Zero grazing.

[3rdgenerationdairyman]

29.5/ 30

 

[Suckndiesel]

29.5/ 30

Bf and protein with us at the minute is 4.4 and 3.5 on half silage and half grass, only doing 20l tho. We were on full grass up until about 2 weeks ago, back then bf was 4.2 and protein the same.

 

[pine_guy]

Don’t really want to go into zero grassing, but the dry weather means we are seriously short of grass. What I do have is 8 miles from home. It’s a failed hay crop that never had enough moisture after I hammered it to much with sheep. Bottom has freshened up since we have had a drop of rain. Anyway, found this in a local dealers yard, so having a play.

grass is a long way of perfect, but more leaf that I thought there would be. Proof is in the pudding as they say

 

[pappuller]

Don’t really want to go into zero grassing, but the dry weather means we are seriously short of grass. What I do have is 8 miles from home. It’s a failed hay crop that never had enough moisture after I hammered it to much with sheep. Bottom has freshened up since we have had a drop of rain. Anyway, found this in a local dealers yard, so having a play.
View attachment 978270
grass is a long way of perfect, but more leaf that I thought there would be. Proof is in the pudding as they say
View attachment 978269

Looks like a belmac

 

[pine_guy]

Looks like a belmac

Juscafresa

 

[Fools Gold]

Don’t really want to go into zero grassing, but the dry weather means we are seriously short of grass. What I do have is 8 miles from home. It’s a failed hay crop that never had enough moisture after I hammered it to much with sheep. Bottom has freshened up since we have had a drop of rain. Anyway, found this in a local dealers yard, so having a play.
View attachment 978270
grass is a long way of perfect, but more leaf that I thought there would be. Proof is in the pudding as they say
View attachment 978269

How long does it take to do a round trip at that distance? Certainly wouldn’t want to be doing too many trips!
some collection of pipes and wires hanging round the front of it!

 

[DairyGrazing]

Don’t really want to go into zero grassing, but the dry weather means we are seriously short of grass. What I do have is 8 miles from home. It’s a failed hay crop that never had enough moisture after I hammered it to much with sheep. Bottom has freshened up since we have had a drop of rain. Anyway, found this in a local dealers yard, so having a play.
View attachment 978270
grass is a long way of perfect, but more leaf that I thought there would be. Proof is in the pudding as they say
View attachment 978269

looks like its got mildew in the bottom.

 

[3rdgenerationdairyman]

Don’t really want to go into zero grassing, but the dry weather means we are seriously short of grass. What I do have is 8 miles from home. It’s a failed hay crop that never had enough moisture after I hammered it to much with sheep. Bottom has freshened up since we have had a drop of rain. Anyway, found this in a local dealers yard, so having a play.
View attachment 978270
grass is a long way of perfect, but more leaf that I thought there would be. Proof is in the pudding as they say
View attachment 978269

Cows would go on strike of i brought that into them.

 

[happycows]

Cows would go on strike of i brought that into them.

One thing zerograzing drives home more than anything in the starkest of forms with the information the robots provide is the difference between a good ley with productive grass compared to a spent ley or one that perhaps hasn't had it's nutrients or gone a bit too far.
i still can't get it right all the time and not sure i ever will but 2/3 litres a cow a day across a field that does 5 or 7 days is a lot of ££££ when your cutting it five or six times a year.

 

[Suckndiesel]

One thing zerograzing drives home more than anything in the starkest of forms with the information the robots provide is the difference between a good ley with productive grass compared to a spent ley or one that perhaps hasn't had it's nutrients or gone a bit too far.
i still can't get it right all the time and not sure i ever will but 2/3 litres a cow a day across a field that does 5 or 7 days is a lot of ££££ when your cutting it five or six times a year.

Have you many very old reseeds that perform as well as new reseeds in terms of cows performance on them?

 

[Scholsey]

One thing zerograzing drives home more than anything in the starkest of forms with the information the robots provide is the difference between a good ley with productive grass compared to a spent ley or one that perhaps hasn't had it's nutrients or gone a bit too far.
i still can't get it right all the time and not sure i ever will but 2/3 litres a cow a day across a field that does 5 or 7 days is a lot of ££££ when your cutting it five or six times a year.

Reason I have stopped doing it this year (except 3 weeks when we were short of silage)

 

[Conrod96]

It is much easier to keep it consistent with silage. But this is our 1st year zero grazing and found it saved us money being an autumn calving herd find it hard to justify pushing silage and meal at this at this stage of lactation so for whatever cows we haven’t got ground to graze for we’ve found it more cost effective to zero graze granted we’re only cutting 2 loads a day so not a big job

 

[Aircooled]

It is much easier to keep it consistent with silage. But this is our 1st year zero grazing and found it saved us money being an autumn calving herd find it hard to justify pushing silage and meal at this at this stage of lactation so for whatever cows we haven’t got ground to graze for we’ve found it more cost effective to zero graze granted we’re only cutting 2 loads a day so not a big job

It's a bit of a job if you were doing it all summer. I find it can be a good way of doing 3rd cut if the weather is average.

 

[Conrod96]

It's a bit of a job if you were doing it all summer. I find it can be a good way of doing 3rd cut if the weather is average.

Suppose maybe cause there’s a few of us about it maybe seems alright half an hour to go and cut and put out morning and night

 

[happycows]

Have you many very old reseeds that perform as well as new reseeds in terms of cows performance on them?

Only one old ley left here in a fairly damp field that i use all summer for dry cows. Everything else is in a 4/5 year rotation.

 

[happycows]

It is much easier to keep it consistent with silage. But this is our 1st year zero grazing and found it saved us money being an autumn calving herd find it hard to justify pushing silage and meal at this at this stage of lactation so for whatever cows we haven’t got ground to graze for we’ve found it more cost effective to zero graze granted we’re only cutting 2 loads a day so not a big job

I'm one load every afternoon. we are all ring fenced so it's a 20 minute job unless grass is scarce.

 

[3rdgenerationdairyman]

One thing zerograzing drives home more than anything in the starkest of forms with the information the robots provide is the difference between a good ley with productive grass compared to a spent ley or one that perhaps hasn't had it's nutrients or gone a bit too far.
i still can't get it right all the time and not sure i ever will but 2/3 litres a cow a day across a field that does 5 or 7 days is a lot of ££££ when your cutting it five or six times a year.

Nor do I get it right all the time I have seen a difference of 6-7 liters per cow in different fields although It was our worst preformer this year although it was reseeded 26 years ago it was a top preformer until zerograzer arrived and it started getting cut alot I wonder dose zg leave ground much poorer over the course of a year ? It seems the field in particular has got awfully poor and gave up the will to grow really still receives slurry and nitrogen mind you

 

[Scholsey]

Nor do I get it right all the time I have seen a difference of 6-7 liters per cow in different fields although It was our worst preformer this year although it was reseeded 26 years ago it was a top preformer until zerograzer arrived and it started getting cut alot I wonder dose zg leave ground much poorer over the course of a year ? It seems the field in particular has got awfully poor and gave up the will to grow really still receives slurry and nitrogen mind you

compaction?

 

[3rdgenerationdairyman]

compaction?

I don't think so just gets the same amount of traveling as any of the rest of the fields in the. And it hasn't been soil sampled so not sure on that front

 

[happycows]

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