Maincrop Turnips

[Derrick Hughes]

Same here and fat hen

Spent days pulling Fat Hen in Kale when I was a lad , but Charlock was something else

 

[Bob the beef]

My supplier had plenty. The shortage was the previous year.

Massif is supposed to be 14% higher yielding than Green Globe (figure from Wynnstay catalogue that came the other day), but I’d say they’d be all of that from experience. They are certainly far more palatable to sheep.

Normally as winter hardy as swedes, but mine were clobbered last December, having been an already poor crop because of the drought. For some reason, normal stubble turnips shrugged off the frost better than the Massif did, so might as well just have grown earlier drilled stubble turnips?

Hector and Samson stubble turnips DD in mid July still feeding really well here. Field on hillside dodged worst if frost.
Field down in valley bottom got absolutely clobbered

 

[neilo]

Hector and Samson stubble turnips DD in mid July still feeding really well here. Field on hillside dodged worst if frost.
Field down in valley bottom got absolutely clobbered

Yes, still grazing stubble turnips here (onto last blocks tomorrow though). They've started to shoot, but certainly not gone woody. Cold snap has stopped them bolting for a bit.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

If it helps I found here if they go woody and the sheep reject them cattle seem to eat them no problem

 

[Kevtherev]

If they are old and woody and stock won’t eat them drive over them with a Cambridge roller got a couple of customers that do this and stock seem to then eat them.

 

[Bogweevil]

Nothing for Swedes
Take my advice or not no odds to me
The man said it all when he said sow turnips and swedes together you end up with a crop of turnips
Turnips are a race horse, outgrow weeds
Swedes are a snail, will get bogged down with them
If you direct drill Swedes you should be OK
But if you plough or cultivate you better make sure it's a clean field or you will have a mess

Other than that if Swedes don't get rain every week they won't crop
I used to grow 40 acres a year and got close to 40 tons acre ,but treated like an arable crop. 100 units P &K and we had pre em sprays then

Forgive my ignorance, but there are some pre-em products approved on EAMUs - they seem to work quite well on vegetable brassicas - are they ineffective on swedes?

Any insights much appreciated.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Forgive my ignorance, but there are some pre-em products approved on EAMUs - they seem to work quite well on vegetable brassicas - are they ineffective on swedes?

Any insights much appreciated.

You may know a lot more than I do
We used Treflan that was taken off the market ,i was not aware there was anything else

 

[Cecil snear]

I use a stale seedbed, since the effective herbicides disappeared. My maincrop turnips are mostly in an enviro scheme though, which stipulates no herbicides (& pays £200/ac). They want weeds for habitat and I want a crop for feeding. I usually win.

I've used stale seedbed in the past with varied results for swedes, biggest weed problem here is fat hen used a steerage hoe,hand pulled fat hen used Strimmer to cut weed above the swedes, have thought about doing a stale seedbed then pre drilling spraying with roundup, anybody done this could it work

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I've used stale seedbed in the past with varied results for swedes, biggest weed problem here is fat hen used a steerage hoe,hand pulled fat hen used Strimmer to cut weed above the swedes, have thought about doing a stale seedbed then pre drilling spraying with roundup, anybody done this could it work

It will reduce weeds but just the action of the dill Coulter will raise more .
For swedes you really need a clean field
You can get some grazing type fodder beets that are easier to keep clean

 

[neilo]

I've used stale seedbed in the past with varied results for swedes, biggest weed problem here is fat hen used a steerage hoe,hand pulled fat hen used Strimmer to cut weed above the swedes, have thought about doing a stale seedbed then pre drilling spraying with roundup, anybody done this could it work

That's what I do but there will still be more fathen come up if the seed is there. It is a very prolific seeder, so a few plants left one year will make for a lot of viable seed for many years.

