[Mark Tupman]

Another important thing at this time of year is avoiding second bites to enable plants to make good recovery. Small breaks also help but time for the rest of the paddocks.

[Kate Tarrant]

Will be watching but strip size should mean moving on after 2 grazing days.

[Brett Hazelden]

Hey Kate.

We run out of hay and silage next week, so we will be onto the new pastures 5 weeks post seeding instead of my preferred 6 weeks. We also have a mix of pastures with some already at 2500kg/ha and looking good, but others only at around 1500kg/ha. Our various brassicas, radish, mustards, vetch, clover etc aren’t going to like the early bite but not much you can do given the season.

We did manage to spray out our JohsonSu mix last week too along with some of our farm made fish hydrolysate, fulvate/humate, Seaweed, trace elements, P, K, Mg. Hopefully that gets the soils firing up with bacteria and fungi, plus gives the plants a boost.

New lambs are due to start dropping in just over two weeks time. Things are going to be tight till Spring!

[Kate Tarrant]

Sounds very similar to what’s happening at ours. Got some foliars on some of the paddocks last week but got foiled by the rain so will be pulling out all stops as soon as this front has gone .. with very similar mix to what you are putting on ( except I had to buy the fish hydrosylate & seaweed tonic .. maybe I’ll make my own this spring.

[Eric Dobbe]

Hi Kate,

We have just enough moisture to keep most annuals alive but not really growing much – it’s been a tough couple of weeks watching a good germination thin out and wilt. We are still waiting for another good 10ml + rain event to wet up the root zone! Maybe tonight/tomorrow! Cows are still in a sacrifice paddock here. I don’t want to start grazing till I am confident I won’t have to hold them up again. We are a while off calving (August) so time is on my side. I did a blood test on cows and weaners which told me I’m a bit low on copper, so addressing that in the animal and will add cu to foliage spaying.

I will be seeding 20 ha of cover crops starting tomorrow which hopefully I can leave ungrazed all season.

All the best with the grazing Kate!

[Kate Tarrant]

And to you also Eric, hope you get a good dousing! We seeded 10ha with multi species and are also keeping it locked up to go to seed this year. Will have plenty of standing feed for summer/autumn next year 😃. Having a year off lambing.. happy days!

• This reply was modified 5 months, 3 weeks ago by  Kate Tarrant.

[Eric Dobbe]

Hi Kate, what a difference 2 weeks have made! We have a nice mix of rain and sunny days, bit warmer than usual and the pasture has responded beautifully. Cows are now on grazing rotation, aiming plus 60 days before 2nd lap.

I am starting them off for overnight on grass at high density ( 150 hd on 1-2 ha) and then back to sacrificial paddock for roughage during day – just till rumen gets adjusted over coming days.

[Kate Tarrant]

Certainly has! After my last post I decided to put the mob back into the sacrifice paddock with some oaten hay I bought.. just moved them into the first strip this morning.. much more grass now!😊 Put some hay in a mobile feeder to help with the adjustment.

[Deborah Orr]

We are still holding cattle in same paddock and hand feeding. Will apply foliar Liquid Trace Mix hopefully over the next couple of days to give a bit of a boost before grazing. Much like you Kate, some areas of paddocks have good cover and others not so strong so trying to give it just a bit more time. I am pleased this recent front has not been too damaging or caused water logging. Anticipating we will move them in to some areas in the coming week, but not for too long.

[Kate Tarrant]

Ended up just extending the sacrifice paddock a bit and have bought some Oaten Hay to keep the mob going. Means I can give the rest of the paddocks a bit more time…