Farmer Focus Livestock: Julian Ellis on strip-grazing

This year we have grown fodder beet for the first time and at the end of December we started hand lifting. After a couple of days the novelty of this method had worn off and with ground drying out nicely we started strip grazing.

It took some time for the cows to show interest in the fodder beat, eating all the grass in one half of the field along with the weeds around the hedges beforehand. The cows also broke through the fence and, with it persistently raining, by day five of strip grazing both I and the cows were fed up with the situation.

We resorted to a contractor who came and lifted 60 tonnes in not much more time than it had taken us to get the cows out the day before.

Having fed the crop for more than a month we are disappointed we haven’t seen any benefits in milk yield or quality. Having said this we are saving silage and I can see the extra energy being beneficial to cows when they go out.

We are currently under TB restrictions and while getting ready to test a solution came to me – as well doing our bit and keeping badgers away from cattle feed we should employ the scientists working on a vaccine to help with testing around the country for a month or two.

This extra funding and fraught experience could possibly speed up the progress of the cows’ vaccine, and maybe they will develop a spray that I can apply to our fodder beet as the badgers have developed quite a taste for them.

Meanwhile, the consumer must have developed a taste for our cabbage, as so far this season it is going better than last.

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