Less Stress, More Grass

[Sheila Cooke]

Organic dairy farm, Dharma Lea, experienced economic, social and ecological benefits when making the switch from rotational grazing to Holistic Planned Grazing. Improvements over three years included:

· A 120% increase in the number of grazing days per year.

· A drop in feed cost from 60% to 48% of the total cost of production.

· Improved profitability with a gross margin of 41%.

· Increased carrying capacity of the land.

· A significant improvement in livestock health.

· Improved milk quality, with a 10% increase in total milk solids.

· Improved quality of life for the entire family, including more time to spend together, more wildlife to enjoy, a sense of community, and a lot less stress.

· Improved financial position, enabling the family to purchase an additional farm that would triple the size of their land, provide a new family home, and allow expansion of the herd and milking parlor.

Read the full case study.​

Upcoming Holistic Planned Grazing Courses
Learn how to continuously increase grass productivity by attending training. Each of the sessions below includes visits to a nearby farm that has been practicing holistic planned grazing.

5-9 March 2018, at Rickmansworth, near London, in collaboration with Bailey Hill Farm

12-16 March 2018, in Shropshire, in collaboration with Babbinswood Farm

19-23 March 2018, in Cumbria, in collaboration with Low Sizergh Barn

To see all our training courses, click here.

For more information, please contact us:
Tel: +44 (0) 7446 780081

Email: [email protected]

 

[newholland]

Have any TFF people got direct experience of this?

 

[Will Blackburn]

WTF is NZ grazing?

 

[blacksheepcontracting]

WTF is NZ grazing?

I usually hear it applied to grazing when the third leaf has been produced before the first leaf dies

 

[Will Blackburn]

Ah there are two answers for rotational grazing.

 

[bobajob]

I don’t want to mock your case study, but an improved sense of community from grazing differently.. That’s a bold statement.

 

[Beef farmer]

WTF is NZ grazing?

It's gonna need a fecking long cow track to graze nz from here.

 

[Beef farmer]

So go holistic grazing and in 3 years should be able to buy a farm and TRIPLE you land area. Hmmmm sounds to good to be true

 

[wasted years]

What is 'Holistic planned grazing '?

 

[bobajob]

I would think a lot on here could well be practising this already.!

A quick read of it- They changed the number of grazing days from just over 2 months to just over 4 months!!!

 

[onthehoof]

here you go, I stopped reading after the first page

 

[blacksheepcontracting]

My rotational grazing management doesn’t fit the description in the case study and features many principles that are ascribed to holistic management.

What would be more insightful would be to hear thoughts on species composition, length of leys/reseed policies etc

 

[ploughman1963]

I usually hear it applied to grazing when the third leaf has been produced before the first leaf dies

That is what would describe as rotational grazing - ?

 

[Tim W]

My rotational grazing management doesn’t fit the description in the case study and features many principles that are ascribed to holistic management.

What would be more insightful would be to hear thoughts on species composition, length of leys/reseed policies etc

Think you may have to pay for that

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

I am sure lots of us have holistic planned grazing but usually climatic conditions get in the way, like droughts or snow and floods.
In my humble experience there is an awful lot of difference between an old pasture on poor grade 3 clay and grade 1 alluvial silt that had a reseed with lots of clover.

The most important way of grazing with sheep or cattle when set stocked is to make sure the pasture is well grazed in May, there is no truer saying than you do not want to eat May grass in June.
I can add a few other bits of advice for free as well!!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Have any TFF people got direct experience of this?

* raises hand

 

[neilo]

I am sure lots of us have holistic planned grazing but usually climatic conditions get in the way, like droughts or snow and floods.
In my humble experience there is an awful lot of difference between an old pasture on poor grade 3 clay and grade 1 alluvial silt that had a reseed with lots of clover.

The most important way of grazing with sheep or cattle when set stocked is to make sure the pasture is well grazed in May, there is no truer saying than you do not want to eat May grass in June.
I can add a few other bits of advice for free as well!!

Don’t undersell yourself Frank. You should sell places on training courses.

 

[blacksheepcontracting]

That is what would describe as rotational grazing - ?

When I worked on a holistic farm in the Canadian prairies that was their definition of NZ grazing and rotational grazing was something different to what we would call rotational grazing

 

[cattleman123]

I am sure lots of us have holistic planned grazing but usually climatic conditions get in the way, like droughts or snow and floods.
In my humble experience there is an awful lot of difference between an old pasture on poor grade 3 clay and grade 1 alluvial silt that had a reseed with lots of clover.

The most important way of grazing with sheep or cattle when set stocked is to make sure the pasture is well grazed in May, there is no truer saying than you do not want to eat May grass in June.
I can add a few other bits of advice for free as well!!

I agree totally....but with TBtesting getting the way of turning cattle out its sometimes hard to keep to that rule, I have a test in early JUNE this year so don't want to turn cattle out for a cple of weeks. on off land ..they are not easy to catch at that time of year as well..have to graze tighter with the sheep I suppose

 

[Sheila Cooke]

When I worked on a holistic farm in the Canadian prairies that was their definition of NZ grazing and rotational grazing was something different to what we would call rotational grazing

Hi BlackSheepContracting, where was the farm you worked on in Canada that was holistic? I would love to know about it.