Chicory and livestock

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Hi
Not wanting to divert my earliest to worm lambs thread, I thought I would post this here... A few years ago I noticed, well 2 years to be precise lol, that farmers were starting g to use chicory as a means to fatten up their lambs for market/slaughter. I was intrigued by this, being a farmer who likes the holistic approach to things, I do also use vet meds for animals too I was wondering has anyone on here used it for their animals? How easy is it to manage and roughly how much and for how long would you have your animals graze? What have been your experiences with it?
Thoughts welcome!
Cheers

 

[Bury the Trash]

https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/chicory.175148/

easy to grow on half decent soil. ...seed doesnt need to buried to deep but will do v well in fairly good seedbed as compared to oversowing maybe

chuck in some plantain on as well.....it seems.


not hugely expensive to give a try, in small field........

 

[Old McDonald]

Chicory grows naturally here. Pretty flowers in the mornings and then they close up in full sun. I had the NZ variety Puna in a mixed 4-year ley. I did not think it was anything startling and do not believe that it does anything to help worm infestation. The ley raised the OM content of the block of ground from 1.3 to 4.5% and that was its main purpose.

The ley was grazed as frequently as it regrew - weather dependent, but did better in winter with plenty of moisture. Irrigated from time to time in the summer.

I would use it again in a ley, but not as a pure stand. It is too stemmy. I would not want it in hay either because of the stems. I think small stock would reject them.

 

[neilo]

I looked at it a few years back, and it seems very few seem to carry on growing it.
I have no doubt that it's a great plant, when you can manage it well enough to graze it at the right stage. If it gets grazed too tight, you kill it. If it gets too stem you'd, nothing will eat it.
In a well managed rotational grazing system, I could see it having a value. Very difficult to keep that system going in practice, with small numbers of stock.

As for the anthelminic properties, I take those claims with a pinch of salt these days. Supposedly the benefit comes from the stalk being spiky, so the worms don't climb up it to get to the leaves (& be grazed). If you let the crop get too stalky though, digestibility and palatbility falls off a cliff.

 

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Very interesting read this... Will have to research more into it I think. Tell me tho, if not managed correctly can it be a big pest, or take over pasture?
Cheers

 

[Bury the Trash]

No.


ime .... only need a small amount of seed o.5 kg or so in a grass seed mix ....




top it if it gets away ....

.whats to research ? just buy one bag of puna and chuck a bit in seed hopper .....on the headland or small area of the field when reseeding.its not rocket science

 

[tepapa]

Grows well on dry land, not so much in wet soils. Great Fattener in a dry year but awful in a wet season as just too much water in the crop. Needs grazing in rotation or it will be grazed out very quickly and top if it goes stemmy to keep quality.

 

[waterbuffalofarmer]

No.


ime .... only need a small amount of seed o.5 kg or so in a grass seed mix ....




top it if it gets away ....

.whats to research ? just buy one bag of puna and chuck a bit in seed hopper .....on the headland or small area of the field when reseeding.its not rocket science

Thing is because farming has always been a struggle, financial wise, I haven't been able to buy a topper/seeder, we get a neighbour to do it for us, still expensive work tho. Just trying to think out ways of doing stuff which works on a financial level and which won't necessarily impact the farm running, as it were

 

[johnb5555]

I've tried a chicory/plantain/clover/grass mix for first time. Chicory at 6-8" and lambs been in a week, they've nibbled everything but the chicory. Tried it myself does taste a bit bitter.

 

[The Ruminant]

Thing is because farming has always been a struggle, financial wise, I haven't been able to buy a topper/seeder, we get a neighbour to do it for us, still expensive work tho. Just trying to think out ways of doing stuff which works on a financial level and which won't necessarily impact the farm running, as it were

Don't worry about topping it. It's only done to satisfy the farmer's eye as farmers like fields to be nice and tidy. If it grows away the cattle will carefully nibble the leaves off the stems. If it grows too far ahead then it will set seed and you'll have lots of new young plants which isn't a bad thing either.

Graze it too hard, as others have said, and you'll kill it eventually. It's also very deep rooting and grows away well after rotational grazing

 

[The Ruminant]

I should add we grow it as part of a mix of forage plants. Depending on the field there may be lucerne, plantain, clovers, sheeps parsley, ryegrass, timothy, cocksfoot, vetches, trefoils, sainfoin etc etc. Chicory works well within a mixture

 

[waterbuffalofarmer]

What is it like for milk production then? Would it help improve fertility/production of sheep/cattle?

 

[The Ruminant]

What is it like for milk production then? Would it help improve fertility/production of sheep/cattle?

Hard to say when it's in a mixture but cattle seem very happy on the mix and perform well

 

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Hard to say when it's in a mixture but cattle seem very happy on the mix and perform well

Thanks for that definitely worth considering then... I'll talk to my father about it and see what he thinks. ATM we are trying to get genetics good in both flock and herd, both coming along very well, but we would like to try and increase production, naturally and with not many chemicals as possible, which will help to improve yields of both flock and herd production