Which breed/cross for grass only fed beef?

[egbert]

It is quite difficult to work out a stocking rate from that.
I generally either work on a liveweight/area calculation, or else convert everything to some sort of standard equivalent: NZ generally uses stock units, ie an average sized ewe with a lamb, but I tend to use a 500kg cow as my reference, a sheep being .2 or so, with her couple of lambs.

We peak at about 1600kgLWT/ha if we get the rain to grow the grass, and de-stock according to rainfall, which we have just done.
We're now at around 1200kg/ha of stocking rate, but around 200,000kg/ha in terms of stocking density, enough to effect change.

One of the big benefits I see of moving to a cell-type system is that in bad weather, you're limiting the % of your land area that you bugger up, and those areas can be basically bypassed until the land has healed - whereas with a break-fencing or continuous grazing system it's much harder to do that without a lot of actual work.
With cells you can be on a 10-day or 120-day round instantly, it's an "8-speed auto" compared to a "3 speed manual" if you like.

Continuous grazing effectively gives you about a 6 day plant recovery, as the stock only need a couple of inches of regrowth before they can bite it off again.

It's so dependant on site isn't it.
I used to rent a red soil farm in a very dry parish close to sea level.
If there was a bit of rain in the spring, you almost couldn't put enough stock on it...then when it burnt up in June, that was it.
When it was growing - and that might be for 2 months or 8-, it would carry more than 1600kg /hct
(funnily enough it was subdivided into sensible blocks with kiwi style plain wire fence)

The off ground I run youngstock on now is between 350' and 800', and less good mineral wise, and would summer stuff at circa 750-1000kg/hct with no fert/lime, never reseeded, and little or no rotation. (kept tidy with winter sheep mainly)
It's all a bit damper rainfall wise than that redland farm, and more forgiving accordingly.

Home never burns off really, but you can't stock it anything like that -well, unless you want to be picking up too many failures.

 

[Hilly]

Angus , which ever breed you will need soil fertility and grass the best you could ever get it, thats the dear bit but will be worth it long term