zero grazing, is it a profitable way forward for beef cattle?

I

Irishfarmer

Well-Known Member
Would it be a good investment in a beef farm in terms of grass management & trying to maximise grass production. Also the cattle must perform very well on this system? Just putting it out their. Would like to hear opinions on it.
 
I have changed my mind over the last few weeks. Reason being, I was putting in Winter wheat whole crop and a guy that works for me had some second cut grass that he didn't want so I said I would take it. Was nice leafy stuff getting ready to head growing 6 - 7 weeks. between the jigs and the reals if was only cut 4 or 5 hours before being picked up due to tractor failure. We were after 3 good windy days and I said sure, how wet could it be. Lo and behold, I never saw such cabbage when it arrived at the pit. It was absolutely soaked wet. I was thinking that this is the consistency of grass for wither grazing or zero grazing that its fair hard for a animal to consume enough energy. You could be talking about animals eating 150kgs a day of fresh material to get enough energy. Surely its better to be cutting grass at and ideal time (contradiction in itself) and making super silage above 25% DM.

Still though anyone that has one swears by them, and it would suit my system but I'm not convinced
 
All I will say is that even saturated wet grass brought in to dairy cows gives better performance than the best of silage, hard to believe it, but once you put plastic on to grass it's loses a lot of feed value regardless of the conditions.
 
Irishfarmer said:
Would it be a good investment in a beef farm in terms of grass management & trying to maximise grass production. Also the cattle must perform very well on this system? Just putting it out their. Would like to hear opinions on it.
Click to expand...

It has to have an advantage in terms of grass management but would still have to be used in conjunction with usual silage making to cope with growth peaks, the question I would ask is would the cost of it coupled with the increased tractor and fuel/ labour requirment and slurry spreading be even recouped from a better cattle performance.
 
bruceythom said:
All I will say is that even saturated wet grass brought in to dairy cows gives better performance than the best of silage, hard to believe it, but once you put plastic on to grass it's loses a lot of feed value regardless of the conditions.
Click to expand...

wonder how it would compare vs JCB411abusers silage he is telling us about.

For me I think there would be too much variation in the consistency from day to day for the animals. Im a great believer in keeping the diet constant. I would be interested to see a comparison between 80dmd silage at 25% DM and zero grazed grass just on an energy basis.
 
Top quality leafy grass brought in wet is still top quality grass. Its just wet.

If you give cows dry feed the first thing they will do after eating it is stick there heads in the water trough.

They would eat an awfull feed of it in a hour when its handed too them and all they have to do is eat it and lie down.
 
Was thinking that too. Would love to get figures on how many tonnes of grass DM/ha lads are getting with a zero grazer
 
Friend of mine bought one a couple of years ago.
He is happy with it as he finishes bulls all year round and it is saving a lot of meal as cattle need less meal to perform.
Grass production is up he reckons too.
 
kverneland es 80 said:
beef lads nxt door say 15-16t ,hard to believe ,all cattle in doors 365
Click to expand...

I taught it would be higher, local grazing lads around here would be blowing that they are utilizing this sort of tonnage, which I find strange as I can't even grow anything close to that doing things by the book
 
Keep it simple.

You could buy one heck of a lot of electric fence gear for the value of a piece of machinery. It won't depreciate much and if it breaks down it won't cost as much to fix.
Spend the remainder of what you would have spent on getting indexes bang up to date, you'd need this anyway.

Then when beef dips, you'll be low cost and better able for the hard times, when beef peaks you'll still be low cost and making more money.

There's more to continuous housing than geting the food to them, you need to get what comes out of them spread which costs. Plus bedding etc.

But, of course there may be other factors for you like field locations etc?
 
Anglesey young farmer said:
Keep it simple.

You could buy one heck of a lot of electric fence gear for the value of a piece of machinery. It won't depreciate much and if it breaks down it won't cost as much to fix.
Spend the remainder of what you would have spent on getting indexes bang up to date, you'd need this anyway.

Then when beef dips, you'll be low cost and better able for the hard times, when beef peaks you'll still be low cost and making more money.

There's more to continuous housing than geting the food to them, you need to get what comes out of them spread which costs. Plus bedding etc.

But, of course there may be other factors for you like field locations etc?
Click to expand...

True but its hard manage & takes a skilled operator on that type of system if going for High Production.
 
Irishfarmer said:
True but its hard manage & takes a skilled operator on that type of system if going for High Production.
Click to expand...

True, but would you not need to produce a bit less anyway? No big machinery cost to overcome? Fuel bill non existent, no breakdowns, and less labour requirements in the long run, eg no need to be carrying grass to them every day?
 
Anglesey young farmer said:
True, but would you not need to produce a bit less anyway? No big machinery cost to overcome? Fuel bill non existent, no breakdowns, and less labour requirements in the long run, eg no need to of be carrying grass to them every day?
Click to expand...

Understand the extra labour involved in it & the associated costs but if you could grow 18 tonne it would definitely be a good investment. Everyhing has pros & cons. Not many doing 16/17tonne with grazed grass & their is plenty of work involved in it too managing covers topping etc. Anyone who finishes bulls it could certainly be a big help. Weight gain & milk yield would have to be up to getting fresh grass served up to them.
 
Not coming down on either side of the debate. Interestingly, trials have shown that regular cutting of a grass sward actually produces more grass/year than grazing the same sward.
 
CORK said:
Not coming down on either side of the debate. Interestingly, trials have shown that regular cutting of a grass sward actually produces more grass/year than grazing the same sward.
Click to expand...

Can understand a higher production from regular cutting, but what happens in the very wet weather like this year as in very wet grass coming in. Secondly very easy get caught out when the growth drastically slows down like it did locally in july.
You would need to carry a very good buffer feed stockpile like round bales or straw or something for these occasions.
 
CORK said:
Not coming down on either side of the debate. Interestingly, trials have shown that regular cutting of a grass sward actually produces more grass/year than grazing the same sward.
Click to expand...

OK thanks for the post, even produce more than a sward that is regularly grazed? You mean mechanically cut is better in general?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top