do you know of any research on what varieties, cattle prefer, other than the bulk standard mixes, might just improve the natural capacity of the land, just growing the 'cream' for the buggers. Then, of course, we have to get rid of the weeds, they most certainly don't help. It's an interesting thought though, the perfect mix, would give max production, with least imputs, like the perennial grain plant, a dream, at the moment.
Newman Turner did experiments with different herbs / mixes / varieties, sowed squares of different mixes then let the cows choose & then recorded which squares the cows preferred.
Fred Provenza has researched and published about this. His finding is essentially that what each animal finds appetising varies with their nutritional needs. You can offer the same choice to the same animal and get different preferences expressed each time. This is one of the key factors behind the value of diversity in forage species.
answers that quite nicely then, chuck in loads of different types, and at least one should suit their taste buds, each grazing. Does make the case about growing several types of prg, and clover, somewhat weaker, and yet that is what we are 'advised' to do. Son and l, moving fences yesterday, were talking about the 2 fields we were grazing. The first, a 2 acre bit, is being tightly grazed ( needs must ) but has kept 15 600kg cows for 12 days, and will keep them for another 8 with a bit of hay, this looked thick, but as we can very clearly see the ground, it wasn't, we over drilled some vetch into this one, not enough seed, but it will be interesting to see how that comes back. The second a 'dry' mix, 4 types prg, and red fesque, w clover, year 2, not grazing tight ! but you can definitely see how much ground cover there is, much better. Then son was on about, how the leys used to 'reseed' themselves, after a cut of hay, which isn't done much now, then fertility of the new varieties ( low ), perhaps with the more diverse leys, a cut of hay, might be a good idea.
Consider adding in some other species as well while there's bare ground for it to take in. Plantains, herbs and the like. The cows would thank you for it.
Got similar questions here... grazing platform too small to rely wholly on grazing even in the best times, just due to farm layout.
Dad would say you should put a fence tight to the hedge and allow the hedge to grow through the fence so the cows can pick at what grows through and also reach over and pick at the top of the hedge.
Heaps of research, because otherwise nothing would get sold. They'll [cattle] adapt to anything, as long as it's plants.....
There's a nice couple up the valley who make cheese, they won't feed the cows (7 of them) any baleage or silage because they learnt the hard way that it makes awful cheese.
they certainly trimmed the hedges, we then kindly put a rack of straw for them, they fought to clear that, before touching the grass, so, day 1, they need some fibre, day 2, they definitely want fibre, day3 straw, no day 4. But that mix was meant to be 'the best', we silaged it after that, then end of summer, put hfrs on it, which basically fought to get out, they ate into the hedge, and through the wire. Germinal came out to 'inspect' it, then gave us 20kg clover seed, to 'dilute' it. Another thing to avoid.
has animal breeding, and plant breeding, gone in the same direction, or degrees of opposite ?
Probably these plants are bred for farmers, and animals have been selected to work with the type of landscape farming produces.
Fascinating, isn't it, how diverse we animals can be as well. I was reading Tim Spector's book recently about our (human) food system and he says that he and his wife show widely different blood responses to a high glycaemic index meal (toast and jam) with his blood sugar peaking way higher than hers. Same meal, utterly different response. Our grazing animals would, likewise, vary hugely in response to the same diet.
Quite a theme going on here; if you lull the public into "cheap food" then diversity of diet diminishes because they use their disposable income on diversity of gadgets instead.
While we're off topic, two photos from yesterday. The high temp won't be "real" but no small wonder I came home feeling stuffed, I was pulled over to let the coolant temp drop (108° is a bit high)View attachment 953360View attachment 953361
The low temp wasn't accurate either as I needed water to get the door open on the ute
Luckily we have fog and heavy heavy dews to keep things going, because the 117mm we had in the first 3 days of the year was basically "it"View attachment 953362View attachment 953363
(we're in the red bit at the bottom of second map)
local commentators are calling it 'a green drought' but at least we have 140 days grub in front of us
Yep, it all seems to be a lot of "why are we bothering" when things are going good! And then a curve-ball comes in low.... and suddenly it becomes quite obvious.
