Livestock/General Farming photo thread ***READ MOD NOTE IN POST #1***

just do it wrote: »

Jimmy G M
A case of compare and contrast alright! How many acres did you sow for them? And how many weeks will they get out of it?

There's aprox 7 acres sown. Cattle are in 4 weeks now and a little over an acre used, so at that rate there's another circa 20 weeks there. We will prob put another 5-10 weanlings out on it come March so get it all eaten as will be putting into grass in April.

This is a bit of ground we inherited earlier this year and was a bit neglected and badly in need of a re-seed. We went kale and out-wintering cattle on it, as Dad reckons a great way of improving the land. TBH I would have preferred to just re-seed last August so we'll see how it works out. Will post a few figures on costs etc in a few days.

Username John wrote: »

Interesting...

Why does your father think its good to improve?
I always thought rape was good to clear old ground of weeds. Talking to a neighbour, he finds it good, as he thinks its good as the roots grow deep and break up the soil more...

Interested to hear, as I have some old ground which I am half thinking of reclaiming next year maybe, and was thinking that maybe rape might be good to clean it...

Yeah same as that plus adding organic material & dung to the soil. Turnips / stubble turnips work too. Just be careful not to plough down the good soil. We'll prob do some kind of a min till job with a disk harrow or power harrow to put in the grass.

just do it wrote: »

Its there much to planting kale?

Something like this;

Plough / Till / sow €70 acre
Seed €40 acre
3 bags fert 18/6/12 €65 acre

Dryer fields with good shelter is preference. Ideally there should be a run - off field or stubbles for livestock to lie on also. Sow any time from June to mid August, earlier leads to higher yields, we sowed early August, after a crop of bales from the field. Crop will continue to grow right up to Christmas. Needs a fair bit of N & K, you could plough in FYM or slurry. Weeds / pests not generally a problem when sown slightly later, we didn't spray for any.

Needs a decent fine seed bed - couple of runs of power harrow. We spread seed with an Abbey wagtail fert spreader, mixing 1 bag of seed with 1 bag of fert to establish coverage for an acre. One run of field running wheel along beside previous run. We didn't bother crossing the field. Coverage was nice and even. Cover with chain harrow. Spread more manure. Roll.

I have probably left something out. Pudsey will probably add it in.

Edit; Ph was ok so no lime needed. Also got one other bag of CAN / acre about 2 weeks after sowing so factor that into costs as well.

just a follow on form having cattle outdoors and grazing kale

Cattle on beet tops in Picture 1 on the 10th of December

moy83 wrote: »

Do they leave much or any of the tops after them and do the tops go off quick after the beet is harvested ?

they wouldnt leave a bit if the weather comes right, they would last a month but be deteriorating away if you get my drift

Next pictures is what happens after rain, and lots of it. they were left on a couple days too long as I was busy at other jobs and waiting for a haulier to take they on holidays for the rest of the winter :mad::mad: This the real side to outwintering. Probably looks worse than it is as it was only really wet for 48hrs. cattle are happy but my soil structure is after taking a serious pounding. Will it cost the next crop? Feck it will


Pretty ashamed of this pic

bob charles wrote: »

they wouldnt leave a bit if the weather comes right, they would last a month but be deteriorating away if you get my drift

Next pictures is what happens after rain, and lots of it. they were left on a couple days too long as I was busy at other jobs and waiting for a haulier to take they on holidays for the rest of the winter :mad::mad: This the real side to outwintering. Probably looks worse than it is as it was only really wet for 48hrs. cattle are happy but my soil structure is after taking a serious pounding. Will it cost the next crop? Feck it will


Pretty ashamed of this pic

Ground looks hard, they're not sinking.

bob charles wrote: »

they wouldnt leave a bit if the weather comes right, they would last a month but be deteriorating away if you get my drift

Next pictures is what happens after rain, and lots of it. they were left on a couple days too long as I was busy at other jobs and waiting for a haulier to take they on holidays for the rest of the winter :mad::mad: This the real side to outwintering. Probably looks worse than it is as it was only really wet for 48hrs. cattle are happy but my soil structure is after taking a serious pounding. Will it cost the next crop? Feck it will


Pretty ashamed of this pic

We took the first batch off last Sat week and the second I thought with the yrno forecast we'd get through Christmas but they were as wrong as I've ever seen them be. The lasgt batch came in last Tues. There's beet still out there if it settles we might try to go back for it. How long after a month are they any good bob. what's left is pulled around a forthnight.

yellow50HX wrote: »

Much of it depends on how much time they are actually in the out wintering area. We have the cows on fodder beet during the day and in by night, the fields do look like ****e after the winter but we replough them the following spring and either but beet back in or reseed. Last years beet field was reseeded this year and the grass came very well and the field looks very well after it. No sign of serious damage to the soil.

I would disagree and if you measured the amount of growth the following year when in grass it would be well back. If it reduces the yeilds of grains and maize it will do likewise with grass.

Thankfully the picture I showed is the worst part of the field at the gap