Hafod y Foel Project update - July 2024

The grazing platform was designed to graze two groups of 40 dairy beef Wagyu calves - one group of weaned calves weighing approx 150 kg at the start of the grazing season and a group of yearling cattle weighing approx 350 kg at the start of the grazing season. The plan was to graze on two rotations in two separate field areas: Weirglodd (4.6ha) and Ffridd (9.3ha).

Taking into consideration, climate, soil health and fertility, pasture composition and intended grassland management, it is estimated that the land has the potential to grow on average 7.5 Tonnes DM/ha/Year without inputs. Therefore, during a 250-day grazing season, it’s estimated that the grazing area has the potential to grow on average 30 kg DM/ha/day. The groups’ demands are highlighted in table 1 and the rotation length and number of animals in each group in table 2.

Table 1. Demand requirements of each system

Table 2. Number of days a paddock and a rotation will accommodate each group

Water requirement was also calculated for both groups of cattle which is highlighted in table 3. 

Table 3. Target water flow rate for cattle groups

The grazing platforms were set up in May as per figure 1. 

A Grasshopper plate metre is used to regularly monitor grass growth. Grasshopper uploads all data automatically to GrasslandTools, a platform to share real time grazing data, which includes current farm covers and grass wedge with multiple users. Grasshopper also has a mapping feature to accurately GPS map the farm so that each measurement is linked automatically to each cell without needing to manually input data.

Due to wet conditions early in the season, grass growth exceeded demand and to ensure quality grazing was maintained, cells were taken out of the rotation for sheep grazing. Ground conditions were too wet to consider taking cells out for silage. The older calves were also grouped with the younger calves to intensify the grazing pressure to reset and maintain quality for the younger calves who have better feed conversion efficiency. 

Both rotations, especially the Ffridd, have relatively high demand. During periods of the year when grass growth does not meet demand, usually the shoulders of the season or during dry periods in summer, the stock will need to be moved off the rotation for a short period to extend the rotation length or be supplementary fed. Regular grass measuring and establishing a grass wedge will be used to support these management decisions.