glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
If you properly valued the contribution of the sheep, you would have them on, or keepsome yourselfwow, you want me to drill a cover crop and pay the sheep man to turn up.
Sorry, I’m oot
If you properly valued the contribution of the sheep, you would have them on, or keepsome yourselfwow, you want me to drill a cover crop and pay the sheep man to turn up.
Sorry, I’m oot
If you properly valued the contribution of the sheep, you would have them on, or keepsome yourself
Dont knock it till you have tried it!!I would rather poke my eyes out with rusty nails than keep sheep
I have an opposing view. We have 1500 acres of temporary grasses for quality horse haylage ..grass reseed every 2 years and it was becoming a real issue the levels of rough stalk and meadow grass getting into the leys.Most of thr nutrients are left behind in a more usable form ie dung
The sheep transfer nitrogen from one year to the next
Thats why they are called the golden hoof.
They Should be charging
Dont knock it till you have tried it!!
I have an opposing view. We have 1500 acres of temporary grasses for quality horse haylage ..grass reseed every 2 years and it was becoming a real issue the levels of rough stalk and meadow grass getting into the leys.
My grass seeds specialist told me that he had good evidence that sheep grazing during the late autumn and winter hugely exacerbated the issue as the feet disturbed the soil between the rows and set off dormant weed grass seeds.
Took the plunge banned the sheep and bought a 8.5m mulching topper to keep winter growth minimal.
In 3 years I have been delighted with the results ...massive reduction in weed grasses. So I have to say policy now is no sheep on new seeds.
I appreciate it may be not such an issue if the new grass was following some other crop.
fair enough, but that is not the usual scenario.I have an opposing view. We have 1500 acres of temporary grasses for quality horse haylage ..grass reseed every 2 years and it was becoming a real issue the levels of rough stalk and meadow grass getting into the leys.
My grass seeds specialist told me that he had good evidence that sheep grazing during the late autumn and winter hugely exacerbated the issue as the feet disturbed the soil between the rows and set off dormant weed grass seeds.
Took the plunge banned the sheep and bought a 8.5m mulching topper to keep winter growth minimal.
In 3 years I have been delighted with the results ...massive reduction in weed grasses. So I have to say policy now is no sheep on new seeds.
I appreciate it may be not such an issue if the new grass was following some other crop.
Its called supply and demandFrom an Irish view some reply’s are madness, the rate here is minimum 10 cents a day per sheep for grazing, wouldn’t be worth your while growing the crop for them otherwise
This is the sort of agreement I have or had, I think the sticking point is always No1 in your list or the weather comes in wet and they do compact the hell out of the ground and if they get left too long.Here the sheep owner generally pays for establishment/seeds /fert etc and takes the risk of how well the crop grows
The arable man sets a date for all sheep/fence to be gone by
No other cash changes hands
I have plenty of arable farmers wanting this type of deal ---everyone benefits , all are happy
We have a number of different arrangements. One end of the scale is farmer doing all work (planting/growing/fencing/lookering) and getting paid a headage payment. This options means he is taking slightly more risk in terms of getting a poor crop or crop failure, sheep get out on a Sunday etc but also gets more reward £££.
Other end is the farmer does nothing other than make the land available over the winter. We do everything from drilling to fencing and lookering etc. No money changes hands.
Also have one agreement whereby we provide the seed, the farmer drills the crop, then we do the fencing/lookering. Still no money changes hands.
This obviously only works if the land is within a reasonable distance from ourselves. Otherwise, the top option usually works better for most folk.