with the soil food web, then I hope to progress to becoming a certified lab tech. I haven't even begun to look at buying a microscope yet, but it's something I'll have to do soon. I've heard many people talk about Elaine Inghams work, but two in particular influenced me and they were Nicole Masters and Johann Zietsman.

 

[bendigeidfran]

This is more regeneration that regenerative ag... but interesting nonetheless... imagine if we stopped selling the landscape's "food" all the time??View attachment 936602View attachment 936603

Having to pay to dispose of fallen stock is one thing that really grinds my gears, they don't last long around here, plenty of wildlife to eat them. Nothing would go to waste.

 

[Tyedyetom]

Sort of, I'm starting with the foundation courses with the soil food web, then I hope to progress to becoming a certified lab tech. I haven't even begun to look at buying a microscope yet, but it's something I'll have to do soon. I've heard many people talk about Elaine Inghams work, but two in particular influenced me and they were Nicole Masters and Johann Zietsman.

That’s good stuff, I’d like to do those courses soon. I’ve got a microscope for FEC but would be very useful to learn what to look for in the soil or compost.

 

[Samcowman]

What podcasts do people like listening too? I have my earphones in most of the day and like a change everyone and then.

I’ll try not to repeat any but the Charlie Arnott one is excellent
Head shepherd
Nutrition farming with Graeme sait
Profitable farmer

 

[som farmer]

putting a thought out, as dairy, protien is important, with soya at £460 ton, that takes a bit of sticking ! Luckily we are on pro-rape (replacement), but the area of rape is shrinking, because no long lasting flea beetle control. We have talked through growing various proteins, but soya wasn't at these highs ! We are growing spring barley. So, what is the best practical source of home grown protien, not lucerne. We will aim to get top quality forage, with plenty of clover, really just looking for ideas.

 

[JohnGalway]

putting a thought out, as dairy, protien is important, with soya at £460 ton, that takes a bit of sticking ! Luckily we are on pro-rape (replacement), but the area of rape is shrinking, because no long lasting flea beetle control. We have talked through growing various proteins, but soya wasn't at these highs ! We are growing spring barley. So, what is the best practical source of home grown protien, not lucerne. We will aim to get top quality forage, with plenty of clover, really just looking for ideas.

This might interest you, it's happening tomorrow

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[onesiedale]

I’ll try not to repeat any but the Charlie Arnott one is excellent
Head shepherd
Nutrition farming with Graeme sait
Profitable farmer

Not a podcast, but a YouTube 3½hr marathon.
I found Dick Richardson good to listen to.

 

[JohnGalway]

That’s good stuff, I’d like to do those courses soon. I’ve got a microscope for FEC but would be very useful to learn what to look for in the soil or compost.

If you do, read their forum first, scour it for tips re the quizzes, there's one after each lecture. I winged it for the first three, didn't listen to "Take comprehensive notes", got 100%, 100% (aren't I brilliant) then 81% (WTAF????), which brought my overall to just above 93%, for getting two questions wrong over three quizzes. The important thing, if you want to start a lab or consultancy, is to get 90%+ overall grade, so every question counts and some are a pain to comprehend.

And what are you doing right now John........... Stop starting a lecture, taking comprehensive notes........

 

[awkward]

putting a thought out, as dairy, protien is important, with soya at £460 ton, that takes a bit of sticking ! Luckily we are on pro-rape (replacement), but the area of rape is shrinking, because no long lasting flea beetle control. We have talked through growing various proteins, but soya wasn't at these highs ! We are growing spring barley. So, what is the best practical source of home grown protien, not lucerne. We will aim to get top quality forage, with plenty of clover, really just looking for ideas.

Were planning to put some persian clovers in with rhy ,don't know if the protein will be very high though. Funny but some thistles are in the 30%range.

 

[Fenwick]

putting a thought out, as dairy, protien is important, with soya at £460 ton, that takes a bit of sticking ! Luckily we are on pro-rape (replacement), but the area of rape is shrinking, because no long lasting flea beetle control. We have talked through growing various proteins, but soya wasn't at these highs ! We are growing spring barley. So, what is the best practical source of home grown protien, not lucerne. We will aim to get top quality forage, with plenty of clover, really just looking for ideas.

Field beans are very popular with thé organic boys and gals over here. Especially those who have high production animals liké dairy goats.

With organic soy being nearly 1000€ thé ton, and thé ethics of sourcing it questions le, Most of thé organic farmers is know don't gros straights. Using vetch, lupin, pea or Bean with each of their cereals.

 

[Woolless]

Aw not many really...........

Working Cows,
Farm Gate,
The thriving Farmer Podcast,
In Search of Soil,
Farmerama,
The Regenerative Journey with Charlie Arnott,
Regenerative Agriculture Podcast (John Kempf)

I’ll try not to repeat any but the Charlie Arnott one is excellent
Head shepherd
Nutrition farming with Graeme sait
Profitable farmer

I tried one of the Charlie Arnott episodes on Working Cows but I only lasted 10 minutes. He was going on about making compost or tea or something and how he chucked in animal organs so it could 'organise itself'. That had me skipping on to the next episode. Can you convince me that I've been too hasty in dismissing CA?

 

[Woolless]

putting a thought out, as dairy, protien is important, with soya at £460 ton, that takes a bit of sticking ! Luckily we are on pro-rape (replacement), but the area of rape is shrinking, because no long lasting flea beetle control. We have talked through growing various proteins, but soya wasn't at these highs ! We are growing spring barley. So, what is the best practical source of home grown protien, not lucerne. We will aim to get top quality forage, with plenty of clover, really just looking for ideas.

What's alfalfa like to grow over here?

