Outwintering on grass only & compensatory growth

just do it

Interesting article here

I couldn't find anything on year 2 of the study. May well have been shelved as it was the time of cutbacks.

keep going

I know someone who lets his weanlings run over the whole farmduring the winter and just feeds a couple kilos of ration .his grass is very slow coming but the weanlings seeme to do well growth seems to match appetite as they grow .he fattens them over the second winter and makes very litte silage.dont know his fgures but I reckon he finish around 100 bullocks this way every year on less than100 roughish acres

Muckit

I personally don't think it's a runner. This isn't Canada or America where they get a hard cold winter that turns ground like concrete. Many farms in Ireland have ground that in no way resembles the land in Grange, so this study bears no relevance.

You would end up going more harm than good. Imagine all that lovely reseed all rutted up and holding pools of water.

Best wating til ground conditions improve and get them out as early as possible in the spring. On off grazing if you are that way inclined

1chippy

Id say the research wouldnt be far off the mark. i usually run a few batches of light weanlings out on the driest parts of the farm. i would however throw them a handful of meal. a lot of the time by the time the heavier ones are turned out the light ones have usually surpassed in weight. i dont think there is much bother in running light stock once the ground can carry them.

KatyMac

I outwinter on a 'reasonably' dry out farm. I feed silage in a couple of circular feeders in a garden that was infilled several years ago. The only place that suffers is the approach to the entrance to this garden, there is usually a ploughed up mucky bit, but once a bit of drying comes I run over it with a transport box and it flattens out nicely with no major damage done. The cattle do well. I only keep in cows with very young calves or anything that might have been sick. I don't usually have any calves expected until late February/March so the cows are nicely fit and well.

just do it

Been busy last few days so only getting back to this now!

Well I'm going to give it a go this winter. I'd 10acres set aside for third cut so it has a good heavy cover on it. The seed was sown during the summer and the decision was made before it turned wet i.e. I didn't ring the silage contractor! As well as an experiment I'm tight on shed space so I'm willing to give it a go. If it works it will put off capital expenditure on extra shed space for 2-3 years.

So the plan is to knock 100 days out of this block with 10 weanlings. These weanlings from Saturday have ~3 weeks of quality new reseeded grass before heading into it so will be in good knick. I'll break it up into small daily paddocks and see how it goes. 10ac is 40,000 m2. That means 400m2 or a 20m x 20m paddock each day. With a cover of 2,500kgDM thats 100kgDM per break or 10kgDM per weanling. The cover is gone over this at this stage but naturally utilisation will be poorer because of it.

(And here's a lad going on about having scarce time!!!:rolleyes: F*** it, I hope it works out.)

delaval

Should change your name to "just go for it"!!

kevthegaff

I have a 25 acre field too far for the cows that i let 5 cows out on from December to March, I have two trailer feeders i bring up every day and bring down the other empty. Half of it is dry all year round with stone underneath. It will be last year doing it as ill be putting in more cubicles next year. I was considering leaving them out on another field 10 acres that i will reseed in spring. What ye think of outwintering on a field that is gona be reseeded, i should have gone the kale route there

towzer2010

delaval wrote: »

Should change your name to "just go for it"!!

"Just Tried it to see how it would work" might be a bit to long but in fairness to you JDI you are always willing to try something to see how it goes.

keep going

just do it wrote: »

Been busy last few days so only getting back to this now!

Well I'm going to give it a go this winter. I'd 10acres set aside for third cut so it has a good heavy cover on it. The seed was sown during the summer and the decision was made before it turned wet i.e. I didn't ring the silage contractor! As well as an experiment I'm tight on shed space so I'm willing to give it a go. If it works it will put off capital expenditure on extra shed space for 2-3 years.

So the plan is to knock 100 days out of this block with 10 weanlings. These weanlings from Saturday have ~3 weeks of quality new reseeded grass before heading into it so will be in good knick. I'll break it up into small daily paddocks and see how it goes. 10ac is 40,000 m2. That means 400m2 or a 20m x 20m paddock each day. With a cover of 2,500kgDM thats 100kgDM per break or 10kgDM per weanling. The cover is gone over this at this stage but naturally utilisation will be poorer because of it.

(And here's a lad going on about having scarce time!!!:rolleyes: F*** it, I hope it works out.)

The golden rule is dont let eat re growth and keep them moving .am I right in thinking no ration but wouldnt rule it out

nashmach

kevthegaff wrote: »

I have a 25 acre field too far for the cows that i let 30 cows out on from December to March, I have two trailer feeders i bring up every day and bring down the other empty. Half of it is dry all year round with stone underneath. It will be last year doing it as ill be putting in more cubicles next year. I was considering leaving them out on another field 10 acres that i will reseed in spring. What ye think of outwintering on a field that is gona be reseeded, i should have gone the kale route there

Big no no though if Department happen to visit

Have lots of soiled ground with that approach and in any case farmers are meant to have storage capacity for their entire closed period regardless of stock being housed or outwintered.

bob charles

nashmach wrote: »

Big no no though if Department happen to visit

Have lots of soiled ground with that approach and in any case farmers are meant to have storage capacity for their entire closed period regardless of stock being housed or outwintered.

too right, not much point out wintering when you already have storage in the yard, on saying that I outwinter allot of cattle that arent in my herd;)

just do it

keep going wrote: »

The golden rule is dont let eat re growth and keep them moving .am I right in thinking no ration but wouldnt rule it out

Yeah that's the plan. Feed means water means gathering points means damage. But you're right, I'll be watching closely ;-)

jersey101

The heifers here will be going on to the forage rape next week id say. I was wondering seeing as there is loads of grass in it cover of 1500 at least. Would they need silage? I dont think so.

just do it

Did someone mention Department?

Actually it's not me that's doing it, it's a fella in the next parish I heard about;)

bob charles

just do it wrote: »

Did someone mention Department?

Actually it's not me that's doing it, it's a fella in the next parish I heard about;)

who ever your doing in the department, will you give them one, for me.;)

kevthegaff

if they dont poach it is it not ok??

just do it

bob charles wrote: »

who ever your doing in the department, will you give them one, for me.;)

Better turn off the calving camera .

Last autumn calver produced a whopper of a charolais earlier. Was watching her from over 100 miles away

just do it

kevthegaff wrote: »

if they dont poach it is it not ok??

My take on it is 10 300kg weanlings have 10 acres for the winter. I'd have to check but I believe that's allowed. With one day blocks of heavy covers there should be a minimum of poaching

mf240

kevthegaff wrote: »

if they dont poach it is it not ok??

They'll only take a small percentage if they do ya and if your not getting a big sfp it will be peanuts, it probably wouldn't make the payments on a dog house.

If ya were to worry about all the different rules and regulations you wouldn't get out of bed in the morning.

delaval

It is perfectly acceptable once you are not poaching the ground but you must have slurry storage

ellewood

delaval wrote: »

It is perfectly acceptable once you are not poaching the ground but you must have slurry storage

Think the having storage anyways is only for ye dairy lads

Beef lads can outwinter without having the storage as long as low stocking density you can also use welfare ie they were lame act inside:-)


st

Muckit

limo_100

if they are getting it hard to make good hay why dont they make silage. There grass is terrible in fairness its like wire we dont no how lucky we are to b able 2grow good quality good grass. By looking at that video theres is only rubbish id say none of my cows would eat it