Grazing westerwolds

[jimmer]

Anyone done it?
Grazing as in rotational

 

[Headless chicken]

It’s a lot harder to judge allocation and a job to make them eat it nicely but certainly possible

 

[DairyNerd]

Yes but not intentionally. We put in 5 acres Westerwold and vetch Autumn 2022 to get bulk silage, I have honestly never seen anything grow so fast so that worked. Cut it twice then overseeded with ryegrass and clover to graze. I thought it would disappear but it is still bloody there now, probably 30-40% of the sward still. You need to graze it low covers or it grows a stalk more like a cereal and ME falls off a cliff but if you give it nitrogen something else in terms of DM per hectare.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Better with Italian and its the same price

 

[crashbox]

Grazed Westwolds maize covers in Feb/March. Worked well.

Tried a spring reseed in a dry year, went stalkyand cows ripped it out the ground, total failure.

 

[sheepdogtrail]

Ewes with two week old lambs.

This is a Italian with north African genetics. It is a high sugar grass and a tetraploid. Planted in September of 2023. In a grazing situation it will produce 10t/DM/A on sandy soil with a Ph of 6.
In a couple of weeks it will be growing 3" a day.

What will be your target grazer? 1000 lb. beast will crush the sh!t out of it. A 100 lb. beast will groom it until you say stop and move them a strip up. You can graze them into the dirt if you want. They only come back stronger as their roots go deeper.

They are a C3 grass that does extremely well in cool season grasses regions. There are many cultivars to choose from. There will be several that tick the box for you. If you plant after the summer solstice you will have 30% of that stand left in the spring of 2026 if you do not let it go to seed. A tetraploid would make excellent winter feed by itself that could be fed grazing, wrapped, dried or carted out of a pit.

Italians can be planted anytime, that is a advantage to me, but a Westerwold could potentially yield more in it fist spring and that could also be a advantage to me. Both are good and relativity easy and cheap to establish. If nothing else it is a heck of a nurse crop for new PP. It will prep your soil for a very diverse mix of longer term pastures.

 

[sheepdogtrail]

Grazed Westwolds maize covers in Feb/March. Worked well.

Tried a spring reseed in a dry year, went stalkyand cows ripped it out the ground, total failure.

That was a dry year.

 

[crashbox]

That was a dry year.

2019, but no means the worst, but yes, dry here on our sandy soils.

 

[Agrifool]

Would westerwolds be any good as a covercrop/catch crop? Spring cereals, cut and oversow westerwolds. Take a cut in Spring then plough for cereals again?

 

[crashbox]

Would westerwolds be any good as a covercrop/catch crop? Spring cereals, cut and oversow westerwolds. Take a cut in Spring then plough for cereals again?

You'd likely be cutting mid/late April... late for spring cereals, or okay?

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Would westerwolds be any good as a covercrop/catch crop? Spring cereals, cut and oversow westerwolds. Take a cut in Spring then plough for cereals again?

Westerwolds is being cut now if thats not to late to sow your corn
Works better before Maize

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Ewes with two week old lambs.

This is a Italian with north African genetics. It is a high sugar grass and a tetraploid. Planted in September of 2023. In a grazing situation it will produce 10t/DM/A on sandy soil with a Ph of 6.
In a couple of weeks it will be growing 3" a day.

What will be your target grazer? 1000 lb. beast will crush the sh!t out of it. A 100 lb. beast will groom it until you say stop and move them a strip up. You can graze them into the dirt if you want. They only come back stronger as their roots go deeper.

They are a C3 grass that does extremely well in cool season grasses regions. There are many cultivars to choose from. There will be several that tick the box for you. If you plant after the summer solstice you will have 30% of that stand left in the spring of 2026 if you do not let it go to seed. A tetraploid would make excellent winter feed by itself that could be fed grazing, wrapped, dried or carted out of a pit.

Italians can be planted anytime, that is an advantage to me, but a Westerwold could potentially yield more in it fist spring and that could also be an advantage to me. Both are good and relativity easy and cheap to establish. If nothing else it is a heck of a nurse crop for new PP. It will prep your soil for a very diverse mix of longer term pastures.

