My new rotation plan

[Clive]

I would think there should be plenty of people wanting winter grazing for sheep, how many acres of cover crop do you expect to have in total?

The "Farmers Guardian" would be your best bet!

Need to finalise things but between 6-800ac quite a big block will go winter beans this time to ease us into this and spread workload / cash flow


I keep getting told there should be loads a people keen for the winter keep but quite how I find that man I'm not sure

Maybe I should try an advert in my own forum !!

 

[Baling Hay]

Need to finalise things but between 6-800ac quite a big block will go winter beans this time to ease us into this and spread workload / cash flow


I keep getting told there should be loads a people keen for the winter keep but quite how I find that man I'm not sure

Maybe I should try an advert in my own forum !!

Yeah definitely try an advert, I remember asking about the going rate on the old BFF a few years ago as we were grazing 300 store lambs over winter. I had about 3 private messages asking for grazing after that, most of the people were from Wales so not too far from you really.

They guy we grazed for was located 150 miles from our farm! So people are willing to travel as long as it is well fenced and good clean land.

 

[SilliamWhale]

If you know any please put him in touch with me ! Wales is only a short run up he a5 from us really

Try agri trader. What are you going to grow for them? I can't see many of them getting excited about 2ft cover crops, but I'd rather take 50p from a a decent bloke who moves them when you need and pays when asked and is willing to come and do their feet etc. than 70p from someone who won't.

Its a good spread of land for someone. But fencing etc. hmmm

 

[Clive]

Try agri trader. What are you going to grow for them? I can't see many of them getting excited about 2ft cover crops, but I'd rather take 50p from a a decent bloke who moves them when you need and pays when asked and is willing to come and do their feet etc. than 70p from someone who won't.

Its a good spread of land for someone. But fencing etc. hmmm

Pedders number 1 probably but would plant turnips if that paid well / better

From what I recall they run temp electric fences don't they ?

Knowing the stats behind this site now I bet we get more farmers eyes on our classifieds than just about anywhere else in print or on the web !

 

[SilliamWhale]

Pedders number 1 probably but would plant turnips if that paid well / better

From what I recall they run temp electric fences don't they ?

Knowing the stats behind this site now I bet we get more farmers eyes on our classifieds than just about anywhere else in print or on the web !

Ah sorry I don't think you'll get 70p if they do the fencing.

 

[Clive]

Ah sorry I don't think you'll get 70p if they do the fencing.

Not in it for the money - I'm happy to have the sh!t and cover costs, it's part of the bigger picture that will increase my yields, reduce my input spend and make no till work consistently for me no that's where the money is

 

[Baling Hay]

We got 50p per head per week and the owner had no work to do moving fences. The 300 lambs just ran over 200 acres of land.

 

[JD6920s]

Pedders number 1 probably

Does Pedders have a website where I can find out more about these cover crops?

 

[Clive]

@Pedders I can't find it but he uploaded a list here a while ago

 

[db9go]

covercrops.co.uk

 

[Pedders]

we have grazed store lambs overwinter for the last few years ...get paid about 50p week per lamb Grazier does all the fencing ...he uses a rapper reel system on a quad and can fence 40 acres in about 20 minutes
we mix extra stubble turnips in with the cover crop mixes to give species diversity ...you then get crops growing at several different heights maximising the use of light and space
one of the problems with straight stubble turnips is that to get the maximum feed value from them they have to be grazed hard ...this means keeping the sheep on the field for a long time during which they do pad down the ground ....straight disc DD into this ground has not proved successful and IMO needs a tine to break it up and create a tilth which isnt really no till !
mixed with cover crop mixes you do get some strawy type growth from the other species and the sheep tread this into the ground as they graze feeding the ground a bit plus it helps reduce the pressure

 

[Robigus]

When we had sheep we always put stubble turnips in for them. They always took a while to get a taste for them. They would eat any volunteer barley and all the weed seedlings first, then stand around looking cold and miserable, but once they started eating them they never looked back.

 

[combineguy]

Hi

Interested in your cropping rotation, and the desire to have animals. Luckily for us we have 16000 ewes, 6000 hoggets and during spring 25000 lambs to assist us in our cropping rotations. But lambs are no real help as we should have a spring crop growing whilst they are around, but it could be a good avenue to get an early autumn sown crop in.

We find cattle very good at cleaning up paddocks after them being harvested, as they clean up the grass around the outside of the paddocks, and eat up any straw piles which are around

 

[Baling Hay]

Hi

Interested in your cropping rotation, and the desire to have animals. Luckily for us we have 16000 ewes, 6000 hoggets and during spring 25000 lambs to assist us in our cropping rotations. But lambs are no real help as we should have a spring crop growing whilst they are around, but it could be a good avenue to get an early autumn sown crop in.

We find cattle very good at cleaning up paddocks after them being harvested, as they clean up the grass around the outside of the paddocks, and eat up any straw piles which are around

Do you consider cattle to be better in a cropping rotation then?

 

[combineguy]

Do you consider cattle to be better in a cropping rotation then?

Hi

Both have their benefits. Cattle will eat grasses which sheep wont eat especially grass which is rank or old. Caution needs to be used to minimise compaction so only in dry conditions.

 

[yellow belly]

clive like the rotation could you grow the break crops in bigger areas but not every one every year to aid management and storage

I have found that this year it is nice to have many different crops growing but it would be a lot simpler to have

2 of the break crops each year with 500 acres of each 200 acres of each will take a bit of managing the proximity and the size of blocks may make it more convenient but this would have to be weighed up in terms of risk

 

[Clive]

clive like the rotation could you grow the break crops in bigger areas but not every one every year to aid management and storage

I have found that this year it is nice to have many different crops growing but it would be a lot simpler to have

2 of the break crops each year with 500 acres of each 200 acres of each will take a bit of managing the proximity and the size of blocks may make it more convenient but this would have to be weighed up in terms of risk

There is sense in what your saying but I have learnt this year a bit of a lesson in risk management so the idea of not having all my eggs in one (or even 2) baskets doesn't sound such a good idea

200ac of each break mean we can react very fast with inputs and be very timely with everything as a result.

Storage is the biggest drawback of my plan I think as its lots of little bits !

 

[Baling Hay]

What would the typical gross margins be of all those crops?

 

[Clive]

What would the typical gross margins be of all those crops?

I've not worked them out but have grown them all before and in good years some have actually been my best gm out performing even wheat here

I'm pretty confident this rotation and notil will lift my average yield 0.5t/ac over the next 5 years or so - that's the target anyway !

 

[Baling Hay]

I've not worked them out but have grown them all before and in good years some have actually been my best gm out performing even wheat here

I'm pretty confident this rotation and notil will lift my average yield 0.5t/ac over the next 5 years or so - that's the target anyway !

It will be interesting to hear how your soils and yields change over the next 5 years on TFF! There will probably be some more changes along the way as well!