Intensive cell grazing cattle

[Kernowkid]

As the title suggest considering going down this route with the cattle.
Mega simple system, no breeding stock, one stock class. 12 month old bought in 400kgish animals, groups of 40 grazed from March to November on good free draining ground. Fresh cell every day, grazing herbal lays, no corn. On their own rotation not competing with sheep or cows.
Aim to sell everything fat come winter. Start again in the spring.
Do on scale so wouldn’t need massive margin to make a ok profit with the sfi subs as a bonus.
Anyone doing it? Could it work?

 

[Barleycorn]

Isn't that mob grazing?

 

[puppet]

Everyone would like to do it but if you want to pass the hassle of keeping and calving cows to me then you will have to pay more for that.
The problem with a small margin is that it is easy to turn into a loss.

 

[Kernowkid]

Thinking this type of thing

 

[Old Tip]

@Kiwi Pete is the guru, amazing results, so impressive when I visited last year

 

[unlacedgecko]

As the title suggest considering going down this route with the cattle.
Mega simple system, no breeding stock, one stock class. 12 month old bought in 400kgish animals, groups of 40 grazed from March to November on good free draining ground. Fresh cell every day, grazing herbal lays, no corn. On their own rotation not competing with sheep or cows.
Aim to sell everything fat come winter. Start again in the spring.
Do on scale so wouldn’t need massive margin to make a ok profit with the sfi subs as a bonus.
Anyone doing it? Could it work?

Yeah it'll go great. Move them multiple times a day for better results.

PensAgro | Intensive Grazing Systems | Cell Grazing | Regenerative Grazing

The PensAgro product range, designed to improve production costs by achieving efficiencies in intensive grazing systems. Designed to save time and minimise labour with cell grazing and regenerative grazing systems. These products make daily rural tasks simpler and safer. Watch our website video....

www.catagra.com

Automation will help reduce labour costs.

 

[Old Tip]

Those wire lifters are a definite game changer for the enthusiast, I’m only playing at it as the geography and location don’t match the principles, But working towards moving more regularly where I can, plus making fields smaller

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Isn't that mob grazing?

Everyone's definition will vary but I would say that depends on the length of the rotation/ rest period.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Isn't that mob grazing?

I would draw a rough line in the sand that it isn't.

Both draw heavily on the collaborative effect of a number of animals in a small area for a short period of time, to my mind the technograzing/cell grazing is more about reducing competition with small mobs (eg Harry Weir's technograzing system for finishing b&w bull beef) to increase performance, mob grazing to me is about running a large mob so as to cause increased herd-effect

Have done both

What we saw on our old place after setting it up as 500 cells was that everything did better the more we went towards a "mob grazing in a cell grazing thing" - say we put 140 heifers into a system, they did better running in one mob than they did split into 3.

I am happier than most with things being "out of control" and many use these type of systems to gain more control, that's probably why our results vary from what most people observe

 

[Kernowkid]

I would draw a rough line in the sand that it isn't.

Both draw heavily on the collaborative effect of a number of animals in a small area for a short period of time, to my mind the technograzing/cell grazing is more about reducing competition with small mobs (eg Harry Weir's technograzing system for finishing b&w bull beef) to increase performance, mob grazing to me is about running a large mob so as to cause increased herd-effect

Have done both

What we saw on our old place after setting it up as 500 cells was that everything did better the more we went towards a "mob grazing in a cell grazing thing" - say we put 140 heifers into a system, they did better running in one mob than they did split into 3.

I am happier than most with things being "out of control" and many use these type of systems to gain more control, that's probably why our results vary from what most people observe

That’s interesting. Yes was looking at Harry Weir’s system. Not with bulls mind.
So you think they do better in larger mobs? Was that purely on dlwg or more ease of management with only one mob to move?
Weather must play a part I guess, In a wet time do they not cause too much damage or are you moving them on faster/larger break?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

That’s interesting. Yes was looking at Harry Weir’s system. Not with bulls mind.
So you think they do better in larger mobs? Was that purely on dlwg or more ease of management with only one mob to move?
Weather must play a part I guess, In a wet time do they not cause too much damage or are you moving them on faster/larger break?

