Techno grazing ..

[Kiwi Pete]

Pete, can you summarise the advantages of this system (for the hard of thinking)?

Sure.

Firstly, you can so easily match your animals nutritional needs, that nearly all the normal accepted "livestock farmer" costs are gone.

Secondly, because you can allow your pasture plants the needed rest/recovery time, they keep getting better and better (even if it looks like there are not enough stock, you can run high stocking rates) and also graze every day of the year.

And thirdly, because I was getting there with my current system, a massive time saving - everything is set up, all the time, no real need to do anything other than lift wires, and put them back down again.

Other than flying on a bit of fert, they have the time input down to around 2 hours/ha/year, for about 1800ish cattle, with virtually nil variable costs associated.

I think I worked it out to about 50 minutes per head of stock, on 1800 acres that's a hell of an hourly rate! Who cares about being a price-taker?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

The same pogo idea would work for sheep. Just need a shorter pogo. And more spring in the wires.

I’ve read about the pogos in Allan Savory’s book. No need for gates anywhere.

I've seen a good one that hinges, with a return spring to straighten it up and lift three wires up, and a batt-latch to trigger it.
So you could set your sheep to move overnight, and see them at lunchtime to move them again and move the pogo.

 

[unlacedgecko]

I've seen a good one that hinges, with a return spring to straighten it up and lift three wires up, and a batt-latch to trigger it.
So you could set your sheep to move overnight, and see them at lunchtime to move them again and move the pogo.

I visited a grass based dairy in Cornwall on Monday. The unit manager there was using batt-latches to set grazing areas and bring cows in for milking.

By letting the cows move to and from the parlour at their own pace lameness has been virtually eliminated.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I visited a grass based dairy in Cornwall on Monday. The unit manager there was using batt-latches to set grazing areas and bring cows in for milking.

By letting the cows move to and from the parlour at their own pace lameness has been virtually eliminated.

Most all of the "livestock problems" are really only system problems' symptoms.

Sheep really don't like dying, but we have "welfare", and not whole farm health in mind when we act, when we plan.
Most of my lambs will never get around the ranch twice, so there goes the need to put money into them.
As costs rise, farmers have some serious sustainability issues looking at them . And much of it is due to fashion

 

[unlacedgecko]

I've seen a good one that hinges, with a return spring to straighten it up and lift three wires up, and a batt-latch to trigger it.
So you could set your sheep to move overnight, and see them at lunchtime to move them again and move the pogo.

Have you a link or a photo please?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Have you a link or a photo please?

Can do my best to describe it, as it was on FB and I'd have no idea where

Picture a normal long fibreglass fence rod, it's latched upside-down holding the wires down, and the "bottom" pivots about 1200mm off the ground on a PVC tubing sleeve.
Possibly 300mm of rod past the pivot point.
A decent long spring, possibly a kiwitech tension spring or similar; possibly a u-bolt attaching it to the end of the rod?
And a batt-latch down low, but instead of releasing a spring gate handle, it releases a small wire loop that's taped to the rod...

So when the latch lets go of the loop, the spring hoists the rod up&over, and the stock pour through underneath.
I assume the whole gadget just slips over a decent stake, driven in.

I guess you could design something more linear if you got creative, but this one seemed to work well, the bottom wire ended up about 8 feet in the air and the top about 6 feet, so plenty of clearance for hoisting a decent span, in the video I saw they had a few hundred pour through.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Can do my best to describe it, as it was on FB and I'd have no idea where

Picture a normal long fibreglass fence rod, it's latched upside-down holding the wires down, and the "bottom" pivots about 1200mm off the ground on a PVC tubing sleeve.
Possibly 300mm of rod past the pivot point.
A decent long spring, possibly a kiwitech tension spring or similar; possibly a u-bolt attaching it to the end of the rod?
And a batt-latch down low, but instead of releasing a spring gate handle, it releases a small wire loop that's taped to the rod...

So when the latch lets go of the loop, the spring hoists the rod up&over, and the stock pour through underneath.
I assume the whole gadget just slips over a decent stake, driven in.

I guess you could design something more linear if you got creative, but this one seemed to work well, the bottom wire ended up about 8 feet in the air and the top about 6 feet, so plenty of clearance for hoisting a decent span, in the video I saw they had a few hundred pour through.

