Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Just looking for a bit of info on rotational grazing and as ye guys seem to be the best in the business at it i said id ask here.

I keep sheep not cattle but planning on doing a good but of fencing over the winter months to introduce a rotation where they move more regularily and improve the grass.

Q: How long of a "rest period" do you give a paddock?

Q: As your leaving a paddock do you top & spread fert/slurry each time or only at certain times of year?.

Q: any reccomendation on best type of reels?

Rest period will vary from time of the year. In the spring it could be 60 days and in peak growth it could be 15-21 days.

Beef farming here and keeping the costs down is key. Urea in the spring and and mid to late August. A bit in early mid May. I just tend to blank spread a large portion as it bulk bags I'm working with. Slurry is out out to couple with silage cuts and what would be left over when a tank is stirred up, focus on the proper indexed ground

Reels. This it what could keep you going. The question I would have beef farmers is how many reels do you have. Here it's 15. It's great for splitting paddocks and and back fencing. They get great use breaking up silage ground to temp paddocks. I have a good few different ones, about 3 geared pels but mainly the short 200m cheap black and orange ones get serious use. Had some geared ones from the coop and they didn't last. They need to take a bit of abuse from being thrown into and out of vehicles etc

This year threw the baby out of the bathwater with all of the above

I was looking at the banding in relation to stocking rate, does it make more sense to up cow numbers and reduce volume through less meal fed, cull after scanning in September, dry cows up once they reach 4400 litres. Meal bill would be drastically reduced with higher milk solids counteracting lower litres. Feed bill here was pretty substantial last year.

Might work with big numbers. I'm the only person I know that went back in numbers the last ten years. 20% less cows and the same milk goin out the gate. My average milk price is slightly lower. But less work and less crowding in the shed. I think I'm as far on anyway. There was no opportunity to increase land block and will be none either.

Was it the conversion to robots is why u reduced? The banding is mad when u look at it, are they trying to reduce concentrate feeding the way they have set it up.

Part of it. Something had to give. I took over the reigns. Would have been excommunicated if I rented the place out. Knew I couldn't handle workload so ran beef bulls for a couple of years. Got rid of everything. I didn't have to look too hard for yokes to cull. Tightened up calving to 2 blocks and bought better replacements where I seen value. Ish! Still don't like giving big money for stock. Dairy boys are greedy bastards!!

is the back fence a big help?. Just conscious of water but i could give them a mobile ibc i have

Do you use the sheep to clean up paddocks after milkers at any stage? Or they on an out block?

1 cob versus 2.

walked thru mine yesterday …still good 3 weeks away …2 cobs per plant but think there on small size

Would you ever consider a foliar feed. I think it would increase the yield big time.

dawg doesn’t need to worry about yeild. He has couple K acres under him

Risk management is more of a concern in a more volatile climate

What part of France are you in Dawg? Down near Mt St Michel at the moment and drove around that area, it looks like some of the best Tillage land in the World. Worth checking out on Google Earth for anyone who's interested