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

[Crofter64]

We were given a bag of meat by a friend and it was of his stock . It was so strong a flavour I binned it and gave the rest away . I was talking to our butcher and he said that meat flavours can be tainted by smells such as offal and other stuff and they needs to be very careful. Our own grass fed Dexter and Angus that never seen meal from birth cannot be beaten for flavour.

I agree about the flavour of beef from a Dexter.The best I ever had. However the animals themselves were nuts. They are the only cows I have ever seen fall to their knees and crawl under fences like a dog. I sold the lot cheap to get rid of them but still remember how good they tasted. It doesn’t help that the bull I was using( A.I.) was called Lucifer.

 

[The Ruminant]

I don’t know if anyone remembers photos from earlier in the year showing the bedding pack the cows were on. This is what it looks like now. I was going to harrow it but then said fudge it. Probably 2/3 to 3/4 has grown through already with just the thickest parts left. It’s probably close to 6” deep, you can see the grass root systems underneath and how wet it is. Granted this year has been phenomenal for rain so far.

This is also why I laugh at the idea of mulching my garden to keep out weeds. It’d have to be so deep!

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Where I graze bales disappears almost immediately in new growth. I’ve decided the best way to get good cover is use the winter bedding packs. This area is actually the edge of where it was so overgrazed and dry that I frost seeded last year.

Looks great! I guess if you moved the cattle through here now, tightly and at speed, they’d help chip and break up the remaining mat of hay, helping regrowth through that area too.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I agree about the flavour of beef from a Dexter.The best I ever had. However the animals themselves were nuts. They are the only cows I have ever seen fall to their knees and crawl under fences like a dog. I sold the lot cheap to get rid of them but still remember how good they tasted. It doesn’t help that the bull I was using( A.I.) was called Lucifer.

Some of the cattle "fell out" under their fence last night - it was as if I'd drafted all the smallest ones out behind the backfence, and they were pretty unhappy about it too! It was maybe a bit too steep for a night cell ?‍
(It's been really wet here, driving rain from the east, hence them being confined to the slope they're on).

Interestingly the highest praise I've ever heard for steak I've cooked (and there's been a few) was acually a lump of rump from a kiwicross dairy heifer who was barren and fat. Quite a nice eating animal, other than the briskets aren't a patch on bull beef, a bit "sloppy" and fat rather than meaty.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Thank you for this input.

I feel there are a des figures out there within thé reg. Ag mouvement who talk a good talk. But it can bé awfully missleading and even downright dangerous encouraging people blindly down a path.

All of them also happen to sell books, and sell talks. They are all very good at marketing and have excellent business plans.

Totally agree

 

[Kiwi Pete]

3rd straight day of wet - whoever said driving rain was "bad weather"? ?

Finally got a photo in the daylight

 

[Whitewalker]

I agree about the flavour of beef from a Dexter.The best I ever had. However the animals themselves were nuts. They are the only cows I have ever seen fall to their knees and crawl under fences like a dog. I sold the lot cheap to get rid of them but still remember how good they tasted. It doesn’t help that the bull I was using( A.I.) was called Lucifer.

I’d lie if I said if they never gave trouble but only the odd naughty incident . Nothing worse than any other bovine . In saying that I wouldn’t have a bull about me . When they would get bored it could be trouble.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Looking up the old fenceline that used to subdivide this area. Certainly giving it a good hammering, the odd thistle is standing up (the black things) but everyone is happy.

Poo looks good enough, I think, they were getting a little loose so we made the call to slow them down a bit and get them eating more of the brown stuff.

 

[som farmer]

there's not a lot wrong with channel island beef, as long as its reared correctly, the fats a little 'yellow', which is part of the taste ! But, either people assume it's crap, or they don't like the colour !
As said before, to conserve grass, to avoid overgrazing, we sacrificed a 10 acre field, 1/3 acre paddocks with silage.
the field, a bit weedy, and a lot of grass gone to head, and now well trampled in, the speed of growth, in both the rotational grazing, and those sac paddocks, fantastic. Later on, I will be able to form a better conclusion, between those fields, ploughed and worked, deep tine moved, and d/d, at the moment, I don't think much difference between them.

 

[ShooTa]

Talking sacrifice - i mean planned over trampling for soil deep massage. im looking ahead to winter now theres bales of silage hitting the ground .. im thinking of making a woodland barn paddock for such a thing
and because i think if fed out my few bales a bit crply last year (based on BCS) ill ask the sheep boys - should i think about doing a december/earlier bale pod or wait again till the mid point of jan and beyond?

and to the cow boys whove had cows in the woods - how did you find fence setup and did you do anything differently?

