Miscanthus for on farm use.

[ajcc]

Bought in cereal straw is a big cost to many livestock farmers. Anyone ever looked at growing miscanthus purely on farm use?
I don’t know what the cost of establishing 10 acres of miscanthus would be, but once established you get 15 years of 10 foot high straw crop with no inputs required. You can cut it and bale it or bulk forage harvest it. Supposed to be good game cover too. Low maintenance brexit crop?

 

[Kidds]

Low maintenance brexit crop?

Is this in the wrong section then?

 

[Foxcover]

I’m not sure how good it is as bedding?

 

[Foxcover]

I’m not sure how good it is as bedding?

 

[Luke Cropwalker]

Rubbish for game cover unless it is in strips. It will certainly hold game but it is impossible to beat through and birds will tend to hug the top of it if you do manage to flush any. Excellent for losing the dog in though.

 

[D14]

Bought in cereal straw is a big cost to many livestock farmers. Anyone ever looked at growing miscanthus purely on farm use?
I don’t know what the cost of establishing 10 acres of miscanthus would be, but once established you get 15 years of 10 foot high straw crop with no inputs required. You can cut it and bale it or bulk forage harvest it. Supposed to be good game cover too. Low maintenance brexit crop?

£1500/ac establishment costs last time we looked but after that like you say it will deliver. People say put it on your worst land but it’s harvested Feb/March time so if it’s wet you’ll be in trouble on heavy land which is why we didn’t do it in the end.

 

[bankrupt]

People say put it on your worst land but it’s harvested Feb/March time so if it’s wet you’ll be in trouble on heavy land which is why we didn’t do it in the end.

One of our Miscanthus trial's been running over 20 years now on a "worst" bit of land and, if it's too wet to harvest in Feb/March, just leave it until April.

On the other hand, as time goes on its yield potential has deteriorated due to a gradual invasion by rushes, which was particularly easy to see after the winter of 2012/13.

Don't suppose this autumn will do it many favours either, but time will tell.

 

[jonnieboy]

Might be too harsh for bedding its a bit like cane when baled up
If possible a post harvest roundup really cleans the crop up for next year