grass measuring, who does it?

joejobrien

This is a question for those that are
1 Measuring grass weekly,
OR
2.Watching grass weekly but not measure But know, should be done:o.
At very recent meeting of a few farmers, the topic of grass measuring came up, or the lack of it is more to the point
Reasons:
Some did it at start but invariably something else got in the way.
All agree the princple, but committement on a weekly basis was an issue,
Too busy to even consider time to walk the farm
Busy with Family etc etc
There is a few who measures weekly.
Now Im not here to argue the above reasons, but of ye lads that measure how many employ a person to vist once per week, measure, and provides you with the figures
A. If so, what rate of charge for this service and what level of info is provided?
B. Can you put a figure on the return for that weekly/monthly investment
C. I dont want to get into a discussion re:why the farmer isit doing it .
Thanks for all intrest and replys

Mehaffey1

Do it here weekly. Big farm with 3 staff plus the boss so time isn't really a problem. Don't know of any round here that employ a part timer just for grass measuring. We get back our growth rate, average pasture cover just from some simple software the boss has.

whelan2

have a lad comes in and does the grass measuring for me, doing it about 3 years here, original guy finished up last year and a new guy coming this year, he walks and fills in agrinet and we dicuss a plan. works well for me

Mehaffey1

Important for us being all grass based so we can hold back on supplementary feed since we're gonna be tight on bales. Won't have to worry for much longer as will be wintering in 20days or so anyway.

Greengrass1

Would there be a demand out there for this service?

Mehaffey1

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Would there be a demand out there for this service?

Go round with a C-Dax would be some job for a farm, just wouldn't be cheap to do.

whelan2

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Would there be a demand out there for this service?

a good few around here use the guy i use, one less job and at least it gets done so you know where you stand

Greengrass1

whelan2 wrote: »

a good few around here use the guy i use, one less job and at least it gets done so you know where you stand

how did he start at it? Did he ask you or did you look for someone to walk the farm for you?

whelan2

Greengrass1 wrote: »

how did he start at it? Did he ask you or did you look for someone to walk the farm for you?

he came to our dg meeting and did a talk and offered to do the walk for people, think it could be an idea for other people to set up similar in other parts of the country

joejobrien

Mehaffey1 wrote: »

Go round with a C-Dax would be some job for a farm, just wouldn't be cheap to do.

Thank Mehaffey for your input. There was an issue regarding the reliaility of the C-DAX intrial work done here:eek:
. Unsure if it got approval. You know of anyone using them?

Sam Kade

I don't measure but won't rule it out in the future. I only estimate how many grazings in a paddock now and how many days grass ahead. For anyone that measures do you know exactly the yearly production from certain fields/paddocks and which perform better or worse?

frazzledhome

In our 16th year grass measuring. By that I mean actually walking paddocks and inputting info.

Do it weekly and some times 3 times per fortnight. We've never missed a week since we started. We do ourselves nobody paid to do it.

We rely on the figures to make all feeding decisions for the cows. We don't measure on the heifer ground.

It's one of the revolutions of pasture based farming. The RoI is massive when one considers that the only investment is a pencil and a copy book.

On the question re top and more importantly bottom performing paddocks that's exactly the type of gold information I'm looking for

ellewood

frazzledhome wrote: »

In our 16th year grass measuring. By that I mean actually walking paddocks and inputting info.

Do it weekly and some times 3 times per fortnight. We've never missed a week since we started. We do ourselves nobody paid to do it.

We rely on the figures to make all feeding decisions for the cows. We don't measure on the heifer ground.

It's one of the revolutions of pasture based farming. The RoI is massive when one considers that the only investment is a pencil and a copy book.

On the question re top and more importantly bottom performing paddocks that's exactly the type of gold information I'm looking for

Why not measure on heifer ground ?

There hardly set stocked ha ☺

ellewood

Have been measuring last few years but still learning!

If stocked any way high I don't know how you would manage without measuring tbh

I don't know how many times the last 2 dry summers if ya looked at fields there didn't seem to be much grass, down to 9 days ahead but you know days ahead and GR ya can make decisions to fill gaps with silage/ meal so you can stretch over tight times without then ending up cutting too much if you re house or feed back too much silage .

onyerbikepat

It's like theres a whole spectrum of farmers. Those that grass measure, reseed, soil test etc and then there are those that use pallets and baling twine to fill a hole in the ditch. Somewhere in between myself.:D

joejobrien

frazzledhome wrote: »

In our 16th year grass measuring. By that I mean actually walking paddocks and inputting info.

Do it weekly and some times 3 times per fortnight. We've never missed a week since we started. We do ourselves nobody paid to do it.

We rely on the figures to make all feeding decisions for the cows. We don't measure on the heifer ground.

It's one of the revolutions of pasture based farming. The RoI is massive when one considers that the only investment is a pencil and a copy book.

On the question re top and more importantly bottom performing paddocks that's exactly the type of gold information I'm looking for

Thanks frazz, for that . Out of intrest, how long would it take on average to walk the place.?
Also for lads that have various reason for NOT doing it , would you agree that
A. that once the farmer gets the weekly measurements,
B.irropsective of own labour or paid labour, what ever that form is.,
C. isnt still better to have current feeed information than none at all?

