Walwyn
Member
- Location
- West Wales
was actually working out the density other night looking across the bank. It's a hectare for 340 cows @ 600 kg. Staying there? Not sure. So if the target is to maintain that density do we look to move say 4 times a day in fast growth periods and then just out for 1 grazing session at slower times?That's right, the thing is if you're going pretty much totally forage-fed then you need to have at least a small spring stockpile of feed carried over the winter months - because you simply won't grow enough if you deck every acre before dry-off.
That leaves you the options of either making up the difference with silage, molasses etc... or giving them more area
the bigger the cow, the bigger that gap is, is the usual way it goes..
..because if you do the maths on various opening pasture covers then that 40m² I used as an example of stock density is ½ of the 17kg a little girl needs, more like ⅓ of what a gurt big holstein needs.
but that's really why the pasture-only operators have lots of tiny cows! It's a different road to profit. This changes as you shift away from that model, eg if you were using cubicles then less cows is less cost so they then get bigger.
It follows through the season but stands out more in the shoulders, those extra days you aren't topping the herd up mean the cows work for you
since you're a bright spark, how much area do you need to allocate to hit 200 tonnes of cows per hectare - and stay there? Our drystock system is geared for 20 tonnes on a tenth, to achieve it, this is why "we do youngstock"!
The days not topping up is what makes me think we've maybe gone too far with our stocking rate.