Barley pea mix .

[Sir loin]

Just thinking aloud for next spring cropping. A barley pea mix would need no nitrogen !!!. Would be high yielding and a high protein feed for the cattle. A win win there but there are downsides that I am well aware of:
A) Rats will love it
B) Could this be cut with a mower without conditioner and baled as I have no clamp .
C) If baled with a chopper baler at 30 %+ moisture would the barley go through the cattle untouched.
D) if the answer is positive to B and C is positive I store my bales baked bean can style so wrap 6 layers and store on top of the haylage.
Anyone else on here grow this mixture for feeding to cattle and sheep that can enlighten me to more pitfalls that I haven't grasped yet.

 

[Ceri]

Brilliant crop great yeikd for a spring crop however to be cost effective it should really be clamped. Bales are expensive to make a lot of work stacking etc, loses of grains at mowing & baling instead of being hovered up with a whole crop header and DO NOT fetch the bales to the farm as rats will destroy them so u gotta stack them in the field which is an arse......

 

[Sir loin]

Brilliant crop great yeikd for a spring crop however to be cost effective it should really be clamped. Bales are expensive to make a lot of work stacking etc, loses of grains at mowing & baling instead of being hovered up with a whole crop header and DO NOT fetch the bales to the farm as rats will destroy them so u gotta stack them in the field which is an arse......

Thanks for that we have our own baler so that cost can be lessened, do you feed to cattle and does the barley go through untouched.

 

[Sir loin]

Barley/Pea/Vetch Wholecrop

Out and about today and stopped off to look at one of my customers field of pea/barley/vetch and thought I'd take some photo's to show how things are progressing. First photo show a pea plant (15cm) the second vetch (11cm) and the third the field overall. This is grown organically, thought...

thefarmingforum.co.uk

 

[Sir loin]

Whole crop barley/peas

I,m thinking of planting barley and pea whole crop 40/60%. Was hoping to feed it to 12 week onwards calves and growing cattle with silage. Does any one else use it and how do they get on with it. Do cattle grow well on it or is there better stuff out there. Thought I,d better find out before I...

thefarmingforum.co.uk

 

[dowcow]

I've been growing barley and vetch for quite a few years now, and it does actually need some nitrogen for the barley to do well. Either in the seedbed or a little later. The barley needs to come on quite strong early on hopefully smothering weeds out as there's not much you can do to spray the weeds, and then the vetch comes on stronger as the barley heads. The nitrogen provided by the vetch is available to the crop following the harvest, but this does mean you can get a good strong crop of grass down in late summer with no inputs. If you sow that following crop of grass with clover you will be onto a winner. I haven't had much luck with peas myself.

 

[Pistonbroke]

Have a look at Western Seeds way of doing it. They say cut it after 10weeks before the grains have formed. Obviously no starch from the grain but the sugars are way higher so it ferments better and the rats don't touch the bales.

 

[Ceri]

Thanks for that we have our own baler so that cost can be lessened, do you feed to cattle and does the barley go through untouched.

Yes we feed it to cattle, it's a great feed & you'll get 15ish bales /acre......!!! Yes I've noticed a lot of barley going straight through and I thought it was perfect timing to harvest but I think u need to bale it a week before u think. Just do not stack it at the farm as the rats will destroy them you'll have to stack them out in the open in the field. We mow & bale the headlands first then do the middles to save trampling..

 

[Pistonbroke]

Yes we feed it to cattle, it's a great feed & you'll get 15ish bales /acre......!!! Yes I've noticed a lot of barley going straight through and I thought it was perfect timing to harvest but I think u need to bale it a week before u think. Just do not stack it at the farm as the rats will destroy them you'll have to stack them out in the open in the field. We mow & bale the headlands first then do the middles to save trampling..

We found the same as far as timing goes,if mowed when the grain is a bit soft,after 24hours wilting it's gone too hard. Also when the weather breaks close to harvesting and it goes past it's best before the weather clears. Happened once and it all kept bulking up,16 acres and 360 bales of crap which the rats got into. Couldn't use it quick enough.

 

[Samcowman]

Yes did barley pats and peas mix here this year. 80-10-10. Did 7tonne/acre chopped. I did use 70kg/acre nitram just to give it a bit of extra boost which helped it. The peas didn’t come to much but the resident pigeons fed well on them

 

[Pistonbroke]

Even at 50%barley 50% peas, it still looks like mostly barley because of the seed size difference. Some mixes are 20:80 to get half and half

 

[Kevtherev]

A very good feed indeed
Cut when the barley is at the cheesey stage also check the mix includes a proper ‘forage pea’
Also you can get soil contamination when cutting so bear this in mind as well.
Pea,oat and barley a popular mix.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I've been growing barley and vetch for quite a few years now, and it does actually need some nitrogen for the barley to do well. Either in the seedbed or a little later. The barley needs to come on quite strong early on hopefully smothering weeds out as there's not much you can do to spray the weeds, and then the vetch comes on stronger as the barley heads. The nitrogen provided by the vetch is available to the crop following the harvest, but this does mean you can get a good strong crop of grass down in late summer with no inputs. If you sow that following crop of grass with clover you will be onto a winner. I haven't had much luck with peas myself.

How does vetch feed ,it can be slightly toxic ,

 

[Sid]

How does vetch feed ,it can be slightly toxic ,

Fine and yeilds well.

Doesn't affect sheep fertility either so I have been told

 

[Pistonbroke]

A very good feed indeed
Cut when the barley is at the cheesey stage also check the mix includes a proper ‘forage pea’
Also you can get soil contamination when cutting so bear this in mind as well.
Pea,oat and barley a popular mix.

One thing that can happen with the forage peas seems to be that if they come well they will get twisted up with their neighbours and make it holy hell to mow. I've been cutting ours and there's stuff snagging 30feet away

 

[Dave6170]

Anyone mixing grass in with it?

 

[Sid]

Anyone mixing grass in with it?

Undersown yes

 

[Pistonbroke]

Anyone mixing grass in with it?

Yes that's how we reseed now. Max 50kg acre arable silage mix and not too many peas because they can lodge and smother patches out. Makes nicer silage

 

[Dave6170]

Yes that's how we reseed now. Max 50kg acre arable silage mix and not too many peas because they can lodge and smother patches out. Makes nicer silage

With a normal long term ley mix? At the full rate of grass seed?

 

[Pistonbroke]

With a normal long term ley mix? At the full rate of grass seed?

Yes,seems to work for us. Have a look at western seeds website under arable silage. Don't have to get the seeds from there but they're good for advice