Outwintering cattle on herbal leys

[haybob]

I’m an arable farmer from Lincolnshire with a growing interest in livestock. Mainly to spread the risk from solely growing arable annual plants, to grow perennials and build soils. Ive done a fair bit of reading largely around regen ag methods and have come up with a production system in my head I was wondering weather anyone is running something like this? Would very much appreciate comments from anyone with practical experiences of these kind of methods.

Id like cattle but could get sheep too longer term to potentially alternate species grazing avoiding worm issues. I’d graze them mostly on 3-4 year herbal leys in arable rotation. Animals turned onto arable cover crops too if it’s dry enough. Working on a system of moving the beast every day (Maybe twice a day if very wet) in small electric fenced plots at high stocking densities (100,000kg/acre). I would allow long recovery periods (60-100 days depending on regrowth). With the aim of turning animals into forage somewhere between knee and waist high and moving them when they remove 50% ish biomass.

For water I was thinking mount a 10,000L tank on an old flat bed trailer and move it up the field as the animals move up. I’m farming just into the fens and have dykes round most boundaries I could pump out of to fill up the tank in situ. Breed wise was thinking of Lincoln red cows cross Angus but that’s not really important, it’s the concept really. Also was think about direct selling but that’s another issu

From the Reading I’ve done I think I could avoid: housing cost and associated illnesses, worms, nutrient issues in animals (grazing mixed diverse leys), get nice growth rates off legume protein heavy forage, while building my soil.

Any thoughts, advice from anyone doing this would be great.

Thanks!

Your ideas sound great and I hope you succeed. You will need to have a close friend or family member to assist you if livestock is something new to you would be my main bit of advice. Or partnering up with a livestock man who is looking to try stocking on arable ground. Someone who understands livestock will save you a lot of years of trial and error.

 

[unlacedgecko]

single stand poly wire is 5p/m.

poly stakes are £1.05 each, need 1 per 10m.

mains energiser £700.

machine round wooden posts (for corners and strainers) £1.73 each.

materials likely to be less than 30p/m. Labour (including paddock planning) makes up rest of fence cost. Real expense would be water infrastructure.

Here's what it looks like on the ground. Maybe not quite tall enough for cattle, but containing these Welsh drafts ok.