Just as the hoggs were getting used to the cell grazing idea and surrendering to the electricity; I had to let them go so I could take a week to do my UK Nuffield tour. I tried to fence off the residuals of the cells already grazed.
My first visit was to Rhys Williams. Rhys is a grass farmer that processes the grass through 1400 dairy cows and sells the milk. He takes a day a week to measure his grass and manage the results of the measurements. Grass is serious. Paddocks vary in size but tend to be 24 hour paddocks. If grass is not grazed back to between 1400 and 1500 kgDM/Ha by milking they will return to the paddock for a couple of hours to ensure it has been.
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| mmm ... nice rotary |
By leaving residuals at 1600 to 2000 it looks like I will be lowering my quality by at least 1 MJ per kg. The plants need to be taken right down so everything from 3cm is green leaf in regrowth.
Rhys’s utilisation is 85%. EBLEX’s grasswatch quotes utilisation in UK set stocking systems at 50 - 60%. He increased the grass yield of a new farm he took on at 1000 feet above sea level from 8 tonnes of DM/Ha to 14 tonnes in one season. He reckons that you can transform a sward of say 30% ryegrass to one with 70% in a single season. This means he reseeds only 5 % of his sward - one in 20 years - without compromising quality!! This is all essentially through obeying the 3 day rule and leaving residuals of 1400 to 1500 kgDM/Ha.
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| Some of Rhys's heifers |
Saw dairy heifers mob grazing. The going rate for heifer grazing seems to be £1.95/kg live weight gained. He is getting 1000kg of gain per hectare per season ... do the math!
