Reseeding grass for suckler cows, why bother ?

[Henarar]

As I was going round with the tedder this morning I worked out roughly that if we reseeded 10% of our land every year then we would have to keep around 8% more cows to pay for it
Its all permanent pasture here with no other crops and we hardly reseed anything and can't really see the point as it seems to grow enough grass for the stock and seems good enough quality
I can see why you would if you grow other crops in between
just wondering what others do on an all grass suckler farm ?

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

As I was going round with the tedder this morning I worked out roughly that if we reseeded 10% of our land every year then we would have to keep around 8% more cows to pay for it
Its all permanent pasture here with no other crops and we hardly reseed anything and can't really see the point as it seems to grow enough grass for the stock and seems good enough quality
I can see why you would if you grow other crops in between
just wondering what others do on an all grass suckler farm ?

I sow grass here after forage maize (unless I can get the direct drilling experiment to work) but otherwise all our grass is old PP. As you say, high cost and why bother?

 

[MF 135 Man]

Nitrogen....! That's all you really need.

 

[Gulli]

Need something to make the store cattle grow without creep feeding all summer.

 

[ollie989898]

Quality leys= quality feed which makes money.

If it doesnt pay to do then dont do it. Simples.

Cheapest feed is grazed grass. Plenty o folk I know making a fair shilling out of plain grass.

 

[M-J-G]

8% more cows to cover approximately £15-20 an acre/year sounds a lot.

What stocking rate, rent, income/ profit per cow etc. Is that based on?

Without knowing this, it's impossible for anyone to comment on if it's worth it or not.

 

[Wishful Thinker]

Yes your current stocking rate will be a big factor

 

[MJT]

Depends what your current leys are like and how they grow ? I’d say that our new leys would comfortably produce (including silage) upto twice as much feed than the old leys,and at a better quality. Get an earlier bite too, old leys up here seem to take a long time to wake up, and can graze them more often as recover a lot quicker.

 

[MJT]

For example the First photo is an old ley that I’m just about to turn some cows and calve onto, it hasn’t been grazed yet this spring .

The second And third photo is a 2 year old ley, it had ewes and lambs on it from end of March until 2 weeks ago, and I’d say it’s regrowth since then would be the same as the old leys overall growth .

 

[M-J-G]

Yes your current stocking rate will be a big factor

Rent is another, if you pay £30/ac you can possibly spread stock over more acres cheaper than reseeding.

If it's £150/ac you can't as easily afford to keep 50 cows on 150 acres, as it pays better to reseed and keep a more dense stocking rate.

 

[harperfarmer]

it seems to grow enough grass for the stock

There's the important bit. If you wanted to increase numbers on the same acreage you may find reseeding would allow you to do so. If your current grassland supports the stocking rate with no view to expand then yes, no point changing. In the last 5 years I've seeded down approximately 85 acres (arable fields with bad blackgrass) and broken up the equivalent acreage of old turf. These are now starting to enter the arable rotation again to give a proper mixed rotation. Yes new varieties require more inputs to gain the benefits but it's opened my eyes to the massive increase in production that new leys are capable of, and the subsequent improvements in livestock performance.

 

[Kevtherev]

New grass=more production

 

[hally]

I think that people can get hung up on increased quantity with a new ley where we see the best benefit from an increase in the quality of the grass. Cows are fitter, get back in calf quicker and the calves just make better use of the grass and can possibly be later started on the creep ( but I’m not talking from a completely unbiased view)

 

[Chae1]

New grass=more production

= more seed sales.

 

[bobk]

As I was going round with the tedder this morning I worked out roughly that if we reseeded 10% of our land every year then we would have to keep around 8% more cows to pay for it
Its all permanent pasture here with no other crops and we hardly reseed anything and can't really see the point as it seems to grow enough grass for the stock and seems good enough quality
I can see why you would if you grow other crops in between
just wondering what others do on an all grass suckler farm ?

You can't reseed a field with a dog and a stick .

 

[Derrick Hughes]

You could keep the same cattle on 2/3 The ground and grow corn on the rest .It's like saying why buy a car when I can get to London on a push bike

 

[Kevtherev]

Cattle perform better on new leys
More forage more silage
Just saying like.

 

[bobk]

Cattle perform better on new leys
More forage more silage
Just saying like.

Bloody hell kev , looking at your bookmark you've got some jobs . ... do you sell ice cream in the summer .?

 

[Kevtherev]

Bloody hell kev , looking at your bookmark you've got some jobs . ... do you sell ice cream in the summer .?

Yes I do it comes on a half ton pallet [emoji108][emoji23]
Rook & raspberry ripple most popular.
(Two ronnies)

 

[Henarar]

You can't reseed a field with a dog and a stick .

get the dog to dig it over and drag the stick about to cover the seed
I have all the gear here to reseed but it don't eat nart parked up