Fat Hens will they eat them or am I going to have to kill the clover

[Happy]

What size weeds are we talking about?

MCPA and 2,4D will be cheaper and hit a lot faster. If you use leystar etc then you are relying on the florasulam component (IIRC) which will be a very very slow kill compared to MCPA or similar.

Yes, that what I’m saying.
Docks and other perennials in what will be a 10 year ley were reason for using leystar.

 

[ajcc]

our biggest weed problem, after docks and thistles, just top it off, shouldn't come back, if it does, winter will kill it.
We call it bacon weed, always told it came in with pig feed, anywhere we cultivate, up it comes, if the spray doesn't work in the kale, we can get 5/6foot tall stands, plenty of kale underneath thankfully.

I have a 10 acre field of 3 foot high fat hen with 1 foot high kale underneath. Tell myself the shading is of major benefit.

 

[Sid]

I have a 10 acre field of 3 foot high fat hen with 1 foot high kale underneath. Tell myself the shading is of major benefit.

It helped our grass seed few years ago, was like a cheap peas/barley cover crop, unfortunately it had zero nutritional value!

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I have a 10 acre field of 3 foot high fat hen with 1 foot high kale underneath. Tell myself the shading is of major benefit.

That's a hand pulling job, done acres of it ,

 

[neilo]

I have a 10 acre field of 3 foot high fat hen with 1 foot high kale underneath. Tell myself the shading is of major benefit.

It’ll shade it alright, but also steal it’s water while it grows to a dense canopy at 6’ tall, then drops a few billion seeds.

I had similar in a field of swedes a couple of years ago, which was on an ‘unsprayed roots’ environmental option. If it was outside the scheme (which was paying £200/ac), I think I’d have gone through with a topper set at a foot high and accepted some crop damage.
As it was, it fed swarms of little birds in the winter and 300 lambs were kept on 13ac for 8 weeks. The seeds grew a carpet of fathen to shade/steal water from the following Spring Barley crop, which I left far to long to control.

 

[wrenbird]

Wasn’t fat hen once a food plant for our ancestors? Perhaps with the correct marketing it could be a vegan-food money-making opportunity?

 

[Sid]

Wasn’t fat hen once a food plant for our ancestors? Perhaps with the correct marketing it could be a vegan-food money-making opportunity?

Quinoa?

 

[neilo]

Wasn’t fat hen once a food plant for our ancestors? Perhaps with the correct marketing it could be a vegan-food money-making opportunity?

I have baled & wrapped one field of annual clovers/westerwolds/fat hen, in order to clear up the fat hen. It’s coming back with grass and clover now, but still plenty of other blw in the bottom.
I have marked the bales and am aiming on having it analysed in due course. I am fully expecting it to have a very high protein level, judging by the smell of the chopped bale where I ripped the wrap slightly on one.

 

[neilo]

Quinoa?

I was asked what the crop was in the ‘swede’ field I described above, by the leader of our local eco warrior group, wh9 was riding his bike past it one day.

I may have told him it was quinoa…

 

[som farmer]

Wasn’t fat hen once a food plant for our ancestors? Perhaps with the correct marketing it could be a vegan-food money-making opportunity?

they tell me it was introduced by the romans, as chicken feed, thankfully, i'm not old enough, to know if that is true, around here, it is called bacon weed, and supposed to have come here in pig feed. I am old enough, to know we are experts at growing it, wherever we plough, or cattle poach, we will get the bloody stuff.

 

[som farmer]

I have a 10 acre field of 3 foot high fat hen with 1 foot high kale underneath. Tell myself the shading is of major benefit.

try 6ft, and you have to drive a track through it, for the elec fence. I have a susuki jimny, sometimes it's taller, and thicker than that, and l cant see where to drive !

 

[MDL POWERUP]

never to old to learn, sir. We have found a novel way to help dock control though, as we have been so short of grass the last 3 dry summers, we have kept i/c hiefers and dry stock, very tightly grazed, with a back fence, the number of cattle, you can keep grazing it right down to the roots, rather than putting them 'in a field', is probably x4, with no effect on condition whatsoever. The spin off, they munch the docks right down, that trait has continued after calving, as long as they haven't got to hard, Other than that, r-up pre sowing, and as we have herbs and clover, regular topping., not a lot of choice really. l think the benefits of clover on dry ground, justifies extra topping, esp with the price of N rapidly going up, £325/ton, we were quoted for a 10 tonne drop, full artic not a lot less, just 1 quote, so far.

That's a ridiculous price, more like £270 for 27.0.0 can here.

 

[som farmer]

That's a ridiculous price, more like £270 for 27.0.0 can here.

like l said, 1 price, for small load, not ordered, but prices are rising, may be right to buy forward for next year, you never know. But N is on the the 'climate change' brigades sights, to reduce/ban, and l expect further controls of use, with a tax on N. Could even be the year to buy and store a lot, to sell on, and make a profit on, not that we will.

 

[neilo]

That's a ridiculous price, more like £270 for 27.0.0 can here.

Is that a recent price? AN is certainly £320+ now.

 

[som farmer]

Is that a recent price? AN is certainly £320+ now.

you mean £325, for a small load wasn't that stupid a price ? sh......................ite.
More clover seed all round, methinks.

 

[neilo]

you mean £325, for a small load wasn't that stupid a price ? sh......................ite.
More clover seed all round, methinks.

No, it is a stupid price, but realistically about where the market’s at.

 

[MDL POWERUP]

Is that a recent price? AN is certainly £320+ now.

That's CAN, AN is a fiver cheaper

 

[som farmer]

27 or 34.5 N?

 

[neilo]

I lost my bottle and ordered a load of AN at £298 nearly a month ago. It jumped £15-20 the next week, and I heard it's gone up again now.

I didn't get a quote for CAN, which is usually cheaper per ton here, but more per kg of N.

 

[MDL POWERUP]

27 or 34.5 N?

27