Jonny B88
Member
- Location
- ballykelly. NI
is this meadow foxtail does anyone know? Phone plant app says Timothy but too soon for timothy surely.
Sure is you likely won't see timothy heads for a good 3 months, and more like 4 or 5. It's a late header, likes flowering when the days begin getting shorter again.View attachment 958204
is this meadow foxtail does anyone know? Phone plant app says Timothy but too soon for timothy surely.
Pretty sure it is Timothy. Have a few about here as well like you said it’s early but it is what it is.View attachment 958204
is this meadow foxtail does anyone know? Phone plant app says Timothy but too soon for timothy surely.
It's not Timothy which has a much more cylindrical head, plus it's too earlyView attachment 958204
is this meadow foxtail does anyone know? Phone plant app says Timothy but too soon for timothy surely.
That was my thought but I wasn't sure.crested dogs tail, always the first grass to put up a seed head, and looks similar to timothy's seed head.
Timothy will still be using its vegetative tiller at this time of year, not many grasses actually use a separate veg and reproductive tiller but timothy is one of them.It's not Timothy which has a much more cylindrical head, plus it's too early
great minds think alike.That was my thought but I wasn't sure.
Dogstail has a telltale zigzag stalk, visible up one side of the panicle, and is much wirier than most other species. Also it's a beautiful green green, where the alopecurus are a bluish green, as per the photoThat was my thought but I wasn't sure.
I don't think I've been called THAT before!great minds think alike.
Pete am I right in thinking that you try and utilise the majority of forage in a paddock in your system at every grazing event?Timothy will still be using its vegetative tiller at this time of year, not many grasses actually use a separate veg and reproductive tiller but timothy is one of them.
In a roundabout way, it's what helped indicate to us that our old management was needing improvement; we were losing it from our pastures thanks to recovery times being too short - thanks to leaving grass behind - and we lost it quickly, a couple of years.
l had the dubious pleasure of combining timothy for seed, two passes, 2nd a week after 1st. Bottom gear, engine drum flat out, and no cab. Even worse, farm lost it's contract for elephant hay, so we fed the dairy with it, wire tied steel brillo pads, cows went nuts for it, no accounting for taste. And, ever since, had half a notion, on the difference between what we feed to cows, and what they would like us to feed them.Timothy will still be using its vegetative tiller at this time of year, not many grasses actually use a separate veg and reproductive tiller but timothy is one of them.
In a roundabout way, it's what helped indicate to us that our old management was needing improvement; we were losing it from our pastures thanks to recovery times being too short - thanks to leaving grass behind - and we lost it quickly, a couple of years.
Yes, we do now.Pete am I right in thinking that you try and utilise the majority of forage in a paddock in your system at every grazing event?
Do you find they leave much? Or are you forcing them to eat it down?Yes, we do now.
Get as many grazing days per hectare as we can, in an effort to reduce the number of grazings per season.
This way all species get a chance of living their best life - including the people View attachment 958352
edit, we may do "a quick spring whiparound" if we need to, eg whizz the mobs over their areas quickly if needed.
But we may just play with numbers and mob sizes, or leave the ends of the systems ungrazed as "setaside" or deferred feed for the next rotation
Really it just depends on timing.Do you find they leave much? Or are you forcing them to eat it down?
I hadn't thought of annoying the cattle to encourage weeing and pooing. Makes sense though.Really it just depends on timing.
Because we aren't "doing as much work" we can show up and annoy the mobs for a bit - so they all poo and pee on their grazed bit - and then they don't roar into the new one and poo all over that as they scoff it. That helps them waste less.
They still knock it down really quickly, but there aren't the big patches of ungrazed grass that someone peed all over, just being left.
Of course we are always changing stuff, but that's the general theme, slow and steady. If we decide that they could leave a bit, then we change the timing so that they do leave a bit, and the other cells soak up the difference.
We may go to 3 mobs of calves soon, and give them all a shift once a day, as opposed to 100 head getting 3 shifts a day. That extra time to pick around should help them clean up, and pressure around the troughs will be less. Pressure on the shy animals will also be reduced.
Goat-less again todayThat's what I'd call a grass thief at least it was only one.
Waste is a good thing at times. I try to leave a little waste where it would benefit from it, and leave it nice and clean where it would benefit from the extra traffic and poopI hadn't thought of annoying the cattle to encourage weeing and pooing. Makes sense though.
I always try to move them first and then do the fiddling about with water, move the fence etc as I don't like to upset the little darlings.
Going to really try and leave more this year to improve performance and recovery time. I find it so difficult to look at the residue without thinking it's waste, which of course it isn't.