Mowing before/after rotaional grazing.

[Generally01]

The mower will flatten the cow sh!t

You mow it that short?!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

You mow it that short?!

Disc mower will drag the patties out with its skids, most mowers only have optional topping skids and they usually sit in the back of a shed somewhere.
Shame being late to the annual Drought Thread

 

[Generally01]

O

yes i do know what you mean.
and actually i do have a few areas that are,shall we say looking a little untidy atm.
they will keep for winter use with a front and back fence

Yeah if a person is just going for a look, then why don't they quit farming and go into the golfing business?

 

[Generally01]

Depends. Apparently mowing is quite good for getting rid of annual weeds.

Well, but how by mowing do you keep from just getting more annual weeds?

 

[som farmer]

a problem weed here, is fat hen, that always appears, this year, with drought conditions, it has been interesting to see, what else has appeared, groundsel, and sheperds purse, both in large amounts ! In a new ley, as above weeds were present, son said spray, the old b said top, topping, has left a nice ley, and, the cows picked over, and ate, a lot of the toppings. We have also found, with the dry summers, that grass tends to become, the same stage, after rain it grows, so instead of a nicely balanced 'round', we have paddocks, all at the same growth stage, topping ahead of the cows, has resulted in much higher utilisation, and topping, leaves everything nice and tidy.
A different matter, especially for kiwi pete, i am totally hooked, on a NZ export, still spirits.

 

[Treg]

I think mowing after every grazing is a bit much but have seen farms where it works & their grass is amazing.
I would say every year is different, on a dry year I would have thought it would do as much harm as good .
Topping to reduce weeds is all about timing, if their anywhere near seeding your creating a problem but most don't like being cut before that stage.
@Kiwi Pete mentioned in another thread about being "disruptive " ( I think KP said it? ) , I think a mower can be disruptive whereas a topper doesn't really cut low enough but you certainly wouldn't want to "disrupt" to many times a year.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I think mowing after every grazing is a bit much but have seen farms where it works & their grass is amazing.
I would say every year is different, on a dry year I would have thought it would do as much harm as good .
Topping to reduce weeds is all about timing, if their anywhere near seeding your creating a problem but most don't like being cut before that stage.
@Kiwi Pete mentioned in another thread about being "disruptive " ( I think KP said it? ) , I think a mower can be disruptive whereas a topper doesn't really cut low enough but you certainly wouldn't want to "disrupt" to many times a year.

It was me, I think.
Most of my spare N is in insect protein form: invertebrates need habitat, and a mower zinging through their homes at 13mph doesn't really aid keeping huge populations around

ditto, chain-harrowing and flat-rolling

if nature actually required we crush the living skin of the biome, and "reset" it on broad scale then she would have created a mechanism to do so; she has not.
Even severe, non selective grazing gives life time to scurry away and return behind the herd, I think is worth consideration - it's an awful lot easier to lose ammonia N or urea than it is to lose protein living in a system, which is why there's a justification to sacrifice a little production for a lot of efficiency

 

[SteveHants]

Well, but how by mowing do you keep from just getting more annual weeds?

I believe you mow them before the seed head forms and thus they don't reproduce, also, hopefully in the mean time your sward will have put out more tillers so that any seeds still in the soil don't get the opportunity to germinate in future.

 

[Generally01]

I believe you mow them before the seed head forms and thus they don't reproduce, also, hopefully in the mean time your sward will have put out more tillers so that any seeds still in the soil don't get opportunity to germinate in future.

So when do you mow it and at what height do you mow it?

Most times after mowing bare soil is exposed and this lets very little but weeds grow(if even that in some conditions), and this just leads to more mowing, soon you are in a rut that can be difficult to get out of.

 

[SteveHants]

So when do you mow it and at what height do you mow it?

Most times after mowing bare soil is exposed and this lets very little but weeds grow(if even that in some conditions), and this just leads to more mowing, soon you are in a rut that can be difficult to get out of.

Topping twice seems to work ok. They then don't have the energy to reproduce and the sward has thickened so they don't germinate in future.

 

[som farmer]

we hope to separate our fields, cutting only, and the rest grazing. As we intend to multi cut, it will be interesting, to see how the weeds respond, as lots of clover, spraying docks etc, and getting a window, to achieve a spray window, we hope, being cut every 4/5 weeks, will control them. A sordid story, we had a dairyman, who, for 20 yrs, religiously peed on a bunch of nettles, by the bull pen, every day he worked, took the 20 yrs to kill them off !

 

[Generally01]

Topping twice seems to work ok. They then don't have the energy to reproduce and the sward has thickened so they don't germinate in future.

So none of this ground level mowing
That makes at lot more sense, just cutting the tops off, before they go to seed.

 

[som farmer]

So none of this ground level mowing
That makes at lot more sense, just cutting the tops off, before they go to seed.

yes, top at 5/6 ins, just taking the heads off.

 

[Green farmer]

My farm is overrun with nettles and thistles. Only fields that haven't been effected are the spring lambing fields, that are closed up after tight grazing and used for silage a few months later. Mowing seems to keep them as clean as a whistle. Lambs graze the after grass in autumn and their rested up after that until the spring. Rest of farm is regularily topped, but the place just gets worse each year. Weed licking or blanket spraying on the list for next year.

 

[Y Fan Wen]

My farm is overrun with nettles and thistles. Only fields that haven't been effected are the spring lambing fields, that are closed up after tight grazing and used for silage a few months later. Mowing seems to keep them as clean as a whistle. Lambs graze the after grass in autumn and their rested up after that until the spring. Rest of farm is regularily topped, but the place just gets worse each year. Weed licking or blanket spraying on the list for next year.

For nettles and thistles I always look at wiping as the first option, bearing in mind that wiping is a multiple pass operation, not do once and forget.

 

[Y Fan Wen]

if you mow try to keep a decent stubble length, 75-100mm.

a lot of our fields have 360 * hawthorn hedges that sucker way out into the field if not cut down every now and then . stock dont stop them im afraid.

I have 3 small fields where blackthorn would take over if not topped down every year.

 

[Generally01]

I have 3 small fields where blackthorn would take over if not topped down every year.

So why don't you try to fix it with a different method that fixes it a little more permanently, and save yourself having to mow constantly?

 

[Generally01]

My farm is overrun with nettles and thistles. Only fields that haven't been effected are the spring lambing fields, that are closed up after tight grazing and used for silage a few months later. Mowing seems to keep them as clean as a whistle. Lambs graze the after grass in autumn and their rested up after that until the spring. Rest of farm is regularily topped, but the place just gets worse each year. Weed licking or blanket spraying on the list for next year.

See a lot of your weed problems start with the soil condition. So thistles and other unpalatable plants are really just like billboards saying "hey! this soil is poor and/or mismanaged" as they tend to grow in poor or dried out soils.

 

[Green farmer]

See a lot of your weed problems start with the soil condition. So thistles tend to grow in poor or dried out soils.

Not mismanaged, but the large portions of the land is of poor quality alright. Some is wet rushy land and other parts is dry lacking soil type of land. However you can only with what you got unfortunitely.

 

[Bury the Trash]

So why don't you try to fix it with a different method that fixes it a little more permanently, and save yourself having to mow constantly?

Since when is topping once a year 'constantly' ?
and What exactly do you suggest? maybe a herbicide ? or would that be another temporary fix, I know , how about grubbing out the hedgerows as that's a good source of blackthorn ....hmm, now I'm not a fan of it but it's a common native favoured by hedgerow birds for nesting etc etc....and also crucially..... its not allowed to remove hedges anyway.

and I like them as they define our beautiful landscape .