I once grew swedes for a second year after DD'ing into sprayed off pp. The first year had been very clean, with just the odd fathen plant, so I gave it a second year before going into cereals. That was a big mistake and I had swedes the size of cricket balls and fathen that was like a 6' tall forest. I ended up cutting swathes through it with a topper to graze it off in 2ac blocks. It still kept a bunch of lambs for most of the winter, and the number of small birds living off it was amazing.
The carpet of fathen that came up in the following Spring Barley crop was staggering, but easily killed there.

 

[Radio]

Your ahead of the game Neil , the day will come when we will be paid on a headage basis of birds per acre.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Your ahead of the game Neil , the day will come when we will be paid on a headage basis of birds per acre.

He won't get fat with all those fathens and no cocks

 

[Kevtherev]

That's what I do but there will still be more fathen come up if the seed is there. It is a very prolific seeder, so a few plants left one year will make for a lot of viable seed for many years.

I once grew swedes for a second year after DD'ing into sprayed off pp. The first year had been very clean, with just the odd fathen plant, so I gave it a second year before going into cereals. That was a big mistake and I had swedes the size of cricket balls and fathen that was like a 6' tall forest. I ended up cutting swathes through it with a topper to graze it off in 2ac blocks. It still kept a bunch of lambs for most of the winter, and the number of small birds living off it was amazing.
The carpet of fathen that came up in the following Spring Barley crop was staggering, but easily killed there.

These were the first swedes there I think kenmore?

 

[Derrick Hughes]

 

[willyboyrogers]

Been direct drilling stubble turnip and fodder rape for years into stubbles, this year we want to grow some main crop turnips (open to other ideas) on a field going out of grass. Our agronomist thinks it would be best to plough but I would rather spray off and direct drill as we find this means less mess when grazing in winter. What are peoples preferred ways of establishing after grass?

 

[neilo]

Been direct drilling stubble turnip and fodder rape for years into stubbles, this year we want to grow some main crop turnips (open to other ideas) on a field going out of grass. Our agronomist thinks it would be best to plough but I would rather spray off and direct drill as we find this means less mess when grazing in winter. What are peoples preferred ways of establishing after grass?

DD, definitely. What would be the advantage of ploughing it?

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Direct Drill
But would hammer it hard with a tine harrow before drilling
Got a guy putting swedes in and he's going back to ploughing as he says staight direct drilling is patchy
I told him to trash the field with something first
Would depend on the state of the turf and the drill I suppose

 

[willyboyrogers]

The field has been grazed very hard lambing singles out, I say direct drill but for this I did think to run power harrow through. We usually direct drill after corn with a combi. Any other suggestions other than straight maincrop turnips (seems as though massif boy)? We have used a turnip/rape kale hybrid from field options before now which is pretty decent. It’s main purpose will be to winter ewes.

DD, definitely. What would be the advantage of ploughing it?

Agronomists opinion was to treat it like it was going out of grass into OSR, and the best seedbed would be a ploughed one. But as mentioned this is messy for grazing in a wet time.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

The field has been grazed very hard lambing singles out, I say direct drill but for this I did think to run power harrow through. We usually direct drill after corn with a combi. Any other suggestions other than straight maincrop turnips (seems as though massif boy)? We have used a turnip/rape kale hybrid from field options before now which is pretty decent. It’s main purpose will be to winter ewes.

Agronomists opinion was to treat it like it was going out of grass into OSR, and the best seedbed would be a ploughed one. But as mentioned this is messy for grazing in a wet time.

Lot depends on when you want to drill And how late you want to feed
But I'm not a fan of mixes containing Turnips , Turnips need room and light to bulb up

 

[Kevtherev]

Been direct drilling stubble turnip and fodder rape for years into stubbles, this year we want to grow some main crop turnips (open to other ideas) on a field going out of grass. Our agronomist thinks it would be best to plough but I would rather spray off and direct drill as we find this means less mess when grazing in winter. What are peoples preferred ways of establishing after grass?

Burn off and go straight in with direct drill