The site is 60 acres. 20 acres nestles right next to the Fair City of Perth and its large dog population; the remaining 40 sits awkwardly on the other side of the Perth Bypass with no access that doesn’t involve a highly stressful movement through a wood, over a bridge and through another wood. There is a clear and present danger of sheep making their way to the city centre, if things go wrong.
Its poor stuff. A lot of moss. Really slow growth rates. A lot of creeping thistle. A bit of gorse and a sprinkling of nettles.
175 sheep - mostly hoggs - spent four weeks on the 20 acres taking it down to 1,100 kgDM/Ha ... oops! Now - safely across the bypass - 118 (the rest were sold) have been on 3.6 Ha (9 acres) for 7 days - going on at 2,100 kgDM/Ha and taking this down to 1,650 kgDM/Ha as of today (this means an average of 2.4 kgDM/day consumption which is roughly 4.5% of bodyweight which must be wrong). The untouched remainder has grown by 70 kgDM/Ha/Day over the last week. Compared to a growth rate of 8 kgDM/Ha/Day on the original “grazed bare” 20 acres. I should really check my platemeter but leaf grows leaf; grass grows grass ... the figures might not be completely accurate (though maybe they are) but I think it still tells a story.
Tomorrow I take delivery of the “Rappa pallet of wonder” which includes the ATV Rappa machine. I am wearing a nappy tonight ... I am that excited.
Once delivered we go max-strength cell grazing with hopefully additional stock numbers arriving soon to ensure we can keep on top of the grass.
I'm guessing that much of the 2.4kg per day DM consumption ends up as poo - yet another positive effect of owning and grazing sheep!
ReplyDeleteAt this rate you'll be raking in cash by the bucketful by Autumn!!!
Beers on you in Redditch.