Outwintering/ wintering solutions for yearlings/maiden heifers

Milked out

Considering kale to outwinter heifers this year as tight for appropriate housing. Last year had some cows straw bedded in a hayshed with a feeding trailer in yard and fed and bedded them daily. Half the stronger heifers were at home on yearling cubicles and the other were in a lean too off the hayshed and were straw bedded daily and I took down 2 bays of the eastern wall to put in a feed barrier. There was a good bit of work in bedding and feeding particularly the cows so I'm going to adapt the yearling cubicles to try and take the in calf heifers in order to keep as many in calf animals at home and reduce time spent bedding. First thought was to just put all heifers back on straw bedding but wondering would kale be better. The ground is dry and needs to be re seeded anyway and thinking lighter stock may do little structural damage. Will have roughly 35 heifers but if I don't go clear of tb before winter could end up with 60 yearlings knocking around. However I could find a feed lot for those as mainly aa heifers and bulls with a few fr bulls but then they would likely go for less than their value at that route. Basically asking how have fellas got on with kale for young stock, performance wise and is there more work than strawbedding? High possibility of me being on my own again this winter and in winter milk.

billie holiday

Never tried kale but will advise you anyway.
If many people continue farming practices for several years they are worthwhile.
Spring rotation planner , compact calving etc.
If many people quit a farming practice you can bet it don't work.
Maize silage big milky holsteins stand off pads etc
3 lads in my discussion group have ceased growing kale.
Keep it simple lad. Grass is simple....ish

Milked out

Appreciate that but this is hopefully just a one or two year job. As soon as funds allow there will be cubicles and/or a slatted tank going in but that won't be done before this winter. Hoping to get 10 acres of unproductive ground up and running so should manage next spring without this area.

blue5000

Have done it last 5 years approx, but numbers were down last year so didn't grow it (thankfully, with the wet winter). I put baled silage out along a sheltered hedge in a line about 5m apart. More cattle in the bunch might need two lines of bales.

One thing I noticed is the weanling heifers did well on it, took to grass in feb really well compared to housed cattle. I don't feed meal on the kale. But because they only see you for a few minutes a day while you move the fence and ring feeder they are wilder. I think housed cattle get used to human contact and are quieter as a result.

I tried growing stripes of barley through it one year to see if I could do away with the bales for roughage, but they just walked the barley into the ground, hardly ate it all.

Had kale during the frosty winter, all the leaves fell off it, that year I had maize silage and with the ground frozen solid was able to drive out and drop a grab in the ring feeder, normally I wouldn't drive into a field of kale.

Jaysus Christ

Have kale here too.
First thing I'd say is keep it away from yard or house as it stinks. And a good fence and shock is vital as if they break through it and over feed it will kill them as its toxic. Not cheap to grow either.

This is what I was advised
Soil ph needed 6.2t to 7

6 bags of 18:6:12

Weeds can be a problem. Spray with Butisan S within 48 hrs after sowing.

Flea beetle can attack at emergence so spray with dursban at 1.5 l/ha.

Slug pellets at sowing

MickeyShtyles

Any of yee find birds an issue?
We had two hawks up for the kale.

keep going

The suitability of kale to your system depends on land type and winter lenght. Kale likes good fertility and I find swedes are better for poor fertility land but kale is easier to get weanlings eating.i tend to put the bales in a heap in the corner and feed out during a dry spell but only driving in the kale.big bales of hay and a bagin of ration is also very handy.but the one thing above all factors in suitability of kale to you is winter length, I generally work off a 10 to12week winter but if you're winter is longer probaly not suitable. Getting the heifers onto grass in mid February is a must as its that period you really get 5he benifit of out wintering

Timmaay

2bh after the winter we had I'm going to be slow enough to bother with the hassle of trying to outwinter fulltime again, even with the dry sandy field the cows were in I had no real option but to house everything 1st of Jan this year. The aim will still be to graze heifers as long as possible every winter but I wouldn't like to be relying on having to outwinter. I do find other than the huge burst of calving in mid Feb there is always a spare shed of some sort, my only mistake this Feb was not having the roofed silage pit empty, that was a 4bay shed that I really could have done with being straw bedded and housing 15/20 cows.

mahoney_j

Jaysus Christ wrote: »

Have kale here too.
First thing I'd say is keep it away from yard or house as it stinks. And a good fence and shock is vital as if they break through it and over feed it will kill them as its toxic. Not cheap to grow either.

