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

[Whitewalker]

Yeah. I'm sure the animals will figure out how to work with it. If they take turns at the trough, (which there is no way around) then it should keep cooler than what we have now - a thinner pipe connected to a trough with storage.

I can vouch for the water being not hot at the moment, that's for sure!


Poorly, because we don't have electric or fences on ⅔ of the farm, we're limping along with them on the other sideView attachment 954936View attachment 954937
it's a pain in the buttocks TBH

Are you in transition or what? I haven’t been on in a while

 

[Kiwi Pete]

What we'll aim to do is put all the calves (including our ones) into groups on the techno, and use the bigger ones around the place with hand reels and pigtails.
Will need to keep the bulls out of it, one of them can go away on his winter holiday then probably kill the steers etc over the winter, our mob has its own little techno system of 4ha up by the top boundary but there's too many in that mob yet.

It's more sized for a few cows and heifers than all the yearlings and bulls and steers and the calves as well ...

 

[Whitewalker]

Right , been here before, forgive me for being thick but how does techno work, never heard of it

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Are you in transition or what? I haven’t been on in a while

Yes, we are definitely "in limbo" at the moment. Will get a fair bit done today, one more coffee and I'm out the door.

Don't know how the grass growth is going to be, soil temp has fallen off a cliff and we're really only getting our first rains now, since the 5th of Jan, so it's almost at the point you consider putting a few kg of fert on to help it along.

Need to get these wires up to stop me thinking about that

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Right , been here before, forgive me for being thick but how does techno work, never heard of it

Basically, two options. You can go with lanes, and put a polywire up along the node posts (these are your measuring points, in our case every 19.7 metres down the lanes) and shift their troughs up

or, in our case we're going to put all the troughs in place and all the wires in place permanently, and then just shift them from cell to cell. It replaces so much "stuff" in a simple cost effective way, eg you don't need a platemeter because you have a visual bar graph of how your feed is growing. You can setaside or skip or just turn them around and go back into pasture at the right stage, basically it's all flexible.

the idea is small mobs and small paddocks, and shift them every 48 hours or less to keep your grazing speed and grass growth speed about the same. And putting in or removing animals through the year, to keep that stocking rate aligned with carrying capacity of the farm

for a start we'll have 280 cells of .1ha, then we will maybe cut those in half by next winter, and convert the other ⅓ of the farm (where the stock are now) into lane systems over the summer when the days are longer.

All the techno stuff is very light, and very "flexy", so you ride your bike or pickup over the top like it wasn't there, and the animals shift under the wire as we do, because I really have done enough messing with portable electric fence stuff to see me out. However I am keen for the results of good grazing to continue, but I want my life back

 

[Whitewalker]

Basically, two options. You can go with lanes, and put a polywire up along the node posts (these are your measuring points, in our case every 19.7 metres down the lanes) and shift their troughs up

or, in our case we're going to put all the troughs in place and all the wires in place permanently, and then just shift them from cell to cell. It replaces so much "stuff" in a simple cost effective way, eg you don't need a platemeter because you have a visual bar graph of how your feed is growing. You can setaside or skip or just turn them around and go back into pasture at the right stage, basically it's all flexible.

the idea is small mobs and small paddocks, and shift them every 48 hours or less to keep your grazing speed and grass growth speed about the same. And putting in or removing animals through the year, to keep that stocking rate aligned with carrying capacity of the farm

for a start we'll have 280 cells of .1ha, then we will maybe cut those in half by next winter, and convert the other ⅓ of the farm (where the stock are now) into lane systems over the summer when the days are longer.

All the techno stuff is very light, and very "flexy", so you ride your bike or pickup over the top like it wasn't there, and the animals shift under the wire as we do, because I really have done enough messing with portable electric fence stuff to see me out. However I am keen for the results of good grazing to continue, but I want my life back

Thanks, look forward to seeing how you progress

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Wee bit of progress today, got the lane fences' end assemblies all done and wires pulled up

Got through 12 metres of insultube on them and around the big bends, soon soaked it up but it's a good job done

nothing too fancy

cheap

light

cobweb-proof

will go around and adjust the posts with a chainsaw one day

then I smacked in a few arrows to get a bit of wire out of the grass

then I had to go shift the heavy-lifters

p!ssed the neighbours cows off by accidentally leaving the clicker going
3 times

 

[Henarar]

Got through 12 metres of insultube on them and around the big bends, soon soaked it up but it's a good job done

Does that insultube work well ?
we use egg insulators on ends and very sharp corners

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Does that insultube work well ?
we use egg insulators on ends and very sharp corners

Yes, I thought it would be best for this thinner wire, otherwise it might give at a proper insulator where it gets a kink, this gives it a bit more 'bearing surface'

I didn't want LDPE pipe because they become spider traps and leak your current down the post in the damp

 

[Henarar]

Yes, I thought it would be best for this thinner wire, otherwise it might give at a proper insulator where it gets a kink, this gives it a bit more 'bearing surface'

I didn't want LDPE pipe because they become spider traps and leak your current down the post in the damp

what size wire ?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

what size wire ?