 

[Henarar]

I am beginning to think that sacrificing one field when it’s dry and the whole platform gets down to a certain level is the way to go. I did this in 2018. Just fed hay for a fortnight on one small field. Was a sea of shiit then we got rain and that field flew loads of clover out there since.
Didn’t have to get to that this year but another few weeks after having taken out my residual i had built then it would have happened. The trick is to build enough residual which can then be used in dry or if it’s not needed trampled in to feed the soil for next year.

its difficult to feed fodder while you still have grass but it is the right thing to do I think

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Some of the cattle "fell out" under their fence last night - it was as if I'd drafted all the smallest ones out behind the backfence, and they were pretty unhappy about it too! It was maybe a bit too steep for a night cell ?‍
(It's been really wet here, driving rain from the east, hence them being confined to the slope they're on).

Interestingly the highest praise I've ever heard for steak I've cooked (and there's been a few) was acually a lump of rump from a kiwicross dairy heifer who was barren and fat. Quite a nice eating animal, other than the briskets aren't a patch on bull beef, a bit "sloppy" and fat rather than meaty.

Have you seen the video of a blind taste test by top chefs between extensive Wagyu beef and a well hung cull dairy cow steak? Very enlightening.

 

[ShooTa]

yeah i liked that one.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Talking sacrifice - i mean planned over trampling for soil deep massage. im looking ahead to winter now theres bales of silage hitting the ground .. im thinking of making a woodland barn paddock for such a thing
and because i think if fed out my few bales a bit crply last year (based on BCS) ill ask the sheep boys - should i think about doing a december/earlier bale pod or wait again till the mid point of jan and beyond?

and to the cow boys whove had cows in the woods - how did you find fence setup and did you do anything differently?

I always prefer to put the supplement in early than late, because I usually use machinery sparingly I don't like the wheelmarks.
So I put out hay in the first winter round to help slow us down, then you can reassess it as winter goes on.
Leave it til "late" and then you're in the mud, and you have little flexibility because the cover is less so it must be fed, if you feed early then it's not so much of "I must" as "I really should" IYSWIM.

You get to give the litter from the bales an extra scatter with subsequent grazings?

 

[Blaithin]

My sacrifice area holds up ridiculously well and I really don’t know why. If you look at other farmers’ the cows mow it to the dirt every spring. It takes all year rest for it to be alright to get mowed down again the next spring.

Of course the plants here can take a bit more abuse in their dormant stage.

This is what it looks like after having cattle on it all winter, much snow, and consistently grazed by something this spring up to now. Hence then uneven growth. But other than the uneven growth there’s nothing that shouts I’ve had animals on it so much. It’s a mystery to me but I’ll take it!

You can see a couple bedding piles in here as well. One was a whole bale they got as a scratching post and bed so it’s quite deep there.

The dirt is where I had my peas and barley last year.

Play around and if you can find a piece of land that can take being a sacrifice area better than others, you’ll be golden.

 

[Tyedyetom]

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How’s the water keeping up?

 

[Fenwick]

How’s the water keeping up?

It's been fine 99% of thé Time, but there was a bit if a squabble at one point last night between 4 cows which lasted 5 mins. But even thén it fills so quickly that it didn't matter. I dont think i'd want and more cattle on one trough though.

I think it's important that they are at relativley high density (210lwu/ha) so 50 steps away at most. If they were further away and all came to drink at thé same Time it might have been a problèm.

Wish i had more Shade in thé field they're in though. It's been plenty hot this week and i dont liké seeing them out in thé Sun .

 

[Kiwi Pete]

My sacrifice area holds up ridiculously well and I really don’t know why. If you look at other farmers’ the cows mow it to the dirt every spring. It takes all year rest for it to be alright to get mowed down again the next spring.

Of course the plants here can take a bit more abuse in their dormant stage.

This is what it looks like after having cattle on it all winter, much snow, and consistently grazed by something this spring up to now. Hence then uneven growth. But other than the uneven growth there’s nothing that shouts I’ve had animals on it so much. It’s a mystery to me but I’ll take it!

You can see a couple bedding piles in here as well. One was a whole bale they got as a scratching post and bed so it’s quite deep there.

The dirt is where I had my peas and barley last year.

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Play around and if you can find a piece of land that can take being a sacrifice area better than others, you’ll be golden.

@CornishTone (croc police) will be along shortly ?

I often wonder (and suspect) that areas around trees like you sacrifice area are 'naturally better' environments for pasture plants - whether it's the added minerals in the vicinity or the shelter, or a combination.
Would you say your neighbour's areas you compare it to are more open/barren than yours?

 

[CornishTone]

@CornishTone (croc police) will be along shortly ?

The horror... the horror!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

nothing worth doing is easy

Unless it's management ?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Rain has stopped again.
Still sticking with the 240m² cells as the math is easy and the paddocks are still 4:1 shape (8x30 metres)