The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Land Management => Topic started by: old_chapel_home_produce on February 07, 2017, 08:27:06 pm
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Hi all
After some help
We recently sent off some lambs for slaughter and to cut a long story short
They were in crap condition the meat is tough and not much of it.
The skin was thin and useless for tanning.
They had been fed hay but I think a lot of it is due to our pale looking grass.
We bought the land 3 years ago and have never put anything on the land in the way of fertiliser.
I'm thinking of getting a sprayer for the back of the quad bike as we don't have a tractor and was wondering what's involved such as what size tank to get , what chemical to buy (we use wynnstay for farm supplies) , how often to spray, and any other info would be great
We have just shy of 10 acres in hilly Meifod, Powys
Thank you
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Can you get a local farmer to spread some manure?
May be best to have some soil tests done?
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There is no access for any tractor to get on to our land.
It's even a nightmare getting hay and straw up as we have to take it all through the garden,we're completely land locked
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Yikes, sounds tricky. I agree with getting some soil and/or forage testing done - that will show you what you need so you don't waste your money on the wrong thing, and you don't risk e.g. excess nitrogen run-off.
What is the surrounding land like?
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My land is all above our house
In a narrow strip , 10 acres but 4 of that is woodland right at the top
The drainage is poor even though we're on a steep hill ( how I don't know because of a little thing called gravity but oh well)
One concern I have is that I have a borehole at the bottom of our land although it is 325 feet deep into the water table so I don't think that would be an issue as there is a drainage trench before it.
Below that is our orchard and then our garden and house followed by the road at the bottom of the hill
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You'll need to do your sprayer test before doing anything to the land as laws have now changed. You can't buy sprays without the right test tickets either. Although for fertiliser would it not be better to have the soil sampled and a granular fertiliser applied? It might be worth speaking to an agronomist who will be able to advise accordingly. There's no point fertilising land if all that's there is weeds... a lot of people forget grass is a crop too just like barley, wheat etc and needs looking after just as much.
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Get a forage analysis done first.
Does the grass grow well?
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I would take soil samples and get them analysed (wynnstay ? ) your ph may be wrong and you need lime . Forage analysis will tell you how good or bad the hay which I assume you are buying is ( wynnstay again ) Speak to your neighbours and your vet and get blood samples taken from the sheep as they might have a deficiency ( cobolt / selenium / copper ) . Until you understand the problem you can't solve it . Have a look at the LOGIC site for quad implements , a trailed fertilizer spreader may do you better ?
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I doubt the toughness of the meat is related to the forage and is more due to how both the sheep and carcase have been handled. Did the sheep travel and get slaughtered very shortly afterward? If so a lot of stress hormones would have been circulating in the body. Mine travel the 6 miles to the abattoir and get a nights lairage there before killing so the stress hormones are no longer in the system.
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The sheep took the same journey as all the other times I've taken other sheep and had no problems previously
I think they were underweight which I hate to admit because it seems as though I have not looked after them properly
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I doubt the toughness of the meat is related to the forage and is more due to how both the sheep and carcase have been handled. Did the sheep travel and get slaughtered very shortly afterward? If so a lot of stress hormones would have been circulating in the body. Mine travel the 6 miles to the abattoir and get a nights lairage there before killing so the stress hormones are no longer in the system.
We have taken lambs for killing first thing in the morning and they have been on a hook by lunchtime, the meat has always been fine, the journey is about 6 miles too. They are always very content and calm when we get there, they are travelled with company, never alone. I would suggest in this case it's not the transporting that's stressed them but the time spent directly before killing. Was the meat dark in colour? That normally indicates the animal was stressed just before it was killed.
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You'll need to do your sprayer test before doing anything to the land as laws have now changed. You can't buy sprays without the right test tickets either.
Is that correct? My understanding is that it is the user of the pesticide that has to be certificated not the purchaser. Usually the supplier asks if the pesticide will be used by a certificate holder. Not a lot of point in the purchaser being aware of the risks if the person then spraying hasn't a clue :-)
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Firstly the initial problem is probably acidic soil. We have a quad mounted sprayer and use it to spread. Calcifert. No certificate is needed to spread fertiliser... Yet! Get soil tested if less than pH 5.8 then you are wasting your time and money spreading N P K.
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Are you sure the land is the problem? Were they or Wormed and fluked regularly or when needed? Did they drop weight or just never gain it?
Might be worth getting your sheep blood tested to see if they are deficient in something...
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You'll need to do your sprayer test before doing anything to the land as laws have now changed. You can't buy sprays without the right test tickets either.
Is that correct? My understanding is that it is the user of the pesticide that has to be certificated not the purchaser. Usually the supplier asks if the pesticide will be used by a certificate holder. Not a lot of point in the purchaser being aware of the risks if the person then spraying hasn't a clue :-)
yep stand corrected- it seems as you say you can purchase sprays but they have to be sprayed by someone with the right certificates and it is an offence to purchase sprays if the user who will be spraying them doesn't have the right qualifications.
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yep stand corrected- it seems as you say you can purchase sprays but they have to be sprayed by someone with the right certificates and it is an offence to purchase sprays if the user who will be spraying them doesn't have the right qualifications.
LOL, you not me may be right! My wife has just got in and told me you do need a certificate to buy it and that the cert holder can directly supervise someone without a certificate. It's a little confusing, I've also just read that if you have a sprayer fitted to a quad bike then you need to have the sprayer checked and certificated once a year to show that it is correctly calibrated :raining:
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Get a hand pushed spinning fertiliser spreader - holds up to 40kg depending on the size - really good for improving less accessible areas use something like 16 16 16 if it hasn't been done for a while sorts below and above ground - getting tests is good advice but if you can't or its cost prohibitive then try a small bag or 2 and compare growth on the treated and in treated areas