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

[exmoor dave]

Mostly oats, ryecorn and tillage radish, forage brassica and vetch.... and a lot of grass.

Pete do you think your original grasses survived the spray homebrew as planned?
Or is it new grasses in the cover crop?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Pete do you think your original grasses survived the spray homebrew as planned?
Or is it new grasses in the cover crop?

Just "weed grasses", David! ?
You can tell they're weeds, because they're growing

 

[pear]

That's what the bookmark function is for Sam

Just found it- game changer!

 

[Henarar]

You can tell they're weeds, because they're growing

love it

 

[exmoor dave]

Just "weed grasses", David! ?
You can tell they're weeds, because they're growingView attachment 890383

Look good weeds to me!
Bet the stock don't think its weeds!

 

[Henarar]

Look good weeds to me!
Bet the stock don't think its weeds!

cows seem to eat our weed, get to bloody fat on it, weed must be fattening like chocolate

 

[Kiwi Pete]

It's good tucker, a bit of everything in it, proper 'TMR'

The best thing is, it's now all one big 40-acre block so I'll get a few more fences pulled down and open it all up for techno.

 

[Crofter64]

Some good, steady, proper, wet rain here today
Drought is well over so Roy can stop worrying about us having such a severe and bighting drought
has everyone else had much ?

Its been dry here also. I am glad that they weren’t giving out free trees this year as the ones I bought and planted are struggling/dead.
April:46mm,May: 40mm,June :26mm.
All three months are usually closer to/over 100mm each . It has been so hot (30+ all week, preceeded by a day of 4C when we lit the woodstove) , windy and dry that most farmers have finished their first cut of dry hay around the time they usually start. There isn’t much but it’s done.

 

[Crofter64]

Composting is quite an exciting thing in itself, if you can dull down the "farming" aspect enough then it gives much more time for making windrows.

(Or making sheets of it with electric fencing.)

We are trying quite a bit of wool in ours now as it's basically a "waste" selling it, so far it looks pretty encouraging.

I had to butcher some cattle at home and take them to a ‘hunter’s butcher’as my regular butcher cancelled my June and July appointments ( made well in advance) and tentatively offered me January , but not guaranteed. Anyhow, I put the heads and guts in the manure pile and within 2 weeks the skulls ( dragged out by dogs) were completely cleaned off and falling to bits. I have tried composting wool in the past and it just clumped around the beaters. Maybe this is the year to try again. Do you spread it out or just incorporate it any old way? Every year I hang on to the wool hopping to do something with it and always end up sending it to the dump How crazy our world has become.

 

[Crofter64]

It's good tucker, a bit of everything in it, proper 'TMR'

The best thing is, it's now all one big 40-acre block so I'll get a few more fences pulled down and open it all up for techno.

Was it worth the extra effort: spraying seeding, stockpiling?

 

[Samcowman]

Just found it- game changer!

What’s the plan? Use a cover crop as a nurse for a reseed or as a prequel to a spring cereal?
I have the same conundrum. 10 acre permanent pasture field doesn’t produce as well as it’s neighbour under the same management. I’m thinking either a grazing cover crop drilled after silaging it next year then drill wheat in in the autumn or just use the cover crop to break the old grass down and reseed but it would be a shame to waste the chance of an arable crop on a decent field.

 

[pear]

What’s the plan? Use a cover crop as a nurse for a reseed or as a prequel to a spring cereal?
I have the same conundrum. 10 acre permanent pasture field doesn’t produce as well as it’s neighbour under the same management. I’m thinking either a grazing cover crop drilled after silaging it next year then drill wheat in in the autumn or just use the cover crop to break the old grass down and reseed but it would be a shame to waste the chance of an arable crop on a decent field.

Current plan is a grazing cover crop before a spring cereal. The current grass is a short term silage ley used as a break crop in my arable rotation. I’ve got a load of spring oats, so was thinking cover crop after second cut, followed by spring oats then wheat. But not sure about growing a crop of oats after a cover with oats, so might go spring barley. I also have c. 400t of cow sh!t heaped on the edge of the field to spread! (It was the driest place this winter to get to). Field is half fenced and water just needs a few hundred meters of pipe tapped on to an end hydrant in the next field so (almost) good to go for grazing.

 

[exmoor dave]

It's good tucker, a bit of everything in it, proper 'TMR'

The best thing is, it's now all one big 40-acre block so I'll get a few more fences pulled down and open it all up for techno.

Pete you are just not going to know yourself once you've got the techno and pipe lines set up!

First post- techno purchase will have to be a super comfy deck chair to sit out on the porch while you send the wife/ boys to move the stock cause it's just gonna be so easy ?

 

[Samcowman]

Current plan is a grazing cover crop before a spring cereal. The current grass is a short term silage ley used as a break crop in my arable rotation. I’ve got a load of spring oats, so was thinking cover crop after second cut, followed by spring oats then wheat. But not sure about growing a crop of oats after a cover with oats, so might go spring barley. I also have c. 400t of cow sh!t heaped on the edge of the field to spread! (It was the driest place this winter to get to). Field is half fenced and water just needs a few hundred meters of pipe tapped on to an end hydrant in the next field so (almost) good to go for grazing.

Last autumn I put in after rape had been combined oats, Phacelia and peas which worked well cattle grazed it off well. I would definitely look at getting a legume in there. They liked the peas but whatever is cheapest will do. They also really liked the rape volunteers and grazed them first. This was grazed end of September so would have grown more if it had ideally been left later but it was meant to go into wheat.

 

[pear]

Last autumn I put in after rape had been combined oats, Phacelia and peas which worked well cattle grazed it off well. I would definitely look at getting a legume in there. They liked the peas but whatever is cheapest will do. They also really liked the rape volunteers and grazed them first. This was grazed end of September so would have grown more if it had ideally been left later but it was meant to go into wheat.

I’ll probably buy some other seeds to add some variety- but straights that are cheap.

 

[Crofter64]

We are all geared reels now, which have a guide so no need to hold the wire.

Watching the speed of the handle on the video I'm pretty sure I could turn it that fast by hand, I appreciate you advocate mounting the drill on the real centre, but a geared reel wound by hand has the bonus of cutting out the risk of my £300 drill being exposed to rain while I move fences.

I seem to have a lot of knots in my twine.How do the reel guides deal with those. Do they pass through or jam? I have cheap reels withno guides but am finally thinking of upgrading as the older ones break( once the border is open again and I can get them in the States. Not much choice here I’m afraid. No interest in serious grazing whatsoever in these parts)

 

[ShooTa]

depends on the braid/wire - if its thin and the knot is a flat one then they pass through - however its why i chose braids - less breakage... unless you scythe through it..

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

I seem to have a lot of knots in my twine.How do the reel guides deal with those. Do they pass through or jam? I have cheap reels withno guides but am finally thinking of upgrading as the older ones break( once the border is open again and I can get them in the States. Not much choice here I’m afraid. No interest in serious grazing whatsoever in these parts)

The guides on ours will pass a knot ok unless its massive.

 

[Bury the Trash]

The guides on ours will pass a knot ok unless its massive.

would have to be mahoosive , cheapjack geared reels here have nearly a half inch gap in the guide, i tend to get more problems with knots along the posts corners etc, if im windingnback through them instead o unhooking

not getting expensive reels here ever but def like the fatter wire, even that tho only has a knot that will pass through the guides ok but just with a bit of speed wobble @Crofter64

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Generally the first thing I do with a reel is take the stupid guide off and throw it away.
Only got one gallagher left with a guide on, because I use 3 wires on the spool for our dozen sheeps