How partial budgeting can help bale-grazing decisions

Livestock farmers considering a switch from winter housing to outwintering and bale grazing should ensure they factor in the costs of changing system when making their decision.

This is the advice of independent beef and sheep consultant Emily Grant of Forrit.

She carried out an economic evaluation of bale grazing, compared with winter housing for AHDB, including its Monitor Farm, Alnham Farm, in the Northumberland National Park.

Emily looked at seven farms using bale grazing, located from Aberdeenshire to Oxfordshire, and ranging in size from 44ha (109 acres) to 1,141ha (2,819 acres).

See also: 4 farmers outline bale grazing benefits in field lab trial

Speaking to Farmers Weekly at Groundswell, Emily said: “A lot of people say they’ve saved so much a day [by outwintering], but they’re not including the [capital] cost that comes with a change of system.

“There may still be an overall benefit – and with the straw price going up, they may find that benefit is increasing – but [doing that calculation] gives the confidence to make decisions.”

System assessment

The seven farms involved in the study were running herds of between 14 and 217 breeding females, and selling a mix of store and finished stock, with four selling direct to customers.

All were using permanent pasture, with soils ranging from sandy loam to clay. One made hay from the same field where bales were later grazed (rather than setting bales out in another field), and three bought in species-rich hay to increase sward diversity.

Cattle bale-grazed for anything from 34 days to 180 days, with farms often starting winter on deferred grass only.

Maximum mob size was 80 head, and the maximum number of mobs was four; those with smaller herds tended to graze in a single mob.

The farms all unrolled the bales to give cattle easier access and spread the nutrient load back to the soil. Average bale wastage was estimated at 10.8%.

All but one farm had been undergoing major structural changes, and four of the seven were still building cow numbers, said Emily.

“It’s hard when there is such variation to pin down useful numbers, especially when [farms are undergoing] big changes, as it’s difficult to get before and after figures,” she cautioned.

Cost-benefit analysis

However, one farm had not altered cow numbers or farm system, other than a reduction in sheep numbers to make room for a change to bale grazing.

A partial budget for this farm showed a benefit of £1.60 a head a day after taking into account the loss of revenue from sheep (see “Cost benefit: Winter housing v bale grazing”).

On this farm, Emily – who completed the study with Rhidian Jones of RJ Livestock Systems – compared the cost of housing 70 head on a diet of silage, straw and pot ale syrup, plus mucking out and spreading, with outwintering 70 head on 9ha (22 acres) and 180 hay bales.

The farm had destocked 72 head of ewes and was losing the benefit of phosphate and potassium from 156 bales of purchased straw.

Further benefits of bale grazing to the farm businesses were also identified:

• Less fuel
• Less labour/time (50% less on average)
• Less straw
• Higher pasture fertility
• Improved biodiversity
• Better wellbeing.

Comments made by the farmers involved in the evaluation included feeling “much happier being outside than in the yard”, having more family time, experiencing less monotony in winter and that “weekends are now weekends”.

Emily said they also reported seeing more insects, birds and voles, as well as plants such as yellow rattle where species-rich bales had been imported.

In addition, cows were judged fitter at calving. There were also some additional costs:

• Reduction in summer/autumn grazing area
• Reduction in stock numbers/output (a good grasp of figures is essential)
• Lower growth rates in youngstock
• Drop in pasture fertility from exporting hay
• Stranded costs (for example, a building no longer used but still incurring maintenance costs)
• Rise in bale wastage (this is feeding the soil, but costs are still incurred making the bales).

“The message is for farmers to do the maths themselves [for their own setups], even if that’s on the back of a fag packet, so they understand their own costs and can see the potential savings of changing to outwintering,” Emily told Farmers Weekly.

“There are various outwintering options for people, and information in the report will help them make informed decisions for their system.”

Nutritional value

Bale grazing and deferred grazing were found to provide a good balance for suckler cows (see “Nutritional value of deferred grass and hay on farms studied”).

“The message is for farmers to do the maths themselves [for their own setups], even if that’s on the back of a fag packet, so they understand their own costs and can see the potential savings of changing to outwintering,” Emily told Farmers Weekly.

“There are various outwintering options for people, and information in the report will help them make informed decisions for their system.”

• The full AHDB report will be available shortly and forms part of a wider project carried out by Pasture for Life and Innovative Farmers, which seeks to quantify the impact of bale grazing on forage quality and soil health