Hi Wen,

I just read your post and would suggest that in terms of effectiveness, allowing weeds to germinate first then lightly tilling or spraying will likely be more effective than dry seeding. Dry seeding is easy and cheap and can be used when you already have a stand of good existing species, i.e perennials, in the field or if weeds…

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Hi Brett,

Thanks for sharing.

It’s all in the timing.

Last year, the comeback of multi species plots at Nevs’ was worse in strips that were grazed a bit later, maybe because the plants had started going to seed and exhausted reserves?

On the flip side, species like chicory, plantain etc… need enough time to get established before grazing.

This…

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Hi Doreen,

you have to click on the download icon 😏

Regards

Mark

Also relevant to our recent discussions, a general summation on the effects of grazing high or low, and long and short recovery periods.

Whilst discussing the recovery times of different pasture species at our peer group Grazing on the Ground session yesterday, we touched on the idea that when it comes to designing multi-species mixes, it’s best to avoid of grouping pasture species that have very different management requirements in the same paddocks and going for combinations of…

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Hi Susie,

Most seaweed powders on the market are extracted with potassium hydroxide. This changes the nature of its properties somewhat unlike seaweed products that are produced mechanically or through fermentation.

The products I prefer to use for seed coating are Seaperia powder or the the fermented seaweed liquid from Marine Supplies…

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Hey Folks,

On the topic of “Grazing in Spring in a Mediterranean Environment”, I’ve taken a couple of pics from my green season grazing paddocks to illustrate what adequate recovery of ryegrass, prior to seed set, looks like.

One pic shows some ryegrass going to seed in spring, before it has reached 3 leaf stage. In this case we would…

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My take is that you cant push sheep much harder at this stage Kate. It sounds like your dung scores and condition are good. The fact they are not eating as much of the forage and leaving stem material is less of an issue with annuals as there won’t be much leaf recovery from now on and the residue will provide you with some good soil cover over…

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Thanks for your input Eric,

I think having well rested pastures up your sleeve ready to go at this time of year is key.

Re the utilisation, do you think the cattle do better than the sheep on high fibre forage?

Hi Folks,

I’ve just written a piece outlining some of the considerations that come with grazing pastures in spring, and making the transition from the growing to the non growing season. You can either download it or read it below. We would love to hear your input on how you negotiate this time of year in your grazing program.

Grazing…

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Hi Eric,

We have got the tissue and sap results back from the strips where we applied a combination of micronised high calcium products including gypsum, vibrocalcite, guano and soft rock phosphate.

As suspected, there’s no discernible difference in the Ca levels between the treated and untreated strips 😏

Hey Eric,

Good question.

There are a few good liquid calcium products on the market from companies like cropping solutions and sustainable farming solutions, but they are expensive. Nicole Masters recommends making whitewash with hydrated lime, other farmers are trying micronised products or using strong acids to solubilise the calcium in…

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Hi Will,

Yes, you can and should graze it now as this will set the scene for another round of vegetative regrowth.

I would be inclined to get the animals in there with high mob density and take the whole lot down quickly, but more completely. This will make for a more even stand of regrowth. Only partially grazing the area will result in…

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The addition of biochar to compost can improve the holding capacity, stability, biological status etc… of the finished product. Applying biochar enriched compost to the soil somewhat emulates the process used in the Amazon rainforests to create the rich terra preta soils that persist to this day. This could be a good practice to try in the poor…

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Cover crop microbiome overwintering mentioned in this one.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/regenerative-agriculture-podcast/id1372359995?i=1000659624439

How’s this for growth.

This is the area where I left a cover crop to go to seed last year for stockpiled dry summer feed.

You can see how well it came away this season. Even the dog thinks it’s worth eating!

Unless the soil is in a healthy and fertile enough state to support the plants adequately 😏

Last year :-/

This is a site where we had a severe infestation of RLEM last year.

This year I have given it all the nutritional and biological help I can, no pesticide, and it’s hardly been touched by the RLEM (see photo) so must be doing something right.

I’ll post an up close tomorrow.

Hi Will,

Yes, the RLEM is definitely making its presence felt around the place atm.

There is definitely something about healthy plants or plants growing in healthy soil that seems to impart red legged resistance as we commonly see healthy plants untouched while others in not such a good paddock are getting hammered.

The exact reason for this is…

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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.

Hi Michael,

For grazing purposes a general recommendation would be to use a standard ryegrass and clover mix that had early, mid and late season varieties in it and add some other hardy, graze tolerant species into the mix for diversity.

My suggestion would be to lower the usual rate of ryegrass and clover by around 30% and add 1-2kg of a…

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When it comes to potassium inputs, potassium sulphate is probably your best option.

It’s an allowable input in certified organic enterprises and has a relatively low salt index so not hard on soil biology.

Hi Laura,

that’s a great question.

Firstly, oxygen is definitely needed in the soil for respiring microbiology and plants but we need both good oxygenation and restricted oxygen environments in our soils to support different microbe groups and processes. This happens with good soil aggregation, where air flows freely between the gaps of, but not…

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The most important thing is getting them in the ground soon. Everything else is a bonus.

Hi Vanessa,

Yes, it is quite hard to source such mixes ready made. We get custom mixes like this one made up for clients in bulk through Nutrien Ag/Bells but the order has to be over 500kg.

The goodies mix makes for a good base and yes, adding some of the other species mentioned and some clover is a good idea.

The thing is, most types of seed…

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We’re at that time of year where many farmers are thinking about seeding pastures.

One of the hot topics lately has been around the use of multi species cover crops in grazing operations.

The issue is that many of the species used in cover crop mixes are not very graze tolerant and they must be allowed to reach the latter stages of maturity if…

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Where do you start 😏

Some good ones on here.

https://johnkempf.com/johns-recommended-reading-list/