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

[Treg]

Just 25 cows with followers and nothing else?

Hats off to you if that’s the case. You do sound like you have a good setup, from your posts.

25 cows everything took through to finishing other than replacements .
All Ai saves on a bull & associated costs .
Nothing else farm wise for income but paid for the farm through buying selling houses/ building & stocks & shares....But the only money I earned to get my first house & shares was through buying & rearing calves.

 

[Rob Garrett]

If it's any help, a guy I know is very involved in beekeeping on a national and European scale here. He said at the beginner course I attended that the beekeeper that doesn't visit his hives often has more success than the over zealous beekeeper that's always tinkering with them.

Spot on [emoji106]
Like everything else on this thread, the closer to "nature" you run your bees/livestock/grazing the better they will work for you.

Awesome hobby @Karliboy good for the mind (provided that you start with more than 1 hive!!!!!)

 

[awkward]

Depends on how much you call a living?
25 cows with follows here, new tractor every few years + keep machinery up to date & reasonable living.

I like that care to share, cant be easy without off farm income, my thinking is far too many of us push and end up losing on performance, that's the advantage of the smaller stock

 

[texas pete]

Last few store lambs into 58 days re growth. I don’t think they’ll be short.

The plan is to run ewes over it after the lambs are gone, pre Christmas and lamb on it at the end of March.

Boys at work @Woolless
Served three on their way to the field and both working opposite ends the next morning.

 

[som farmer]

I like that care to share, cant be easy without off farm income, my thinking is far too many of us push and end up losing on performance, that's the advantage of the smaller stock

85 acres we rented fbt, was sold, looked around, everything was £200/ac to rent, so we cut 80 cows out, the only thing that changed, was the workload, less. Profit stayed pretty well the same, another lesson learned.

 

[Woolless]

Last few store lambs into 58 days re growth. I don’t think they’ll be short.

The plan is to run ewes over it after the lambs are gone, pre Christmas and lamb on it at the end of March.
View attachment 918566

Boys at work @Woolless
Served three on their way to the field and both working opposite ends the next morning.
View attachment 918570
View attachment 918571

That's my boys

 

[bendigeidfran]

The other day the talk was to have more but smaller cattle, its a job to keep up.
Perhaps really small cattle and big sheep

Dare i ask what size is "ffluff head"

 

[Henarar]

Dare i ask what size is "ffluff head"

Not that big

 

[DanM]

Last few store lambs into 58 days re growth. I don’t think they’ll be short.

The plan is to run ewes over it after the lambs are gone, pre Christmas and lamb on it at the end of March.
View attachment 918566

Boys at work @Woolless
Served three on their way to the field and both working opposite ends the next morning.
View attachment 918570
View attachment 918571

Smart looking lambs

 

[texas pete]

Smart looking lambs

Char x East Friesian, bit of a gamble when I bought them, but done well.

 

[hendrebc]

But 40 head of cattle can still (just) be a living. 40 head of sheep can't, can they?

No you'd have to do something pretty special to make a living with 40 sheep.

You might want to do a bit more thinking on that as 40 sheep do not equal 40 cattle so it's a contrived comparison. Less individual animals do indeed require less labour/observation/checking. Why can't you feed cattle without a tractor?

It was a poorly though out example but I still say sheep aren't any more work than cattle if all things are considered. It just appears that they are less work because there are less of them. And cattle are probably easier work because treating them for anything happens in a crush. If you were treating your ewes in a combi clamp or something you'd find it a lot easier than manhandling them.
Of course you can feed cattle without a tractor but do you honestly know anyone who does? Apart from people in faraway places on Facebook I don't know of anyone.

 

[hendrebc]

Depends on how much you call a living?
25 cows with follows here, new tractor every few years + keep machinery up to date & reasonable living.

Better not more

 

[hendrebc]

Depends on how much you call a living?
25 cows with follows here, new tractor every few years + keep machinery up to date & reasonable living.

Better not more

 

[Treg]

Better not more

Yes, better to make a profit on a small number of cows than a loss on a lot of cows.

 

[JohnGalway]

No you'd have to do something pretty special to make a living with 40 sheep.

It was a poorly though out example but I still say sheep aren't any more work than cattle if all things are considered. It just appears that they are less work because there are less of them. And cattle are probably easier work because treating them for anything happens in a crush. If you were treating your ewes in a combi clamp or something you'd find it a lot easier than manhandling them.
Of course you can feed cattle without a tractor but do you honestly know anyone who does? Apart from people in faraway places on Facebook I don't know of anyone.

I'd know quite a few, as the land here isn't vehicle friendly and a lot still outwinter. As other threads suggest I intend to get cattle, I won't be getting a tractor, in fact I sold the tractor earlier this year.

That there are more sheep means they are more work. If you say chose to vaccinate a flock or herd you'll handle more individuals, repeat more actions with the flock. I also believe sheep are more susceptible to disease like fluke, compared to cattle. We've had cattle, we have sheep, I'm heading back to the bovines mostly for labour reasons.

 

[Sharpy]

25 cows everything took through to finishing other than replacements .
All Ai saves on a bull & associated costs .
Nothing else farm wise for income but paid for the farm through buying selling houses/ building & stocks & shares....But the only money I earned to get my first house & shares was through buying & rearing calves.

Impressive on both counts, well done.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

It is surprising what you can make off a small number of sheep, too. I sold 25 lambs last year and pocketed over $5k, not really much work to kill and cut up. I guess that's why it's so regulated

Here's one for @hendrebc, what are we doing wrong that these lambs have put on 4kg per week since birth?

Mother has never been yarded or touched, what should I buy first?

 

[hendrebc]

It is surprising what you can make off a small number of sheep, too. I sold 25 lambs last year and pocketed over $5k, not really much work to kill and cut up. I guess that's why it's so regulated

Here's one for @hendrebc, what are we doing wrong that these lambs have put on 4kg per week since birth? View attachment 918494 Mother has never been yarded or touched, what should I buy first?

Trying to think of a smartarse comment about spending more money but can't think of one...
With growth like that anything you could spend money on to try and improve might make things worse
If it ain't broke don't fix it

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Trying to think of a smartarse comment about spending more money but can't think of one...
With growth like that anything you could spend money on to try and improve might make things worse
If it ain't broke don't fix it

That's what I said at discussion group, these guys were talking about whether to grow red clover or rape to grow lambs - I got some funny looks when I claimed we generally have lambs doing 450-650g per day off boring old grass, but there you go.

Someone is starting to get her hollows filled out again too

I'll keep her apart from the mob until her colostrum has finished, so her calf gets it all.

I asked the ladyboss and I had put you wrong - 2 bull calves and 6 heifers born this year, just that pure white bull "Bingo" - so we have 12 heifers two bulls

 

[GC74]

It is surprising what you can make off a small number of sheep, too. I sold 25 lambs last year and pocketed over $5k, not really much work to kill and cut up. I guess that's why it's so regulated

Here's one for @hendrebc, what are we doing wrong that these lambs have put on 4kg per week since birth? View attachment 918494 Mother has never been yarded or touched, what should I buy first?

571grams a day!!! That’s very impressive in anyone’s book. Well done you!