Better farms

farawaygrass

Hi all. Is there a better farm or a trial farm of some sort with mixed grazing of cows and calves/cattle and sheep. I find it hard to relate to any on the paper as they are one of the other. One difficulty I have at home on the farm is running too many grazing groups. I usually go with the yearling cattle, then the cows and calves and finally the sheep (this doesn't always work out but it's the plan at the moment). I had hoggets as a seperate group up untill 3 weeks ago too. I find though that I graze too tight sometimes and recovery is slow. Also with so many groups I am running short of grass when all I hear is how much of an abundance of grass is around! I'm scratching my head!!

Muckit

I want to see a GLAS farm. I'II b waiting a while I'd say

Miname

farawaygrass wrote: »

Hi all. Is there a better farm or a trial farm of some sort with mixed grazing of cows and calves/cattle and sheep. I find it hard to relate to any on the paper as they are one of the other. One difficulty I have at home on the farm is running too many grazing groups. I usually go with the yearling cattle, then the cows and calves and finally the sheep (this doesn't always work out but it's the plan at the moment). I had hoggets as a seperate group up untill 3 weeks ago too. I find though that I graze too tight sometimes and recovery is slow. Also with so many groups I am running short of grass when all I hear is how much of an abundance of grass is around! I'm scratching my head!!

Three days on then off, stick to that and you should have loads of grass.

ganmo

could you graze the ewes and lambs with the yearlings?
when the ewes are weaned drop them back with the cows?

farawaygrass

ganmo wrote: »

could you graze the ewes and lambs with the yearlings?
when the ewes are weaned drop them back with the cows?

Sounds good. But if I done that then I wouldn't be following with the cows and calves so would would still have two different rotations going and at the moment I don't have near enough divides. Say for a 3 day grazing you need 7 divides, would that be correct?

Miname

farawaygrass wrote: »

Sounds good. But if I done that then I wouldn't be following with the cows and calves so would would still have two different rotations going and at the moment I don't have near enough divides. Say for a 3 day grazing you need 7 divides, would that be correct?

You need to work out your demand and set up paddocks from there. The more paddocks the better.

rangler1

farawaygrass wrote: »

Hi all. Is there a better farm or a trial farm of some sort with mixed grazing of cows and calves/cattle and sheep. I find it hard to relate to any on the paper as they are one of the other. One difficulty I have at home on the farm is running too many grazing groups. I usually go with the yearling cattle, then the cows and calves and finally the sheep (this doesn't always work out but it's the plan at the moment). I had hoggets as a seperate group up untill 3 weeks ago too. I find though that I graze too tight sometimes and recovery is slow. Also with so many groups I am running short of grass when all I hear is how much of an abundance of grass is around! I'm scratching my head!!

when i was mixed stocking, i used to move the sheep into the paddocks a few days before the cows and leave the cows to clean off. The lambs would be gone unreal quick compared with the all sheep system i have now.
When the lambs were gone, ewes would follow the cows.

farawaygrass

rangler1 wrote: »

when i was mixed stocking, i used to move the sheep into the paddocks a few days before the cows and leave the cows to clean off. The lambs would be gone unreal quick compared with the all sheep system i have now.
When the lambs were gone, ewes would follow the cows.

I was always told here to have sheep following cows. Would the cows clean up good enough after the sheep? As matter of interest, how many grazing groups do you have with the sheep?

charolais0153

rangler1 wrote: »

when i was mixed stocking, i used to move the sheep into the paddocks a few days before the cows and leave the cows to clean off. The lambs would be gone unreal quick compared with the all sheep system i have now.
When the lambs were gone, ewes would follow the cows.

Would you go back to that system or will u stick with the all sheep system

rangler1

farawaygrass wrote: »

I was always told here to have sheep following cows. Would the cows clean up good enough after the sheep? As matter of interest, how many grazing groups do you have with the sheep?

If the cows had the leaf eaten off the grass when the sheep went into it, lamb thrive would be affected.
We have four groups, the hoggets are divided into singles and doubles aswe creep feed the doubles.
The adults ewes are in two groups, one has 200 ewes and400 lambs in it and it;s a big days work to do anything with them, we weaned them yesterday, average weight 33kg at 16 weeks. should've been done weeks ago but trying to get grass under control, next batch is 3 weeks younger and will be weaned in a week

Bullocks

farawaygrass wrote: »

Hi all. Is there a better farm or a trial farm of some sort with mixed grazing of cows and calves/cattle and sheep. I find it hard to relate to any on the paper as they are one of the other. One difficulty I have at home on the farm is running too many grazing groups. I usually go with the yearling cattle, then the cows and calves and finally the sheep (this doesn't always work out but it's the plan at the moment). I had hoggets as a seperate group up untill 3 weeks ago too. I find though that I graze too tight sometimes and recovery is slow. Also with so many groups I am running short of grass when all I hear is how much of an abundance of grass is around! I'm scratching my head!!

Would you be over stocked by any chance ?
A mate of mine would be kinda over stocked but he knows it and just drops in bale when needed at any time of the year depending on growth

farawaygrass

Bullocks wrote: »

Would you be over stocked by any chance ?
A mate of mine would be kinda over stocked but he knows it and just drops in bale when needed at any time of the year depending on growth

24 cows and calves, 21 yearlings, 145 ewes/hoggets at the moment but will be culling hard and only let out 100ish to the ram. So I don't think that's overstocked? There is a 16 acre and a 4 acre field locked for silage and a 7 acre just cut. I am actually thinking about putting out a bale too to the cows.

charolais0153

How much land overall

rangler1

charolais0153 wrote: »

Would you go back to that system or will u stick with the all sheep system

I'll be sticking with the sheep now, not going to make any changes,
Ewes do make good money, stocked at one or one and a half to the acre with cattle....and the cattle do better too.

farawaygrass

charolais0153 wrote: »

How much land overall

Sorry I left out the obvious bit! Land Comes to 85 acres

charolais0153

farawaygrass wrote: »

Sorry I left out the obvious bit! Land Comes to 85 acres

I've made it up and your demand is 40 -,50 KGS a day which is almost the exact same as you and is very achievable to maintain it.how many paddocks do u have altogethrr