- Location
- West Country
The ones working for big companies who make their money out of selling chemicals and expensive over-elaborate cover crop mixtures. They see sheep as the fly in their commission based ointment!
Cover crops for sheep on an arable farm
- Thread starter roseshep
- Start date
- Location
- Cheshire
Exactly, the “old boys” who didn’t pay an agronomist £xxx too tell them how too do their jobs. Anything as simple and cheap as using sheep was frowned upon and vilified as you can’t charge someone extortionate rates and sell them lots of expensive chemicals on that system! We are grazing more forward cereal crops every winter, I keep being told it does away with the first fungicide spray.
I don’t know, I’m just a sheep man but I won’t argue! 
ollie989898
Member
I used to make money from chemistry and selling seed, I didn't see livestock (and definitely not sheep) as being any kind of barrier or obstacle. Grazing cereals has been done for years and in my region the use of catch crops for grazing stock is routine. I can't understand the logic of an agronomist being so vehemently against anything out of the ordinary?
- Location
- Cheshire
They might get their mustard coloured trousers dirty?
ollie989898
Member
They might get their mustard coloured trousers dirty?
I never had a pair of those. I do have a pair of dark red chinos though I didn't wear them much as they made me appear totally over-qualified.
- Location
- West Country
Couldn’t agree with you more. But there’s one in particular in this area, who actively discourages landowners from incorporating livestock into the rotation. Several of his competitors are actively encouraging landowners to incorporate livestock into their rotation. Makes for quite a strange dynamic
ollie989898
Member
Couldn’t agree with you more. But there’s one in particular in this area, who actively discourages landowners from incorporating livestock into the rotation. Several of his competitors are actively encouraging landowners to incorporate livestock into their rotation. Makes for quite a strange dynamic
Ah, in that case we have normal market forces at work. No complaints from me.
- Location
- Cheshire
Surely you can’t claim too be any kind of agronomist if you don’t have a pair?
the fella who does our soil testing gets a lot of stick from me about it. 
- Location
- Fife
I'm in the land of the direct driller. All my winter grazing is arable cover crops, grown for arable benefit. So my grazing my support improved soil health.
ollie989898
Member
View attachment 1015363The last field of cover crops for the year. These 550 hogg have been away from home since mid October, they have been on osr, seeds, volunteer barley and rye cover crops. Been a good season in the end.
And they would have to go some to cause compaction walking over that! Even if they nipped all that down to 10mm above the ground, the plants will be what gets walked on rather than the dirt.
- Location
- Cheshire
Proper job!View attachment 1015363The last field of cover crops for the year. These 550 hogg have been away from home since mid October, they have been on osr, seeds, volunteer barley and rye cover crops. Been a good season in the end.
- Location
- Hertfordshire
How much would it cost to get setup to finish 500-1000 lambs on cover crops overwinter?
- Location
- Fife
Ignoring cost of cover crops and land rent, you'd need a means of fencing 2 paddocks.
Say 6x 600m systems. That's 18x 600m reels, 300 plastic stakes and 12x corner posts and 6x reel posts. And a means of putting it out/picking it up.
The cost of the above depends on quality of materials and how much labour you want to put in.
You can buy hand reels for £10-30 each. Poly wire 4/5p per meter, plastic stakes £1.10 each and make corner posts with wood posts and screw in insulators.
Or you can buy an off the shelf system from kiwikit/rappa (assuming you already have a quad).
What capital do you have available to start? What do you value your time at?
- Location
- Perthshire (It's a big place!)
I was going to be asking about this so it's quite timely.
Looks like a blend of vetch, rye and stubble turnips wouldn't be daft? We like to use radish as that supposedly helps with nematode numbers but unless its in early its pretty hopeless, I'm assuming that stubble turnips would be the same? We probably wouldn't get them sown until late August early September, this is near Perth BTW.
Also I'm looking for suggestions for sowing after overwintered carrots, so probably going in the ground late May/early June. We have used phacelia and crimson clover between the carrots and sowing wheat in September before but this crop would probably be in all winter and then go into potatoes the following April so we could get quite a lot of grazing out of it. Any suggestions for that timing?
In addition we also spread chicken litter before ploughing the carrot straw down, would this cause any issues with grazing sheep?
Looks like a blend of vetch, rye and stubble turnips wouldn't be daft? We like to use radish as that supposedly helps with nematode numbers but unless its in early its pretty hopeless, I'm assuming that stubble turnips would be the same? We probably wouldn't get them sown until late August early September, this is near Perth BTW.
Also I'm looking for suggestions for sowing after overwintered carrots, so probably going in the ground late May/early June. We have used phacelia and crimson clover between the carrots and sowing wheat in September before but this crop would probably be in all winter and then go into potatoes the following April so we could get quite a lot of grazing out of it. Any suggestions for that timing?
In addition we also spread chicken litter before ploughing the carrot straw down, would this cause any issues with grazing sheep?
do you grow rape
we after tulips lifted
cultivate field as needed then 10 kg /ha rape straight off heap
it grows well mid june july when it goes in , flailed it down this time as got big then . drilled into it looked interesting after drilling
but these dd men say it’s ok
winter barley looks good on the light blowing sand
we after tulips lifted
cultivate field as needed then 10 kg /ha rape straight off heap
it grows well mid june july when it goes in , flailed it down this time as got big then . drilled into it looked interesting after drilling
but these dd men say it’s ok
winter barley looks good on the light blowing sand
- Location
- Perthshire (It's a big place!)
No rape here, lots of clubroot here so haven't had it for years, I realise the turnips will get clubroot but maybe I'll just have to live with that. The w. barley performed well this year but I get better results with rye or wheat usually but they and the s. barley are mid august harvest at the earliest, often not until the 20th.
- Location
- Hertfordshire
I don't really have a budget on how much I want to spend. We are on heavy ground, so I am a bit nervous about investing in kit, then realising the sheep don't work and being left with a whole load of fencing etc. There aren't any sheep in this area, so getting someone else to graze isn't really an option.
Ideally I want to make life as easy as possible for myself, so I guess I need fairly good kit to do that? We already have a quad and an old livestock trailer.
To do the job properly I assume I would need some form of weigher and prattleys? Or is this not necessary if I only had 500?
- Location
- Fife
Where in Herts are you? I can think of 2 large flocks off the top of my head in that county.
I'd start with a grazier. PM me for details.
Or if you want to own the stock, just hire someone in for a day with the handling system and weighing equipment. My prices start at £250+VAT per day.
If you've got a quad then a rappa ATV system is £1400. A 600m system is £425. That's £4,000 in fencing. Then you'll need an energiser, at least 2 batteries and a battery charger. Probably £4500 all in.
- Location
- Ceredigion
Cover crops are ok , but I'm thinking for fatenning a lot of lambs you need specialist crops otherwise let someone else graze them , not a thing you want to be throw ING money at , and lambs are a lot of work , and hard work