Trying a cover crop
- Thread starter warksfarmer
- Start date
What was it like drilling through the grazed covers with your CO?
dontknowanything
Member
- Location
- Cambridge
More of the same this year then?
dontknowanything
Member
- Location
- Cambridge
Pedders
Member
- Location
- West Sussex
best crop for out and out quantity of sheep grazing is without doubt stubble turnips ,nothing else will give you the same volume of feed over a prolonged period but that brings with it compromises when you're also looking at soil health ...the bare ground they leave takes a battering and their urine is very high N in very concentrated areas, Elizabeth Stockdale from Newcastle University, the soil scientist, likened it to rocket fuel poured on the ground ...the purpose of the oats in the grazing mixes is to scavenge first and then subsequently soak up that N and then release it to the following crop ...surprised to hear the sheep didn't like them perhaps west country sheep are more fussy ! ...there are always other options you could try ..vetch peas and brassica mix perhaps ?
SilliamWhale
Member
I do stubble turnips and annual meadowgrass!
Also volunteer cereals hang about
Also volunteer cereals hang about
- Location
- Somerset UK
They ate everything else first, even the charlock, then the oats.
Pedders
Member
- Location
- West Sussex
but they did eat them in the end !!
Devon James
Member
- Location
- Devon
No.1 worked well for us. Grazed it to the floor. They did think it was christmas when they broke into the forage rape though!
No1 stubble sprayed off now ready for maize.
- Location
- Somerset UK
Eventually, but they were never that keen and picked out the grass growing amongst the oats, I moved them 2 weeks ago and the oats were all growing strongly and only the tips nibbled, it just seemed to me as if the oats were eaten as a last resort. I have been wondering if a westerwold /red clover mix with other bits in would work.
Pedders
Member
- Location
- West Sussex
I'm sure westerwolds would work just a bit expensive for a catch crop..little point in putting in red clover imo as not enough time to do much
dontknowanything
Member
- Location
- Cambridge
Agree on the clover. My IRG/vetch/phacelia mix works out at less than £35/ha so not bank breaking at all.
warksfarmer
Member
Like that idea a lot. Just so I understand you have a clover crop growing permanently and then just no till a normal combinable rotation into the clover every year?
If thats correct and after harvesting a wheat/barley/osr/beans etc would the clover have a value to be baled off or best to just keep it growing?
@Feldspar
Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
He specifically mentioned wheat in the talk he gave. The idea was to plant the clover in wide enough rows that allowed you to drill the cash crop using RTK into the gaps. My thought was that if you established the clover how you liked and then went in with something like a Mzuri you could remove the clover and create your own seeded band.
I posted a summary of the talk where he discussed this here:
http://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index....il-fuller-this-wednesday-in-east-sussex.1241/
- Location
- Cornwall.
What would happen in a wet, warm summer and the clover runs rampant and completely covers the ground?
dontknowanything
Member
- Location
- Cambridge
Strip spray glyphosate perhaps?
If the seed is lying on the surface,there's a danger it would get a shower of rain enough to germinate the seed,but not enough moisture to sustain it,so it would frizzle up and die.Youre depending on getting a spell of damp weather after sowing,so a bit of a hit or miss,I think.But not a desperately expensive thing to try..How much it would grow in a month will depend on moisture and temperature.