Grazing 2021

Trying to leave them out fulltime, don't have enough cubicles in the home yard to house all the milkers. No point trying to give the cows say half an acre per grazing, they will just stand at the gap waiting to come in lol. Instead I'm gonna let them back out on some of the silage ground on covers of 600 or so, that I most likely won't be able to graze early next year. I of course probably should of stuck to my autumn rotation planner and not gone through the area as fast lol, but then if oct and Nov are wet you got too much grass. Overall a good problem to have here ha.

I moved the cattle today and this is the field after them, how well did they skin it do you think and should I top it?

I might top it as I don’t want to drive the quality next spring,are your cattle giving it a good skinning?

one poster said here that if the ph is right it won’t effect quality next spring

I won’t be grazing this till early April

I've 3 cows with calves out still but their not happy. Load of grass but they want in with the rest. All will be in Tuesday when the last bull weanlings are sold. Grass still growing here but ground conditions are gone bad now. I'll have good cover in spring for them when they get out in March anyway

All in since yesterday, will hopefully be letting out the weaned heifers in a couple of weeks again. Ground holding up reasonably well but it could get torn up quite quickly too.

Milkers onto their 12th rotation on some of the paddocks here lol hmmm.

This lot went into last paddock. There is 24 in the bunch. Grass is usually very strong inside gap as water trough is there as well. It's a 4 acre paddock. I expect them to get at least 10 days out of it. I have another 14 outside 12 in a bunch that have at least a week in it probably a bit with it.

This autumn has been brilliant. Now I did spread an extra bit if Urea this autumn. As well I carried less finishing cattle into October than last few years I started to feed the last if the cattle 2-3 weeks earlier. On average I reckon I will be it 5-6 weeks longer.

Nothing like a few Black and White minstrels coming up to December as well.

Will this autumn be “free” as such or as are soils going to be next da hungry next year due ti the additional grazings people got?

It is free grazing as Easten says ground conditions still excellent. Only catch is that heavy covers do not recover as fast as lighter covers would have. However heavy covers grazed in later October/ early November have greened up.

The other factor is that I had 40+ bales left over last year. I Normally would have 60+ bales gone at this stage between any finishing cattle and cattle housed. Unless I still have cattle housed in late April I think I will be looking at up on a 100 bale surplus.

With fertlizer prices I think I can reduce my first cut area by 5 acres and keep it in the grazing platform. 150 bales will probably be enough to add to the 100+ for winter 22/23.

I am gauging that I can gamble buying fertlizer as well and cut back my order by 2-3 ton.

Do not worry about frost or even feavy frost on grass. All it dose is increase the DM of the grass. Ya if you are a dairy farmer then you do not want it. However drystock will graze and thrive on this in springtime. Even if they run into late March/April before being grazed cattle are better off on them than inside in a shed. After 3-4 months on concrete cattle always do better outside.

That the beauty of traditional breeds they are no hassle. I had to.mive them from one field though a paddock to this one. I ran a fence with pigtails and string along a ditch to this one. I went into the paddock they were in and they came to me( the paddock was well grazed out) I allowed them all to come to me and they were on the far side of the gap to the direction they would travelling along the pigtail fence. I opened the gap and they ran out the gap, I was out ahead to stop them breaking straight out.

I had them move in ten to fifteen minutes and that was including putting up the temporary fence roadway.

As long as there is any current in a fence they stay in the paddock they are in.

Depends on how the ground would hold up I suppose, wouldn't it be a bit more susceptible to poaching if it has recently been reseeded?

Ah that brings a end to this year's grazing. Just let last of the autumn calfers in.

Hard to know,

Never heard it, but makes sense I supose.