Forget the prices, just hold enough stock to make the schemes!

Your approach is correct but aim to minimize cost while maximizing output within that aim.

That might mean 40 livestock units on your place. Depends on your farm. The number depends on your land and layout.

If left to nature, under an environmental scheme, with a payment, then yes,

If no payment, then very few, would do that.

Are you wondering what to do with the home place.?

I don't mean to pry.

Whatever stock you have at say end September need to be factory fit . You don’t want to get caught with TB and be forced to over winter .

Many people already farming this way but with maybe slightly more stock .

I agree with the sentiments of the OP - no point killing yourself and the land producing for ever smaller margins. Alot of lads around my place in North Mayo seem to have come to the same conclusion. Helps too that there is more "off farm" work around these days too. Farm shops seem to be a growth industry too and a lad down the road is making good money selling the goose eggs for 3euro a pop!!

I have been slightly understocked the last few years and it's far worse than being overstocked. An absolute balls if grass gets ahead of you and very difficult to predict growth patterns a few weeks out. I have about 40 acres that you couldn't cut and bale but produces alot of grass. Cutting silage 3 weeks earlier has resulted in a real glut of grass in late july/August and I could be short in June. I need to keep a closer eye on it and take another cut of silage off one or two of the meadows instead. I feel that there has been mental grass growth in the past 2 years.

Not saying what you’re suggesting is wrong - but if you’re doing this, would leasing the place be an option?

The income is tax free, and you don’t have any hassle, not even for the summer months…

I don’t really understand your reply, but fair enough…

If you considered and discounted leasing that’s fine, it was just so you know your options…

What’s the cause of scutch coming into grass?

I have a small paddock that I had lambs on last spring with a creep feed for a month or more. It was well bared down. It came on great over the summer, was really pleased with it - I put it down to good dung when the lambs were ad lib on meal…

But I see lately that a pile of scutch had come into it…

Have to say OP you have a good argument. I had looked into going into drystock after a tough calving season one time. Can't rightly remember why I didn't go through with it, sucker for punishment I suppose.

Yea, Once we let the grass grow up and lie down, it promotes scutch,

We don't cut silage so we have to graze everything, it deteroirates very quickly if you don't get to it in time,

I can't say what happened to yours, but scutch doesn't thrive in tightlly grazed grass. We let a couple paddocks go too far last year and had to strip graze last november. It's only really coming right now

I have a limited patch of mob grazing some scutch establishes, find that the overall range of plants is increasing and the scutch seems to get pushed back after a while.

In places I have walked here where they have years of mob grazing experience, it's not a problem.

A work in progress, we'll see how it goes next year.

Scutch loves disturbance.