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

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
drove around the headland, of one of our herb leys, to get the ring rollers to another field, grazing the cows there now, that rollered strip, has noticeably less feed, so it doesn't like that.
The chicory there, is bolting very quickly now, and the cows are only eating the leaf's, so a topping, after they have finished it, l think.
By night, they have been on a spring reseed, third time over, in which we overdid the chicory seed, so there is a lot there, can't see much behind them though, they certainly like it !
 

Tyedyetom

Member
Livestock Farmer
Hello again everyone, managed to catch up after a few months! You’ve been busy, good to see all the photographs and hear how things are going. We’ve been rearing some surplus heifers this from the spring, there on a neighbours organic farm, and are doing well. The best thing is that we have managed to get a tenancy of our own from March, so they will be able to come with us and go to bull next year. Looking forward to being able to contribute more again. Cheers
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Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
20210725_094515.jpg

Still loving life with an electric bike.
Seriously considering getting one (or two) .
It's definitely not "a motorbike" but it doesn't need to be.

I like the fact that it isn't "motor"- it doesn't let everyone know I'm out and about at shift time, it doesn't make me feel like I'm wasting fuel touring around the place, and it's cool to see all the extra wildlife that the combination of silence and speed brings you
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Here's a low-cost farming hack that works really well for us
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in the event it gets ran over, it just stays behind because it's only held on by a loose cable-tie and the doubled-over pipe in the end, so it won't break anything

at the back you could do the same as the front, this pipe is long enough to run right under the tractor and out the back of my little feeder wagon.
 

Fenwick

Member
Location
Bretagne France
I'm lucky enough to have regular discussions with a trained hollistic management counseller. (Not much of that in my country yet!)

The upcoming discussion is about pasture rotation, and more precisely about why we graze a pasture. So we have been talking biomass, senescence, brix, logistics, weather etc.

The reality is I almost always plod on around on my rotation like the numbers on a clock. I rarely go paddock 3 then 8 then 6.
Mostly because it's practical.

Do any of you jump around? How do you get on with that, doesn't it quickly get into a muddle?

Would appreciate your thoughts on this subject, which has got my head whirring.
 

Fenwick

Member
Location
Bretagne France

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
I'm lucky enough to have regular discussions with a trained hollistic management counseller. (Not much of that in my country yet!)

The upcoming discussion is about pasture rotation, and more precisely about why we graze a pasture. So we have been talking biomass, senescence, brix, logistics, weather etc.

The reality is I almost always plod on around on my rotation like the numbers on a clock. I rarely go paddock 3 then 8 then 6.
Mostly because it's practical.

Do any of you jump around? How do you get on with that, doesn't it quickly get into a muddle?

Would appreciate your thoughts on this subject, which has got my head whirring.
any plan is subject to change, the biggest spanner, in the nicest way, in the works, has been the weather, when it's very wet, we put them on the older pastures, to reduce damage, weather can also cause different growth speeds, so we may have to jump paddocks, to keep grass at 'best' stage, dairy cows are less tolerant than some beef stock ! But our milk from grass, is creeping on up, albeit from a rather low base, from the dry summers, the only forage supplement they have had, is 16 round bales of hay, + 4 or 5 broken wrapped silage bales, when it has been seriously wet, a large improvement, on having to feed nearly right through the previous 3 summers. As always, there are downsides, the most notable, is the flying sh1t out of them, and the speed they consume the grass, the latter pretty good really, but we have been rather negligent on the back fences, still use them, but more like 2 or 3 feeds, and back fence !
Fertility figures, will be confirmed next week, for the spring block, we wanted 60 for that, reckon it will be nearer 70, in the 8 week target, block. The autumn lot, we will have wheeled and dealed, and got them about right, they have to fill 110 cubicle shed, with a few carry overs, and summer calvers, around 100, which is perfect.
Rather surprisingly, the autumn calvers from last year, being a bit more Holstein than friesian, have milked extremely well, all summer, even now, approaching drying off, they are matching the better spring ones, we didn't really expect that, and not to sure why, especially as a fair few came from a housed herd.
Lessons learnt for next year, there needs to be more research done, into grasses that don't have a chronic wish to head, every sunny day, that has been the hardest bit of grass management, so latest heading prg, and lots of other types, with clover, more clover and herbs.
The cutting only leys, have worked well, whether adding both red and large white clover, would help improve protien, still pondering. With the extra grassland we have, and taking some grazing grass, for silage, might be better to grow the cutting only, for top protien possible, to use as a 'concentrate', to bump up, as needed.
Having watched the meteoric rise, in both N and protien, prices, we need to reduce reliance on them, with a vengeance.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Yes many more ant hills this year at my place too!
I see you have many photos of cattle in long grass. How do your rest periods compare to previous seasons?
Looooooong. Not by choice really though, forced on us by the cold April. We've only just finished our first round this year!

Don't let anyone tell you that year old beef stores won't eat long grass!
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
Looooooong. Not by choice really though, forced on us by the cold April. We've only just finished our first round this year!

Don't let anyone tell you that year old beef stores won't eat long grass!
Amazing what sheep will eat too, we have been running the lambs ahead of the ewes on the second round and they are doing well nice and clean no wormer, ewes look good to following on, in stuff that is taller than the lambs are.
We cut a couple patches in fields that I can't remember ever being cut before and made a few bales of silage as they were getting so far behind but a lot of it is to humpy to mow
 

Fenwick

Member
Location
Bretagne France
bn que
Looooooong. Not by choice really though, forced on us by the cold April. We've only just finished our first round this year!

Don't let anyone tell you that year old beef stores won't eat long grass!

I think that with increasing rest periods we have much more flora and fauna.
The big ant hills are now in most paddocks, we have a lot of the big grasshoppers (Tettigonia viridissima ) in the grass in front of the cows and notably more hares.

Yarrow all over the place, and new to the farm this year, and appearing all by itself!!
IMG_20210726_190013[1].jpg


Something I find really exciting!

But it's a funny year and the rain has been great so far so I don't know yet if it's the difference in the weather or the difference in management (probably both it often is).
 

martian

DD Moderator
BASE UK Member
Location
N Herts
Is anyone else awash with ants this year? We've got huge anthills everywhere.

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Getting some real diversity in this one though. The clover is loving this year....

View attachment 976429
Ant hills everywhere this year, I don't know if it's the ant-eggs that the starlings are eating when they follow the mob, or grass-hoppers maybe, which are also having a good year. Tripped over a wok sized ant hill yesterday. I usually end up humming the old Bob Dylan song that has that line in about the ants being his friend, they're blowing in the wind...
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Yes many more ant hills this year at my place too!
I see you have many photos of cattle in long grass. How do your rest periods compare to previous seasons?
Looking at the record we came out of that field on June 6th so 55 days ago. That specific cell was probably grazed about 68 days ago.

I'm noticing many more dragonflies this year and, for the first time, seeing Self Heal and Agrimony.

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SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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