Sam Kade

onyerbikepat wrote: »

It's like theres a whole spectrum of farmers. Those that grass measure, reseed, soil test etc and then there are those that use pallets and baling twine to fill a hole in the ditch. Somewhere in between myself.:D

Does that mean that you fill the hole in the ditch with barbed wire and pallets

Miname

Walked the fields weekly the last few years but I put in paddocks this spring and am learning how to grass measure at the moment. It's unreal the difference the paddocks alone but with the measuring it's making things extremely easy to plan. I've even started throwing out the odd half bag of fertiliser to the acre rather than blanket spreading and I'm extremely surprised with the few combinations of minor changes the major results I'm having. I was sitting down with the old man this evening and he was on about the changes. I've doubled stocking numbers which he reckoned was impossible with still a lot more room to improve.it all seems like a black art until you start it and it's then the benefits really start to show.

frazzledhome

joejobrien wrote: »

Thanks frazz, for that . Out of intrest, how long would it take on average to walk the place.?
Also for lads that have various reason for NOT doing it , would you agree that
A. that once the farmer gets the weekly measurements,
B.irropsective of own labour or paid labour, what ever that form is.,
C. isnt still better to have current feeed information than none at all?

2 hrs if walking 45 mins if on bike

frazzledhome

ellewood wrote: »

Why not measure on heifer ground ?

There hardly set stocked ha ☺

Not set stocked
We wouldn't be there weekly. Could be there daily at times but could run to 2 weeks as well. Guy looking after stock is 70+ so hard to change

Calves moved every 4 days with heifers mopping up behind. Load on fert and cut any surplus as silage. Only stocked at 3 so no great pressure

just do it

onyerbikepat wrote: »

It's like theres a whole spectrum of farmers. Those that grass measure, reseed, soil test etc and then there are those that use pallets and baling twine to fill a hole in the ditch. Somewhere in between myself.:D

Was just thinking of a gap this evening that a pallet would close off temporarily

The only problem is the definition of temporary!

Deepsouthwest

frazzledhome wrote: »

Not set stocked
We wouldn't be there weekly. Could be there daily at times but could run to 2 weeks as well. Guy looking after stock is 70+ so hard to change

Calves moved every 4 days with heifers mopping up behind. Load on fert and cut any surplus as silage. Only stocked at 3 so no great pressure

Are those calves being fed? Any trouble getting heifers to clean out ground after them?

farawaygrass

Is there any lad doing it that's not dairy? Would love you start but just don't know how to begin and what formulas used ect. Any links?

whelan2

farawaygrass wrote: »

Is there any lad doing it that's not dairy? Would love you start but just don't know how to begin and what formulas used ect. Any links?

best way to learn is to walk with some one who does measure

frazzledhome

Deepsouthwest wrote: »

Are those calves being fed? Any trouble getting heifers to clean out ground after them?

No these are waned calves and all on a little meal. Heifers peel all bar one of the paddocks, for some reason there's 1 they're never happy in

keep going

Its the walking the farm bit thats important not necessarily pulling out the calculater.

Blackgrass

farawaygrass wrote: »

Is there any lad doing it that's not dairy? Would love you start but just don't know how to begin and what formulas used ect. Any links?

Guy we rent ground to does, sheep and cattle. Does biggish no's but on 90%+ rented ground and has a contract with a factory group i guess to bring in what ever is near fit to keep no's going through if short. Tends to buy extra cattle in summer and sheep in shoulders looking to try some forage crops straight after the combine to have a reserve rather than cut small lots of bales. That said if gets too under pressure for grass always a few bays of cattle/store lambs in main yard for fattening on by-products wholecrop etc.

just do it

farawaygrass wrote: »

Is there any lad doing it that's not dairy? Would love you start but just don't know how to begin and what formulas used ect. Any links?

Yes. I did it for a year and learned tons. Low SR so haven't continued. Will do again though as farm develops

onyerbikepat

Sam Kade wrote: »

Does that mean that you fill the hole in the ditch with barbed wire and pallets

Well last year subdivided some fields into paddocks and soil tested every field. This year I'm starting to pull old pallets out of the ditches. Progress, I suppose.:D
And it's not so much the broken timber but the old nails that they leave behind.

freedominacup

keep going wrote: »

Its the walking the farm bit thats important not necessarily pulling out the calculater.

This is true. I don't grass measure. Walk the farm a couple of times per week at this time of year. Weekly after that. Once I'm happy with pregrazing covers and residuals that's enough. Stocked at 5 on grazing area currently. Took 15% of grazing area out for silage some bales some with maincrop in the three weeks ending last Monday. On top of pregraze covers again now. Calibrate my eye at dg meetings and farm walks.

Timmaay

just do it wrote: »

Yes. I did it for a year and learned tons. Low SR so haven't continued. Will do again though as farm develops

Is it not more important with a low SR, grass will get ahead of you much quicker! Or have you just cut back on fertiliser?

just do it

Timmaay wrote: »

Is it not more important with a low SR, grass will get ahead of you much quicker! Or have you just cut back on fertiliser?

Grazing block not mowable so taking out surpluses isn't a possibility. Growth rates are very poor on acidic wet paddocks so overgrowth not an issue. Silage ground now reseeded so moving into reseeding grazing block so things will change. Little or no fertiliser on grazing ground. Grass measuring for the year though was a real education. The weekly walk and my own excel so wasn't high tech but it doesn't need to be. I'd argue by the third week measuring you're 80% of the benefit achieved.

frazzledhome

Timmaay wrote: »

Is it not more important with a low SR, grass will get ahead of you much quicker! Or have you just cut back on fertiliser?

While I feel its always important, Free is spot on with a high SR surplus' no such an issue. I'd say its important as to start and stop timing for buffering