- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
That video
When you run them behind a single wire what height do you set the wire at?Yes, it's comparable to £1 per week in winter, and about 90p now.
It's a win-win if done well, we've put 7 sheep in the hole in 3 years and 2 were ours, the thing is we do an excellent job and they are an excellent tool; not only in terms of chipping away at the mortgage but also for extra animal impact, as most of our pasture productivity relies on "THE MOB" and not inputs
A few points, you spend the same amount of time electric fencing with one wire or 3, so we aim to get them accustomed to one ASAP and then 3x the moves are possible; have to get that migration happening or they're "just something to eat the grass" IYSWIM?
And, relationships, as mentioned above.. once you can eliminate that pesky commissioned stock agent and work on trust/honesty/communication, it gets better and better.
We've got all the hoggets we need from 2 great people, both of them know how we roll "they don't need drenched, you need to drench them" so it works great.
We get the benefit of sheep without the costView attachment 846973
About my knee? I'm not tall.When you run them behind a single wire what height do you set the wire at?
Cattle are fine on the whole, happily stay behind a wire.About my knee? I'm not tall.
My plastic stakes have ten places to put wires and it's usually the 6th one up, it's just a guide that bites not an absolute 'wall'
If you need that many wires then you're either teaching skippy calves or being too hard on your grass and stock, the main reason I use electricity is to stop things chewing the poly, that's a good habit to break. Sometimes I use more, 3 or even 4 to keep new lambs with their mums
It doesn't always hold them but if you give any fencing f#ckers a good run around then they soon catch on to the idea that they stay as a mob
Yeah, that's why "it depends"Cattle are fine on the whole, happily stay behind a wire.
My sheep are dickheads though, probably because I'm a bit hard on them at times but will jump 2 wires or just walk through it. Put a line of stakes up while im splitting a field and I cant drive the buggers through them with no wire though
I know this feeling well.Cattle are fine on the whole, happily stay behind a wire.
My sheep are dickheads though, probably because I'm a bit hard on them at times but will jump 2 wires or just walk through it. Put a line of stakes up while im splitting a field and I cant drive the buggers through them with no wire though
I think I said at the time, my most frustrating day was putting them into a fresh paddock and they went straight across and through the fence the other side before I'd shut the gate.I don't want to sound too clever here, but there is a reason for this.... it was maybe time for them to move, before you shifted them
The thing is, "domesticated" livestock are like people today, they have absolutely no reason to work as one, that instinct has been lost (until there is chaos)I'd like to increase the length of my rotations, but that will largely require further subdivision, which is what I'm struggling with.
Intend to try and improve fence power next season- improving earthing and reduce overgrowth is the plan. Try and stop the habit developing. But I do hear you on the quicker moves.
Actually it was a Welsh speaking farmer by the name of Gerald Miles who was talking on a Farmerama podcast about black oats amongst other things.
That's all very well but fencinb needs to be effective all year round dry or humid.fencing works better in the winter when the ground is soft and wet their feet sink in and they get more shock
I’ve taken a small leaf out of your book and for starters am keeping 2 dairy heifers for a neighbour. Payment is in hay. The plan is to start keeping more of his animals and fewer of my own.It is, after you begin doing it you can see the "odd" side of keeping a moderate headage year round, and managing their feed with machines
Each to their own, the reasons have been well and truly covered!
But other people's money and stock are great things IMVHO
My lambs are a bigger problem than the ewes.I know this feeling well.
This time of year I can keep them behind 2 wires til the paddock turns to mud. Last lambing time they stayed behind 1 wire, but as summer progressed I couldn't keep them behind 4 wires?
My sheep will end up on a sacrifice field here on haylage once the paddocks are grazed out, so not too bothered about regrowth for winter grazing (if I got any), more about what sets up the place for next spring. There's a bit of dead stuff about. Best to take it down hard (1000-1200kgdm) and freshen it up?How many tonnes of stock do you have on how much area?
Length of grass can be quite misleading as a measure, but if you know your stock weights roughly and numbers then you can begin a calculation; eg "I have 24 tonnes of sheep" can then be turned into "I need to make 500-700kg of DM available per 24 hours" if you catch my drift?
Count on zero growth, then you won't be disappointed when you have a little bit of growth, as opposed to doing sums based on growth you may not get; and base your grazing on the landscape not the grass itself.
As you'll know well: sheep don't graze like cows graze, where cattle may do better going around twice or 3x I would be more in favour of ramping up stocking density much higher and really making them work - clean the pastures out while the ground can take 50,000kg LWT/ha and these will be nice spring-lambing pastures with much higher protein content for milk production and to avoid metabolic issues?
Grass going forward won't lose quality, but it will lose vigour if you deplete the root, that's the fine line we've tread by AWG sheep, eg not much sun to catch and thus it's easy to stall the biological function of cool soils by repetitive grazings.
Our learning has shown that it would be better for us to use much higher covers and maintain much higher SD to manage litter better, and thus the water cycle and biological activity is enhanced over the wet season.
Also it's shown us that if you're going to feed bales, do it at the beginning of winter instead of at the end, while you have some cover to drive on (only if you need to) rather than copy the neighbour's mud recipe.
My lambs are a bigger problem than the ewes.
It's probably down to grass availability here though I think, and once they figure out they can get through a fence then not much will stop them. The wet weather hasn't helped much recently either as they muddy the grass and then scoot off to the next bit before I get the chance to move them, have been mixing up grazing area sizes so at least they dont all sprint to the fence whenever I turn up now.
Theres one little runty thing that doesnt seem to feel any pain and squeezes under any fence I put up which isnt helping matters!
Yes, that's what I'm wondering. It's what I usually do, rotate them round post-tupping and clear up. This year I've got a big heap of bales, thinking about leaving it a little longer with the hope that I get some earlier growth. Having said that, we had to lamb a week earlier than normal last year (started late March) and we had enough grass when the ewes went on to their lambing fields a week beforehand.as certain grazers say - theres time to remove that from you flock.
@Woolless ask yourself will it have enough leaf/solar panel on it in the spring?