Grazing wheat

[Steve@mildal]

Hi all , done a trial grazing wheat , looks very promising , grazed with sheep virtually no disease and court up with the ungrazed in same field , there is nothing new in grazing wheat , but was wondering if anyone has tried topping wheat in early March , and if so with what . I would imagine the machine would have to be sharp wide and not leave wheat in a swath .
Tia steve

 

[Farmer Roy]

grazing winter cereals prior to "locking them up" for grain production, is quite common here.

the thing about grazing is that it provides an extra income stream & a bit of "insurance" in case the grain crop runs into a dry spring, for example. That is probably the main reason people do it

with topping, you may be able to achieve the same agronomic result as grazing, but it costs you time & money & doesnt generate any extra cash

 

[CornishTone]

Done the same here. Amazed how well it’s caught up.

Spot the difference!

 

[Farmer Roy]

alternatively, if the main aim is to limit disease or reliance on fungicides, then that can also be achieved by lower plant populations & wider row spacings . . .

also by convincing plant breeders to select for disease resistance as a priority

 

[Farmer Roy]

Done the same here. Amazed how well it’s caught up.

Spot the difference!
View attachment 1110737

excellent, not to mention all those kg of tasty lamb as a result of it

 

[CornishTone]

excellent, not to mention all those kg of tasty lamb as a result of it

Exactly! More lamb, less inputs… what’s not to like?

 

[robs1]

Just need the dry ground/weather for it to work with sheep, topping with a flail topper might be ok

 

[Farmer Roy]

If it’s too wet for sheep, it’s too wet to be driving machinery over it, I would have thought . . .

 

[Lothian]

Think topping when it would be most useful would leave too much of a mess with wheelings. The other thing is grazing actually gets rid of the diseased tissue whereas topping still keeps it as a vector for disease. You are missing out on the sheep muck as well too.

On a separate note, has anyone ever tried grazing winter OSR with cattle ?

My idea is sow it very thick and let it come away with volunteers etc then chuck cattle in January. In theory they would thin the crop with poaching and then allow it to branch in the spring. Daft idea?

 

[Farmer Roy]

Think topping when it would be most useful would leave too much of a mess with wheelings. The other thing is grazing actually gets rid of the diseased tissue whereas topping still keeps it as a vector for disease. You are missing out on the sheep muck as well too.

On a separate note, has anyone ever tried grazing winter OSR with cattle ?

My idea is sow it very thick and let it come away with volunteers etc then chuck cattle in January. In theory they would thin the crop with poaching and then allow it to branch in the spring. Daft idea?

Dual-purpose canola crop breaks Australian record - Grain Central

A NSW mixed farming business has claimed an Australian record with a 7.16 tonnes/hectare crop of dual purpose canola...Read More

www.graincentral.com

 

[Farmer Roy]

Dual-purpose canola: from inspiration to impact

A CSIRO impact assessment case study has determined that dual-purpose canola is now adopted on approximately 200,000 hectares and increasing across all southern states, with impact on profitability, sustainability and resilience and an estimated value since 2007 of $1 billion to date – growing...

groundcover.grdc.com.au

 

[Farmer Roy]

More takers for grazing canola | Meat & Livestock Australia

Dual-purpose crops have earned their keep across southern Australia this year. As the grazing window starts to close read producer John Jeffrey's tactics to make the most of grazing canola, wheat and barley.

www.mla.com.au

 

[dod1e]

Done the same here. Amazed how well it’s caught up.

Spot the difference!
View attachment 1110737

Very interesting!

Assuming there's an optimum stage to begin grazing (date or growth stage?) and you'd need to be careful not to let it get eaten back too far?

Any rules of thumb?

And assuming this can be done with any winter sown cereal crop or oil seed rape?

Doesn't look like that crop was very high when grazing began so probably not able to graze a lot of sheep for very long?

 

[CornishTone]

Very interesting!

Assuming there's an optimum stage to begin grazing (date or growth stage?) and you'd need to be careful not to let it get eaten back too far?

Any rules of thumb?

And assuming this can be done with any winter sown cereal crop or oil seed rape?

Doesn't look like that crop was very high when grazing began so probably not able to graze a lot of sheep for very long?

As long as you graze before the ear starts to move up, you should be fine. Bear in min Barley will be a fortnight earlier.
This was end Jan/beg Feb. In hindsight, I could've left it a bit later but, it was dry and they didn't make any mess so, I'm happy.

We grazed it until the lambs started to look the other side of the fence. Harder the better at that stage I would say, to remove as much diseased material as possible.
They were in there for 4 days on this occasion. As we scale it up, that will change depending on numbers vs area vs t/DM.

Yes, any winter cereal or OSR. If you're brave you could graze spring cereals in theory I guess, but your window between success and f*ck up is tiny so, I reckon discretion is probably the better part of valour there.

 

[dod1e]

As long as you graze before the ear starts to move up, you should be fine. Bear in min Barley will be a fortnight earlier.
This was end Jan/beg Feb. In hindsight, I could've left it a bit later but, it was dry and they didn't make any mess so, I'm happy.

We grazed it until the lambs started to look the other side of the fence. Harder the better at that stage I would say, to remove as much diseased material as possible.
They were in there for 4 days on this occasion. As we scale it up, that will change depending on numbers vs area vs t/DM.

Yes, any winter cereal or OSR. If you're brave you could graze spring cereals in theory I guess, but your window between success and f*ck up is tiny so, I reckon discretion is probably the better part of valour there.

ok thanks, what sort of stocking rate would that have been?

 

[Tamar]

Hi all , done a trial grazing wheat , looks very promising , grazed with sheep virtually no disease and court up with the ungrazed in same field , there is nothing new in grazing wheat , but was wondering if anyone has tried topping wheat in early March , and if so with what . I would imagine the machine would have to be sharp wide and not leave wheat in a swath .
Tia steve

Typical arable farmer.......... the sheep will do the job easily for free, but you want to change that to mowing with your gas guzzling, million pound tractor !!

 

[collie]

Was there not a proposal that Scotland we’re going to pay farmers to graze corn in order to reduce chemical use?

 

[Steve@mildal]

If it’s too wet for sheep, it’s too wet to be driving machinery over it, I would have thought . . .

We ain't got enough sheep

 

[Steve@mildal]

Typical arable farmer.......... the sheep will do the job easily for free, but you want to change that to mowing with your gas guzzling, million pound tractor !!

Bit harsh , we ain't got enough sheep

 

[Steve@mildal]

ok thanks, what sort of stocking rate would that have been?

100 ha for 4 days