Fodder beet newbie

TexelBen

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
Thinking of fodder beet this year for the lambing ewes, help stretch the grass out and keep them ticking over well. They'll be caked on the run up to lambing (mid April).
I know very little about fodder beet, I'm assuming you can feed it whole out in the field?
Will they be alright on it and old pp? Or would I need to hay them as well?

All advice appreciated
 

Still Farming

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South Wales UK
We use to cake as per single,twins before lambing as less stomach room and when lambed and out used hay racks and fodder beet.
Have just tipped out over field and cracked a few by driving over if dry weather and or fodder box with auger to mince up a bit.
All sheep love them even brokers get at it ok .
 

AJR75

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
Fed them the last 2 years and done really well on them. Maybe just a coincidence but not had any twin lamb disease since including them. They were slow to come to them at first but when they really get into them, they go mad for them. I mince them up out of a cheap auger bucket- beats (no pun intended!) chopping them up by hand. find the clear up rate is better inside this way as well rather than with whole beets.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Thinking of fodder beet this year for the lambing ewes, help stretch the grass out and keep them ticking over well. They'll be caked on the run up to lambing (mid April).
I know very little about fodder beet, I'm assuming you can feed it whole out in the field?
Will they be alright on it and old pp? Or would I need to hay them as well?

All advice appreciated

Break a few with a spade/wheel to get them started on them, if they've never seen root crops before, otherwise they'll have no problem with eating them whole. All my ewes are grazing beet in situ just now, and the aren't waiting for me to chop any.;)

They are a great feed, supplying lots of energy. However, the roots are very low in protein (8-10%?) so the diet will need that balancing from somewhere (good hay will normally only be 8-10% CP too). It's certainly not a magic feed, and I would think the value is certainly questionable at £35/t ex-farm.
 

TexelBen

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
Break a few with a spade/wheel to get them started on them, if they've never seen root crops before, otherwise they'll have no problem with eating them whole. All my ewes are grazing beet in situ just now, and the aren't waiting for me to chop any.;)

They are a great feed, supplying lots of energy. However, the roots are very low in protein (8-10%?) so the diet will need that balancing from somewhere (good hay will normally only be 8-10% CP too). It's certainly not a magic feed, and I would think the value is certainly questionable at £35/t ex-farm.
What else would you recommend if not fodder beet? We're only set of for conventional bales and caking tbh, hoping to pick up a loader tractor this year to help make the move to big bale haylage.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
What else would you recommend if not fodder beet? We're only set of for conventional bales and caking tbh, hoping to pick up a loader tractor this year to help make the move to big bale haylage.

Fodder beet is fine, but you wil need to supplement protein with it (cake or soya?). It keeps the sheep satisfied and it is relatively cheap/simple to feed, which is all worth a bit. I used to feed it out on stubble turnips by just trickling out of a JCB bucket, reversing across the field, twice a week. A very simple system.:)

Price of everything this year is frightening, and beet has gone up with it.
 

scholland

Member
Location
ze3
Fodder beet is fine, but you wil need to supplement protein with it (cake or soya?). It keeps the sheep satisfied and it is relatively cheap/simple to feed, which is all worth a bit. I used to feed it out on stubble turnips by just trickling out of a JCB bucket, reversing across the field, twice a week. A very simple system.:)

Price of everything this year is frightening, and beet has gone up with it.
Are you supplementing yours @neilo or as its grazed are the tops doing enough?
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Are you supplementing yours @neilo or as its grazed are the tops doing enough?

They are all bolused to give them Iodine, andhad loose mins when they went on to cover for Calcium deficiency. I have a bunch of thin ewes (fluke? Now treated) that are in a separate group with a Chrystallix type block available, but hardly taking it.
All those aren’t due until March/April though, so nothing more. Not planning on doing anything different as they get closer, as they have the tops too.

My December lambers were strip grazing beet until a few days pre-lambing, with 1lb/hd/day of concs, mostly to get them transitioned to conchs before they came in though.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
not such good feed value (lower dry matter) but i prefer orange (like old variety feildherr ) than green/yellow ones for sheep no chopping necessary bit softer / bigger/clean so better in that way ir.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
not such good feed value (lower dry matter) but i prefer orange (like old variety feildherr ) than green/yellow ones for sheep no chopping necessary bit softer / bigger/clean so better in that way ir.

