10 July 2018
A livestock farmer who adopted a rotational grazing system to fatten lambs with support from Farming Connect has finished 8% more to market standards and gained an additional 1.5kg liveweight per lamb.
Rhun Williams, who runs a mixed livestock system on 85 hectares at Ochor Farm near Tregaron with his wife, Nerys, was keen to make better use of grass for fattening lambs to reduce costs.
He set about establishing a rotational grazing system but, as this approach is uncommon in that region, he lacked confidence that the paddocks could produce sufficient quality grass to sustain his flock.
Farming Connect stepped in by establishing a Focus Site project at the farm to evaluate the pros and cons of rotational grazing to share with other farmers.
Mr Williams received expert input from grazing consultant Gareth Davies and used a plate meter and the grazing management tool Agrinet to measure and manage grazing.
Mr Williams used the plate meter to measure the grass every week between May and the end of November. During that period, the paddocks grew 3t/DM/ha at an average of 24kgs/DM/ha/day with a demand of around 22kgs/DM/ha/day.
The lambs, 620 in total, were rotationally grazed and 500 were finished at the end of November and the remainder either housed or fed alternative feeds.
The Williams’s previous sold 74% of their lambs at market desirable specification but rotational grazing increased this to 82%.
A reason for this is that they were more selective when drawing lambs because they had a better understanding of how much grass the paddocks would produce going forward.
Mr Williams said that having an expert on board made him confident that he was making the right grazing decisions.
And adopting the system both increased income from lamb sales and prolonged the income period, improving annual cash flows.
Mr Williams said he previously used weather reports and the time of the year to gauge grass production but has now changed his mindset.
“The fact that we are measuring grass gives me the confidence to know that the grass will regrow,’’ he says.
“If we weigh the lambs and think we need an extra kilo on them or even two kilos, the fact that we know that the grass will regrow in one more rotation allows us to turn the lambs out for an extra fortnight.’’
Farming Connect Red Meat Technical Officer Menna Williams, who oversaw the project, said it had not only been valuable for the Williams’s but for other farmers in that region too.
An open day had been held at Ochor to share the results and technical know-how, she said.
“This project has shown that rotational grazing results in higher forage production and usage per hectare when compared to continuous stocking,’’ she said.
“Rhun is sufficiently convinced of the value of rotational grazing to get ready to do the same again this year.’’
This project was co-ordinated by Farming Connect which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government.