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

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
I went into town tonight and made up a seed mix (long story short).

It's got 10kg of oats, as a canopy
Bareno pasture brome
Atom prairie grass
Timothy
Cocksfoot
Chico chicory
Radish
And lots of red + white clover,
34kg/ha so far but might put another kg of red clover in on top when I put it in the bin.

Be interesting to see how that goes, got 14mm today so I will rip into it over the weekend, hopefully.
Meant to be warm tomorrow and rain the next day.

@Kevtherev
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
I went into town tonight and made up a seed mix (long story short).

It's got 10kg of oats, as a canopy
Bareno pasture brome
Atom prairie grass
Timothy
Cocksfoot
Chico chicory
Radish
And lots of red + white clover,
34kg/ha so far but might put another kg of red clover in on top when I put it in the bin.

Be interesting to see how that goes, got 14mm today so I will rip into it over the weekend, hopefully.
Meant to be warm tomorrow and rain the next day.

@Kevtherev
Only half a mixture by Gabe Brown's standards :p:D
 

foobar

Member
Location
South Wales
I have been googling and found the linkies for those that are interested (or need some bed time reading :)):

Gerber et al 2013:
http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3437e.pdf

Another report by the same group of authors which casts doubt on the methods used in the first report:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3461e/i3461e.pdf

The Oxford Study, Grazed and Confused, based on Gerber 2013:
https://fcrn.org.uk/sites/default/files/project-files/fcrn_gnc_report.pdf

And this is a useful read:
https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/ar...ial-response-from-the-sustainable-food-trust/
 

Agrispeed

Member
Location
Cornwall
The vet came to do preg checks. I didn’t think they’d all be bred but they are.I have noticed that my success rate in A.I. breeding is best around the equinoxes. Is this a coincidence or is it true? Any comments?
I meant solstices.( june and december)

I'm not sure if its day length or nutrition related but cattle are naturally spring calving animals. If you don't force they to be all year round calving, then the herd will naturally over time slowly come round to a spring block, I don't know why it would be similar in December though.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
That's proper, that is!
That's our eventual goal, hence mob consolidation was our first focus, it saves both time and grass.

As of half an hour ago, we are now down to two herds:
One with the calves, steers, heifers and a bull (plan to calve mid October, when the beef calves are being born out of dairy herds, as we plan to foster an extra calf on to each heifer)
One with all the sheep, lambs and bulls together to provide a decent "knockdown and trample"

Pasture growth is currently allowing us to maintain a leader-follower system, which is slightly counterproductive as it reduces recovery time, that is up for re-evaluation depending on rainfall and regrowth going forward.

(At present we are still feeding about .9ha per day, or thereabouts; so we'd be going around in 44 days for a 41 day recovery, with 3 mobs it would be a 38 day recovery on the same feed allocation... it's helped to tighten them up).
 

bitwrx

Member
I have been googling and found the linkies for those that are interested (or need some bed time reading :)):

Gerber et al 2013:
http://www.fao.org/3/a-i3437e.pdf

Another report by the same group of authors which casts doubt on the methods used in the first report:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3461e/i3461e.pdf

The Oxford Study, Grazed and Confused, based on Gerber 2013:
https://fcrn.org.uk/sites/default/files/project-files/fcrn_gnc_report.pdf

And this is a useful read:
https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/ar...ial-response-from-the-sustainable-food-trust/
Brilliant. That's the stuff. (y)
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
20190105_112933.jpg
Beef shorthorn x dairy bull, now in with the heifers. They are 350-400kg which is about where I'd hoped they'd be, and he's hopefully not too heavy or big in the shoulder.
He'll eat out of my hand, which is something I really enjoy about these shorthorn-dairy cross, they are such a pleasure to have here.

My next consideration is when to start lambing, next spring.
Earlier would perhaps help with getting onto the surplus earlier, but may mean housing cattle for longer in the spring, which is something I don't want - so maybe late August will be the best compromise.
We started at the beginning of September this year which meant great early lamb growth/milk production, but they also slow down due to the feed quality dropping off in December, hopefully this can be addressed with a change of plan
 

Agrispeed

Member
Location
Cornwall
@bitwrx I'm waiting for the farm owner to come back from the ORFC to see where there are figures on carbon sequestration, there should be some published somewhere, we should have some better figures on carbon captured by the summer, but it probably won't look as good per L as production has increased (and it might include the concrete used in the dairy which will be a bit scary)


I'm currently considering Running my calves in front of my yearlings, to maximise grazing potential and minimise running around mobs. I was thinking, since I do strips sub divided with cross fences, normally into 4 24hr breaks, to run the calves a couple of strips ahead, in a strip at a time moving them every 4 days (since moving the feeder, lack of shelter in the middle breaks and the extra reels would be a bit of an arse), and having the yearlings run 4-8 days behind them. Does this sound practical or a recipe for tangled broken polywire and cows everywhere?

It would also allow me to justify buying a kiwitech reel system which would save me a lot of walking and is :cool:
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Do you need to keep your calves and yearlings apart, that would be my first pencil-snapper. What's your time worth to you, and what's your forage recovery worth - is keeping them separated working for or against you (or is it habit) ??

In some respects you also need to look at it from the "5 freedoms" point of view, not only for the stock's sake but consider yourself - your welfare is important too.

If you do a lot more work just so your calves are 10kg heavier as a yearling......

Not being critical, just that's how I am seeing my lot and making my decisions.
Animals are a lot more resilient than regrowth.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
The other consideration with calves is that they learn the art of foraging from their elders - just as "mum" taught us to peel potatoes and cook them. Watch newly weaned lambs etc, they haven't a clue what to do for a while, and it checks them.

Your calves may actually benefit from running with older stock, not only for learning and "herd stuff" but also to help them build immunity via exposure .
 

Karliboy

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Yorkshire
I went into town tonight and made up a seed mix (long story short).

It's got 10kg of oats, as a canopy
Bareno pasture brome
Atom prairie grass
Timothy
Cocksfoot
Chico chicory
Radish
And lots of red + white clover,
34kg/ha so far but might put another kg of red clover in on top when I put it in the bin.

Be interesting to see how that goes, got 14mm today so I will rip into it over the weekend, hopefully.
Meant to be warm tomorrow and rain the next day.

@Kevtherev

Any chance you can put up some pics of your kit your using for your seeding and the land your going on please. @Kiwi Pete
Just out of interest and for ideas for the future.
No problems if not.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
I have a couple of options Karl.
I have this little old roller drill
20190105_134728.jpg

..which is about 9ft, I have a ten- foot cambridge roller and can join them a few ways with chain harrows etc.
Heavy harrows-rolls-roller drill offset seems to be pretty effective

And I also have this
20190105_134735.jpg
20190105_134746.jpg
20190105_134742.jpg
20190105_134807.jpg
which is really versatile, have a lot of metering options with it, I pin a little rake attachment on the back to scuffle a bit of tilth over the seed, I can hang gym weights on it to vary the depth and have concrete weights for the Groundhog as well.
Eventually will get a small disc-drill but this does for now.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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