Our Journey

[Kiwi Pete]

Great to see you happily installed in the new place, Sam.
Having been a travelling dairy-farmer I know the stress and considerations that come with shifting farms so as to hit the ground running, and I can sense the relief now that it's behind you.
Our last move was the "clean slate" in that we moved off people's family farming operations and began designing our own, thank goodness for Allan Savory's work or we wouldn't still be here.

 

[Samcowman]

weaned cows onto as you can see a really not very good permanent pasture field. Plan is to hold them here on this hay which will add some fertility whilst it’s still dry as it’s fairly sloping then decide what to do with it in the spring. Idea is to keep feeding the bales on the higher part of the field so adding the fertility on the top of the hill where it is quite stoney so improving that bit and also keeping the extra fertility away from the downhill edges where there is more chance of it being lost.

working down a spud field at full depth twice just to try and level it. It’s not perfect but miles better than before.

First field drilled up and showing.

 

[som farmer]

weaned cows onto as you can see a really not very good permanent pasture field. Plan is to hold them here on this hay which will add some fertility whilst it’s still dry as it’s fairly sloping then decide what to do with it in the spring. Idea is to keep feeding the bales on the higher part of the field so adding the fertility on the top of the hill where it is quite stoney so improving that bit and also keeping the extra fertility away from the downhill edges where there is more chance of it being lost.
View attachment 1064527
working down a spud field at full depth twice just to try and level it. It’s not perfect but miles better than before.

View attachment 1064528
First field drilled up and showing.
View attachment 1064529

just think, in the good old days, they would dig soil, with spades, from the bottom of the hill, and take it to the top, and spread it by spade.
Buggered if l would call them the 'good old day's'.

 

[Samcowman]

just think, in the good old days, they would dig soil, with spades, from the bottom of the hill, and take it to the top, and spread it by spade.
Buggered if l would call them the 'good old day's'.

I’ll try and do it with hay and feed the cows at the same time. Have some grass margins going in which will be mostly along the bottoms of the fields to do the same thing to harvest fertility and transfer it uphill. Any stewardship margins along the tops of the fields will be spring down winter bird seed mix.

 

[Baling Hay]

So @Samcowman please tell us more;

what stock have you got?
Acres?
Farming system?
What is the plan?

 

[Samcowman]

Stock all beef cattle with some arable.
330 acres.
calf rearing we have been rearing around 400 a year the last couple of years and will continue with those numbers getting our calves direct from farm where possible. Keeping about 75 from the autumn block and the rest being sold privately.
Will have about 40 spring calving sucklers and run about 75 spring born calves with bought in calves making up the numbers on top of the home bred.
Growing cattle will be sold probably as strong stores for the majority of them but that will be variable depending on market and weather. The numbers of growing cattle are an estimate on the low side but until we know the land it’s better to be conservative.
The croppable ground will have herbal leys or red clover as the forage part of the rotation for 2-3 year then wheat followed by spring barley with a forage crop between. To break the grass I will probably take an early first cut, early spring grazing or bake grazing then drill a forage crop in to grow a summer feed crop for the growing cattle to provide quality feed for strong stores in the mid summer will also break the ley down and add more fertility to the ground then direct drill the wheat into that.
This is all in theory of course.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

just think, in the good old days, they would dig soil, with spades, from the bottom of the hill, and take it to the top, and spread it by spade.
Buggered if l would call them the 'good old day's'.

Grandad used to do that with a horse and butt.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Only just seen this thread Sam.
Glad the move went OK. All the best.

 

[som farmer]

Grandad used to do that with a horse and butt.

first thought, ########### but manpower was plentiful in those days.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Was great to look round with @Corncornisht this morning Sam. What a fantastic opportunity you've found, Best of luck with leveling that last spud field before any more soil disappears into the road.

So much for all the "experts" telling us we need to be growing our very and human edible arable crops where cattle pastures are now.

Thanks for the tour.

 

[Samcowman]

Was great to look round with @Corncornisht this morning Sam. What a fantastic opportunity you've found, Best of luck with leveling that last spud field before any more soil disappears into the road.

So much for all the "experts" telling us we need to be growing our very and human edible arable crops where cattle pastures are now.

Thanks for the tour.

yeah it’s going to be a mission. But I will get there but only once I have completed the 3 fields to be drilled tomorrow. I have ordered just a straight Italian to go in here to get something fast growing into this soil to hold it together for the winter and give me some more fodder for next year.
For those not there today every one of those lines as you look up the slope is a water channel.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

View attachment 1064763
yeah it’s going to be a mission. But I will get there but only once I have completed the 3 fields to be drilled tomorrow. I have ordered just a straight Italian to go in here to get something fast growing into this soil to hold it together for the winter and give me some more fodder for next year.
For those not there today every one of those lines as you look up the slope is a water channel.

It'll be great once it's back into decent rotation though

 

[som farmer]

it's getting it back to there, is the problem
worst thing we did, was letting land out for spuds, it destroys structure, or perhaps the grower wasn't worried, because it wasn't his land

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

it's getting it back to there, is the problem
worst thing we did, was letting land out for spuds, it destroys structure, or perhaps the grower wasn't worried, because it wasn't his land

We did it once as well. I think we were nearly a week picking up stones after them. Even now if we plough it it brings up more stones. Lesson learnt.

 

[som farmer]

We did it once as well. I think we were nearly a week picking up stones after them. Even now if we plough it it brings up more stones. Lesson learnt.

used to grow a few acres, 2.5, of spuds, uncle alway's grew them on stony ground, sounds stupid, but they yielded well, his reckoning was, the stones held moisture, and you didn't ruin the ground, because it was stone.
not sure about it's sense, but it worked, and spuds were cash.

 

[Samcowman]

had a bit of a boo boo this morning. Cows up the hill were a bit unsettled. Turns out their water trough was electrified where the boundary electric had dropped down onto the metal water fitting on the trough. Cows were glad of a drink.
made a bit more space for weaned calves despite looking not very good for airflow this old shed is surprisingly good

bit of after school exercise for the kids rolling out the cows next bale.

 

[rjs15t]

Overseeing down the hill earlier

 

[Samcowman]

Overseeing down the hill earlier

View attachment 1065548

Middle child thinks the clubhouse there would be a really nice place to live.

 

[rjs15t]

Middle child thinks the clubhouse there would be a really nice place to live.

Hopefully the lawn will be better next summer!

 

[ShooTa]

finally caught up Sam.
looks like its all coming together - so great to see the kids settling in.