 

[som farmer]

This might interest you, it's happening tomorrow

Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board...

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isn't us growing the rape, from what i can gather, it's a ok crop, or a write off, with not much in between !
soya is the 'ideal', and 50/50 rape soya is a very good mixture. But soya comes a long way, and grown in the wrong places, s/mkts don't like it, we have to declare how much, and where from, for our milk buyer, so soya will be 'out', rape is the next best, rape pro, can replace soya, but unless they give derogations on sprays, it isn't going to be grown in sufficient amounts, to supply the meal, it will be imported rape oil.
So, that's the riddle, to replace the best two protien sources, our cows are not high yielding, so do not require the precision rationing of the high yielding herds, where it is crucial. Just putting a 'feeler' out, you never know, someone might have found the solution, or found a way to reduce the need for rape/soya.

 

[Tyedyetom]

isn't us growing the rape, from what i can gather, it's a ok crop, or a write off, with not much in between !
soya is the 'ideal', and 50/50 rape soya is a very good mixture. But soya comes a long way, and grown in the wrong places, s/mkts don't like it, we have to declare how much, and where from, for our milk buyer, so soya will be 'out', rape is the next best, rape pro, can replace soya, but unless they give derogations on sprays, it isn't going to be grown in sufficient amounts, to supply the meal, it will be imported rape oil.
So, that's the riddle, to replace the best two protien sources, our cows are not high yielding, so do not require the precision rationing of the high yielding herds, where it is crucial. Just putting a 'feeler' out, you never know, someone might have found the solution, or found a way to reduce the need for rape/soya.

When we had a feeder wagon we fed sunflower pellets for a couple years.
not really what this thread is about but using enough urea on silage ground will give higher protein silage then only an energy feed is needed like wheat feed or wheat gluten. Worked ok for us

 

[som farmer]

Field beans are very popular with thé organic boys and gals over here. Especially those who have high production animals liké dairy goats.

With organic soy being nearly 1000€ thé ton, and thé ethics of sourcing it questions le, Most of thé organic farmers is know don't gros straights. Using vetch, lupin, pea or Bean with each of their cereals.

looked at peas/beans, 1.5 ton/acre, need a lot of acres, lupins are a difficult crop to grow, so best left to arable boys, vetches look interesting, and as a legume as well, thinking on that one.

What's alfalfa like to grow over here?

lucerne is a good crop, and i have grown it, and pure red clover, but it's a forage crop, and we are looking to mix with rolled corn, to feed to y/s.
But, all the crops mentioned produce protien, and are legumes, so all are important going forwards, where ag is heading, farm produced food, and production from that, is going to be crucial. NVZ, regs have highlighted the value of slurry/fym, previously many farms saw it as a cost product, with fert use being reduced by regulations, we need to look at these protiens, that can be grown on farm. One could suggest, we need to look backwards, to go forwards, to when fert wasn't widely available, and that means a planned rotation, luckily we have a few modern things to help us !
The whole dairy, other than the very high production herds, needs to be concentrated on milk from forage/grass, and we have to fit that around ethical idea's, climate change, and belching cows, all dreamed up by those who haven't really got a clue ! The basics are right though, we have to manage our farms in a sustainable way, and that is where the regen bit comes in, we must relearn the past methods, it's called rotation, where the base was to follow a cycle, that kept fertility up, with modern ideas, it's not hard to do either, legumes, grain, grass, roots are optional.
We have sorted our grazing system, top quality silage from clover leys, now we need to look at the grain protien, unless soya is going to drop in price, which it probably won't, to many alternative uses.

 

[som farmer]

When we had a feeder wagon we fed sunflower pellets for a couple years.
not really what this thread is about but using enough urea on silage ground will give higher protein silage then only an energy feed is needed like wheat feed or wheat gluten. Worked ok for us

urea is already well up the 'danger' list, and it's use will be questioned, urea as a protien source, is a very good, and cheap source, max 200gms/cow/day, it is cheap. Sunflowers, are not the 'right' protien for dairy fed as straight. However sun flowers have got diversification value, as well, saw a sunflower walk through the fields, in the USA, the walker count, was massive !
It's pretty obvious we have to reduce/stop our reliance on imported proteins, from the 'air miles' and ethics as well, amazon rain forest. It doesn't matter if those proteins are ethically produced, in the publics eye, they are all bad.

 

[Henarar]

But soya comes a long way, and grown in the wrong places, s/mkts don't like it, we have to declare how much, and where from, for our milk buyer, so soya will be 'out',

why don't the s/mkts like soya ?
Don't they push it in their vegan stuff

 

[som farmer]

why don't the s/mkts like soya ?
Don't they push it in their vegan stuff

soya from brazil is ethical for vegan crap, but not for cattle feed, totally utter bullpoo, it's the same, but the important bit for the s/mkts is the gen publics 'conception' of it, burning the amazon rain forest to feed cattle, is 'end of world' stuff, in vegan/veggie crap, it's 'different', it's not what we know, it's what the public think they know, that's important, and there are plenty of people telling them half truths. And plenty of soya is grown ethically elsewhere, but gets tarred with the same brush.

 

[awkward]

Seaweed could be a good alternative, but is very variable from season to season. However the concentration of aminoacids and trace elements lends its self to exceptional health and nutritional benefits, wort a look.

 

[Tyedyetom]

I tried one of the Charlie Arnott episodes on Working Cows but I only lasted 10 minutes. He was going on about making compost or tea or something and how he chucked in animal organs so it could 'organise itself'. That had me skipping on to the next episode. Can you convince me that I've been too hasty in dismissing CA?

I think CA is worth persisting withbut then I like the biodynamic and more spiritual stuff, there is a place for everything! His one with Charles Massey is good