- Location
- Essex Coast
I have been growing lucerne for a few years now for Dengie Crop Driers who sell it into the horse feed market. They want to experiment with growing some grasses in with the lucerne to improve the nutritional content of the finished product. On it's own , it is too higher nitrogen for horses and so has to be diluted with oat straw.
Everyone round hear struggles with blackgrass and so they are all afraid that there will be no way or controlling it in the lucerne crop without killing the grass as well. Well the fact is that since Gramozone was banned, the standard Reglone and Kerb, winter treatment is not working anyway and it is going to seed between each of the three spring/summer cuts.
I have also been growing rye grass for seed and after two harvests, fields seem to be pretty well free of blackgrass when they go back into the arable rotation. I am thinking that a mix of lucerne and a few different grasses is going to be much more competitive and be better for the soil as well.
So, I would like any suggestions as to what to put in the mix, Timothy, Cocksfoot etc, and at what sort of seed rates. It will be Spring drilled, end of April of May, but we need to be careful that one species does not out compete the others.
@Barleycorn I think you grow lucerne in your organic system, do you mix it with anything else. I want to keep this a virtually zero input crop, so grasses will have to scavenge what N they can.
@Cotswold Seeds have a bit about this in your catalogue, anything you would like to add.
Everyone round hear struggles with blackgrass and so they are all afraid that there will be no way or controlling it in the lucerne crop without killing the grass as well. Well the fact is that since Gramozone was banned, the standard Reglone and Kerb, winter treatment is not working anyway and it is going to seed between each of the three spring/summer cuts.
I have also been growing rye grass for seed and after two harvests, fields seem to be pretty well free of blackgrass when they go back into the arable rotation. I am thinking that a mix of lucerne and a few different grasses is going to be much more competitive and be better for the soil as well.
So, I would like any suggestions as to what to put in the mix, Timothy, Cocksfoot etc, and at what sort of seed rates. It will be Spring drilled, end of April of May, but we need to be careful that one species does not out compete the others.
@Barleycorn I think you grow lucerne in your organic system, do you mix it with anything else. I want to keep this a virtually zero input crop, so grasses will have to scavenge what N they can.
@Cotswold Seeds have a bit about this in your catalogue, anything you would like to add.