Drought hardy summer crop suggestions please, for fattening weaner cattle.

[TelesnaAg]

Hi, is rape tge best drought hardy summer crop? I only feed dry silage in summer to weaners, its not great pasture at farm (started reno this year).

The end of jan till end of April hurts me growth wise as its our dry period here.

Margins are tight atm so need economical method of keeping growth rate in cattle for this period.

Ant....

 

[Tractorboy67]

We directly drilled a drought resistant mix from Cotswold seeds red clover, cocksfoot Timothy & perennial ryegrass this is the third year been down & very happy with it.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Look at Rocket Fuel but replace the Ryegrass with Timothy and Cocksfoot

 

[Badshot]

Don't know if you can do it with cattle but my neighbours were grazing Lucerne with lambs to fatten them, very drought resistant apparently.

Or these herbal leys mob grazed (strip grazed as we used to call it 30 years ago) seem useful as your storing fodder grown earlier in the year for later use.

Labour intensive maybe until you get the hang of it though.

 

[TelesnaAg]

Don't know if you can do it with cattle but my neighbours were grazing Lucerne with lambs to fatten them, very drought resistant apparently.

Or these herbal leys mob grazed (strip grazed as we used to call it 30 years ago) seem useful as your storing fodder grown earlier in the year for later use.

Labour intensive maybe until you get the hang of it though.

Lucerne will die in the winter here, hard to establish enough for summer grazing as we are cold by oz standards,

Trying to increase cattle growth in the late summer early autumn 3 month block.

Ant...

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Lucerne will die in the winter here, hard to establish enough for summer grazing as we are cold by oz standards,

Trying to increase cattle growth in the late summer early autumn 3 month block.

Ant...

How does chicory and plantain do along with Red Clover

 

[TelesnaAg]

How does chicory and plantain do along with Red Clover

I would imagine it would do okay and have always wanted to try it in a mix, our summer rainfall can be low, rape and millet is the go to here, but spraying for moth and bugs is making it painful, needs to be low cost low care as beef job gere isnt overly profitable, and have alot of work to do to land to chase other pursuits.

Ant

 

[Derrick Hughes]

For Dry Land
Here
Chicory, Red Clover ,large White , Plantain and some dry land grasses Cocksfoot, Timothy, Some Festuloliums
In NZ they call that mix Rocket Fuel for finishing

 

[Farmer Roy]

Spring planted forage sorghum ?
Will already have a huge bulk of feed by late January

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Spring planted forage sorghum ?
Will already have a huge bulk of feed by late January

Wouldthat fatten stock ,i know nothing about it

 

[TelesnaAg]

Spring planted forage sorghum ?
Will already have a huge bulk of feed by late January

Me and a friend have been talking about using sorghum as ot was used 20 plus years ago but rape took over, i personally would love to give that a go.

Im only chasing around the 14% protein as the cattle are usually 300 plus kg but most times just brought in from weaner sales and hot tucker just pours through them, gets wasted and the not that great for them.

This year i had to take weaners off silage back onto hay due to clover content in paddocks.

Ant..

 

[Kiwi Pete]

 

[Farmer Roy]

Wouldthat fatten stock ,i know nothing about it

that’s what it is grown for here . . .

 

[crashbox]

@TelesnaAg UK experience somewhat different as we're 50+ degrees from the equator.

For myoney I'd try a mix with some brassicas, sorghum, cow pea, maybe sunflower, etc. Whatever warm season annuals you can get cheap as per @Kiwi Pete 's chart.

The benefit is that if one or two species fail, you'll still get a crop.

For a local Australian contact, try Grant Sims at Down Under Covers.

Summer Mix — Down Under Covers

www.downundercovers.com

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Spring planted forage sorghum ?
Will already have a huge bulk of feed by late January

That would be my go-to option if pricing and planting made it work.

Hard to know as livestock aren't livestock and in the fattening game you have little control as far as epigenetics go, our youngstock have been around 1.2kg/day right through, grazing what most people would call "rubbish" or "past it" pasture - difference is it's all the same as our long rotation makes it that way.

Shaky grazing (short recoveries) works against us in a dry environment as it changes so much from paddock to paddock, month to month, and the cattle never really reach peak feed conversion as a result. That's the downside of planting crops to fill holes, better to not dig holes in the first place.

 

[Farmer Roy]

That's the downside of planting crops to fill holes, better to not dig holes in the first place.

yes

however, my answer was in the direct context of the OP, asking for a forage crop to fill the late summer - autumn feed gap, for a hot dry ( “drought hardy” ) environment. Which IS something I know a bit about . The hot dry environment anyway, I admit to not knowing anything about anything else

forage sorghum fills that & there are plenty of “sweet” sorghum varieties or crosses that don’t have any issues with nitrates or cyanide

it may be unusual, or not work, in the UK, but then again, the question wasn’t asked from the UK

 

[TelesnaAg]

That would be my go-to option if pricing and planting made it work.

Hard to know as livestock aren't livestock and in the fattening game you have little control as far as epigenetics go, our youngstock have been around 1.2kg/day right through, grazing what most people would call "rubbish" or "past it" pasture - difference is it's all the same as our long rotation makes it that way.

Shaky grazing (short recoveries) works against us in a dry environment as it changes so much from paddock to paddock, month to month, and the cattle never really reach peak feed conversion as a result. That's the downside of planting crops to fill holes, better to not dig holes in the first place.

My farm has been abandoned forever pasture and drainage wise, so will be renovating a paddock a year until they all done, hence would like to utilise the summer with some better feed. We are also usually dry in summer on heavy soils.

Ant...

 

[Kiwi Pete]

yes

however, my answer was in the direct context of the OP, asking for a forage crop to fill the late summer - autumn feed gap, for a hot dry ( “drought hardy” ) environment. Which IS something I know a bit about . The hot dry environment anyway, I admit to not knowing anything about anything else

forage sorghum fills that & there are plenty of “sweet” sorghum varieties or crosses that don’t have any issues with nitrates or cyanide

it may be unusual, or not work, in the UK, but then again, the question wasn’t asked from the UK

Yes I get that. We're just dry not really very hot, have had a rain gap since about the shortest day and the warm-season stuff isn't really applicable here.

I mean a crop like rape would probably only be a few inches high and maybe yield a tonne or two per hectare if and where it grew, there just isn't the moisture to grow things once you put a break in the water cycle. You really can't go past the water efficiency of perennial grasses with large basal area per plant