- Location
- Cheshire
If every winter is going too be like last year I’m selling up and going stacking shelves in Tesco!
Forage rape stalks
- Thread starter Dave6170
- Start date
- Location
- Ceredigion
Yes you don't want to be ploughing them under with the rest of the magicwell done because those unicorns are pretty rare aren't they ...
- Location
- Ceredigion
Its not the winter thats the problem, its the dreadful summers
- Location
- Cheshire
Nope. Super Wet winters are what cause me the most grief. I don’t have any electric fencing out in the summer!
Jdunn55
Member
- Location
- Helston, cornwall
I'm with Derrick on this one. I plan for wet winter with very little growth. Part of my plan is to grow excess forage in late spring and during the summer to feed during the winter.
My plans get screwed by nothing growing when in theory it should!
- Location
- Cheshire
It’s definitely one of those area specific problems!
We’re on solid clay here. When everyone else is burnt up and struggling our grass is growing for fun! But when it’s wet, it’s bloody wet. Most of our wintering farms are the same. As fast as we moved sheep last winter they blacked it up and started escaping! By the end of last February I was just about ready too jack. Then it stopped raining and we had one of the best springs we’ve seen for years!
- Location
- Ceredigion
Last edited:
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Photo of beet I let them in to yesterday afternoon:
Variety is Geronimo, which is medium DM variety. Low DM varieties like Brigadier and Feldherr sit further out of the ground, so eaten even cleaner.
If it dries up, and I was minded to, I could pull those last bits up with a shallow run with a pigtail, and they would hoover every last bit up.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
It’s definitely one of those area specific problems!
We’re on solid clay here. When everyone else is burnt up and struggling our grass is growing for fun! But when it’s wet, it’s bloody wet. Most of our wintering farms are the same. As fast as we moved sheep last winter they blacked it up and started escaping! By the end of last February I was just about ready too jack. Then it stopped raining and we had one of the best springs we’ve seen for years!
Same here, with the ground starting to look the same this last week.
My turnips got away well after winter barley last year, then drowned and went backwards after October. Fodder Beet was a mess, but it was some much needed grub when everything else was disappearing.
- Location
- Ceredigion
The main thing with all these crops is know your ground . I gave up on beet , it just would not do here
But then Swede Cow Cabbage and Turnips grow like no tomorrow
Buauty of Swedes is they will grow on right through till end of March and graze the tops and leave them and tops grow right back
But then Swede Cow Cabbage and Turnips grow like no tomorrow
Buauty of Swedes is they will grow on right through till end of March and graze the tops and leave them and tops grow right back
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
I think most root crops would do that if you don’t damage the root by grazing tbh. They build a root as a food store, then use that to support growth with the aim of reproducing.
I was talking to someone in the Autumn who had grown beet (25ac) for the first time last year, then been dropped in it by their AD customer backing out. They topped it in the Spring when it tried to bolt, then grazed it with sheep for months as it kept trying to grow back. On a drought prone farm it saved their bacon this summer.
- Location
- Ceredigion
We put fattening lambs on until Xmas. With plenty of leaves to go at they never touched the roots . Then left to regrow for the ewes later on
Fodder beet just seems to need a kick up the arse all the time, i suppose thats just its slowness of growth and my impatience.
but the lack of weed competitiveness is also its downfall plus the fact that its the only thing i use a contractor for, and that goes against what always intended , ie. to farm", that is do the work of farming not pay someone else to do , irritates me no end watching someone else doing the jobs i am itching to do,doesn't make sense to me at all ......
i digress.
but the lack of weed competitiveness is also its downfall plus the fact that its the only thing i use a contractor for, and that goes against what always intended , ie. to farm", that is do the work of farming not pay someone else to do , irritates me no end watching someone else doing the jobs i am itching to do,doesn't make sense to me at all ......
i digress.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Why do you have to use a contractor, necessarily? If you object to paying someone, you could buy a 6 row beet drill cheap enough, everything else is just ordinary arable kit, unless you want to lift it of course.
Sprayer just needs a low rate set of nozzles and a good cleaning routine.
yes i had considered an old drillfor the beet, same as i have considered drilling kale instead of broadcast , to give nice fencing breaks slightly different using natural seed though.
I have 2 sprayers so thats fine.
Lifting them is why it as a forage crop gets its bad rep as a high coster i reckon, in comparison...
no certainly dont want to do that, blessed great harvester and trailers plopping around in the autumn / winter
all ive done in growing it is put down a pre em blanket then a follow up herbi. if necsessary.
yes plus fert but thats all apart from seed cost.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
If you’re lifting it then it’s not really being grown as a forage crop? I hedge my bets, so I can lift & cash any surplus in the Spring.
I don’t do pre-em any more, but go in a couple of times soon after emergence, then follow ups repeated as necessary. As you say, it really doesn’t like competition, so you need to be on top of it, and spend more if necessary, or it can be an expensive crop per kg of DM. You need to push for Max yield to get costs down, otherwise it’s just an expensively grown mediocre fodder crop imo.
Just put Hoggs on a big crop of pulsar rape mix this week. It was sown in June after a crop of spring barley failed to establish. Not sure how they will do on it as there is a lot of stalks. Beet again for ewes which has made up well after being a bit gappy at the start. Quite like a bit of food off the deck as usually stubble turnips get paddled in in no time when it’s wet weather like this.
yes true.
i don't want to grow to sell lifted because there is plenty around doing that currently.,
course i must be daft ,
not thinking logically .... but half the field could be put into beet and the other half to kale, then strip fence across the field so simple to do .
Kernowkid
Member
So I’m down to stalks on my rape too.
Similar story, had a monster crop. Had strip gaps in when drilled so was able to put electric in and do 6-7 day strips. Ran in lamb doubles on it and grazed all leaf and 50% stalks and they looked spot on. now took all fence down and set stocked a batch of 150 singles on the stalks. They’ve been in there 3-4 weeks and a few fading a little (older ewes) so done a bcs and split 30 onto grass. Due to lamb 10 days time and will house then. Anyone else run singles this tight? As it’s my 1st year trying it.
Similar story, had a monster crop. Had strip gaps in when drilled so was able to put electric in and do 6-7 day strips. Ran in lamb doubles on it and grazed all leaf and 50% stalks and they looked spot on. now took all fence down and set stocked a batch of 150 singles on the stalks. They’ve been in there 3-4 weeks and a few fading a little (older ewes) so done a bcs and split 30 onto grass. Due to lamb 10 days time and will house then. Anyone else run singles this tight? As it’s my 1st year trying it.