Outwintering cattle?

[Jdunn55]

We are thinking of out wintering a load of cattle this year due to expansion and lack of shed room. We were planning on putting up a shed but would rather this was left for another year due to a variety of reasons. We have a field just under 10 acres that needs reseeding anyway as yield is poor and it takes far too long to grow a decent crop. Down in our neck of the woods (helston Cornwall) we can get away with sowing stuff a month later than what is recommended due to the heat of the soil - planted red clover in late September last year and wouldn't have know it this year.

My question is what do people reccomend sowing? It would be for yearlings so would also like to know how many I could out winter in the field? I have atleast 30 that could potentially be outwintered and could quite happily find a few more. I would ideally like to graze the field once more before ploughing it, cows have just come out of that field and it rained last night so should get some decent regrowth.

 

[Mur Huwcun]

What about a forage crop? Lots of cows outwintered around here on Kale and it’s much colder and wetter with us than down your way. You will need some run off ground though and sone silage bales. If you can get the bales straight after sowing then place them in the field in lines.

 

[Jdunn55]

What about a forage crop? Lots of cows outwintered around here on Kale and it’s much colder and wetter with us than down your way. You will need some run off ground though and sone silage bales. If you can get the bales straight after sowing then place them in the field in lines.

Sorry I meant to say that's what I mean, I'm thinking of sticking in a forage crop and then outwintering and then reseeding in grass in the spring. Might sound stupid but If you stick bales out there, how do you go about getting the plastic and net off? And when you say a run off what do you mean?

 

[Timbo]

We are thinking of out wintering a load of cattle this year ...

Stubble turnips strip grazed with a row of silage bales down the field??

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Rape it would be to late for Kale up here . Direct drill it ir you will have a sea of mud by spring

 

[puppet]

Why bother cultivating twice? What will it cost to try and grow a forage crop then have to put up an electric fence and move it on wet, cold January. Can you make some round bales end of August or buy some extra? Then still time for regrowth down in Cornwall which should see them into November, perhaps with some hard feed. Your winters will be much shorter than up here where cattle are fed almost 6 months.
I would put 2 ring feeders outfor 30 cattle and once muddy, move them around the field. That will put muck down, break up the surface and let you get the plough in and reseed in the spring.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Sorry I meant to say that's what I mean, I'm thinking of sticking in a forage crop and then outwintering and then reseeding in grass in the spring. Might sound stupid but If you stick bales out there, how do you go about getting the plastic and net off? And when you say a run off what do you mean?

Re. the bale plastic:
Either just run around the base of the bale with a stanley knife, take off the wrap, put the ring over the bale and unwind the net
... and rescue the bottom disc of plastic

OR

Go out once a fortnight with a loader tractor and remove the plastic + net off the bottom 8 inches of the bale and set them back down (recommended for tall crops of kale) so you don't leave any net behind

Say you have 50 cows, you'd grow roughly 10-12TDM/ha so 400m2 per day of crop and one bale, this will be a 50:50 diet of bale and crop (we outwintered our dairy cows in mobs of 100, 8x100m blocks, 2 bales in each).
That's about ten days per acre of crop for 50 cows.

Aim to feed into the prevailing weather, and down a slope, to minimise soil loss (ungrazed crop will catch runoff, better than bare soil full of hoofprints), and if possible graze them towards the gateway rather than start them there (it's easier to walk/ride the quad thru crop than mud).
8-10 metre spacings gives plenty of room around a bale ring without making a mess

DD crop in if possible as it'll hold up far better than cultivated land under cattle

Do use backfences and a portable water trough if possible, cattle make less mud if standing than roaming.

 

[milkloss]

Jealous. Couldn’t imagine out wintering stock here. The mess would be outstanding!

 

[unlacedgecko]

Jealous. Couldn’t imagine out wintering stock here. The mess would be outstanding!

On off grazing?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Jealous. Couldn’t imagine out wintering stock here. The mess would be outstanding!

It takes rain, time and movement to make a big mess; but if you really want to fudge your soil I'd recommend 500 red deer behind 4 strands

cows are mild compared to deer

 

[michael N123]

Fed cows out on stubble fields a few times and some neighbours have started out wintering on kale or fodder beet

All the mess soon disappears after a day with a plow

Is miserable and muddy working conditions when the weathers bad tho

 

[Timbo]

Fed cows out on stubble fields a few times and some neighbours have started out wintering on kale or fodder beet

All the mess soon disappears after a day with a plow

Is miserable and muddy working conditions when the weathers bad tho

Bear in mind you don't want the site too visible to the GP .

 

[milkloss]

Bear in mind you don't want the site too visible to the GP .

Ours cows had access to a run out field once. Absolutely fudged it, mud so deep you couldn’t walk across the field, no way. In fact it bordered on dangerous apart front by the hedge where the footpath was.

Anyhow, footpath bloke turns up 18 months later....., we’ve had a complaint regarding a poached field. Said field had been reseeded so I suggested he trotted off to find it and come back with the evidence

I wouldn’t have liked the complaint much at the time though, it really was a mess.

 

[Timbo]

Ours cows had access to a run out field once. Absolutely fudged it, mud so deep you couldn’t walk across the field, no way. In fact it bordered on dangerous apart front by the hedge where the footpath was.

Anyhow, footpath bloke turns up 18 months later....., we’ve had a complaint regarding a poached field. Said field had been reseeded so I suggested he trotted off to find it and come back with the evidence

I wouldn’t have liked the complaint much at the time though, it really was a mess.

Had exactly the same thing - replace "poached field" for "cattle have nothing to eat" ….#yawn

 

[ollie989898]

Don't use ring feeders. You place the bales once the field is drilled. You don't want to be driving over it with anything other than a quad bike in the dead of winter and certainly not a tractor telehandler as you can soon do some damage in the wet.

Cattle moved often enough do a lot less damage than you think. I am not that keen on outwintering but only because a lot the time it is poorly managed and a fudging mess.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Don't use ring feeders. You place the bales once the field is drilled. You don't want to be driving over it with anything other than a quad bike in the dead of winter and certainly not a tractor telehandler as you can soon do some damage in the wet.

Cattle moved often enough do a lot less damage than you think. I am not that keen on outwintering but only because a lot the time it is poorly managed and a fudging mess.

Portable water and back fence essential.

 

[Werzle]

Sorry I meant to say that's what I mean, I'm thinking of sticking in a forage crop and then outwintering and then reseeding in grass in the spring. Might sound stupid but If you stick bales out there, how do you go about getting the plastic and net off? And when you say a run off what do you mean?

Run back he means, a grassed area or stubble field away from the mud to lie down. Ring feeders can be rolled by hand from bale to bale otherwise cattle will rub and push them about wasting a fair amount of it. A high hedge for sheltering would help too. A tip i heard from a chap who out-wintered hundreds of cattle was not to look at them on awful weather days!!

 

[Mur Huwcun]

Rape it would be to late for Kale up here . Direct drill it ir you will have a sea of mud by spring

Kale still going in around here now after second cut and it was going in much later last year when the rain finally came and it did remarkably well. Not saying it’s right or wrong just my observation of it, chatting with somebody last night that had put 40 acres in yesterday.

 

[michael N123]

Kale still going in around here now after second cut and it was going in much later last year when the rain finally came and it did remarkably well. Not saying it’s right or wrong just my observation of it, chatting with somebody last night that had put 40 acres in yesterday.

I put some in a week ago as the early stuff had failed