Grazing osr

[Badshot]

Currently have a lot of sheep grazing my covers planted into osr stubbles first week of August.
They're really doing very well.
It's got me thinking about planting osr very early , as soon as wheat is cut.
Getting it very strong and forward , then grazing it off to open the canopy up and remove phoma and light leaf Spot, plus the flea beetle larvae too.
Certainly where the sheep are now will recover no problem.
Nice bit of biology going back in, any weeds eaten hopefully won't require treatment.
Thoughts?

 

[Brisel]

Some trials work has been done on this. Are you a NIAB TAG member?

IIRC the main conclusion was that if you got the sheep on & off fairly early i.e. before any spring growth started in late Jan/early Feb then it worked well. I can't remember the details of how grazed each plant was, but you needed to leave some green leaf on for the plant to recover well enough.

 

[Gong Farmer]

More of such work happening this season also.

 

[Badshot]

Some trials work has been done on this. Are you a NIAB TAG member?

IIRC the main conclusion was that if you got the sheep on & off fairly early i.e. before any spring growth started in late Jan/early Feb then it worked well. I can't remember the details of how grazed each plant was, but you needed to leave some green leaf on for the plant to recover well enough.

In not a niab tag member.
I'd look at getting it grazed by mid Jan at the latest to allow the kerb to hit the ground better.
Reckon they'd potentially thin an over thick crop out a bit too

 

[MrNoo]

I have done it here and used to do it most years, everyone thought me mad at the time. The trick is to get them off in time but found they caused no ill effects to the crop, not very scientific I know but seemed to work. Agronomist didnt like it as couldnt write a rec for Phoma, he also thought me mad.

 

[HarryB97]

Most of us on here will be very envious that your osr is even established well let alone grazeable!

 

[Brisel]

Here you are @Laggard - organic plant growth regulators!

 

[Laggard]

Here you are @Laggard - organic plant growth regulators!

If I had some sheep I might have a go. I have let the pigeons graze big rape before but if we get a cold spring “beast from the east” and the plants have CSFB larvae in them they struggle to get growing, even with plenty of early applied NS. How much can sheep grazing reduce CSFB larvae numbers?

 

[Brisel]

It depends on which bit the sheep eat. If the larvae are in the main stem you’re fudged either way. If they are in the leaf stems and the sheep eat them or you top it then it’s all good.