I want to grow cover crops but i dint want brassicas.

Stuart J

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
UK
Ideally I'd want to establish cover crops in two scenarios
After winter barley and after spring barley.

I'm in north east scotland so WB is cut early August, and SB cut late august, early september.

I dont want to be growing brassicas, to keep club root down.

I'd like to have something that can be grazed in early spring before sowing the spring crop.

What are my choices? Will I get anything worth growing from a spring barley stubble cover crop?
I could broadcast on after dessicstion and before harvest if that provided a decent enough germination
 

kmo

Member
Location
E. Wales
Might depend on what herbicides you've used in the barley.
For example Liberators product label says for following crops, that aren't of wheat or barley, you should plough before planting, because of concerns of DFF levels in the soil.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Screenshot_20201028-181508_Facebook.jpg

This may be of use to some, obviously some residual pesticides will affect choices, as will availability of seed locally and price.
 

britt

Member
BASE UK Member
Brassicas are of little value as a cover crop (but better than nothing), although the stock they feed will be good for soil fertility.
Keep it cheep that late and that far north as you won't get a lot of growth out of anything, oats, barley for some grazing. Phacilia is cheep and a good cover but will be gone in the first frost. I think you would struggle to get enough benefit from vetch to justify the cost.
A lot of the benefits that we hear of from cover crops come from warmer climates than ours with earlier harvests, where they can get more autumn growth than us before winter sets in. Unless you can get stuff in early keep it cheep preferably home saved.
 

cquick

Member
BASE UK Member
If you can get some sunflower/buckwheat/peas/phacelia in your mix cheaply, then whack some of that in.
Plenty of growth to be had after winter barley comes off and while they won't last the winter, you will get some reasonable autumn biomass and late flowers for the pollinators.
 

Chae1

Member
Location
Aberdeenshire
Ideally I'd want to establish cover crops in two scenarios
After winter barley and after spring barley.

I'm in north east scotland so WB is cut early August, and SB cut late august, early september.

I dont want to be growing brassicas, to keep club root down.

I'd like to have something that can be grazed in early spring before sowing the spring crop.

What are my choices? Will I get anything worth growing from a spring barley stubble cover crop?
I could broadcast on after dessicstion and before harvest if that provided a decent enough germination

Mustard put in early September in ne Scotland. Just 1kg/acre off back of simba xpress discs. Not rolled, no fert.

20201030_131747.jpg
 

Sandy

Member
Location
Aberdeenshire
We’ve put in cover crops after spring barley for years now and really struggle too see any benefit only do it for Efa otherwise i wouldn’t bother
Muck makes a lot more difference just my experience of cover crops
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
There do seem to be a lot of mustard haters on this forum. I realise the clubroot issue, but it's cheap. This year it was sown late, and was completely swamped by volunteer barley, which is now disease ridden. As a continuous cereal grower I don't like the idea of growing oats, or anything else " off the heap ". Not keen on a secondary voluntary cereal crop hanging about over winter either. Am I worrying about nothing ?

IMG_2648.JPG
 

Bogweevil

Member
There do seem to be a lot of mustard haters on this forum. I realise the clubroot issue, but it's cheap. This year it was sown late, and was completely swamped by volunteer barley, which is now disease ridden. As a continuous cereal grower I don't like the idea of growing oats, or anything else " off the heap ". Not keen on a secondary voluntary cereal crop hanging about over winter either. Am I worrying about nothing ?

View attachment 918309
I have never seen clubroot on mustard nor radish neither, but I suppose there could be subclinical infection, radish sown early supports a lot of cabbage root fly so perhaps not suitable in a swede growing district.
 

Stuart J

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
UK
I have never seen clubroot on mustard nor radish neither, but I suppose there could be subclinical infection, radish sown early supports a lot of cabbage root fly so perhaps not suitable in a swede growing district.

Bet you've never seen any on shepherds purse either, but I'm led to believe it does carry the disease/become infected.
 

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