What is the variety?

 

[sheepdogtrail]

What is the variety?

Enhancer.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Enhancer.

What would it produce in DM/ac for you?

I wish annual ryegrass wasn’t so susceptible to frost. I had it mixed in with cereal rye and every single blade of it winter killed . Cereal rye will germinate at something like 38 degrees and if there is sun it will actively photosynthesize in the mid thirties too. Amazing stuff, just loses quality early in spring

 

[sheepdogtrail]

My stuff in the picture was a cover crop for weed suppression and soil retention. It will go back into arable sometime very soon.

I could get 8 grazing tons out of it in 9 months. If I was on dryer ground I could increase it by 2 tons.

This stand went down to 17F this winter and was partially flooded. No winter kill and it survived about 5 days of anaerobic activity. This is possible because it is a tetraploid. It has extra a extra set of chromosomes over diploids. Tetraploidity is also common in wheat (durum) as well as Brassicas. As of the result of its Polyploidy all tetraploids have less dry matter. In theory they would have twice as much water. This makes it a excellent freeze dried standing winter forage. It is like a frozen Popsicle. Full of sugar.

It is more open which benefits organic livestock producers as it allows UV to penetrate below it canopy. Parasites can not survive very long when bombarded by UV. A jumbo ladino or a balansa legume is good mix to add to it. Both are very cold and flood tolerate. Balansa should be planted in the fall in the northern hemisphere to get the best out of it. So it is a perfect diversity mix. Balansa can cause bloat. So mind that. Alternatively, you could plant a jumbo kale at a couple of lbs. per acre.

I just sneaked away from lambing for a week and did just did that. Enhancer and Jumbo Kale for the winter on 1 block. I hope to do several more blocks over the next months as time and of course weather allows.

Were are you located @Dead Rabbits? How long is your growing season?

 

[Dead Rabbits]

My stuff in the picture was a cover crop for weed suppression and soil retention. It will go back into arable sometime very soon.

I could get 8 grazing tons out of it in 9 months. If I was on dryer ground I could increase it by 2 tons.

This stand went down to 17F this winter and was partially flooded. No winter kill and it survived about 5 days of anaerobic activity. This is possible because it is a tetraploid. It has extra a extra set of chromosomes over diploids. Tetraploidity is also common in wheat (durum) as well as Brassicas. As of the result of its Polyploidy all tetraploids have less dry matter. In theory they would have twice as much water. This makes it a excellent freeze dried standing winter forage. It is like a frozen Popsicle. Full of sugar.

It is more open which benefits organic livestock producers as it allows UV to penetrate below it canopy. Parasites can not survive very long when bombarded by UV. A jumbo ladino or a balansa legume is good mix to add to it. Both are very cold and flood tolerate. Balansa should be planted in the fall in the northern hemisphere to get the best out of it. So it is a perfect diversity mix. Balansa can cause bloat. So mind that. Alternatively, you could plant a jumbo kale at a couple of lbs. per acre.

I just sneaked away from lambing for a week and did just did that. Enhancer and Jumbo Kale for the winter on 1 block. I hope to do several more blocks over the next months as time and of course weather allows.

Were are you located @Dead Rabbits? How long is your growing season?

Interesting, I’m looking to do similar to what you have there and get some sheep out on arable ground all winter. Sheep being lighter than cattle I wouldn’t be worried as much about poaching and something less capital intensive than cattle

I’m in Missouri, where I consider us to have a 365 day growing season. It’s really not there are going to be weeks every winter we grow nothing but it’s not predictable when those times occur

 

[sheepdogtrail]

Freeze dried IRG (Italian Rye Grass) could be a great forage tool (profitability) for you over the winter. Summer warm season it could struggle with the high temps, lack of water and humidity. That is where RC (Red Clover) and Chicory feel those gaps. Brassicas would do the same. Due to Flee Beetle pressure on the Brassicas you might have to rotate them in every 3 years for just 1 year. That is perfect for IRG. The other two years a legume and chicory will be hard to beat. If soil indexes are good, you could add a Plantain. Low PH (below 5.6) the plantain will struggle to produce a graze able crop. It will grow, but taste awful.