When you have lots of cells set up then the more frequent shifting just happens.

Think of your paddock system as a gearbox and you came to a big hill in the road, really it boils down to the number of paddocks per mob. 80+ is great, but 280 is like the hill was imagined.

That was largely our experience there, in good conditions it may have been better overall to use 3x the mobs and have them in those paddocks for 3x as long, but it never truly went that smoothly at our place.

Knowing that "emergency shift" was only one paddock out of hundreds meant that it happened.

We didn't alter break size, only time in a paddock. All cells were either ¼ acre or ⅕, 1010m² or 808m²

Must say it was a hell of a good time, when you have big liveweight per hectare you really get things happening that you otherwise just don't see

 

[Afarewyth]

We didn't alter break size, only time in a paddock. All cells were either ¼ acre or ⅕, 1010m² or 808m²

What kind of weight per acre were you running at if you don’t mind me asking? Or was it numbers based?

 

[ringi]

What we saw on our old place after setting it up as 500 cells was that everything did better the more we went towards a "mob grazing in a cell grazing thing

If I recall correctly you have very unpredictable rain, so longer recovery times reduce your risks.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

What kind of weight per acre were you running at if you don’t mind me asking? Or was it numbers based?

Density wise? 1500 head per hectare was a sweet spot, with ½ size animals (250-350kg dairy heifers for example). We saw really rapid grassland improvement at that stock density.
¼ acre cell 150 heifers ?

Ultimately it makes shifting things so predictable that you know when early and late are without being anywhere near, and there is still a lot of give in it at that: you could leave them there 50% longer all the time and take twice as long to get round the rotation, and it would just get better and better and better

If I recall correctly you have very unpredictable rain, so longer recovery times reduce your risks.

And this is where this comes in, we ended up restocking very late in the spring the season @Old Tip and @crashbox called in, so the pastures were pretty embarrassing for youngstock by summer. We just countered by following the heifers with the same weight in beefies, 200T/ha followed 8 hours later by 200T/ha, and it was like a cyclone had gone through .
Never seen anything like it and the bank account said the same thing, over 12 months we banked NZ$1000/acre and had 3 months off

 

[Old Tip]

A before, during and after of @Kiwi Pete grazing regime

 

[Kiwi Pete]

A before, during and after of @Kiwi Pete grazing regime

Great, it was about then my phone went kaput and that was the end of my photo record ! Thanks !

 

[som farmer]

its a mind set thing, more than anything else, once you accept it, you can be shocked.

our dairy has two fresh moves a day, using back fences etc, so no more than 36 hours, in a paddock, usually just one feed, then move, depends on how easy it is to do the fences.

the herbal leys, need different methods from prg/clover leys. We graze longer covers, and leave longer residuals. They need a longer recovery time, we look at 30/35 days, or longer. And it can look a mess, we try and cut paddocks once, and/or top them, keeps them tidier.

cows love them, and milk off them, don't think there is much difference, yield wise, between the two, herbal will beat prg, hands down, in a dry spell.

but our on/off system, works brilliantly, doesn't work with a plate meter !!

 

[ringi]

A before, during and after of @Kiwi Pete grazing regime

What's what I call farming for insets, birds and wildlife.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Great fun, too. We had some pretty embarrassing covers at times

nothing was a battle, 3rd drought year in a row and nothing really "squeaked", I remember being at a farewell party and all the farmers left to go feed out.. I went home to shift mobs and took photos of the falcon chicks, in grass up to my belt.

Learned so much about HPG in such a short space of time, even if we sold the farm we took that with us

 

[Kernowkid]

What suit of dlwg would you be expecting? Did they perform worse, better or no difference on grass of that length/quality?
Also is that rye grass or legume/herbs in the mix?