This is what I was advised
Soil ph needed 6.2t to 7

6 bags of 18:6:12

Weeds can be a problem. Spray with Butisan S within 48 hrs after sowing.

Flea beetle can attack at emergence so spray with dursban at 1.5 l/ha.

Slug pellets at sowing

Finally a positive constructive post ,keep it up !!!!

leg wax

Jaysus Christ wrote: »

Have kale here too.
First thing I'd say is keep it away from yard or house as it stinks. And a good fence and shock is vital as if they break through it and over feed it will kill them as its toxic. Not cheap to grow either.

This is what I was advised
Soil ph needed 6.2t to 7

6 bags of 18:6:12

Weeds can be a problem. Spray with Butisan S within 48 hrs after sowing.

Flea beetle can attack at emergence so spray with dursban at 1.5 l/ha.

Slug pellets at sowing

i have grown kale,,, kale turips ,, redstart. all grown very easy without the above costs of sprays and slug pellets, sales mans dream of a yard to go into, the loss of the grass in the spring is the only draw back,but its as low a cost as you get for wintering cattle.

Milked out

Timmaay wrote: »

2bh after the winter we had I'm going to be slow enough to bother with the hassle of trying to outwinter fulltime again, even with the dry sandy field the cows were in I had no real option but to house everything 1st of Jan this year. The aim will still be to graze heifers as long as possible every winter but I wouldn't like to be relying on having to outwinter. I do find other than the huge burst of calving in mid Feb there is always a spare shed of some sort, my only mistake this Feb was not having the roofed silage pit empty, that was a 4bay shed that I really could have done with being straw bedded and housing 15/20 cows.

Was it a forage crop you were grazing Tim? This would be a dry field by our standards but would have a lot of rain compared to ye. Last winter would have tested anyone. Like I say this is only a temperory measure I'm looking at till housing can be done up to what's needed and as roadways and reseeding will have to come first this route may fall in better. Labour is the other, hopefully short term, issue. On an aside looking like will have plenty feed for winter with silage up. The big variable I may have is if I don't go clear of to before the winter

Milked out

keep going wrote: »

The suitability of kale to your system depends on land type and winter lenght. Kale likes good fertility and I find swedes are better for poor fertility land but kale is easier to get weanlings eating.i tend to put the bales in a heap in the corner and feed out during a dry spell but only driving in the kale.big bales of hay and a bagin of ration is also very handy.but the one thing above all factors in suitability of kale to you is winter length, I generally work off a 10 to12week winter but if you're winter is longer probaly not suitable. Getting the heifers onto grass in mid February is a must as its that period you really get 5he benifit of out wintering

Winter length would be minimum 12 weeks, obviously depends on the year as sometimes we would be out mid Jan other years could be mid march and struggling. Autumn similar. I was hoping to get a roadway up to this field but if I don't ill have to travel thru a field to get to it. Thinking of closing the adjacent paddocks early so could move them straight onto them.in Feb.

Milked out

leg wax wrote: »

Jaysus Christ wrote: »

Have kale here too.
First thing I'd say is keep it away from yard or house as it stinks. And a good fence and shock is vital as if they break through it and over feed it will kill them as its toxic. Not cheap to grow either.

This is what I was advised
Soil ph needed 6.2t to 7

6 bags of 18:6:12

Weeds can be a problem. Spray with Butisan S within 48 hrs after sowing.

Flea beetle can attack at emergence so spray with dursban at 1.5 l/ha.

Slug pellets at sowing

i have grown kale,,, kale turips ,, redstart. all grown very easy without the above costs of sprays and slug pellets, sales mans dream of a yard to go into, the loss of the grass in the spring is the only draw back,but its as low a cost as you get for wintering cattle.

Would leaving a boundary or an area as is with existing g grass in the field make any odds instead of having the whole field in kale in terms of a drier spot for.cattle to lie if it's untilled etc.

Jaysus Christ

Always grow it in stubbles here so needs plenty tlc.

10 acre field so I just sow the main body of the field and leave a good headland all around. I feed them a balancer meal also. And as soon as the leaves start to turn purple or it starts to flower I pull them off it and onto the beet tops.

I sow mid August. Also Durban is now taken off the market.