Yes be interesting to see what’s happening below – might be good to bring a sample to the LCDC to take a look down the microscope 😀

Fantastic Brett! How long are you planning on leaving them in there? Are you considering mob grazing and back fencing to stop them returning to where they have grazed – just thinking you might end up with some selective grazing and risk taking out your new young perennials??

Thanks Brett, great 👍

Awesome Brett, what was in your mix, any perennials as well?

Have a very similar experience with our wet & in between areas.

Great Mark, explains things pretty well. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Eric, good to hear some positive feedback about Phalaris, our sheep are eating it and in digging underneath one of the plants the roots have gone down at least 3 times deeper than the annuals which is the point isn’t it. Now need to get some perennial herbs and legumes going in there as well!

Here was us feeling very pleased with ourselves that we’d managed to get some great stands of Phalaris established into one our paddocks (in amongst the usual ryegrass & clover) .. chatting yesterday with another local farmer who said he considers it a weed in our area, the livestock don’t find it as palatable as the annuals and it just gets…

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Cheers Mark, I will probably move them onto the stockpile feed when they finish in this current paddock at the end of the week .. in the meantime will try for a higher density stocking rate in the cells.

Admittedly I have destocked to the point that mob grazing is challenging .. but this is the best I could get in terms of utilisation after a 2 day graze with our sheep – they are not very interested in eating much beyond the top third of the grass with more trampled than eaten. So should I force them by keeping them in the cell for longer or do…

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Thanks Eric, that’s what I thought .. & yes the ewes are a bit chubby I know!

I think she means a second bite of new growth, grazing the stemmy older stuff no problem but happy to be corrected!

I’ve been mob grazing now since getting the sheep out of the sacrifice paddock in early June. I was also feeding hay until just a couple of days ago, had a small problem with scours with a couple of the mob but now resolved. I have been sizing the grazing cells to fit the mob for an even graze/trample of the whole cell over a max 3 day period.…

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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.

Looks like getting those foliars out earlier gave the plants a good head start & stave off RELM, I got some out on a couple of paddocks at the same time as you and no sign of them whereas the other paddocks all have some to varying degrees, only got foliars on them last week – plants looking like they are going to grow through the damage though…

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Hi Will, We have had some red legs in some of the paddocks we seeded to multi species.. in particular they were hammering the legumes & brassicas. Mark Tupman @mark suggested spraying out Magnesium Suplhate at a rate of 5 to 7kg/ha along with some molasses… our soils are quite deficient in magnesium & I think if my understanding is correct,…

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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…

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!

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.

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

I’ve bitten the bullet and moved the mob out of the sacrifice paddock and onto the green this morning – would have preferred another week but have run out of hay and there’s none to be found anywhere locally it seems. According to Dr Judi Earl we should be aiming for around 3000kg DM/ha in order to ensure we can leave a residual of 2000kg…

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Hi Michael, Dr Judi Earl recommends the percentages shown in the photo attached to this reply. You’ll also get some really good information in this content hub… https://lower-blackwood.shorthandstories.com/online-guide-to-pasture-biodiversity-in-the-lower-blackwood/index.html

Hi Will, you’ll find some useful information in this article…https://lowerblackwood.com.au/targeting-plant-nutrition/.

My understanding is that the volume of potassium required generally can’t all be addressed through foliars, improving soil biology will assist making what you have in the soil more available, helpful to know your totals as Max…

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Hi Robbie, there are so many but here are some of my go to’s:

For the Love of Soil – Nicole Masters

The Farm as Ecosystem – Jerry Brunetti

Holistic Management – Allan Savory

Fertility Pastures – Newman Turner

Natural Sheep Care – Pat Coleby

Natural Farming – Pat Coleby

The Ecological Farm – Helen Atthowe

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Thanks Justin, great advice and will do!😀

I’m thinking of starting to feed lupins soon as like a lot of others our pasture has dried off much earlier than last year. What do people recommend as a maintenance volume / head / week .. not trying to fatten lambs. @gemma_justin @ben-mcdonald @kylie-silverthorne