My mind is racing. I've a broken Rappa reel post and plenty of broken plastic stakes...

I'll see what I can knock up over the weekend.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

My mind is racing. I've a broken Rappa reel post and plenty of broken plastic stakes...

I'll see what I can knock up over the weekend.

... And then report back of course

 

[ShooTa]

not the greatest photo im afraid - but this is my racetrack that we use in our parkland bottom - its 600m long and it runs from behind the camera past the tractor (lol) down to the telegraph pole in the distance - the side gap is 45 m - just enough for a 50m electric net (should i need one) and is 2 polywire - with the daily moves being 2/3 depending on lamb sizes - im going to be truning this one into semi-perm and setting up a fixed ground spot so i dont have to move the energizer as much.

 

[milkloss]

This isn’t a thread that’s tickled my fancy too much but I don’t doubt the benefits of the system for certain types of farming. What perked my ears up was talk of an automated fence or gate opener. I have made one for cattle but only to drop the wire so you can drive through with bedder, feeder or scraper. It’s essentially a mono post windscreen wiper for a merc from the scrappy, two relays and a 12v remote control much the same as a garage door opener. I modified the wiper to have two park positions, one at each end of the stroke so press the remote button and it swings down, press it again and it swings up, the idea being that the electrified wire drops to the ground so you drive through and can pop it back up so the cattle don’t do a runner behind you. Useful in the spring when they can smell the grass growing!

£10 wiper motor, the same for 2 remote units and controls and a fiver for the relays. It’s not what you’re looking for really but perhaps with a timer unit it would do similar for you.

A drive through set of fibre rods was going to be 180 squids and you can be sure some idiot would reverse up when halfway through and smash them to bits.

 

[lazy farmer]

I visited a grass based dairy in Cornwall on Monday. The unit manager there was using batt-latches to set grazing areas and bring cows in for milking.

By letting the cows move to and from the parlour at their own pace lameness has been virtually eliminated.

Yeap being doing that with night grazings for years. Rock up in the mornings and the cows are already there. Saves 30 mins a day and cows are their pecking order ready they be milked.
Now we have decent tracks feet is becoming less and less of an issue. Get a real kick out of seeing the couple of small paddocks by the parlour set up for lame cows empty

 

[unlacedgecko]

Yeap being doing that with night grazings for years. Rock up in the mornings and the cows are already there. Saves 30 mins a day and cows are their pecking order ready they be milked.
Now we have decent tracks feet is becoming less and less of an issue. Get a real kick out of seeing the couple of small paddocks by the parlour set up for lame cows empty

If dairy cows which have to walk several KMs daily can be bred and managed to be profitable and lameness free, it does make one wonder what on earth the UK sheep industry is doing?

 

[onesiedale]

If dairy cows which have to walk several KMs daily can be bred and managed to be profitable and lameness free, it does make one wonder what on earth the UK sheep industry is doing?

One big problem is though, the drug companies have invented a vaccine that not only enables sheep farmers to keep their lame sheep longer, but also breed from them!

 

[DanM]

One big problem is though, the drug companies have invented a vaccine that not only enables sheep farmers to keep their lame sheep longer, but also breed from them!

Worse still; vets, defra, et al are encouraging it’s use!!!

 

[unlacedgecko]

My mind is racing. I've a broken Rappa reel post and plenty of broken plastic stakes...

I'll see what I can knock up over the weekend.

Batt-latch sounds good. But it’s damn expensive and over engineered for what I want. I don’t need to have indefinitely recurring jobs etc.

Just a simple 24hr timer/alarm release mechanism. Anyone get any ideas?

 

[exmoor dave]

Batt-latch sounds good. But it’s damn expensive and over engineered for what I want. I don’t need to have indefinitely recurring jobs etc.

Just a simple 24hr timer/alarm release mechanism. Anyone get any ideas?

I had abit of a idea of using the weight of water in say a 25lt drum to hold a gate of some sort shut, or wires tight, then have the drum empty by one of those 24hr mechanical water timers for hose pipes

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Not difficult to build up a timer circuit with an el-cheapo LM555 integrated circuit, all you then need is a relay and a solenoid

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Actually @unlacedgecko I just this moment found it. Check your FB notifications, I have no idea how to put videos on here from FB but please do, if you can?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

 

[unlacedgecko]

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Looks great thanks.

It’s the batt-latch I’m trying to replace.