To Strip graze or not ??

Alibaba

Was strip grazing for the last week, everything grand , ground was dry - now is swimmin after the last couple of days rain.
Wonderin what's the best advice as I have no fodder and have to let them (sucklers) out.

dharn

Would love to know the answer to that myself, I have done it for the last few years virtually eating under the fence all the time I used to move it a foot at a time a few times a day, but in the end I concluded that it was very hard on the ground and left it very weed infested as the weeds were getting established in the bare ground

freedominacup

Alibaba wrote: »

Was strip grazing for the last week, everything grand , ground was dry - now is swimmin after the last couple of days rain.
Wonderin what's the best advice as I have no fodder and have to let them (sucklers) out.

You need a second/third fence as a back fence to stop them going back on the ground already grazed.

grazeaway

if the ground is very wet they'll start to poach it. you'll end up with lines accross the field. its ok with the ground is dry but i'd be wary in a very wet grass filed. saw dairy lads near me make complete sh*t of paddock last year doing it

Buncha Fives

Alibaba wrote: »

Was strip grazing for the last week, everything grand , ground was dry - now is swimmin after the last couple of days rain.
Wonderin what's the best advice as I have no fodder and have to let them (sucklers) out.

It depends on the land I think but in general animal performance is probably better if it is rotational or strip grazing but at this stage keeping the animals out and with enough grass to keep them going is probably more important than animal performance.

I know at home my father would always set graze and I put up a big battle with him this year to start rotational grazing, in the past I found that if we put a small number of animals on a big enough swipe of land that would eat like hell for a few days and then they would get bored with the same grass do an awful lot of walking, but I am hoping now that if we give them a fresh bit of grass every few days that they will have their heads down most of the time!!

Alibaba

Was thinking would i be better off giving them enough for 2-3 days instead of moving every day to limit poaching

keep going

im a big fan of giving cattle 2 to 3 days at a time and protecting regrowths .reckon you will grow twice as much grass and do less damage in wet weather as you keep moving on

freedominacup

Alibaba wrote: »

Was thinking would i be better off giving them enough for 2-3 days instead of moving every day to limit poaching

2 days and back fence. Also be prepared to skip forward if growth gets strong and they are not able to graze out their allocation because the sward is too heavy. You can take out what you've skipped as bales. Keep an eye on the grass measuring thread. There are a couple of really sharp operators posting there and you'll get ideas as to what is happening elsewhere and whether it's happening to you.

dharn

freedominacup wrote: »

2 days and back fence. Also be prepared to skip forward if growth gets strong and they are not able to graze out their allocation because the sward is too heavy. You can take out what you've skipped as bales. Keep an eye on the grass measuring thread. There are a couple of really sharp operators posting there and you'll get ideas as to what is happening elsewhere and whether it's happening to you.

For say a group of 7 550 kg bullocks how many meters wuould 2 3 days grazing be. Starting with say 4 inches grass

Kileir

dharn wrote: »

For say a group of 7 550 kg bullocks how many meters wuould 2 3 days grazing be. Starting with say 4 inches grass

550kg bullocks x 2% body weight per day = 11kg DM per day or 77kg DM for 7 bullocks.
4 inches grass = 10cm = 1600kg DM/ha approx
Therefore 1 hectare would keep these 7 bullocks fed for 20 days approx (1600÷77).
2 days grazing would be 77x2 or 154kg DM or approx one tenth of hectare (160kg DM) so 1000 square meters

Poor Farmer in the hills

Can you house them and let them out to graze 3-4 hours per day less chance of damage.

grazeaway

Poor Farmer in the hills wrote: »

Can you house them and let them out to graze 3-4 hours per day less chance of damage.

I dont see why not, however the big problem is what its not their natural grazing cycle so you might end up having to give them something in the shed. Have you any straw to throw along the feed passage. Dairy lad near here did that last year. Cows were out for about 3 hours on grass then back into the shed. The straw is very good for adding to the diet with the grass is very lush and wet.

kowtow

grazeaway wrote: »

I dont see why not, however the big problem is what its not their natural grazing cycle so you might end up having to give them something in the shed. Have you any straw to throw along the feed passage. Dairy lad near here did that last year. Cows were out for about 3 hours on grass then back into the shed. The straw is very good for adding to the diet with the grass is very lush and wet.

We're bringing ours in at night and feeding wrapped headland bales of grassy straw - seem palatable enough and although they don't devour them after a day grazing, if it's p***sing with rain and they are in a few hours extra they'll all be around the feeder.

Farmer Pudsey

It is a matter of surviving the next week. Alot of rain forecast the weekend. at present cattle have 5 mouths 4 going into the ground and one eating. Yes housing would be ideal after 2-3 hours grazing cattle usuall stop grazing after 2 hours if they have near enough to eat. With the showers we are gettinh they tend to go and stand in a corner if in the open. with the way the weather is strip grazing is a disaster as unless they have enough to eat they will start walking.

If you have to house and can get a bale or two of hay feed the minimum and I mean the minimum of fibre and 3kgs of ration to yearlings and 4-6kgs to 2Year olds. They will manage for 10-14 days this way they will not put on weight but neither will they starve. if you feed more you will have to increase the hay/straw which you may not be able to get. Grass is not growing if it claers up on Sunday/Monday as forecast get out with Urea at a bag to the acre. Do not graze down low covers, I cannot go back into places that were grazed over 3 weeks ago it got a bag of can after grazing. No point in grazing it now and ploughing places and haveing no grass for a month.

Tipp Man

This is where set stocking in a field structure comes into its own.

When cattle are in a field all of the time and are not used to being moved they are much happier, they do a lot less walking and being fields they have ditches for shelter.

In a paddock you might grow more grass but utilising it is the problem as the cattle are never particularly happy as they have the routine of being moved regularly, they walk a lot more in a more confined space which is wet weather leads to paddocks being ploughed.

Farmer Pudsey

Tippman yes you are right however I find with set stocking that cattle are slow to pun on weight also stocking levels are limited. We just have to hope that this and last year are anomolys and that the weather changes for the rest of the year and next year. the other isuue is that landowners that have not farmers for years and started to but stock again are getting a big shock.Most have been loking over the ditch for years thinking it is soft money. Most of these will be gone from the system in a year.

We just have to knuckle down and hope for a change.