Fathen in silage

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
My old man used to call it lambs quarter?? Was he right/wrong is it regional term?
never heard that but no doubt its right regionally....the leaf is like a lambs tongue is what ir it came from round here i never new what fathen was until i looked it up in a book ..:ROFLMAO:.or was it at college maybe
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Quinova is a South American cousin of fat hen

I had a field of swedes that were grown as ‘unsprayed roots’ for Glastir, which got rather taken over by fathen. It was 13ac of thick, dense, 6’ high fathen (surprisingly, with ahalf decent crop of swedes in the bottom). This field was right by the footpath and several people asked me what the crop was. Quinoa was my usual answer.🤣
 

Hfd Cattle

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Hereford
It doesn’t matter, fathen was supposedly brought over by the Romans as a forage crop.
They might leave a lot of stalks for you to tidy up though.
Got 12 acres of grass I planted earlier this year and while the grass I still good and thick .....so is the fathen. Will probably mow it today .
 

Optimus

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North of Perth
Fathen was unreal in our reseed and in the neeps this year.
The old man spent 2 days with a strimmer,walking up an down the neep drills to thin it out a bit :)
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
I have posted before, but a friend made some red clover silage a couple of years ago, that was full of Fat Hen (just for you @Agrivator ;) ) and it was analysed by ADAS as we were having a sheep group meeting on nutrition there. It was very high in energy and protein (over 20% CP iirc), his in-lamb ewes were loving it and getting far to fat on it. He did have to fork a lot of stalks out though.
 

JSmith

Member
Livestock Farmer
I had a field of swedes that were grown as ‘unsprayed roots’ for Glastir, which got rather taken over by fathen. It was 13ac of thick, dense, 6’ high fathen (surprisingly, with ahalf decent crop of swedes in the bottom). This field was right by the footpath and several people asked me what the crop was. Quinoa was my usual answer.🤣
I’ve got the same here with kale, usually direct drill into old burnt off sward with the Aitchison but for the first time in over ten years I couldn’t get it to scratch the surface it was that hard in early may so we worked it up and have grown a fantastic crop of Fat Hen!! Can just see the kale poking through, sprayed it last year but ended up spraying the turnips or swede out so just left it this year as I was pi’ssed off with having to re-do half the field due to flea beetle!! But if it was good enough for the Romans’ then it’ll be good enough for me
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
My experience with Fat hen, lambs tongue or whatever the regional variation is called is that I chopped where it had taken over a reseed. Went on the top of the clamp. The reseed cam behind it brilliant as it had acted as a cover during the dry summer. In the silage clamp I probably could have got away without sheeting the pit! It was inedible and formed a wet mass on top. It was put straight on the muck heap!
 

nails

Member
Location
East Dorset
Fat Hen ? I would not put it in my silage:D
1600260907169.png
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top