1.6mm, insultube has a 3mm ole in so it takes the 2.5 mm

I did my end assemblies with 2.5 because my crimps probably work better with that size wire, and I like it for the tie-off knots because it breaks so nicely

 

[Henarar]

we have 2.5 but this is round by the boundary hedges and probably runs a mile
I take it than 1.6 is HT ?

 

[som farmer]

just a small example of where looking after your soil, is detrimental, we rolled about 2 acres, because the moles have moved back in, we had to leave that patch, in a 14 acre field, not enough to warrant cutting, the other 12 acres, brilliant, way more than expected. Really didn't quite expect that difference, but they reckon for every plus, there's a minus !
Might have to look at mole control again, haven't really had to for 15 ? years. That, in itself, tells a story. For decades, here, every grass field was chain harrowed, and every cutting field was rolled as well, can remember articles about how heavy rollers should be, the heavier, the better, now both jobs largely not done. We have started chain harrowing behind the cows, as the sh1t is quite fluid, and we are trying to 'spread' it around, another experiment.

 

[crashbox]

sheep did a wonderful job, nibbled off all the blue tips of grass, they came out 26 feb ish, and it's grown like stink since, till the cold weather, they had some grazing grass before that, and that's now being grazed. Just need some nice warm rain now, the last 3 weeks, just been to cold and dry. It does, however, look as though our 'new' grass system is looking good, get a decent growing summer, we wont know where to put it all ! And that, would make a very welcome change. Over the last 3 years, we have reseeded, or over seeded, all our main grass fields, bar 4 acres, some twice, that is not good, but what is now down, contains more drought resistant varieties, now herbs, and non ryegrasses as well, it's going to be an interesting time, hoping/watching the result. 147 acres of grass, 1x 6ac field ploughed behind kale, and reseeded this spring, and 1x 7 ac ploughed, and reseeded last spring, the rest tined, or over seeded. 16 ac, behind kale, ploughed and drilled spr barley, the h/rye and vetch, tined and drilled, not sure what we will do, before the maize, depending how much sh1t goes on ! So l think we have tried the 'non inversion' tilling, enough to give a good result !

@som farmer any chance of a picture of your time set up used for preparing ground for maize?
We plough ground before maize, esp. grassland, but keen for ideas on avoiding this...

 

[Whitewalker]

just a small example of where looking after your soil, is detrimental, we rolled about 2 acres, because the moles have moved back in, we had to leave that patch, in a 14 acre field, not enough to warrant cutting, the other 12 acres, brilliant, way more than expected. Really didn't quite expect that difference, but they reckon for every plus, there's a minus !
Might have to look at mole control again, haven't really had to for 15 ? years. That, in itself, tells a story. For decades, here, every grass field was chain harrowed, and every cutting field was rolled as well, can remember articles about how heavy rollers should be, the heavier, the better, now both jobs largely not done. We have started chain harrowing behind the cows, as the sh1t is quite fluid, and we are trying to 'spread' it around, another experiment.

Snap we chain harrowed every field, topped every field . Not now . Can’t be ar$ed sitting on a tractor and it’s beneficial to the soil

 

[Gulli]

Feel like we are running a bit late here this year, all the youngstock been out for a couple of weeks but it's been cold and dry so not much regrowth behind them yet.
More smaller paddocks for them this year which is good progress!

 

[som farmer]

@som farmer any chance of a picture of your time set up used for preparing ground for maize?
We plough ground before maize, esp. grassland, but keen for ideas on avoiding this...

being tight assed farmers, we use a three leg subsoiler, bought for £400, we can get it in nearly 3 feet deep, but don't do that, as normal, usually 8/12 ins, or less, depending on tractor resistance, or pan. When we started trying this, we used an ancient single leg one, we'd been given years ago. Trouble is, if you start going for a big 'proper' one, the £'s very quickly add up, and you need a correspondingly big tractor, then you are looking at contractors, we do most of it ourselves, so if it takes a bit longer, so what, at least it's done properly, contractors tend to ease up a bit, so they get it done quicker, and use less fuel. Grass is so important to us, we have decided to keep it 'in house', no one else to blame then ! Photo's, my phone doesn't do them, son say's he will get me one, for a year or so.
Moving fences today, every cow pat, had a covering of dung flies, ideal, as presumably flies make beetles !

 

[Karliboy]

First 4 cows and calves out today.
Thinking about it I probably should have had these out a few weeks back and fed bales outside to save on straw and mucking out

I’ll set stock theses for a few days until the littles ones learn what the wire is

Hopefully these little monsters will start to motor on now

If all my fields had this much I’d be laughing

 

[Henarar]

Some nice calves there

 

[som farmer]

the value of those blues, would make you want to sit down, quickly. Is there not a case of cashing them, and keeping the cows stocked very tightly, just interested. Son's mate took his orphan lambs to exeter, topped at over £50. It's a very strange market at the moment, not at all sure where it's going, it's either going to continue, because stock are not about, or it's going to 'pop'. Although a serious dairy auctioneer reckoned the dairy trade will keep rising through the summer, last weeks dispersal av £1531/cow, all faults included, and a fair few 'senior' cows. Part of me thinks, take the cash, and sit tight, waiting for the 'drop' !