I have two fields in this year. One of Brigadier (low DM like Feldherr) and one of Geronimo (med DM). The Brigadier is certainly much softer, and even snaps in half if you boot it hard. I don’t think you could lift it to sell it though, even if you wanted to, so presumably not an option for the OP buying beet in.
Having weighed samples to measure yield, and looking at the leaf loss from the Brigadier already, I doubt if I’ll be growing it again.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
I have two fields in this year. One of Brigadier (low DM like Feldherr) and one of Geronimo (med DM). The Brigadier is certainly much softer, and even snaps in half if you boot it hard. I don’t think you could lift it to sell it though, even if you wanted to, so presumably not an option for the OP buying beet in.
Having weighed samples to measure yield, and looking at the leaf loss from the Brigadier already, I doubt if I’ll be growing it again.
bit of a job to findsomeone growing fielderhh now I suppose, they lift nice and clean
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
What else would you recommend if not fodder beet? We're only set of for conventional bales and caking tbh, hoping to pick up a loader tractor this year to help make the move to big bale haylage.
I bought a 3pt linkage spike for £15 in 2005, until last year dad was putting out 100 bales a year of haylage on a old 2wd tractor. Last year I bought an old manitou for other jobs and it puts out half of the bales we use, bale spike still does all the field bales unless it’s very dry weather like today, I’ve also moved to leafier younger grass for silage and making dry silage instead of haylage to increase ME & CP levels.

The best system I’ve seen for feeding beet to sheep was a rear discharge muck spreader.

Variety wise it depends what you want from the beet, when you will be feeding, your location etc... I know a lot about the growing and harvesting/washing side of it but not much about feeding it sorry.
 

Bones

Member
Location
n Ireland
Thinking of fodder beet this year for the lambing ewes, help stretch the grass out and keep them ticking over well. They'll be caked on the run up to lambing (mid April).
I know very little about fodder beet, I'm assuming you can feed it whole out in the field?
Will they be alright on it and old pp? Or would I need to hay them as well?

All advice appreciated
I have fead beet for a few years , housed and outdoors, I have given ewes beet and straw with lick buckets when housed , only introducing meal in the last 10/14 days before lambing with no problems, I've never choped the beet absoulty no need to ,unless you like extra work, but beet in this country is far to expensive,
 

TexelBen

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
I bought a 3pt linkage spike for £15 in 2005, until last year dad was putting out 100 bales a year of haylage on a old 2wd tractor. Last year I bought an old manitou for other jobs and it puts out half of the bales we use, bale spike still does all the field bales unless it’s very dry weather like today, I’ve also moved to leafier younger grass for silage and making dry silage instead of haylage to increase ME & CP levels.

The best system I’ve seen for feeding beet to sheep was a rear discharge muck spreader.

Variety wise it depends what you want from the beet, when you will be feeding, your location etc... I know a lot about the growing and harvesting/washing side of it but not much about feeding it sorry.
Will be hard to unload a trailer with a bale spike tho, especially if they're two high
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
Will be hard to unload a trailer with a bale spike tho, especially if they're two high
Get whoever bales them to cart and stack them, I don’t even own a squeezer or trailer for silage bales, not worth it for 150 bales.
You can get bales out with a spike when stacked 2 high no problem, 3 high is fine if it’s haylage and not silage.
 
Fodder beet is fine, but you wil need to supplement protein with it (cake or soya?). It keeps the sheep satisfied and it is relatively cheap/simple to feed, which is all worth a bit. I used to feed it out on stubble turnips by just trickling out of a JCB bucket, reversing across the field, twice a week. A very simple system.:)

Price of everything this year is frightening, and beet has gone up with it.

We put our FB on PP in the hope that the grazed grass will balance the protein at least until they start getting there pre lambing cake. Would be interested in @neilo and others thoughts on wether we are providing enough protein.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
We put our FB on PP in the hope that the grazed grass will balance the protein at least until they start getting there pre lambing cake. Would be interested in @neilo and others thoughts on wether we are providing enough protein.

I think it's perfect with grass, which is why it's such a great feed after lambing to help milking. Do you have any grass to graze before you start feeding pre-lambing?:scratchhead: I never have.
 
Easiest way to feed it out is to go flat out backwards bouncing it out the tractor bucket with the joystick
The faster you go the less big heaps you make
 
I think it's perfect with grass, which is why it's such a great feed after lambing to help milking. Do you have any grass to graze before you start feeding pre-lambing?:scratchhead: I never have.

We have a general low stocking rate so still have a bit of grass and also find that once the fodder beet is out they tend to eat that and don't graze as much, which makes me wonder about the balance.
 

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