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Regenerative Agriculture and Direct Drilling
Holistic Farming
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..
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<blockquote data-quote="Global ovine" data-source="post: 6551289" data-attributes="member: 493"><p>[USER=70166]@hendrebc[/USER] you may be over emphasising the treadmill effect. You possibly have a point if you run a completely closed flock. That is; only males used for breeding are the best performers out of your own flock and definitely not bought in. This is what happened on the Island of Texel, where the Texel breed from there has adapted to low copper. But if you are buying in new sires for your flock, they will have at least 80% of the influence on your flock's ability/inability to produce in the face of a mineral deficiency. Not 50% as people assume because the sire is half of an animal's make up, but because rams mate many ewes and may be used over successive years. That leaves little room for you to gain much in selection from culling ewes only.</p><p></p><p>I suggest you may be limiting your ability to convert pasture grown into saleable production worth many times more than the cost of treating a deficiency. I say this on the basis that most moist areas of the UK have a very fast spring growth curve which in most years is difficult to control pasture quality. By restricting stock grazing power (less 15% of lambs) by compromising stocking rate at that crucial time of the year will certainly compound pasture digestibility problems hence animal performance. Furthermore, farm fixed costs still occur whether one uses the pasture or not. i am not saying this is your case, as your farm may be very different from the norm.</p><p>The treadmill occurs when farmers try to push nature to grow more DM by adding large and expensive quantities of macro elements. Correcting TEs is peanuts compared to truck loads of nitrogenous fertiliser over the entire growing season.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Global ovine, post: 6551289, member: 493"] [USER=70166]@hendrebc[/USER] you may be over emphasising the treadmill effect. You possibly have a point if you run a completely closed flock. That is; only males used for breeding are the best performers out of your own flock and definitely not bought in. This is what happened on the Island of Texel, where the Texel breed from there has adapted to low copper. But if you are buying in new sires for your flock, they will have at least 80% of the influence on your flock's ability/inability to produce in the face of a mineral deficiency. Not 50% as people assume because the sire is half of an animal's make up, but because rams mate many ewes and may be used over successive years. That leaves little room for you to gain much in selection from culling ewes only. I suggest you may be limiting your ability to convert pasture grown into saleable production worth many times more than the cost of treating a deficiency. I say this on the basis that most moist areas of the UK have a very fast spring growth curve which in most years is difficult to control pasture quality. By restricting stock grazing power (less 15% of lambs) by compromising stocking rate at that crucial time of the year will certainly compound pasture digestibility problems hence animal performance. Furthermore, farm fixed costs still occur whether one uses the pasture or not. i am not saying this is your case, as your farm may be very different from the norm. The treadmill occurs when farmers try to push nature to grow more DM by adding large and expensive quantities of macro elements. Correcting TEs is peanuts compared to truck loads of nitrogenous fertiliser over the entire growing season. [/QUOTE]
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Regenerative Agriculture and Direct Drilling
Holistic Farming
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..
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