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

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
I think it does, because there is much greater demand "on the system" then the legumes need to fix more.
Also, because suddenly the grazing is being managed by the predator and not the herd itself, that gappy "mosaic" look with pissy patches and gaps is avoided - stock naturally preferentially graze their urine patches first, and if their entire pasture is one of those, then the recirculation must improve?

It's interesting you question it, because the boffins who study the numbers at our place give an amazingly high figure for N in the system and it's all fixed nitrogen :unsure:
As in, 250-300 units per hectare.
These same boffins look at the common 'clover can fix up to 80 units per hectare if well managed' advice and scratch their heads, what is obvious is that good healthy soil can sort it's own N out and share it amongst the plants.
Obv. mycorrhizae are a huge factor.

Also, in general terms as you run higher densities you can increase SR, the system becomes more productive. Conversely it gets very lazy if you don't.
 
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Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
The other observation has to be: what's the story with "fairy rings"?
You can see instantly that increased fungal activity equals increased nitrogen availability, so that's probably another "healthy soil bonus".
Whether or not high-intensity grazing is increasing or decreasing that fungal activity is down to management-specific parameters, possibly not stocking density or stocking rate?
If the grass is up to your waist, you won't see the fruit but it is probably not needing to reproduce, the way unstressed pastures don't rush to seed in the springtime.

Just rambling on a bit here....

I think that's the major effect of tickling the biome with biostimulants, animals, residues and composts - not as "nutrient sources" but as biological and fungal "primers" in their own right.
There's such an abundance of nitrogen about, it's about that foodweb and getting its appetite up, the N in a living soil is massive.
Conversely, the N in an inert soil is whatever you applied in the last 3 weeks.
 
Bit of bale unrolling to happen in the near future
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One thing we learned was to move the winch closer to the trailer. It's now mounted right up to the wrapped lights cable. The issue was at a tight reverse turn the + wire got pulled out of it's crimp by the rear wheel of the bike. Thankfully an easy repair as it happened on the second bale ?

I fractured my hand a week ago, so a mate was bike pilot for the day, he couldn't get over how well it worked. Marginally cheaper than a tractor and loader too!

The bale can be tied to the front of the trailer using the same strap, chok the bale first if necessary. Didn't need the tailboard on. Saw another useful idea for welders, make a cradle that fits into where the tailboard fits, sit a bale on it and a winch should lift it up too.
 
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First bale unrolled! Tomorrow will tell how horrified I am on a scale of 1-10 ? It would have benefited from a fork to fluff up the hay and a leccy fence on rebar posts down the centre methinks. Opened some Crystalyx tubs today too, "handy" is the order of the day with me being semi out of action. Currently 124 sheep there with a handful more to be added over the next couple of days. I think I'll lamb them here, wasn't the plan but God laughed ?‍♂️ The upside is this will give the other land I want to paddock graze extra time to recover as it's currently overgrazed.

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Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
First bale unrolled! Tomorrow will tell how horrified I am on a scale of 1-10 ? It would have benefited from a fork to fluff up the hay and a leccy fence on rebar posts down the centre methinks. Opened some Crystalyx tubs today too, "handy" is the order of the day with me being semi out of action. Currently 124 sheep there with a handful more to be added over the next couple of days. I think I'll lamb them here, wasn't the plan but God laughed ?‍♂️ The upside is this will give the other land I want to paddock graze extra time to recover as it's currently overgrazed.

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Heaps of cover there John, when are they due to lamb?
 
Heaps of cover there John, when are they due to lamb?

Deceptive photo Pete, there's plenty of white molinia in it which has a feed value of licking pavement. Lots of ground cover in a soil sense though. Place would benefit greatly from high density grazing IMO, but the other, bigger, greener parcel of land is ahead on that list, easy burn through the €€€'s ???

Should start lambing around April 20 ? Might go later for the following season. Hope to have the place tightened up better for tipping by then to shorten lambing to 20 something days.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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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