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Key words but what do they mean, how do you do it?
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<blockquote data-quote="wbvs58" data-source="post: 1712107" data-attributes="member: 16453"><p>Yes dividing up the big paddocks and grazing one mob has made a big difference, the max they graze each paddock would be 4 days in summer and less in spring until the summer grasses really get going. We are having such a good season that they are doing 4 days already and it is still spring. The jewel in the crown here though is the 600 acres of scrub that I have now bought adjacent to my farm, the old tin mine, With our light sandy soil we are only ever 2 weeks away from drought in summer (I think Dun used to often say those words, well they apply to me). If another rotation is going to take my ground cover below what I am comfortable with, no I don't measure it just eyeball it, I dump them into the tin mine where they can always find something to eat albeit low quality and it is easy to supplement if necessary.. My wife who is not very observant said to me a few weeks ago, do I think that the grass is getting better amongst the trees in the tin mine? That is an observation I have noticed for some time, I have been using it for about 12 years now, mostly for the dry cows from weaning until they start to calve, (late March until late June). I think chopping the grass down and trampling a lot of the mulch, old grass and leaf litter in as well as the occaisional bit of manure has had a terrific effect. I am using the tin mine a lot more now even in spring when the cows have young calves on them, I have gained confidence in the calves finding their mothers a way around it.</p><p>I have learnt that the fertility of my place is very fragile, nutrients leach out so rapidly. I have dabbled in planting some crops such as millet in summer and oats or rye in winter and done a bit of hay but mostly for getting the ground ready to plant some subtropical pasture but the crops rapidly deplete the fertility, the N is easy to replace but I end up needing P, S,K along with many trace elements which becomes uneconomical. I have done well with the subtropical pastures and they seem to persist but they don't start until late Nov and have to be grazed aggressively or they get too rank. I doubt that I will do any more other than put out a bit of seed here and there such as when I clear for a fence line, I'll just work on improving my native grasses with fertiliser and legumes. We have a low quality grass African Lovegrass that rapidly takes over so having any bare soil makes me nervous.</p><p>I have good water both at home and in the tin mine, mostly surface water in dams, we had what some people say was the worst drought since settlement in 2018/19 and I never ran out of water both for the livestock and domestically, never spent a cent on water, not too many people could brag about that. In fact I got through the drought very well with little cutting of numbers of my breeder herd and never having to decimate my grass and got a terrific response when it did rain.</p><p>So that is a little of what I do to be "sustainable". I think I have pretty much got it worked out now so I don't have to waste money. The son of the previous owners of 30 years still owns 100 acres up the back that I lease, he reckons the place had never looked like it does now when his parents were running cattle on it. My motto is you always have to have options, ie when things go belly up you need to know what you are going to do.</p><p></p><p>Ken</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="wbvs58, post: 1712107, member: 16453"] Yes dividing up the big paddocks and grazing one mob has made a big difference, the max they graze each paddock would be 4 days in summer and less in spring until the summer grasses really get going. We are having such a good season that they are doing 4 days already and it is still spring. The jewel in the crown here though is the 600 acres of scrub that I have now bought adjacent to my farm, the old tin mine, With our light sandy soil we are only ever 2 weeks away from drought in summer (I think Dun used to often say those words, well they apply to me). If another rotation is going to take my ground cover below what I am comfortable with, no I don't measure it just eyeball it, I dump them into the tin mine where they can always find something to eat albeit low quality and it is easy to supplement if necessary.. My wife who is not very observant said to me a few weeks ago, do I think that the grass is getting better amongst the trees in the tin mine? That is an observation I have noticed for some time, I have been using it for about 12 years now, mostly for the dry cows from weaning until they start to calve, (late March until late June). I think chopping the grass down and trampling a lot of the mulch, old grass and leaf litter in as well as the occaisional bit of manure has had a terrific effect. I am using the tin mine a lot more now even in spring when the cows have young calves on them, I have gained confidence in the calves finding their mothers a way around it. I have learnt that the fertility of my place is very fragile, nutrients leach out so rapidly. I have dabbled in planting some crops such as millet in summer and oats or rye in winter and done a bit of hay but mostly for getting the ground ready to plant some subtropical pasture but the crops rapidly deplete the fertility, the N is easy to replace but I end up needing P, S,K along with many trace elements which becomes uneconomical. I have done well with the subtropical pastures and they seem to persist but they don't start until late Nov and have to be grazed aggressively or they get too rank. I doubt that I will do any more other than put out a bit of seed here and there such as when I clear for a fence line, I'll just work on improving my native grasses with fertiliser and legumes. We have a low quality grass African Lovegrass that rapidly takes over so having any bare soil makes me nervous. I have good water both at home and in the tin mine, mostly surface water in dams, we had what some people say was the worst drought since settlement in 2018/19 and I never ran out of water both for the livestock and domestically, never spent a cent on water, not too many people could brag about that. In fact I got through the drought very well with little cutting of numbers of my breeder herd and never having to decimate my grass and got a terrific response when it did rain. So that is a little of what I do to be "sustainable". I think I have pretty much got it worked out now so I don't have to waste money. The son of the previous owners of 30 years still owns 100 acres up the back that I lease, he reckons the place had never looked like it does now when his parents were running cattle on it. My motto is you always have to have options, ie when things go belly up you need to know what you are going to do. Ken [/QUOTE]
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Key words but what do they mean, how do you do it?
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