Rotational grazing profit per acre

[wasted years]

The £30 was per head. He is stocking 3 to the acre

Ok but that is still not enough, where can you rent good grass, and it needs to be good, for £90?

 

[unlacedgecko]

 

[unlacedgecko]

http://www.agrii.co.uk/news/case-studies/setting-new-beef-productivity-standards/
The above article gives more detail to my post in the other thread.

http://www.agrii.co.uk/ifarms/upcoming-ifarm-events/
@Bossfarmer there is an event at Rob Flemings' farm on the 7 Nov. Why don't you go along and see it for yourself? You may even get to meet and question him.

 

[S J H]

75 on 25 acres?

 

[hillman]

http://www.qmscotland.co.uk/grazing

Or go to one of these @Bossfarmer

 

[neilo]

75 on 25 acres?

Fertilised young leys with only 300kg grazing cattle on over the peak growing season, and no silage made. Would that be far out?

 

[oil barron]

Fertilised young leys with only 300kg grazing cattle on over the peak growing season, and no silage made. Would that be far out?

They are only 300kgs at the start of the season if everything goes to plan. And talking about all 5 months of summer.

 

[S J H]

Fertilised young leys with only 300kg grazing cattle on over the peak growing season, and no silage made. Would that be far out?

Maybe around your way @neilo but I reckon it would be very tight, if they're doing what the experts say they should be doing, you'll have the equivalent of 7 more each month,

A customer put about the same number and weight in one 70 acre field. I was with them earlier and they've done very well imo, but keeping up with the grass all the way through, the ley wouldn't be very old, with a lot of red clover, it wouldn't of had any fertiliser though.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

what would be realistic for a 300kg store beast on rotational grazing 1kg per day?

My little mob of Angus heifers and steers (71) put on 43kg average in oast 26 days.
The one with woody tongue put on 55kg, he was 313 when I was treating him, now 368.

And the 45 mixed bulls are doing about 1.8/day. Some are 235, some 400.
On about a 20 day round, on perm. pasture. (Springtime here)

 

[Kiwi Pete]

i would probably go for continentals myself so i can punt them back into store ring do you think the natives such as AA grow quicker on grass? might drop u a PM once i do some sums

I'd likely plump for at least half native in a crossed animal. Depends where you get them I'd say, as some have likely been bred away from an all-grass diet?
But that's a big thing if looking at all grass enterprises - get your blood from all grass breeders, as they've done half the selection work for you.
My animals are all high-country born and bred, put them on decent grass and watch them grow.

Most common crosses here are Angus or Hereford with limo/simmy/gelbvieh/BB etc for a bit of extra size and vigour.
'Vigour'



Getting the feed/breed ratio is as important as getting lambing%/timing right IMO. Obviously bigger breeds eat more and grow more but it depends on reliably growing grass to feed those bigger ones into autumn - I don't use bagged N so need something finishing slightly lighter, to get them away in good time.

Remember too, Bossfarmer that our beef (and lamb) schedules are recognising this factor too- we generally sell our stock much lighter than European finishers do, so that will be a factor for you to consider breed-wise.

 

[Bossfarmer]

what are your sheds doing?

filled with sucklers i wouldnt want to change that unless trial was sucessful

 

[Bossfarmer]

Nothing for TB testing or drenching??

Trouble with what you are suggesting is that you will be buying at the dearest time and selling at the cheapest time!

Thus I think you will have to pay more to get the correct cattle and will sell them for less than you are budgeting for!

only test once every 4 years up here and its just breeding stock we test, mabye add £10/head for closamectin, yes i realise market prices are against me i hoped good growth rates and no housing costs would counteract this

 

[Bossfarmer]

http://www.agrii.co.uk/news/case-studies/setting-new-beef-productivity-standards/
The above article gives more detail to my post in the other thread.

http://www.agrii.co.uk/ifarms/upcoming-ifarm-events/
@Bossfarmer there is an event at Rob Flemings' farm on the 7 Nov. Why don't you go along and see it for yourself? You may even get to meet and question him.

thanks i may consider this the way things are going though i could be sowing wheat

 

[Bossfarmer]

75 on 25 acres?

3 to the acre? folk in the grazing trials are running 4.5/acre

 

[unlacedgecko]

3 to the acre? folk in the grazing trials are running 4.5/acre

Head per area of land is not the thing to focus on.

It's total liveweight of stock to available dry matter of forage which is important.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

thanks i may consider this the way things are going though i could be sowing wheat

There is also a whole heap of quite useful info on the DairyNZ and the Beef&Lamb NZ website if you're looking into it.
Some of the stuff likely won't apply to you, it hardly does to me, but some very interesting case studies and conclusions.
A little over 1800kgLWT/ha in Northland was quite amazing to me.

 

[unlacedgecko]

There is also a whole heap of quite useful info on the DairyNZ and the Beef&Lamb NZ website if you're looking into it.
Some of the stuff likely won't apply to you, it hardly does to me, but some very interesting case studies and conclusions.
A little over 1800kgLWT/ha in Northland was quite amazing to me.

Is that an annual production figure or a stocking density?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Head per area of land is not the thing to focus on.

It's total liveweight of stock to available dry matter of forage which is important.

Yep I'm only on just over 1200kgLwt/ha here going into spring. That's how I look at it too, so another 500x20kg lambs will have us stocked about right, keep on top of the surplus. Think it'll handle about 2.2T/ha, then heads will roll when need be after that.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Is that an annual production figure or a stocking density?

'Stocking pressure'
E.g. total farm 45ha
Less about 8ha for pea crop, yards lanes creeks etc.
On 37 ha -
45x305kg bulls
71x 330kg cattle
Say 40 sheep at 65kg plus 5 @100
Plus their lambs
Plus 15 calves at 100kg soon enough
So 42T÷ 37 ha (sheep set stocked to lamb)
Could handle a lot more stock, in other words, but that's how I've always known to work things out.
I also try to achieve different stocking pressure each grazing if possible but I wont delve into all that here.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

http://www.beeflambnz.com/knowledge-hub/factsheets/growing-cattle-fast-pasture

Here ya go.
Sorry was out in the tractor smashing clods again phone died.
Might be an interesting wee read over lunch, took me a while to find it.
Some good looking bulls too!
Hopefully I can replicate it here, our cattle were off to a much later and worse start (weaning weight now, really and been off mum for months) so will be interesting to see how many I need to carry over.
I'd hope by the end of March they're up to spec, if rain comes and I can get enough sheep on board to maintain quality then it looks hopeful. Summer can be fickle.